the project: “Near Future Laboratory”. It is immediately clear the importance of time as well as the new definition given to the concept of future, which has maybe changed with the introduction of new technologies. The word lab reminds of something related to research and experimentation. We can thus say that you are a group of researchers trying to explore the possibilities of our future through technology and digital media outside the bonds imposed by the market and this, in my opinion, is what can somehow link you to the world of art. How has your project begun? What was the question you were trying to answer?
build for the market such as time. You get this constraint from the front office to come up with something, as part of R&D or design innovation, that can be channeled quickly to product development so as to have the return on investment line on next year’s financial books net out in a way that will make investors happy. Academic R&D is just run through with challenges that make it difficult to create “outside-the-box” innovations. First is a horribly broken peer-review system, institutional politics that still operate as if it were the 19th century, a glacial and costly system of publishing and knowledge circulation practices, and little value placed on undisciplinary scholarship. It’s just abysmal.
Julian Bleeker e Nicolas Nova: The project began because we thought there was an empty space between consultancies that were hired to build things and consultancies that were hired to think about what things should be built based on trend analysis and other such predictive practices. We see an opportunity in a design and research practice that operates between traditional longterm academic research studies and short-term commercial product development. In between – 12 months to 4 years – is a gap we call “the near future.” We think there are often unreasonable constraints within the design innovation and R&D practices of existing commercial enterprises to
What we’re trying to do is encourage design innovation that does away with constraints like these. We have no expectations or requirements that we will make something that millions of people will want, although who knows? The point is that we don’t make these kinds of assumptions; we operate quickly and economically; we do not censor our projects based on factors like the expected market of consumers; we are committed to circulating knowledge and insights quickly – within months, not years – using creative commons and not the feudal pay-for-knowledge professional society journals and conferences, and so forth. 68