"Future is about choices. It is the consequence of what we have decided in the past."

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Futuretopia Scientists + Artists

The Entrance to Futuretopia

“If you could design the future, what would it look like?”

“The Entrance to Futuretopia” Invigorates audiences to make choices about future by inviting them to plan the future city. The hand animated buildings represent the concept of future living, consumption, transportation, energy, and entertainment based on scientific research and prediction. The design of the installation is inspired by Retrofuturism, which is a genre of arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. Although many of those visions seem almost comical now, the spirit of futurism is part of the reason and motivation behind many breakthrough discoveries and inventions.

Genetic Poetry

“If you could design an organism, what would it look like?”

Freeman Dyson, the famous theoretical physicist and mathematician predicts “In the future, a new generation of artists will be writing genomes the way that Blake and Byron wrote verses.” His vision can come to flourish with the new gene editing technology “CRISPR/Cas9”, which utilize the mechanism of prokaryotic immune system that confers resistance to foreign genetic elements to alter genetics material and addd desirable genes. The installation “Genetic Poetry” simulate the concept of genetics engineering in the artistic way by inviting the audiences to design their future pet based on existing genetics variants.

The future you

"Are you hero or villain?"

Virtual reality technology allows modern human to take different identities in the virtual worlds. The modern inventions such as exoskeleton robotics suit also empower human being to become heroes and villain in the real world. The installation “The future you” utilizes facial recognition algorithm to construct different identities from villainous robot, peaceful martian, to ancient earth spirit. The philosophy that human can take on many identities has a long track record in history, but the enhancement by modern technology will create an interesting future ahead!

The future prophecy

“How have science fiction authors affected science and technology”

Author such as Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Arthur C. Clarke (2001 Space Odyssey), and H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds) created stories that included fantastical feats of technology that the world they had lived in had not yet seen. However, many of those stories have inspired the next generation of scientists and inventors to dream of the impossible dreams and bring the imaginary ideas to reality. Many of these story inventions have since come to be, making these authors true visionaries of sciences. The Interactive installation “The future prophecy” explores different visions of earth’s future from the perspective of noble sci-fi authors and highlights the real inventions that were inspired by the stories.

About team

The visionaries behind “Futuretopia” are Pat Pataranutaporn, Thomas Kirwan, Nora Welthy from the AWESOME studio of Arts & Sciences. The team are all science fiction fans and they turn this great sort of inspiration to tangible interactive experiences.

The team receives tremendous support from the curator Jeffory Moris, Rex Witte, Dena Milliron, Sunnee O’Rork, the i.d.e.a Museum staffs and interns, Dr. Ed Finn and ASU Center for Science and the imagination, Professor David Tinnapple from ASU School of Arts, Media + Engineering.

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