News – November 2024

BY: Superflux

An update on projects and happenings in the studio.

It’s been a while since you last heard from us here, and as a testament to our long silence, we’ve got quite a few exciting updates.

As a season, autumn tends to feel ripe for planting and nurturing ideas, and so, with an eye on the new year, we’re looking forward to seeding conversations that might sprout into new opportunities. Superflux only takes on a limited number of projects each year, and we are currently open to discussing potential collaborations and partnerships for 2025. If you’re interested in working with us on a project or collaboration, feel free to get in touch!

Summer is always a busy time at Superflux, and this year has been no exception. Here’s what we’ve been working on recently.

NEW WORK

Action Speaks 2024

For Ingka Group

Photograph by Bilyana Dimitrova

The theme for this year’s New York Climate Week, “It’s Time”, was a rallying call to propel the energy transition into the mainstream. We were happy to launch our latest work at this important gathering with our longtime partner Ingka Group and their many partners, including the World Economic Forum, Project Drawdown, Kelp Blue, Home Planet Fund, the Masungi Georeserve Foundation, WASTE, and Houdini Sportswear.

Building on the work we did for New York Climate Week 2023, where we developed the Action Speaks initiative in collaboration with Ingka and kicked off its first year with an immersive installation, we designed an exhibition showcasing a selection of pioneering climate action projects from businesses, organisations, and communities around the world. Built as a fully circular, modular and adaptive framework, our design reflected the platform’s goals to catalyse real change through collective climate action. It offered multiple points of entry, inviting business leaders, NGOs, and the public to weave their own route around the Action Speaks showcase—a spatial reminder that there is no single way to begin navigating the climate crisis. By stepping through this threshold, our exhibition considered how we might embark upon collaborative wayfinding in uncertain times.

Members of the Superflux team (Jon Ardern, Ed Lewis, Mon Cano) with Project Manager Sarah Brin onsite for the Action Speaks installation

Once Upon A Future

For Earth4All, the United Nations Foundation and See Through Stories

The United Nations’ Summit of the Future in New York brought world leaders together in September to pledge their political will and commitment to creating a better future for both people and the planet. It was a pleasure to contribute to this pivotal moment at Gantry State Park with our new, public virtual reality experience “Once Upon A Future”, a partnership with the United Nations Foundation, See Through Stories and Earth4All.

Presented through the lens of a traditional, public tower viewer overlooking the Manhattan skyline, two possible futures for the city of New York serve as imagination prompts. Leaders and members of the public were invited to experience what the city might look and feel like if we dramatically reconfigured our economies, energy, and food systems. Extrapolated from evidenced scenarios by Earth4All and their scientific teams, these futures are not predictions, but instead act as containers for possibilities, hopes, and dreams.

A Just World On A Safe Planet

For Earth Commission and Global Commons Alliance

Climate justice is climate action. The Earth Commission and Global Commons Alliance’s report, ‘A Just World on a Safe Planet’, recently published in the Lancet Planetary Health Journal, underscores how justice must be central to every decision we make toward the planet’s future.

While science helps us understand our climate problems, stories are what move us into collective action. We were honoured to contribute to this groundbreaking work by telling the story of planetary justice through a tripartite digital artwork. The paper’s key ideas are brought to life in our visual narrative, through the Earth Commission’s “three I’s” framework: interspecies justice (acknowledging the needs of both humans and other species), intergenerational justice (safeguarding the rights of future generations), and intragenerational justice (addressing inequalities between individuals, communities, and nations).

As Joyeeta Gupta and Johan Rockström explain in the World Economic Forum, the paper’s “safe and just boundaries” act as a ceiling for resource extraction and pollution, while new research adds a foundation for ensuring a life free from poverty. The report highlights critical thresholds for climate, biodiversity, and freshwater, and provides a crucial roadmap for a future where both people and the planet can thrive.

We have also been working on a number of confidential projects investigating the futures of Artificial Intelligence. Emerging technologies have always been a key focus of the studio, and we are exploring AI’s potential as well as its unintended consequences across human, infrastructural and ecological scales. Our work’s form, as always, is tangible and material, but also speculative and imagination-led.

TRAVELLING WORKS

The Ecological Intelligence Agency

Tools for Change, The HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel (31.08 – 17.11.2024)

The Ecological Intelligence Agency exhibited at the HEK. Photgraph by Franz Wamhof.

