Future prototypes make the abstract concrete

Why do we only understand things when we see them and can touch them? Over the centuries, we humans have become better and better at abstracting and theorizing, more and more people are working with socially constructed phenomena such as business models, currencies or politics. At the same time, we find it incredibly difficult to understand, relate to and, above all, act on abstract threats such as climate negotiations and threats to democracy.

I believe that many people are falling victim to their own ability to understand things intellectually, thus underestimating their need to experience and feel. What is it that makes a token fall down, that you get an insight and come up with a solution? Often it is your thought combined with a strong feeling.

The future can create abstract feelings of hope or anxiety, but these are difficult to act on. It is only when we concretize a goal picture, when we imagine details about how we want things to work that we get any help in how we should start acting.

I remember when I saw a pair of tiny shoes in a store when I was 25. Only then could I live in what it would be like to put on a small person's shoes, someone I would hold in my hand and talk to and be the parent of. I did not know then but I was looking at a prototype from my own future as a parent.

The future is constantly being created through choices we make or do not make. We are many who work more innovation, with change, with improvements at the organizational level or at the societal level. Now we want to help decision-makers and innovators to also touch and feel the future.

We enlist the help of designers and artists who are experts in designing and creating artifacts with the aim of arousing thoughts and feelings. These get to work together with experts on innovation to create artifacts and prototypes from the future.

It could be a declaration form where your volunteer hours are included, a map that shows health numbers in your neighborhood in real time or perhaps a toilet seat that measures virus levels and recommends homework or socializing.

During the spring, a Vinna-supported effort underway on future prototypes that are developed using speculative design methods. You can participate and contribute, by building prototypes or by following the investment and reacting to the result. On this blog you will be able to follow the work, stay tuned…