Commissioned by Karen Verschooren for Future Fictions at Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, in 2014, this second edition revisits corporate visions of the future through videos released between 2009 and 2014. What worldviews and values do technology and telecommunications companies propose? How do these scenarios suggest we might live and interact, and what do they leave out?

Viewed together in 2014, the scenarios already felt dated and disconnected from everyday life. Their polished images of frictionless living became material for a second layer of commentary.

I paired the glossy corporate videos with informal, low-fidelity voiceover commentary, recorded after a few beers, describing how their proposed technologies might fit into our lives. The contrast brings the assumptions behind these promised futures into view.

Research interests
Interaction design · Speculative futures

Project credits

Concept, selection, editing and voiceover: Chris Woebken.

Commissioned by Karen Verschooren for Future Fictions at Z33, Hasselt, Belgium, 2014.

Original footage from the corporate films credited below.

2009 Samsung, Future Life Style 2015 (14:02min)
2009 Microsoft, Productivity Future Vision (5:45min)
2011 Corning, A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning. (5:23min)
2011 Microsoft, Productivity Future Vision (6:18min)
2011 Ericsson, The Social Web of Things (4:08min)
2012 Cisco, Better than being there experiences (2:52min)
2012 Google, Project Glass “One Day...” (2:30min)
2012 Corning, A Day Made of Glass 2 Same Day, Expanded Corning Vision (5:58min)
2013 Microsoft, Future Vision Live, Work, Play (2:07min)
2014 Intel, CES Keynote (3:39min)
2014 Samsung, Welcome To The Future (3:27min)

(total 52min)