At the Near Future Laboratory, our goal is to understand how imaginations and hypothesis become materialized to swerve the present into new, more habitable near future worlds. We work from a variety of conceptual and creative platforms to help explicate context and explore future states, including various calibers of research — from the field to the desk to the lab bench and everything in between.
Inspiration
Tactile Book Advancement Group
TBAG works to promote the design, provision and enjoyment of tactile books for blind and partially sighted children.
Institute for Materialdesign IMD
The Institute for Materialdesign IMD at HfG Offenbach is involved in the experimental intersecting of the design process with the diverse analogue and digital processes for materialization and form generation. Current technological developments have enabled the shift from the traditional material selection or material authenticity to the active and ongoing generation of forms and materials. Special attention is paid to the sometimes conflicting and contradictory processes and their inherent potential in a creative-scientific and interdisciplinary dialog.
Biomechatronics Group
The Biomechatronics Group is one of over 20 research groups within the MIT Media Lab. The mission of our group is two fold. First, we seek to restore function to individuals who have impaired mobility due to trauma or disease through research and development. Second, we develop technologies that augment human performance beyond what nature intends. These objectives are met by combining the scientific discipline of organismal and cellular neuromechanics with the technological discipline of bionic device design. Our research staff and students include biomechanists, neuroscientists, and biophysicists as well as electrical, mechanical, biomedical, and tissue engineers.
Louisiana Channel
Louisiana Channel - Weekly videos on art, literature, architecture, design, music produced by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.