surealbaqarah
2025W No More BS Futures
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Second Session 9.12.2025
Table
V1:
One way of building: Connecting the plates directly
Other way: a frame
Other versions:
Dimensions
Moodboard
Setup
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5.12.2025
Midterm recap
table, stickers and installations
Post Midterm
table and stools final version
Creating a brand for the project
sticker set
Platform to link to my stickers and research
Next step cutout door
revisit wood workshop and order wood
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5.12 Feedback
Defining the theoretical framework of our product
Notes from meeting with Krystian Łukasik, research fellow at Harvard University, a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Warsaw and an Advisor at the Polish Economic Institute, where he works in the Department of the Digital Economy
- We decided that the tools we are going to use in the main module of our product are strategies from classic economy and for the hyper-module we would use solutions suggested by Thomas Piketty, a renown french economist working on the topic of inequality.
- We don’t need to look for fringe economies as solutions to the problem of poverty and money redistribution, as they are already existing. The sad truth is that there are just resistance to implementing them.
Defining the technology of our product
Notes from meeting with Kuba Pieszczek, Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer at QED
- AI agent vs application discussion,
- Insight: its an industry standard for commercial firms to use existing MML models to build their software and agents, not build their own ones,
- Likely we will wander into visualization territory, as it was stressed that commonly people have problems with thinking about data&statistics in a visual way.
- AI-Powered is our keyword, cause we don’t have the knowledge resources to build the software or design it’s information architecture.
Brand Identity
Core beliefs
Logo
Tone of Voice
We used agent mode of ChatGPT and trained it using Twitter posts of renowned members of effective accelerationism movement as well as the Techno-Optimist Manifesto itself, to translate terms from classical economy to the language of eff/acc.
Then we tried to use the agent to create a mission statement for our company.
After feedback session with Soph, we realised we need to be more bold. This is our mission statement after changes:
” We believe that cutting-edge technology is here to take humanitie’s potential to another level, that’s why we invest in AI-powered solutions. EverGrowth exists to weaponize policy. Our software analyses complex real-life data, stress-tests policy decisions while modeling their impact trajectories, and suggest protocols that can be used to reroute more capital and energy through a broad base of builders – not just a handful – restoring patency of the pipes of the techno-capital infrustructure.
EverGrowth treats taxation, money transfers, labour market policies, wage adaption, ownership, governance, and cross‑border finance as nodes and pipelines of the techno-capital machine. This engine cannot be stopped and this engine will be optimized and maximized thanks to EverGrowth.”
Website design
We took inspiration from the following websites:
What we need to do next:
- start-up pitching events – we already reached out to Rauno Pello from Open Future Lab to discuss that and our product in general.
- for the design freeze: prepare a functional website and unique selling point – what differentiates us from Palantir?
- before winter break: contact press with the working website and start promotion on X/Linkedin/Tiktok.
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feedback december 5
Storyline
premise: the internet is dead -> AI doesn’t work
Due to the overflow of false information AI is not able to tell the truth from fake news. Also everything one can find on the internet there is no way of verifying if it is true or not.
show this state with: news, AI reading it
a. the gov decides every AI will be m.AI (maybe beta testers)b. people develop this and there is no choice but to use it because everything else is trash (no alternative)
c. the AI itself notices that users are more and more unhappy with its answer so it stops answering and starts questioning. eg.: FLO
-> in comes m.AI (maiuticsAI)
our chracters use it but are rather frustrated – they then try to turn back to the internet but are even more frustrated.
-> second try with m.AI
this time our characters really try and see the benefits and get a kick out of their learing expirience with m.AI.
-> resoltuion ?
a. the POV of the single screens merge – they stop talking to their devices and turn to humans for answers.
What kind of AI could help bring people together?
What kind of AI could make people see the value of learning and understanding?
What kind of AI could foster critical thinking?
What alternatives will we adapt to, in case of the death of the internet?
Visuals
our characters will be shown from the devices cameras perspective.