Our installation, the Ecological Intelligence Agency, first created for Policy Lab, Gov. of UK and Defra Futures, is currently being featured in the HEK’s exhibition ‘Tools for Change’ in Basel, Switzerland. This international group exhibition is conceptually inspired by the social philosopher Ivan Illich’s ideas in Tools for Conviviality, and showcases how technology and society might be reimagined through the many “tools” that artists wield.

the Intersection

What Things Dream About, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (14.05 – 18.09, 2024)

For All! Reshaping Democracy, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (30.05 – 13.10, 2024)


Re-Articulating Landscape, Museum of Modern Art Klagenfurt, Carinthia (12.06 – 01.09, 2024)


Art + Science Festival, Belgrade (25.09 – 31.10.2024)


Beta Festival, Dublin (01.11 – 17.11.2024)


Futures: Material and Design of Tomorrow, Grassimuseum, Leipzig (21.11.2024 – 04.08.2025)

New artefacts built in the studio which expand the world of the Intersection will be exhibited in Leipzig

Our speculative futures film, the Intersection, is enjoying a popular resurgence since it was first commissioned by Omidyar Network in 2020. The film has been showing at festivals in Serbia and Ireland and exhibitions in South Korea, Germany, and Austria. Soon, it will be showcased at a new exhibition in Leipzig, along with two brand new artefacts we built in the studio.

TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS

Malmö Conference

In August, our co-founder Anab Jain delivered a keynote presentation on rewilding our imaginations at The Conference in Malmö, Sweden—an annual gathering for thought-provoking discussions on futures and foresight. Taking listeners on an odyssey through Bhutan, England, and India, she spoke about weaving a spiritual infrastructure for our planetary future that can serve as a foundational catalyst, one that nourishes, nurtures and stewards deeper connections with our planetary ecology.

Sci-Foo

This summer, Anab was also invited to attend Sci Foo in Cambridge, a yearly interdisciplinary “unconference” centred around new inventions in technology and scientific research, led by a range of invited scientists, technologists and policymakers from different pockets of the globe. Using recent Superflux projects as a touchstone, she facilitated a discussion on ecological imagination and delivered a short talk on how imagining different futures—from resurgent forests born of climate catastrophe to AI that speaks for rivers—can impact the decisions we make today.

WELCOMING OUR NEWEST TEAM MEMBERS!

Mon Cano

Architectural Designer & Researcher

A designer and researcher who navigates the intersection of design and ideology, investigating the cultural significance of technologies in relation to the ecologies and geopolitics that shape them, Mon supports and leads the studio’s spatial designs, with a passion for crafting DIY technologies and experimenting with raw materials. Say hello at mon@superflux.in

Julia Merican

Writer & Researcher

A writer with an array of editorial and creative experience, Julia supports and leads the studio’s written communications and high-level research across projects spanning speculative design, technology, art, and ecology. Say hello at julia@superflux.in

Stefan Schönauer

Design and Research Intern

With expertise in speculative design, design research and a strong focus on storytelling, Stefan is assisting on creative projects across the board during his internship with us. Say hello at apprentice@superflux.in

CLOSING THOUGHTS

We’ll leave you with one last kernel from the Earth Commission’s seminal new paper that’s been turning over our minds: ‘Past and present actions commit humanity to future outcomes.’ It feels like an invitation to consider how we want to orient ourselves to the world.

In the reverberations of these words, some questions we’ve been asking ourselves are: how do we contend with inherited systems of injustice? In what ways can we start spinning new narratives in the present to constructively transform our collective futures? And what might the world have the potential to be like if we did?

These are expansive provocations with no straightforward answers, but by casting them into the world—or, more aptly, onto your screens—we hope they can serve as spores from which more complex thoughts might sprout, and burgeon into action. Till next time.

