New Normal—s
How can we reshape our reality to cater for tomorrow? New Normal—s is a platform to prototype visions for alternate futures. During the pandemic, the notion of normal has been radically reframed. New Normal—s is a space to design possible new normals, experience those speculations and consider which potential futures are most preferable to make reality.
Sneak-peek into the New Normal—s workshop, prototyping the future of cultural experiences
In the first New Normal—s project, we partnered up with members’ club and private workspace Alma, with the aim to rethink their newly acquired space Alma’s Park (an old classic cinema in Stockholm). With the current pandemic in mind, we wanted to find out what cultural experiences could look like in the future and under different circumstances — and already gave a taste of it through running the workshop remotely.
Another Tomorrow and Alma gathered 20+ international perspectives within the fields of culture, fashion, and architecture to collaboratively explore ‘The Future of Cultural Experiences’ in a remote setting. We asked ourselves why society is on a constant look-out for cultural experiences in order to understand what needs and desires should be addressed in the alternate futures (and eventually normals) we were about to dig into.
The perspectives were introduced to methods like Speculative Design* and Rapid Prototyping with the aim to flex their brains and think of possible futures within the New Normal—s. We established the realm, asked ‘What if…’ questions and did exercises like ‘Re-imagine Artefacts’ to create new experience concepts. Finally, the perspectives sketched out different re-imagined futures for cultural experiences on ‘Experience Canvases’.
The workshop resulted in valuable insights around desired futures as well as several innovative experience concepts that are now ready to be prototyped, and eventually could be experienced — allowing people to travel in time and interact with the future first-hand. Exploring the connection between the presence and what lies ahead allows us to take the first steps towards creating possible and desirable futures.
*Speculative Design
Speculative Design is interested in the idea of possible futures and using them as tools to understand the present and discuss what kind of future we want to live in. The aim is to open up a dialogue on what the future could look like. We are using design as a medium and put our focus on scenarios, concepts and artefacts. Speculating through Design is about raising questions and opening up for discussion rather than solving problems and having all the answers.