Characters
Hippies that revert to also only talking in questions
Strongly religious people that cannot stand the AI questioning their belief/god
Children Why? why? why?
Seniors not affine with any kind of technology
Single-parents
People falling into an existential crisis (maybe even suicidal)
Rebels
impatient/unwilling people that just want answers
Positive responders super efficient, super creative
>> next steps
storyboard
write some scenes -> frustration scenes
WHO are our characters?
find refined aesthetic references
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Tutorials 05/12/2025
Directing Attention / Shaping Experience
SCORES
DEFINE INTENTIONTrust that care is the foundation. Act with civic mind and community orientation. Refuse politeness. Pursue interest. Commit to the collective. Direct when needed. Follow only if you choose. Stop whenever you must. Resist and refuse with intention.
MAKING THE VESSEL
Enter an alienating experience. Create the vessel.HOW TO ENTER THE SPACE
Enter by walking backwards. Enter by walking backwards with eyes closed, guided by another. Trace borders and erase them. Drag the vessel on the ground. Listen to the sound.TINGLING ATOMS
Take deep breaths.
When ready, release a hum on each exhale.
Shift the tonality. Find what feels right in your body; let the vibration travel down your throat until it reaches your pelvic floor.
Listen to the surroundings and tune to what is present.
Synchronize with emerging rhythms.
Break out of them.
Return to silence.
Embrace the silence.EXPERIENCING THROUGH THE VESSEL
Listen for voices through the vessel. Listen to the vessel through the floor. Speak your native tongue into the vessel. Communicate with others through the vessel.COLLECTIVE CARE
Gather all hands onto the vessel.Pass the vessel from person to person. Move it across the space.
Two people must always maintain contact with the vessel; they do not move their feet.
The remaining three move to form a chain and transfer the vessel.
Then the first two release and step forward.
Continue the chain.
BREATHING BODIES
Breathe slow or fast. Lie down. Place and balance the vessel where pain appears. Direct breath into that point. Let the vessel’s weight set the rhythm of your breath.Place your vessel somewhere on site. Possibly everyone places their vessel on the same spot.
FIGHTING RHYTHM
Find a comfortable position. Begin with small waves. Let the waves grow. If sitting or lying, rise to standing. Continue moving in waves. Fight rhythm. Notice where the body wants to go. Go the opposite way. Allow another person to guide your movement. Release control.BREAKING THE VESSEL
Break the vessel.Open Stage / Angewandte Performance Lab
Open Pain Lab
Vessels
Roles
Ronja: Directing/Shot List, Camera 1, Post-Production, Sound
Clark: Styling, Prop Design, Camera 2, Sound
Valentin: Storyboard Sketching, Digital Archive Footage, (Post-)Production Assistant -
Team 1 – Tutorial 5th of december
Law of Inertia
Starting point after Midterms:
Script Writing exercise:
The Sloth-Movement as a community
In our future a group of people chose to genetically modify themselves to be “sloth-hybrid” humans. These humans have a very slow metabolism, which is supposed to be the solution against climate change and scarcity of recources. Since a “Sloth-Person” only consumes about 130kcal per day their impact on the world to a minimum.
While the mainstream exhilarates with busyness and productivity, still driving humanity towards economical instabilities, societal inequalities and climate catastrophes, the sloth is living in balance and harmony with it’s surroundings. On a diet kept strictly to leaves they grow inside their appartments. the Terraniums they carry around fosters symbiotic life and feeds their plants, this means that they have next to no negative effect on their surroundings.
The sloth lifestyle started as a solution to global problems and crisis. But it started offering more: Unpredicted side effects such as solving things like purposelessness, types of depression and not being able to keep up with an evergrowing capitalistic world.
Ideas for the looks of a sloth person:
Ideas for the terrarium
AI generated ideas:
A sloth persons stomach(s)
Loose idea for what the sloth could sound like:
The sloth is not being portrayed as dumb and slow understanding, but as illuminated and measured. It is not speaking a lot and when it does, it takes it’s time.
