Future Botanica
The idea that nature and technology are incompatible is outdated. Nature is full of cultivated elements introduced to serve the needs of human beings. The nature around us is subjected to -isms such as anthropocentrism, colonialism and capitalism. Add to this new technological systems such as AI and robotics, from which autonomous entities emerge that will probably also merge with nature, and an infinite number of possible future scenarios unfold! These speculations are the subject of Future Botanica. FUTURE BOTANICA is an Augmented Reality app that enables users, in collaboration with an AI, to design speculative ecosystems with new nature. These virtual ecosystems are then planted into the existing physical nature, allowing exploration of ideas, expectations, fears, and desires regarding future nature. Future Botanica connects digital nature to various physical locations and forms of nature. It serves as a growing database of new life forms, future speculations, and stories about nature created with and by people. In Future Botanica, the user becomes a planter, designing an ecosystem with non-existent digital plants and organisms and planting them in the existing physical nature. This act plants ideas, concepts, and stories about how we perceive future nature. Using AR and AI, the current state of nature blends with designs, ideas, stories, and speculations about the future state of the location. As a user/planter, you can play and learn how ecosystems work, experiencing and envisioning the future.
Future Botanica is supported by Dutch Culture USA of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
POLYMORF
Interdisciplinary Dutch experience design collective Polymorf designs by any media necessary to create speculative design and multisensory experiences using cutting-edge technologies. As such, Polymorf acts as an innovative pipeline across industries by creating strategies for prototyping the future. Their ground-breaking work engages audiences by creating fully embodied immersive experiences. This is reflected in their body of work, which consists of VR experiences, theatrical performances and installation pieces. Their research project Sense of Smell and installation piece, Famous Deaths explores the possibilities of scent for storytelling, strategic communication and media design. Famous Deaths won the 2015 Art & Olfaction Award for experimental scent and was selected for the MIT Canon Moments of Innovation and the IDFA Doclab Interactive Documentary Canon. Symbiosis won the IDFA Doclab 2021 Special jury award for best creative technology in the immersive non-fiction category, was nominated for the EU S+T+ARTS prize 2022. By directly influencing the affective response, Polymorf incorporates visceral meaning in their designs to reflect on the now, the (post-) human condition and the relationships between humans and technology.
Marcel van Brakel – POLYMORF
Marcel van Brakel is a founder and lead designer at Polymorf, an interdisciplinary Dutch art and experience design collective. He also works as an independent artist, writer, librettist, and film and theatre director. His critical projects and artistic research on immersive storytelling and embodiment often incorporate emerging technologies, multisensory design, and performativity. His body of work reflects on the now, the (post)human condition, and the shifting relationships between humans, technology and ecology, and ranges from interactive performances, music theatre, operas, VR experiences, speculative designs, brain-hacking projects, multisensory art installations, and interactive art installations. Marcel is fellow of the Sundance Institute, New frontiers story LAB, and a senior lecturer of immersive storytelling, transmedia storytelling, speculative design, and performativity at the Avans University for Applied Sciences in Breda. He was the lead designer of the award winning multisensory installation Famous Deaths and co-author of the Sense of Smell publication. Famous Deaths won the 2015 Art & Olfaction Award for experimental scent and was selected for the MIT Canon Moments of Innovation and the IDFA Doclab Interactive Documentary Canon. Symbiosis won the IDFA Doclab 2021 Special jury award for best creative technology in the immersive non-fiction category.
Hazal Ertürkan – STUDIO BLEU
Hazal Ertürkan is a multidisciplinary designer and researcher. Her practice focuses on biodesign, immersive storytelling and multisensory design at the intersection of nature and technology. Her work reflects on the clashes and challenges between human-centred expectations and symbiotic ways of living with ‘more than human’. She aims to push the boundaries of our current realities and transport audiences to radical futures to imagine and contemplate alternative ways of living, inquiring about harmonious coexistence between humans, nature and technology. Her work was published in international conferences, DRS 2022, ELIA Biennial 2022, and IASDR 2023, and showcased at Dutch Design Week (DDW) ’20, DDW ’23 and DDW ’24. In 2023, she founded the research and design studio, Studio Bleu. Studio Bleu’s research and design project, Second Skin guided the development of the multisensory XR dining experience Microbiome Restaurant where she is the co-director with Marcel van Brakel, founder and lead designer at Polymorf. Microbiome Restaurant was introduced for the first time in IDFA DocLab in November 2023 and funded by Nederlands Filmfonds and het Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie. Studio Bleu’s other co-design with Polymorf, Future Botanica, was commissioned by MU Hybrid Art House and supported by The Creative Industries Fund Digital Culture and Fentener van Vlissingen Fund and the Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant together with IDFA Doclab.Hazal Ertürkan’s body of work is driven by a deep sense of responsibility towards the environment and ‘more than human’. It focuses on experience design, novel narrative forms, and physical/digital mediums to create a bridge to unseen alternative ways of living.