Futures diverge into parallel worlds. Each holds onto different ideas of a good life. Who has power in these different modes of coexistence? How is technology shaped by ideology? What does it mean to our relationships with and through our bodies?

‘Embodied Ambitopias’ (2021) is a speculative fiction series about agency in the quantified age. It explores how distinct value paradigms, mediated through societal rhetoric and technology, influence us in affective and pre-conscious ways. Situated as part of the multi-year worldbuilding umbrella ‘Zhōuwéi Network’, the series juxtaposes three worlds set in 2041: Dolphin Waves, a fully automated play & wellness campus evolved from contemporary surveillance capitalism; Dragonfly, a design-driven, post-democratic state focused on sustainability and inclusion; and Project Gecko, a network of decentralized liquid democracies founded on inner healing through conscious movement.

The 105-minute series enters these worlds from the perspective of different characters with unalike mentalities and positions. The narration is focused on different bodily exercises, ranging from a ‘homuncular reincarnation meditation’ to the creation of one’s first ‘body password’. The project involves collaboration with over 40 artists and experts internationally and is driven by the research duo Liminal Vision (Victor Evink & Emilia Tapprest). Its outcomes have been presented in exhibitions and events in the Netherlands and internationally.

WORLD INTRODUCTIONS

Dolphin Waves (New York City, 2041) explores what surveillance capitalism could evolve into after automation and climate change have ended the era of industry, consumption and paid work. Legal reforms around data ownership obliged big tech platforms to compensate users for harvesting their data. As data harvesting from XR play proved valuable to integrate human imagination, the final frontier, into hybrid AI, the resulting paradigm could be described as ‘Ludified Surveillance Capitalism.’ Fuelled by the AI arms race, sparcades (fully automated play and wellness campuses) became the new pinnacle of cultural aspiration. New York's 'Dolphin Waves', the original model for this concept, popularised an early generation of fully immersive virtual reality, based on a combination of sensory isolation and a neural interface.

Dragonfly (Netherlands, 2041) depicts a design-driven post-democratic government focused on safeguarding a sustainable, inclusive environment and collective happiness. In response to the radicalisation and outbursts of violence that had been building up for more than a decade, unconventional, post-democratic approaches became irresistible. ‘Posthumanist Ecosystem Design,’ developed by an international data science NGO called 'Dragonfly' as a development tool for politically fragile states, applies ecological systems thinking and AI to complex socio-environmental issues as one interconnected whole. The approach managed to rewire memetic bubbles into a stable societal fabric, using a flexible combination of matchmaking, coaching and exercise, carried out by personal AI coaches.

With Project Gecko (different locations, 2041) we imagine something that emerges out of the turbulent experimentation phase of the 2020s and '30s, which saw an explosion of decentralised autonomous micro societies aimed at radically reinventing democracy for the 21st century. Project Gecko accentuates the importance of inner healing for participation by adopting conscious movement as the foundation for its distributed data sharing. The name 'Project Gecko' refers to its easily attachable sticky sensors, reflecting the principle that the presence of tech should be visible and optional.

PUBLICATIONS