INWARDS
Exploring a New Vision: The INWARDS Project
The project is a series of five short animation videos exploring a future where citizens of Europe, no longer believing in the myth of perpetual economic growth, recipes for self-empowerment, and technological fixes, seek to regain agency by turning inwards.
Through four individual situations and a collective resolution, the pieces follow a group of friends, each curating their own life path while keeping the common vision in mind. Each chapter reveals elements of the cultures of emotional excellence and material minimalism that have emerged in this fictional future, and stages the artefacts and services that accompany this progressive shift in the social contract.
The Creative Genesis of INWARDS
Born from an EU Commission briefing, INWARDS explores mental health and social wellness in a futuristic society. The project evolved through collaborative feedback, blending futuristic scenarios with relatable human stories. This creative journey highlights the transformation of an initial idea into a narrative that challenges conventional societal norms.
Symbolism and Cultural Influences in INWARDS
INWARDS is imbued with rich symbolism and diverse cultural influences. The design incorporates elements from post-consumerism, gamer culture, and mainstream raver culture, reflecting a deep understanding of contemporary trends and future possibilities. These elements create a narrative that resonates with current societal shifts while projecting into a speculative future.
Designing and Realizing INWARDS
The creation of INWARDS involved an iterative design process, blending speculative design with advanced animation techniques. From initial sketches to the final series, the project navigated technical challenges to bring a visionary concept to life, showcasing the journey from concept to realization in the world of animation.
The Narrative Structure of INWARDS
INWARDS combines individual stories within a collective narrative, showcasing a society transitioning towards emotional excellence and material minimalism. The series balances personal narratives with a communal vision, reflecting the interconnectedness of individual choices and collective outcomes in shaping future society.
FUTURES NARRATIVES
These narratives were created based on feedback gathered during citizen engagement workshops. Participants shared their insights and visions of the world described by the artefacts, which were then fed into an AI to construct expansive and diverse future scenarios. Each story is a unique blend of human creativity and machine intelligence, aimed at enriching your understanding of the artifacts and inspiring a deeper contemplation of possible futures.
POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS
Future Society: Emphasis on Mental Wellbeing
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Future society may focus on human wellbeing, self-awareness, and happiness, improving emotional understanding and relationships.
Advancements in AI and VR could provide personalized experiences, addressing individual challenges and promoting mental wellbeing.
Increased self-awareness could improve interpersonal communication, mental health, and balance individual and collective needs.
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In the future, emphasis on human wellbeing, happiness, and self-awareness could greatly enhance our societal fabric. This new era could be defined by our ability to better understand our emotions and those of others, leading to more conscious actions and stronger relationships. Our handling of hectic lifestyles might become more effective, with less reliance on technology for self-understanding and fewer tendencies toward harmful substances or activities. The advancement of AI and VR technologies could herald personalized experiences to address individual challenges, including mental health issues, potentially leading to a society more focused on mental wellbeing.
Moreover, the future might see increased self-awareness, supporting the identification of emotional triggers and development of coping mechanisms. This could result in better interpersonal communication, mental health improvement, and a balance between individual and collective needs. There might be an increase in ethically developed and deployed technology that aims to augment our emotional understanding, empathy, and inclusivity in society.
However, there could also be a penchant for non-technological solutions like meditation, reflecting a balance between the old and new. Finally, the future might witness a revaluation of human interaction, the importance of care work, and a renegotiation of social values. Access to mental healthcare could be universal, while finding joy in one's calling and living authentically might become common, thereby creating a more empathetic and balanced society.
EXPECTED CHALLENGES
Dystopian Future: Emotions Weaponized, Privacy Eroded
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Emotional states could be used for intrusive monitoring, risking personal privacy and social connections.
New technologies could lead to over-thinking, self-obsession, and prioritizing profits over individual well-being.
Increased reliance on AI could lead to misuse in advertising, commodification of personal data, and hindered emotional communication.
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In the future, emotional states could become weapons, serving as the basis for intrusive monitoring in settings like the workplace. This could lead to a dystopian reality where human emotions and internal states are potentially controlled and manipulated, creating a risk of erosion of personal privacy and a decrease in the depth of social connections. This might lead to an increased reliance on technology, including for psychological care, resulting in detachment from genuine emotions and individual thoughts.
