A speculative and critical design project dealing with special programs think tanks and the future of work in Estonia in 2035. During five days hypothetical futures or parallel universes were conceptualised and created by students in EKA (Estonian Academy of Arts) Summer Academy led by Chris Woebken and Elliott P. Montgomery of The Extrapolation Factory. 

The futures presented here include: 

In 2035 when the climate has changed rapidly, people do not have enough source of food to feed themselves. Scientists have come up with the new world food product: a tablet, which has all the nutrients but no taste, no appearance, no texture. Engineers have come up with the device that stimulates one’s sensory so that the person can feel the long missed aspects of food like scent, taste and texture. Humanity is in need of new kind of designers to design the sensory experiences. Whether one would like to eat oatmeal with berries or spicy curry with some rice. Designer has to come up with all the good old tastes from the past and offer an extraordinary eating experience.

In 2035 when climate change has been sustained, scientists and engineers have figured out a way to convert CO2 into a new kind of methanol based fuel effectively. Open source devices are spreading all over the world, because they are easy to build. Whilst in the beginning of 21st century, there were so called “off the grid entrepreneurs” who used to collect bottles and returned them to certain places to gain money. Now bottles have been replaced by CO2. It is not a big amount of currency one could receive from the amount of CO2, yet it provides a reasonable income. There are rumours that some communities have developed more advanced business out of this opportunity and started to support people in need.

In 2035 when the climate change has developed rapidly, physical labour under the sun is almost impossible. Yet there are still people who have to spend a lot of time outside. Like construction workers, who have to survive during long and hard work days. Day to day, they are risking their health. Strokes are new normality of everyday work life – it should not be like this! Luckily, a solution has been found! An open source device, that is easy to build, maintain and repurpose does not affect your movement and keeps them the worker’s body cool! It is to become a standard equipment for people spending a lot of time outside.

In 2035 when the climate change has been sustained, the massive meat producing industries have mostly shut down. Also, there are not many regular hunters left, because hunting animals is not accepted for most by the societies. New wave of hunter lifestyles are developing further. Cricket hunting is one of the ways to eat sustainable, organic, free-range protein. Small cricket hunting device would be set up in the evening and collected in the morning. During the night crickets will crawl in. It could be used to catch crickets for preparing food directly for one’s household or for selling in a marketplace to get currency for other necessities when the need appears.