TOMORROW LAND. IMD _ Institute of Media and Design. SoSe h Stegreif

Transcription

1 LAND TOMORROW Vacation Home of the Future, James R. Powers, 1957

2 TOMORROW LAND attractions was a collaborative project between Disney Imagineering and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, On July 17th, 1955 Disneyland USA opened its Tomorrowland exhibition, a place where technology and science pointed the way to a shiny, happy future of glorious inventions, space travel and nuclear-powered everything. One of the key the Monsanto House of the Future. The almost five meter wide building, with its four square rooms cantilevering outwards from a central core, was made entirely from glass fiber reinforced plastic shells and showcased a vision of the year The center of the structure housed the kitchen and two bathrooms, while the living room, family room, master bedroom, and two small bedrooms occupied the wings. The structure was however not only visionary in its use of plastic as the main building material but especially in its focus on flexibility and adaptability as a key theme: The lavatories as well as the kitchen cabinets could be electronically raised and lowered, the dishwasher and the high fidelity stereo would disappear in their enclosure, the microwave oven and the refrigerator were seamlessly integrated into the kitchen counter, and the rooms and entrance were connected by an internal video communication system. Monsanto House of the Future: Left: exterior, Right: living room. The House of the Future and likewise Tomorrowland stood for a time and generation that was enthused by technological progress and fueled by an unprecedented economical wealth. The future appeared bright and full of excitement. Artists like Klaus Bürgle, James R. Powers and others envisioned what many where dreaming of, a materialistic consumer culture thriving in a lucent environment comprised of organically shaped buildings, vibrant urban spaces, and new types of public and personal transportation systems. Likewise pseudo-scientific magazines published articles promising the liberation from labor and a focus on joy and pleasure through automated systems or new technological gadgets (see images on pages 4-6). Interestingly a similar kind of technology-infused hype about the future could already be witnessed during the turn of the 20th Century. One hundred years ago the French artist Villemard published a set of postcards on how he imagined Paris in the year 2000 to be like. While having fairly speculative visions on urban life and new kinds of aerial and nautical transportation he also had some ideas, which actually weren t so fantastic after all, like his idea of videoconferencing that we today have in the form of Skype or Facetime, his concept of digitized schoolbooks that we now call podcasts or audiobooks, or even his vision of automated architectural construction, a technology that is currently emerging in the form of robotic assembly and 3D printing (see images on page 7). 2

3 TOMORROW Obviously Tomorrowland was always meant to be a dream, set within an artificial environment, materializing the utopian concept of a better future based on expectations and hope. Nevertheless the idea it originated from and the LAND vision it transmitted had tremendous value not only on a technological level but especially in what it meant for culture and society, a common, unifying belief in progress and prosperity. Today we are once again witnessing technological change at a rapidly increasing pace, we have acquired economical wealth that would have been difficult a few decades ago, we re healthier, we live longer and we can travel wherever our heart desires. Yet, when we think about the future it seems hard to imagine it as the bright and happy place showcased in the 1950s. Global warming, urbanization, dwindling energy resources, growing food demands, population growth, trash, migration, extinction of species, rising sea-levels, just to name a few, are challenges we are exposed to on a daily basis. Everything we do has an impact on a larger level, not because of our individual acts but because of their accumulation as a species. Obviously these issues aren t new, they have been known since at least fifty years, yet back then we didn t have the self-reflecting capacity to understand their truth. But how can one now approach such challenges when the image we have of the future is unsettling and disturbing? How can one worry about putting the trash into the correct trash can while in the third world, there is so much trash that it has even created an artificial island? How can one speak about ecology if the trust in political leaders is overshadowed by their denial of scientific facts? Shouldn t we instead be proud of what we have achieved and believe in a common, healthy future? Shouldn t we create concepts and ideas that are pleasant and encouraging, and that carry seeds of hope and joy? Shouldn t we reconsider our understanding of ecology as an ideology of constraint towards a quest for alternative (sustainable) solutions while increasing the quality and comfort of our environment? And shouldn t especially we as architects, planners and designers provoke an optimistic look at the future, based on trust in our human capabilities and the willingness for collaboration and change? After all we are the ones who define the spaces and environments of tomorrow and we have to design the future as we want it to be. Task: Create a high-resolution image, printed on A2, of your (architectural, urban, spatial) vision of the year A prototypical utopia, an optimistic ideal, a glimpse into your personal dream of tomorrow. Build your idea on current developments and tendencies, which can be technological, geographical, geological, social, cultural, psychological, physiological, etc. or preferably a combination of the above. Explain your idea and how it is derived in a word essay accompanying your image, printed on A4. Experiment with different techniques, such as collaging, sketching, painting, drawing, etc. Take inspiration from images produced by the young Koolhaas, Ron Herron, Peter Cook, Superstudio, Antfarm, Haus Rucker Co. and others (see images page 9). Your vision does not need to be photo-realistic or perfectly detailed but it needs to convey your idea, without reading the additional text. Print your image on A2 paper with a resolution of 7016 x 4961px at 300dpi, however analogously created images are also accepted. Submit your poster on June 26rd, at 12am at the IMD _Institute of Media and Design. 3

4 IMD _ Institute of Media and Design Research Assistant Manuel Kretzer Phone +49 (0)

5 5

6 6

7 7

8 IMD _ Institute of Media and Design Research Assistant Manuel Kretzer Phone +49 (0)

9 9