GMU:Feeling the Future

Werkmodul/Fachmodul
Lehrpersonen: Sascha Pohflepp, Gunnar Green
Bewertung: 6 ECTS, 4 SWS
Ort: Marienstraße 7b, Raum 204

Description

In situations, abstract ideas, such as plans, laws, rules or values, become concrete, experienceable and existential. In a situation, the general becomes concrete and thereby important for me being in the situation. Simulated situations may therefore allow us to investigate questions such as: What is it like to ...? How does it feel to ...? What would it mean if ...? Björn Franke

In the 1960s, NASA conducted a series of experiments that could be described of pre- enactmetns of the future. After Kennedy had set the goal of going to the moon by the end of the decade, they needed to find out whether man could live away from our natural habitat. Elaborate devices were built to simulate different aspects of the space that was still unreachable, such as the reduced gravity of the lunar environment. Much data was collected, but reading the papers that resulted it almost seems that the scientists were almost as interested in what the future felt like for the test subjects. Today we are in a similar situation with a range of different global issues. What was essentially the cold war in then 1960s now is global warming, technological acceleration and a variety of scenarios from pandemics to the crash of the global financial markets. In this project we are first asking you to make palpable a future of your choosing which can either be desired, possible or unexpected. Next you will identify a key aspect of this future which must relate to the human body such as movement, senses, its dimensions and so on. Finally and most importantly you will design a device or experience that can be used to feel the indicated future.