Introduction

Play the Future is a two-year project in which design, art and technology combine to imagine visions of the future. A future that presents global political, economic, and ecological challenges.  A future that calls for inventive efforts in social and economic integration, and resourceful uses for the internet, open data and the internet of things. Play the Future initiatives prompted play and overlaps among autonomous communities, such as artists from the creative side and hackers from the tech side.  Working together, participants produced meaningful and imaginative future scenarios, where energy, mobility and health themed visions demonstrated the strength and high quality of such collaborative efforts.

During the 2014 Dutch Technology Week, MAD emergent art center produced a Play the Future symposium and exhibition, and launched an ongoing e-publication. This initial e-publication presents an archive format for articles and rich media collected throughout the Play the Future project.  The last chapter is intentionally left blank, waiting to be filled with insights from the Play the Future 2014 symposium, Concepts for Our Future, where participants focus on four themes: Life in Creation, Circular Life, Human Technology and Digital Life.

Our e-publication will evolve as we collect and add material from past Play the Future events.  Ultimately this publication will reflect the myriad thoughts, discussions and imagined futures, that emerged in various Play the Future exhibitions and forums. This archive, scheduled to be completed this later year, also serves as a starting point for MAD’s next future vision two-year project, the sequel, “Make the Future”.

Carmin Karasic
Editor
May 2014