‘In This Future’ by Gokul Nair
B.Des (Bachelor of Design) Industrial Arts and Design Practices (2017-21)
Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India
Key supervisors: Rocio Fatas
'In This Future' explores the present-day realities of consumption and well-being in everyday life to present alternate futures explained through fictional artefacts. Each artefact represents an alternate future as a result of the extrapolation of present-day cultures, behaviours, and actions. These explorations are presented in a book titled 'In This future'. The book features 12 futures, each chapter starts from the present, telling stories of familiar everyday life based on research and personal findings. The chapter’s ends with artefacts and descriptions of an alternate future. The book takes you from the familiar to the unfamiliar through artefacts that may be unseen, confusing, or even uncomfortable. In addition, inthisfuture.com exists as a digital archive for these alternate futures, allowing viewers to visit them through augmented reality. The aim of the project is not to predict the future or provide solutions, but rather to create dialogue, debate, and reflections around our present-day aspects of consumption and well-being.
Context:
Looking into the sensory angles of this project, some insights gathered included: Importance of interaction and communication through sensory information. The ability of products to use multi-sensory means of feedback, sensory associations, and link to emotion, etc. Exploring the culture angles of this project included looking into consumer culture, specifically, the culture of consumption and the effect of consumption, well-being, and its position in the context of everyday life, the effect of behavior on consumption and well-being, etc.
Need for Intervention:
In this present world of ever-changing human needs, wants and behaviors, it is crucial to reflect and analyze our impact on the world we live in. In a world driven by consumption, our lives have become increasingly dependent on the objects that facilitate our daily life. These objects have taken different roles and responsibilities over the years. From being mere tools for functions to objects that drive consumption and well-being. The ability of a product to elicit human emotions is now a focus for stakeholders. Product functionality and aesthetics are no longer the driving factors. By looking at speculative products and artifacts of the future, we are able to connect and link to our present-day sensory interactions and actions. These artifacts/products are aimed at creating a critical reflection. By having conversations about the future, we are improving our ability to shape it for the better. These products may be a direct result of our actions of today, the project explores these objects and the future life it sits in, and the sensory interactions that follow.
Reflective Statement:
The research process was very personal and rooted in my past and present daily life experiences. I went ahead with the broad context of “Humans and Objects” as it is what interested me the most from my sensory journal experience. How humans interact with the world around them was interesting, what was even more interesting is how the objects that surround daily life interacted with us. I faced some difficulties at reaching a concrete concept in the beginning, but by being more reflective and attentive to daily life I was able to come up with multiple concepts. I decided to take an explorative approach to this thesis project. I believed it would give me more creative freedom for expressing my future scenarios. Throughout the project, I faced some learning challenges. Some of them being print-making and digital technology (AR, web development). Overcoming these learning challenges has helped me gain confidence in these new areas of Design that I had not yet been exposed to previously. This thesis project was done during the coronavirus pandemic and as a result, was done part offline and part online, this did create some uncertainties in my thinking process. However, by keeping an open mind to possible outcomes, I was able to explore alternate futures through a speculative lens and express my findings through Product and Visual Design mediums.
Gokul Nair / B.Des (Bachelor of Design) Industrial Arts and Design Practices / Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India 2017-21
Hi I'm Gokul, I'm an Industrial designer, I often think about future products that solve present problems.
design fiction, speculative design, product design, well-being, consumption, humans, objects, alternate futures
