futuring...futures?
We participated in a workshop with Søren Rosenbak at Umeå Institute of Design, exploring the 'Futures Bazaar' framework—a 'public imagination toolkit' developed by Situation Lab and BBC. During the session, we delved into reading mega trends and weak signals around us. We then utilized prompt words from the toolkit to select a future 'direction' for individual narrative exploration.
hybrid gametogenesis
Medusa Inc.’s hybrid gametogenesis monitor allows parents to create a plant-baby from their own genetic material. The resulting hybrid organism is called a ‘Botanic Chimera’ and has the genetic blueprint of both plant and human cells spliced together. Botanic Chimerae hold legal personhood rights just like anybody else. Parents can provide a blood sample through the device for stem cell collection to later be used in-vitro to generate a plant cell embryo. Throughout the process, parents can interact with the monitor to view the reaction parameters as well as the specific instances where they are expected to add primer to the test vial. A Nexus file is created for every hybrid organism that holds their unique genome sequence, to be later used as a safe form of identification.
plausible fiction
Did a backcasting exercise to identify the steps needed to connect that hypothetical future scenarios to the present. After speculating on the changes and events that took place within the societal, political, social, economical and technological dimensions, I wrote a speculative research paper that explained a new discovery that might enable parents to create a plant-baby from their own genetic material and started building my story.
branding
I've created a brand identity and guidelines around the speculative products. Selected a typographic expression that embodies fluidity, both coexisting and transcending the boundaries of science and logic. I've created a light and dark palette and created UI assets and iconography for later use in the app experience.
