Many times over, design has shown us that it not only reflects the issues of its time, but that of our future. The success of the UAE Hope probe to Mars last month reminded me of the 1950s’ Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
Set in first years of 2000, humankind had reached the red planet at a time during which it had put Earth on the brink of extinction due to nuclear war. Funny enough, at the same time the book was released, UFOs were spotted in the skies across the Western World—although this was probably due to an invasion by ‘red’ men from the Eastern Bloc rather than by little green ones from outer space.
A few years later, in 1967, Star Trek blew our minds with futuristic technology on our screen, leaving us all to dream about being beamed up by Scotty and teleported to another location without having to queue or wait in line to catch a plane. A year later people flocked to the Montréal Expo ’67 to see Buckminster Fuller’s futuristic ‘Geodesic Dome’ at the US Pavilion.
That same year, A.I. made its grand entrance with the Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer (aka H.A.L.) in 2001: A Space Odyssey. When making that film, Stanley Kubrick’s set designers sort to use the most ‘modern looking’ furniture they could find at the time, and if you know your stuff you can spot a set of Djinn sofa and chairs by Olivier Mourgue, an office desk by George Nelson and even cutlery by Georg Jensen in the final cut.
Essentially, what history seems to keep proving to us is that beside great human vision there is a need of both scientists and designers to make that vision come true.
In the ’50s and ’60s, design was used to make us dream of a brand new life. Apparently by the year 2000 everything was supposed to be electric; we would eat pills for meals, and fly to work wearing shiny metallic suits. But predicting the future is not an exact science. It is often contradicted by politics or, as we have experience over the past year, a global pandemic.
Looking at some of today’s biggest design solutions, indicates a move away from a ‘design to explore’ mentality to a ‘design to restore’ one. Around the world projects that are growing in their backing are ones that tend to champion a circular economy. The development of a sustainable food chain; the wide-spread uptake in material and energy sustainability; the increasing use of 3D-printing in order to diminish construction and shipping costs—just to name a few.
The paradox in all this, however, is that we are now looking at world that is openly embracing a reliance on artificial intelligence on one hand, and a resurgence of do-ityourself and crafts on the other. It might not be too farfetched to see a near future where our new colony on Mars will have us watching our children grow in clothing that expands with them, while we sip fair trade coffee made from always-warm handmade mugs.
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