Futurecasting
CAPSTONE PROJECT ABSTRACT
Futurecasting is a design fiction centered around new technology which allows people to create and store idealized versions of experiences called “made-moments”. The process itself is not unlike taking pictures with a smartphone. These made-moments are compiled and stored until a person’s death, at which time they feed artificial intelligence designed to outline and influence a roadmap for that person’s reincarnated life.
Content for this project comes from the following three sources which weave together to form the narrative. 1) Journal entries captured throughout one person’s engagement with the technology. 2) Information from the Futurecasting company such as account profiles, usage statistics, and terms of service. 3) Mass media, in the form of interviews and articles which look at power structures, government regulations, and the human condition.
This fiction is an opportunity to study two familiar concepts in a speculative context. First, the effect on individuals and societies of being so focused on a possible future, that they are no longer present in daily life. Second, this is an exploration into authenticity. What happens when people accumulate made-moments that do not align with their character?
Further, might this technology be providing a form of immortality through its system of self-curated reincarnation? This is valuable to consider as there are inevitable unintended consequences related to new technologies like Futurecasting. It is irresponsible to design and deploy these applications without first examining the permanent effect they may have on individuals, culture, and society.
PROJECT BRIEF
Design a speculative, critical, or fictional document that communicates a sense perception of time that lies outside the normative/dominant time-sense created by contemporary global capitalism. (It could be a marginalized time sense that exists under or in relation to global capitalism, for instance something relevant to a particular group of people or things.)
The form, material and format of the document are the result of your own design decisions and intent. Specificity is everything. Crucially, your completed project will demonstrate that you have made decisions about the following:
-What is the context in which your document was created, lives, and is used?
-What is it for?
-What is the form/format?
-Who is it for?
-How is it to be used?
-How does it engage design discourse?
CLASS
Critical Worldviews I
INSTRUCTOR
Elizabeth Chin