How can exhibitions of potential futures avoid the pitfalls of prediction? This session will start with six 5-minute case study presentations in which exhibit developers will describe their own futureproofing processes.
Methods include:
- focussing on the skills to survive future opportunities;
- identifying common tropes that cause predictions to fail;
- giving visitors a hand in building future visions;
- creating starting points for visitor conversations about future technology, human-nature relationship and social utopias;
- capturing a record of visitors’ visions.
These presentations will be followed by a world café session, where small groups of participants will be coming up with challenges for future exhibitions and prototyping exhibits or exhibition concepts. Each group will summarise their ideas before a final discussion. Issues to be discussed include: why do we need a deep future vision, how to build one, how to communicate it in exhibitions, and how often should it be to updated?
Facilitator
Session speakers
Innovative Partnerships
Mechelen
Belgium
Deepak's interest is in developing a "Deep Future vision" to show the youth future opportunities with science and technology in a positive manner and have them overcome the short-term focus on problems and focus on long-term opportunities. The "Deep Future vision" also aims to show the youth that some of these STEM opportunities already exist today.
Exhibition developer
Frameries
Belgium
How do we get visitors to look forward without presenting them with a predefined vision of the future? Sarah is interested in designing experiences that give visitors the tools and the vocabulary to speculate on future implications today’s developments science and technology. Beyond conveying content, it’s important to present STEM as an ongoing process and empower visitors to think of themselves as actors in all the possible futures of STEM.
Exhibit developer
Warsaw
Poland
Anna is curating a new permanent exhibition about the challenges for the future, dilemmas that we face today due to rapid scientific advancements and the relationship between humanity and technology. She will briefly talk about some ideas on how to create a thought-provoking experience, in which visitors will be able to engage with authentic, interactive exhibits. The goal is not to showcase technology itself, but rather to use it as an example in addressing issues universal to humanity.
Exhibition Project Manager
Muséum d'histoire naturelle
Toulouse
France
Repaired, enhanced, ... how far would you go? Maya will briefly talk about #HumanofTomorrow exhibition that she leads for the Quai des Savoirs / Muséum of Toulouse. It is a new kind of interactive experience that challanges both : human and exhibition boudaries. Visitors, decision makers, contribute with their individual choices to build up a collective vision of our society by 2030. The deep social impact and citizen engagement might be mesured of out the walls.
Science Centre Consultant
Winterthur
Switzerland
Hey Dude! Where's my jetpack?
Some tropes are common to failures in predicting the future. From the Smithsonian's "Yesterday's Tomorrows" exhibition to Tom Watson of IBM's prediction that the world might need as many as 5 computers. Can we detect common causes of these mis-predictions and use them in our exhibitions?
Head of Exhibitions at Futurium
Berlin
Germany
No future predictions but options for multiple futures!
I will describe the conceptual development of the permanent exhibition on the future in the Futurium (a new Museum in Berlin) and present the challenges as well as the ostensible contradictions of the project and how we overcame them over time.
Our aim is to spark people's imagination about the future by introducing different innovative strategies for creating a sustainable world of tomorrow and to encourage them to actively partake in the collective creation of their own futures.