The rise of new technologies could foster a surge in over-thinking and action paralysis due to excessive self-reflection, leading to a society that is more inward-facing and self-obsessed. However, this future reality may only be accessible to the emotional elites, with the economic aspect of these technologies potentially prioritizing profits over individuals' well-being.
The increasing use of artificial intelligence could raise ethical issues, including potential misuse in targeted advertising and the commodification of the most personal data. This could also lead to the externalization of the inner process of self-reflection, potentially hindering effective communication of emotions.
This future scenario might also see the outsourcing of emotional labor to machines, promoting harmful mental health messages and prescribing norms for emotional experiences. The risk of extreme emotional monitoring could cause individuals to feel isolated and anxious, potentially leading to societal disputes and imbalances.
Lastly, in a future dominated by technology, there might be less interest in global affairs beyond immediate surroundings, potentially creating tension between individual and collective concerns. As a result, humans might become overly reliant on technology for interpreting and understanding their emotions, possibly leading to a future more oriented towards artificial intelligence and less towards genuine human interactions.
HOPEFUL DREAMS
Towards a Conscious, Inward Revolution
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Future progression may lead to increased self-awareness, improved communication, and reduced focus on monetary gain.
Detachment from constant inputs may foster reflection, stress reduction, and enhanced collective well-being.
Shift towards self-enhancement and non-consumption could improve environmental politics but threatens democratic principles.
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As we progress into the future, the human condition could undergo a significant shift. People might become more aware of the present and develop a deeper understanding of themselves. Such increased self-awareness and empathy could lead to improved interpersonal interactions and effective communication. As we distance ourselves from a world centered on monetary gain, technology might play a peripheral role, addressing existing issues, and becoming a tool of the past.
Detaching from constant inputs might enable a deeper reflection on problems, paving the way for reduced stress and a closer connection with nature. This inward revolution could prompt an enhanced capacity for collective well-being, reshaping our identities and leading to a safer, more inclusive future.
Capitalism could erode as emotions and thoughts truly converge, and a serious approach to emotions might see a decrease in mental health issues. The inward revolution might also drive a deeper understanding of the human mind, fostering better connections among people
The shift towards non-consumption and self-enhancement could usher in improved environmental politics, aligning personal growth with ecological concerns. However, the increasing dependency on technology threatens to compromise democratic principles. In spite of this, enhanced technology could improve our empathetic understanding of others and, possibly, other species.
DISTANT THREATS
Dystopian Future: Emotional Control through Tech
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Future society may shift towards emotional centricity in workplaces, potentially decreasing individuality and diversity.
Technological interventions could control human emotions, amplifying psychological pressure and compromising personal connections.
As society digitizes, people may lose touch with reality, become tech-addicted, and face a mental health pandemic.
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In the future, society could undergo a drastic shift towards emotional centricity in workplaces, possibly leading to loss of individuality, decreased diversity in social interactions, and potentially giving rise to a totalitarian-like scenario. Technological interventions might control and uniformize human emotions, leading to individuals losing agency over their own selves. This mechanistic control could amplify psychological pressure, compromise personal human connections and ultimately serve systemic interests, leading to potential harm.
As a result, politics' role might become marginalized, and the innate human ability for self-introspection and authentic feeling could be diminished. Emotional states might be misunderstood, leading to an eerie sense of control reminiscent of past dictatorships. This could lead to human capacities reduced to technological processes, and an increase in uniform behaviors, potentially further objectifying emotions.
As society becomes more digitized, people might lose touch with real-world experiences, living in a world dominated by AI and robotic interactions. This could result in individuals becoming addicted to technology, losing their uniqueness and privacy, and living an unhappy, pessimistic existence. The future might hold "clean loneliness", with emotions, actions, and thoughts behaviorally manipulated by technology. This could lead to a future inhabited by hypersensitive individuals, overly focused on their feelings, and potentially a mental health pandemic accelerated by social media and AI.
Ultimately, the future could witness humans losing control over their minds, thoughts, and emotions, creating a society of narcissists, overly self-obsessed and detached from the world around them. Inequalities may rise between those who can afford the technology and those who can't, leading to a potential loss of other forms of emotional communication, including art. People might be expected to control their negative or intense emotions, or face consequences from the collective.
IMAGINE YOUR FUTURE
Imagine a world beyond the future described by this artefact.
How do you envision a future in the wake of the Inwards revolution?
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