Time Capsule – Narrations for a Future

Curator: Barbara von Rechbach (AT/SI)

A time capsule is a container for the storage of things, with the purpose of preserving and documenting narratives. It allows a journey through time and is a special way to talk to future generations.

Time Capsule – Narrations for a Future explores a setting of contemporary archeology. We give an insight into present-day realities prepared for an unknown future.

The Time Capsule Archaeologists of the Present:

What images, sounds, objects, fragments of life can be sent through time to tell a story? What artefacts of today can be rediscovered by future inhabitants or visitors of planet Earth?

The starting point for our design fiction activities was the time capsule Voyager Golden Record of the NASA Voyager Interstellar Mission in 1977, which extended the exploration of the solar system beyond the outer limits of the Sun’s sphere and sent images and sounds of planet Earth on a journey into space. The data files were made in the hope that any intelligent, extraterrestrial life forms could learn of humanity on Earth and its position in the universe. In our time capsules, we update this narrative setting for a future mission into space with speculative design. These proposals preserve messages for an unknown audience.

Visual design fictions explore settings of hidden, invisible issues in media and design, optical objects and interactive experience. Time capsules are tangible futures about something past.

The Department of Visual Communication at the University of Art and Design Linz encourages personally motivated artistic research in the fields of communication design, media arts and photography. Students develop projects with a variety of media taking into account transmedia narration on questions of publication and visualization of content. The resulting works thus comment on the various conditions of our society. The study programs explore the interfaces between text and image as well as theory and practical work.

Overview of projects

Smartphone Archeology

Anna Miklavic (AT), Vanessa Pichorner (AT)

How will we look back on our smartphone in 100 years? What could an analogue long-term archive time capsule of our smartphones look like?

Script for Basic Human Encounter

Maria McLean (IT), Eva Weber (DE)

A script can be a work instruction, a sequence of orders or a screenplay. The term also occurs in engineering and programming language. In the year 2019, we already seem to isolate ourselves from our surroundings and fellow human beings through and behind technology.

Lack of Time

Stella Kucher (DE, US), Onur Olgac (TR)

Lack of Time questions existing time systems and shows alternatives based on event time. The interactive project aims to use digital art to create awareness of our society’s dependency on clock time. At the same time, it should explain event time by using abstract visualizations to invite the user to interact.

Pictograms of the Future

Martin Märzinger (AT), Onur Arslan (AT)

We have created an alphabet for a near-future dystopian world in which the effects of climate change make life extremely difficult.

Data Urns

Daniel Huber (AT)

This speculative design project poses questions of digital immortality, data transparency and human consciousness.

Alternative Energy?

Lukas Bernhart (AT)

This project shows the risks of today’s energy production and usage and questions nuclear power as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Do we want to exploit the planet until there is nothing left to use or should we be risking thousands of dead people and making large areas of the planet forever uninhabitable? Alternative Energy? investigates different energy concepts and design solutions in the Solarpunk movement.

In 100 years

Christoph Breiner (AT)

This camera has an exposure time of 100 years. It starts here at Ars Electronica Festival and you can be a part of the exposition for a last picture from our world.

Project Credits:

Department for Visual Communication, University of Arts and Design Linz
The project shows works supervised by Tina Frank, Marianne Pührerfellner, Gerhard Umhaller and Barbara Rechbach.

Biografie:

Barbara von Rechbach (AT/SI) is a university lecturer for design fiction at the University of Arts and Design Linz at the Departments for Technology & Design and Visual Communication and the New Design University St. Pölten. 2013-2018 award leader BA (Hons.) Graphic Design, Staffordshire University, UK. Lecturer and researcher for storytelling and media design at Berlin University of the Arts, University of Applied Arts Vienna, University of Applied Science, Vienna; Barbara is a creative director in exhibition and narrative design.