The opening event of the festival was an exhibition in Zlín Castle dedicated to the future in design called Future is! Highlights for me were speculative design projects with video installations from the world-renowned and leading studio Superflux, where are translating future uncertainty into present day choices using design methods. Other areas of the exhibition were interactive installations touching actual Artificial Inteligence issues and showcases for future urban solutions with models and books.

The Future is! exhibition invites us to broaden our understanding of what design is and the impact it can have on our society beyond commercial benefits. The selected projects successfully respond to challenges of #inclusion and resilience or consciously utilize the latest technological advancements – many of them even encompass multiple aspects at once. From predicting the future to realistic, tangible impacts, the authors of all the projects work with a certain mission and use the capabilities of design to tell stories, achieve understanding, create connections, or provide answers. 

TOP HIGHLIGTS FROM EXHIBITION:

"The Intersection" speculative design project by Superflux Reflexion on global crises through technology

The very urgent topic shown in speculative film "The Intersection" is backed by critical foresight, sensemaking & extensive research. Situated within a possible hopeful future, several years after growing inequality and negative impacts of technology reached a critical mass, it features a diverse series of protagonists individually recounting their past, experiences, and their place in the emergence of the future they now live in.

Superflux is one of the first studios to pioneer the ways of speculative design, critical foresight, design fiction, and experiential futures in business, collaborating with clients like Google AI, IKEA, Sony, Samsung, and the Government of UAE. They use design to imagine hypothetical worlds as critical business strategies while expanding public imagination. The critically acclaimed studio works at the intersection of the climate crisis, politics, and artificial intelligence, constructing narratives, worlds, and tools that provoke viewers to engage with the rapidly changing world. 

www.superflux.in
FB /superfluxstudio
IG @superfluxstudio 

"Birds Aren't Real?" Speculative design project
How a Conspiracy Takes Flight

After dropping out of college in 2018, Peter McIndoe spent four years playing a character running a fictitious conspiracy theory, persuading people on the streets that the US government murdered over 12 billion birds and replicated them with drones to spy on its citizens.

In a post-truth world dominated by online conspiracy theories, young people have decided to fight misinformation by making fun of it. Since breaking the character in 2021, McIndoe draws attention to the need to look into what is fueling the need for an alternate truth – instead of instant judgment and rejection. The message of his story is to evoke empathy for those who think differently than us and direct our energy toward the crisis of belonging.

www.birdsarentreal.com
FB /birdsarentreal
IG @birdsarentreal

"Creative AI cards" An educational tool in the field of combining human creativity and artificial intelligence

Lenka Hámošová designed brainstorming cards that allow creatives to collaborate with AI and empower human creativity in human-AI co-creation. The aim is to boost the understanding of how current generative AI models work and to clarify the principles of connecting AI and media. The cards serve as an educational tool that simplifies the definition of AI creative tools and aids in designing personalized AI creative workflows. Whether mapping new pipelines or visualizing the conversion between modalities, these cards provide valuable insights. Each card includes links, such as to a project page, GitHub, HuggingFace, or a quote from a research paper.

www.hamosova.agency
IG @lenkahamosova