Trends as Metaphors.
This series of work seeks to transform trends into abstract conversation pieces with the use of visual metaphors.
Trends
Hello new friend
It’s the development of digital assistants and synthetic individuals powered by advanced AI and sophisticated visuals and audio. Many of these virtual individuals have fully developed personalities that are able to fool us into believing they are real, empathetic, and emotional human beings. The result is a new type of digital friend, virtual assistant, and crafted influencer.
Impactful consumerism
Also named ethical consumerism, this trend reflects the intentional choices that consumers are making to reflect their values of sustainability, ethical justice, and responsible growth. It’s intentional and mindful purchases being made by consumers and value-driven companies, both in the pursuit of a more responsible economy.
Distrust nation
Welcome to the post-factual society where (increasingly) nothing can be taken at face value. Thanks no doubt to manipulative tech and manipulated truths, society as a whole is becoming polarized. This is leading to conspiracies, social distrust, isolationism, and even extremism. It’s the worrying trend of the fragmentation of social unity and the growing political divide.
La nouvelle cité
Smart neighborhoods, new urbanism, and even autonomous cities. Our built environment is keeping pace with innovation in order to deliver higher performing and more sustainable results. We’re seeing new construction methods and materials being used to help reimagine our relationship to the environment and to help further the cause for healthy, resilient structures.
Reworked
Collectively, the world is taking a moment to re-evaluate the role of work in one’s life. The meaning and value or work has shifted considerably in the past couple of years, reflecting a stronger work-life balance, the rise of alternative (internet) careers, the dominance of distributed work, the expectation for flexible hours, as well as the growth of gig and contract work.
Distributed trust
There’s global interest in distributing the power inherent within a legacy system across a new network of independent actors, thereby increasing the system’s ability to withstand corruption and manipulation while improving its transparency. In other words: it’s the fragmentation and democratization of power amongst old, hierarchical, closed systems.
Extended reality
We’re seeing the creation of fully virtual spaces for work, socializing, and shopping. Think of digital environments and synthetic spaces accessible through immersive technologies like VR, XR, and AR. This trend is about the blending of physical and virtual spaces opening up the door to a new type of everyday reality.
Critical culture
A society that’s grown irritated by social injustices, greedy corporations, and wasteful practices (amongst many critical issues) is stepping up to take action for change. In particular, consumers are demanding and expecting more of their brands, individuals are holding each other accountable to their actions, and people are no longer hesitant to call attention to disingenuous practices.
Self-running systems
Thanks to artificial intelligence, sensors, and robotics, autonomous systems are revolutionizing multiple industries. In essence, we’re creating a new type of worker that’s at once invisible and mute. These systems are able to coordinate amongst themselves to effectively deliver round the clock services for our societies.
Collective living
People are coming together to reduce their ecological footprint while amplifying their impact towards common causes. Through things like the sharing economy, individuals are able to reduce their ecological footprint by sharing tools and spaces with one another. At the same time, digital platforms have allowed crowds to quickly come together to fund projects, raise awareness, and/or elicit backlash together.
Loopful futures
Work is being completed to refashion previously wasteful retail cycles into regenerative consumer loops. We’re seeing the circular economy slowly come to life through initiatives like made to order retail, cradle-to-cradle products, and zero waste stores. The signals are pointing towards a consumer future that’s defined by more sustainability - from production to use and eventual (re)production.
Immersive internet
It’s the dawn of a new type of internet that moves away from the screen, being instead characterized by a physical presence composed of a network of tangible actors and ambient sensors. This trend carries with it refinements in the ways we are able to interact with digital services, as well as the ways these digital worlds are able to manifest themselves in our physical environment.