SUPERFLUX

Somerset House Studios, London UK
hello@superflux.in
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Title By Date
News – November 2024 Superflux 08.11.2024
From Active Hope to Tangible Realities: Interview with Anab Jain Superflux 04.12.2023
The Quiet Enchanting launches on the Strand Superflux 19.10.2023
Action Speaks Summit Now Open at New York Climate Week 2023 Superflux 21.09.2023
Radical Design For A World In Crisis in Noema Magazine Superflux 27.04.2023
Superflux featured in Design Week Superflux 17.03.2023
Announcing Superflux’s ambitious new initiative: CASCADE INQUIRY Superflux 10.01.2023
ANAB & JON RECEIVE THE ROYAL DESIGNER FOR INDUSTRY (RDI) AWARD 2022 Superflux 10.01.2023
SAFE: A Collection of Works Exploring Safer Futures Superflux 05.10.2022
Superflux Featured on BBC Radio 4 Anab 10.08.2022
SUBJECT TO CHANGE: Announcing Superflux’s first-ever solo exhibition at The DROOG Gallery Superflux 04.02.2022
Superflux’s new immersive installation opens at Museum of the Future, Dubai Superflux 23.02.2022
Design Studio of the Year Award 2021 Superflux 17.12.2021
A More Than Human Manifesto Superflux 17.12.2021
Superflux Interview in ICON Magazine Superflux 12.12.2021
“Dreamed-up Designs”: a Financial Times feature on Superflux Superflux 18.06.2021
Calling Creative Producers! Superflux 08.02.2021
‘Our Friends Electric’ acquired by the European Patent Office Anab 15.03.2021
Emerging Futures Grant from National Lottery Community Fund Superflux 16.11.2020
‘Standing on the Shoulders’ Podcast: On Plural Futures and Multi-Species Companionship Superflux 01.10.2020
Superflux Invited to La Biennale Di Venezia 2021 Superflux 03.07.2020
EU Horizon 2020 Grant for Superflux and Partners Superflux 19.06.2020
Experiments in Indoor Farming Superflux 08.06.2020
Calling for a More-Than-Human Politics Superflux 23.03.2020
Superflux Feature in ‘Feeling the Future’ Conference Superflux 24.06.2020
Spring in Flux Superflux 14.04.2020
Calling Creative Producers! Superflux 29.01.2020
Inviting Internship Applications Superflux 16.01.2020
Come Work With Us Superflux 01.10.2019
Stop Shouting Future, Start Doing It Anab 24.01.2019
2018 Highlights Superflux 21.12.2018
Instant Archetypes: A toolkit to imagine plural futures Superflux 01.11.2018
TED Talk: Why We Need To Imagine Different Futures Anab 19.06.2017
Cartographies of Imagination Anab 30.09.2018
Tackling the Ethical Challenges of Slippery Technology Anab 11.06.2018
AI, HUMANITARIAN FUTURES, AND MORE-THAN-HUMAN CENTRED DESIGN Superflux 08.06.2018
The Future Starts Here Superflux 29.05.2018
Studio News: Power, AI and Air Pollution Superflux 09.10.2017
Future(s) of Power Launch Event Anab 09.10.2017
BUGGY AIR AT DESIGN FRONTIERS Superflux 15.09.2017
Calling all comrades & collaborators! Superflux 14.09.2017
CAN SPECULATIVE EVIDENCE INFORM DECISION MAKING? Anab 31.05.2017
STUDIO NEWS: TED, MAPPING, FOOD COMPUTERS, AND THE FUTURE OF WORK. Superflux 21.04.2017
BACK TO THE FUTURE: WHAT WE DID IN 2016 Superflux 31.01.2017
REALITY CHECK: PRESENTING AT UNDP SUMMIT Jon 06.12.2016
MITIGATION OF SHOCK JOURNAL Jon 12.07.2016
STUDIO HAPPENINGS Anab 04.07.2016
PROFESSORSHIP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS VIENNA Anab 28.06.2016
HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2015 Anab 30.12.2015
SUPERFLUX MAGAZINE, ISSUE 1. Anab 21.04.2015
THE DRONE AVIARY JOURNAL Anab 09.04.2015
IOT, DRONES AND SPACE PROBES: ALTERNATE NARRATIVES Anab 01.03.2015
AUTUMN NEWS Jon 08.11.2014
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND DESIGN: AN INTERVIEW WITH SARA HENDREN Anab 07.11.2014
A QUARTERLY UPDATE FROM THE STUDIO Anab 11.05.2014
IN THE LOOP: DESIGNING CONVERSATION WITH ALGORITHMS Superflux 04.04.2014
IOTA WINS NOMINET TRUST FUNDING Jon 25.10.2013
SAILING THE SEAS OF SUPERDENSITY: GUEST POST BY SCOTT SMITH Superflux 19.10.2013
DNA STORIES: GUEST POST BY CHRISTINA AGAPAKIS Superflux 30.09.2013
PRESS RELEASE: DYNAMIC GENETICS VS. MANN Jon 01.08.2013
AN INTRODUCTION TO INFRASTRUCTURE FICTION: GUEST POST BY PAUL GRAHAM RAVEN Superflux 24.06.2013
SUPERNEWS, VOL 1. Jon 08.04.2013