Designing an object from the future for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 100 collection
Posted by Libby Miller, Jasmine Cox on , last updated
Late in 2021 planning for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Centenary was well underway and Robert Seatter, the Head of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ History, had decided that one element would be a collection of one hundred objects that characterised the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ in the minds of our audiences.
They would be drawn from the whole century, and include props, scripts, documents, technologies and even buildings. He had a list of 99 suitable items, but wanted something special to complete the collection - an object from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's next century, something from the future. It would reflect the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's forward-looking vision and complement the celebration of our past achievements.
Robert approached R&D for help, and we took on the task of creating the 100th object, to be revealed to the world in November 2022 on the anniversary of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s first broadcasts.
Rather than sit down with colleagues to design something suitably 'futuristic' we decided to extend our existing Futures design practice to working with young people. Settling on 2042 as the year the object would come from, a date far enough in the future to be mysterious and unknowable but not so far as to be unimaginable, we adapted a design process we had previously used with adults to imagine the future.
We then worked with Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ STEM, and particularly Marvin McKenzie, Project Manager of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ STEM Ambassadors Scheme, to organise the workshops and ensure all safeguarding processes were in place. Marvin played a key part in structuring the activities to make them both enjoyable and useful for the later stages of our project, he also encouraged us to become STEM Ambassadors, so that we could think about how we could offer opportunities and resources to more organisations after delivering the hundredth object.
“Seeing Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ colleagues and our youngest audiences share their passion for STEM was truly inspirational”Marvin McKenzie, Project Manager of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ STEM Ambassadors Scheme
We wanted the work we did with the children to give them a sense of what it is to be an inventor, and to help them imagine their world in twenty years time, thinking about the positive aspects of what people can achieve, how technology might help us, and how they could see themselves being instrumental in making it happen.
Then we worked with them to generate ideas and to build them out of cardboard, sticky tape, and paint, in true Blue Peter style. We really wanted them to come out of it thinking they can be inventors and have a positive idea about the future and how they might shape it.
The workshop activity fed into a design process which pulled out a range of criteria that had been important to the children, including a desire for the object to have a fun, silly side, and of course, look lovely. There was also a strong feeling that whatever we devised should be a way to help people make a difference, be positive, and link back to their school work. Finally, we identified a concern for the environment, and a desire for something that connected people, kept them safe, and helped them be stronger.
As we began the design process we added three criteria of our own: that the object should have some sort of ‘Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔness’ – that hard to define quality we all know when we see it – that it should be child-centred, and that it should be technically feasible (at least according to our current collective understanding).
The next stage involved working with colleagues – and their children, from time to time - on idea generation and design, with regular check-ins with our Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ History stakeholder Robert Seatter. Two candidate objects came out of the design process - a bracelet and a sensor board. They were very different, a result of the exploratory nature of the workshops with schoolchildren
The story behind the bracelet - which was manufactured in the proprietary 'Ponk' (a variant of pink with a yellowish hue) - was that it was one of the first physical objects to use the “W3C’s Presence Recommendation”, published in 2030. Our storyboard went on to note that "the bracelet looks old fashioned now, but it and similar objects were incredibly important during the crisis of 2031-2 when reaching friends and family became so difficult", and that “(it) can still be used with the network as it stands today thanks to its standards-compliance and its association with the right to repair movement”, a nod to the value of open standards in technology.
Haptic / sensor bracelet in the colour Ponk™
In 2041 the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ launched their fully fledged Soundscape social network allowing anyone to tune in to a sonic representation of the feelings of friends and family, and join beacons of national and local celebration, mourning and resonance.“Low'n’Slow” solar sand batteries power both local mesh networking and the Soundscape layer running on top of it. For power conservation and digital wellbeing it runs for just one hour a day.
The other object, and the one that eventually inspired the final design that has joined the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 100 collection, was a “mycorrhizal sensor” that drives a local environmental visualisation, to be used by children to map their local area. As we all know, a mycorrhizal network is an underground network found in forests and other plant communities.
The sampler concept came from a scenario in which there has been a significant environmental disaster in the UK, like failure of the Thames Barrier or the Denver Sluice, necessitating green investment to re-establish crop security and soil health - which has led to the creation of a public network of environmental sensors covering the whole country.
As a result the children are taught about technical innovation, environmental data collection, and collaborative decision making. This is supported across all Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ output and services, and from the 2030s onward there was a greater focus on understanding and monitoring the environment and coverage of green technologies.
MZ Environmental Sampler from 2041 and a selection of interpretations of its data
Our 100th object is an MZ Environmental Sampler from 2041, pictured with a selection of interpretations of its data. The one in the collection was made by a year 4 class using the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ micro:bit27. It reads and monitors the health of the system of fungi that connects plant roots together, the mycorrhizal network. As part of its services the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ provides real-time reviews and forecasts from the UK's national open network of air, water and soil sensors. There are Bitesize materials about sensor development and testing, collaborative decision-making with data, and real-time data visualisation, sonification and haptics.
Finding a way to represent how the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ will engage with young people in twenty years time was a significant challenge, and the workshops with young people were a critical element, helping us to explore their visions of the future and what mattered to them. This informed the decision to make something that tapped into their concerns about the environment as well as their interest in what technology could do. Our method of engaging with children as part of a design process has also influenced our ways of working, as we continue to refine our Futuring activity.
As one of the children said ‘an inventor makes stuff that is helpful and useful’. We believe the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ does too, and will continue to do so, and hope our object from the future inspires visions of a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for tomorrow as well as today.