Working with 30 postgraduate MasterStudio students at the University of Northwestern Switzerland over two sessions spread over two months VVFA developed a very detailed set of contexts and narratives which were firstly developed into a series of radio plays.
Following on from the first session groups identified the iconic objects, and artefacts from their developed worlds, they then designed these in detail fabricating and envisaging objects as props for the creation of a photographic ‘archive of objects that haven’t been invented (yet)’.
God Hates E-minds explores a future where consciousness is stored digitally when your physical body passes away, the project examined the storage and ownership of personal data, from possible individual, activist and corporate perspectives.
Arm Farm provides a solution to environmental concerns, through slightly modifying one’s skin it could be possible to grow air filtration ‘farm’s’ to provide fresh air for respiration in an increasingly polluted world. The objects themselves were designed as jewellery, through their form and materiality instilling further value as a ‘luxury’ both as product and resource.
The ‘Data Heirloom’ examines data ownership and levels of control, from state to individual. Using a format appropriate to its Swiss context a democratic ballot would be taken to decide whether individuals should be able to edit and decide which information passes on to their descendants, or total transparency should reign. As the ballot form says “ he who hasn’t perpetrated anything has nothing to fear…”
‘Being Social’ examines a future where human interactions have become more and more isolated and introvert, the guidebook for social interactions helps to counter this shift, offering useful advice, parameters and instruction for being more social.
‘Cai-borg’ is a story about a machine who may have learnt too much. Sitting within its workshop home a previously un-gendered robotic arm takes cues from its physical surroundings and information it learnt online to move from ‘it’ to ‘he’.