2174:Future Ruins of an Automated Past is a speculative design screen installation that explores topics such as automation, non-places and capitalism through two looped animations, each one minute each. The installation takes place in a dark space and includes items such as a shopping cart and shopping baskets, which are ocasinally revealed by the flickering light of led lights.
It focuses on how automation and consumerism impact the future non-place, particularly the supermarket, a day-to-day space within our lives.
The first animation is a preview of Z Markt, a supermarket in the year 2174, or whatever is left of it. Automation took over until the point where human staff were no longer needed. The machines targeted every thought, need or insecurity that people had. Eventually people began revolting, destroying all supermarkets and ultimately abandoning them in protest of the system. This resulted in nature taking over these relics filled with garbage, malfunctioning robots and floating cash register rolls. Z Markt is a post dystopian, pre utopic supermarket.
It focuses on how automation and consumerism impact the future non-place, particularly the supermarket, a day-to-day space within our lives.
The first animation is a preview of Z Markt, a supermarket in the year 2174, or whatever is left of it. Automation took over until the point where human staff were no longer needed. The machines targeted every thought, need or insecurity that people had. Eventually people began revolting, destroying all supermarkets and ultimately abandoning them in protest of the system. This resulted in nature taking over these relics filled with garbage, malfunctioning robots and floating cash register rolls. Z Markt is a post dystopian, pre utopic supermarket.
X Markt, the second animation, is a preview of the old supermarket in its initial form. It might look like the supermarkets we know today, but there are actually no screens, no self-check outs and less automation than we have nowadays. X Markt is completely empty, creating an eerie feeling, but it’s also filled with hidden hints that suggest the future of these non-places such as the placement of items on the shelves and hidden messages advertised as irresistible deals.
As the names X and Z suggest, Y Markt is missing from this animation series, suggesting that we are living in its era, heading towards a dystopian future.
The project was based on extensive field research including interviews with supermarket workers, from cashiers to regional managers, as well as speculative designers. It takes inspiration from a variety of authors such as Marc Auge, Mark Fisher and Rem Koolhaas, as well as videogames such as The Last of Us and Cyberpunk 2077.
Music by: Claudius Heilgendorff
As the names X and Z suggest, Y Markt is missing from this animation series, suggesting that we are living in its era, heading towards a dystopian future.
The project was based on extensive field research including interviews with supermarket workers, from cashiers to regional managers, as well as speculative designers. It takes inspiration from a variety of authors such as Marc Auge, Mark Fisher and Rem Koolhaas, as well as videogames such as The Last of Us and Cyberpunk 2077.
Music by: Claudius Heilgendorff