foundfutures
DESCRIPTION
An overview of the FoundFutures initiative at the intersection of foresight, design, public art and storytelling. Created by Stuart Candy and Jake Dunagan, then at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies (2007). Document design by Matthew Jensen.TRANSCRIPT
29FOUNDFUTURES
the Art of the PosSible
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FoundFutures injects futures into the present. It is a multimedia, collaborative project based on the idea that a wider range of possible futures should be made visible and thinkable to people in their everyday lives. It aims to provoke thought, conversation, and action by creating anddistributing art, artifacts, images, performances and other media that embody possible worlds to come.
Truly useful futures work has always been innovative and provocative, challenging its audience to venture beyond the “crackpot realism” of the present. Yet it should also be asaffective and immersive as possible, engaging the brain, body, and surrounding environment in a full experience of thescenario at hand. Quality foresight -- including for instance the myriad reports on major hurricane risks to New Orleans -- is futile unless it can mobilize timely and appropriateaction, at the individual, organisational, and social levels.
A new breed of design-oriented futurists (and future-oriented designers) is experimenting with groundbreaking methods to bring futures to life. They don’t merely describe, but actually manifest, alternative possible worlds in your brain, in your body, and on the streets. Stuart Candy and Jake Dunagan of the Hawaii Research Center for FuturesStudies have teamed with artists, performers, anddesigners on projects designed to move alternative futures from the distant realm of the mental abstract and into the visceral present. Their cutting-edge FoundFuturesinitiative has already produced a series of thought-provoking and controversial campaigns in Hawaii.
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futures is ...
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Found: Inhale Cigarettes, Boston’s Pizza, Honolulu,
August 02007. Who says you can’t change a habit?
Getting away from it all ... in the year 02050.
immersive
A wall of missing notices by the loved ones of
bird flu and quarantine victims in 02016.
Participants in an experiential scenario for Hawai’i 02050 swear an oath of allegiance to the Democratic Kingdom of Hawai’i.
immersive
affective
A bronze memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of Honolulu’s tragic bird flu epidemic of 02016, corner of Maunakea and Pauahi Streets, October 02007.
One of four “postcards from the future” sent
to business and community leaders -- here,
the islands are benighted by economic collapse and civil unrest.
One of four “postcards from tt mb into business and communityan y
hee islands are benighted byslands are benighted b the islands are belaco ccollapse and civil
Found: posters indicating a sudden takeover of empty Chinatown property by Starbucks, Nuunanu Avenue, October 02007.
prov0cative
In the wake of a bird flu outbreak on Oahu, Maui lures tourists to its disease-free shores.
Found: at Long’s Drugstore, Manoa Valley
Marketplace, Honolulu, July 02007.
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oso SS2424 Maile WayHonolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA
tel +1 808 956 2888fax +1 808 956 6877
“any Useful statement about the futures should appear to be ridiculous.”
- Jim Dator