Objects from the Future is a tool that helps us imagine the tangible elements of potential futures. It generates creative prompts that can be used to imagine objects and artefacts from the everyday lives of the people who might be there.

Click ‘Speculate’ to randomly generate a creative prompt. Every prompt incorporates 5 variables:

Arc

What kind of future does this object exist in?
This element of the prompt describes how culture and society will have changed in this future. There are four potential Arcs:

Grow

Society has continued to rapidly accelerate (population, consumption, innovation, etc.)

Collapse

The systems and structures that society is built on today have collapsed, leading to massive deceleration.

Discipline

Society has coordinated to move forward more thoughtfully, offsetting the negative implications of growth.

Transform

A large-scale event has led society down an unpredicted path (E.g. a pandemic, a new technology, a UFO landing, etc.)

This is based on the work of Professor Jim Dator on ‘generic images of the future’ at the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies.

Horizon

How far into the future will this object exist?
From 2 years into the future to 200…

Object

What is the object?
An item of clothing? A postcard? A map? A law?

Terrain

What context or industry does the object exist within?

Need

What human need will this object satisfy?
These needs span the range of the hierarchy of needs: from thirst or shelter through to fulfillment or freedom.