About
This is the notebook for The Near Future Laboratory, a thinking, making, design, development and research practice speculating on the near future possibilities for digital worlds. The Near Future Laboratory is a think/make-tank that combines analysis with design and prototyping in order to understand the possibilities for new kinds of networked and digital interaction rituals.Our process is straightforward. First we study the underlying social practices that define certain themes related to digital culture. We then develop these themes into scenarios and functioning prototypes that help to evoke the subtleties of these themes so that the implications and opportunities for near future digital experiences, are more clearly revealed. More often then not our activities appear as provocations rather than “products” that would live within markets. For this reason, our activities are self-activated and self-supported. We are not interested in probing opportunities for markets; we probe opportunities for making habitable, designed futures that may run counter to the intuition of accountants and engineers.
Our practice lies across the spectrum of thought-provoking think-tank and hands-on development lab. We think about the near future by asking “what if?” and then develop informed responses by creating technologies that help answer these questions. We couple brain-storming, analysis, and synthesis with actual construction of digital devices and artifacts to better understand possible near future worlds.
The Near Future Laboratory is Nicolas Nova, Ph.D. and Julian Bleecker, Ph.D., as well as a distributed team of tactical research associates who are more clever and resourceful than they know.
More about The Near Future Laboratory Process
An interview with Julian by Holly Willis.
Here’s something we wrote called Design Fiction: A short essay on design, science, fact and fiction.
More publications can be found here.
An interview with Nicolas and Julian (forthcoming.)
Our logo comes from our fantastic designer friends at Bread & Butter SA.
The Near Future Laboratory is networked to the wonderful LIFT Lab group.
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