One Foot in the Grave! We Made Ourselves Over.
I have explored 2097: We Made Ourselves Over – an interactive experience looking at the future world in Week 5. The reason I chose to explore this is because one of my ideas for my individual project was developing a game set in the future in the year 3030. We Made Ourselves Over consists of some five short films and an interactive app that shows how we have the power to act and influence the future. The project was inspired by the citizens of two cities – Hull, UK and Aaruhus, Denmark, I found the films quite powerful and thought provoking and I felt they were very well made but to be honest I didn’t quite understand or follow the films properly. There is minimal dialogue and I found myself getting lost in the films so I wasn’t really sure what benefit there would be to me blogging about this interactive experience.
The first film starts with you dying and how your consciousness and knowledge has been passed onto the young generation. The project also shows aspects of the future and what is important and how the decisions we make impact the future. To be honest, I didn’t really find the films or interactive apps that inspiring for my own project. The films were surreal but the future didn’t look that much different from present day so it didn’t really add to my individual project development.
After watching the films and playing with the interactive app and answering questions, I looked into the background of the project. It was only when I read the background to the project that I started to admire what they were trying to achieve. The project teams ran workshops with school kids, young people, and the over 60s to ask them big questions facing us in the future to develop this project. They also spoke to experts in digital currencies, artificial intelligence and even a tarot reader. It was interesting watching the tarot reader talk about the future, but I must admit I found her predictions too general and rather boring talking mainly about issues that would be important in 2097. I think the reader could have come up with specific predictions of what the world could look like in the future. Anyway, after watching this, I think I am going to change my individual project idea and will focus on an inspirational website that shares positive and uplifting real life stories – a bit like Chicken Soup for the Soul ideas.