The movie
A documentary that showcases the sloths lifestyle and it’s natural habitat. The sloth-person is beeing followed by an interviewer from the mainstream world with a light tone of disapproval. The viewer gets and insight on how the sloth copes with a day in it’s life. Very slowly.
In this “nature” documentary, David Attenborough meets “docuganda” – putting the sloth lifestyle in a bright light – while having a behind the scenes angle that shows the disgust of the still productive people.
What do we want to show the watcher?
The flaws of both worlds: total relaxation and pointless productivity. We highlight the loss of identity/humanity vs “over” individualism, and the idea that we can only come closer to nature/solve climate change by “engineering ourselves in a very unnatural way” — the absurdity of the solution. The film acts as a mirror of their own feelings towards these worlds.
What does one gain by becoming a sloth?
- Contribution to climate with reducing my CO2 footprint and contributing to ecosystem — without any effort.
- Being productive, going with the flow — without effort.
- No more struggles of human brain = just be happy (no mental illnesses, no more comparison, etc.).
- Self-sufficient (no more work/guilt/looking for meaning).
What does one lose by becoming a sloth?
- Self-identity.
- Community.
- Humanity.
- Control/power.
- Potential future.
- Drive.
Road till Design Freeze
- Decide final looks of sloth
- Complete the storyline and scenes
- Finish scripts
- Find a place to shoot
- Find an actor for the main protagonist
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Team 9, Tutorial 5.12.
Introducing ” The Ones Who Break the Silence”
- The world celebrates its 70th anniversary of achieving a technological utopia, created by the powerful billionaires who essentially rule it.
- The protagonist is introduced after watching the news.
- He wanders through this perfect world and discovers a strange object that makes a sound.
- At first uncertain, he takes the object with him the next time he encounters it.
- Over time, he figures out that the object reacts to sounds of frustration.
- While experimenting with it, he begins a personal journey.
- Through the object and the release of his frustrations, he stops feeling alone, reconnects with his emotions, and learns to accept himself as an imperfect human in a technically perfect world.
“We live in a world that has masked the amount of complexity in which we actually operate. And so as a society we have a bit of a difficulty negotiating ourselves with complexity. So it’s really important to put notions of complexity on stage as other aesthetic notions that we can get comfortable with.” (Excerpt from Discussion with Andrea Pena)
- resonates with the story we want to tell
Prop-Design
- Microphone, headphones, sound, speaker gadget
- Human-made touch
- Interesting shape
- Imperfect / damaged
- Visible electronics
Sketches, Models
- transparent part
- metal part
- colourful part
- electrical cables ect.
Lyrical Interpretation
- poetry slam
- inner monologue & thoughts throughout the story
“It’s not that I wish
for smudges to exist.
I’d never disrespect
this generational bliss —
the sacrifices, the polish,
the shine of all this…”Creating Sound, Rhythm & Music
- collecting sounds of frustration
- layering the sounds
- Blues, Soul, Jazz beats/ bass to go along with poetry slam
Visual Inspirations
- black and white/ unsaturated / brownish lens
- hand-drawn animation layers
- colourful touches
Filming Locations
- City Scenes: exploring spaces
- Alley Scene
- Running Scene: Playing with light, sound & camera perspective
- Apartment Scene:
- Elliot Outfit- Styling: futuristic but subtle
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2025 12 03 Second Session with Soph and Story collection
Soph has the suggestion to combine both worlds into one, a world where AI blackboxing has been taken to the extreme, and a tinkering subculture, or community or even public becomes a form of resistance and the way humans take back control.
NOTE: This blog collects all assets and ideas still relevant. This means some places will repeat information from previous blogposts.The opening statement shall be:
Because of the complexity of AI, blackboxing has been taken to an extreme. The general population has learned helplessness towards technology. However, a subculture of tinkering persists. Tinkering has become a form of resistance and way for humans to take back control.
Storyboard, script, dialogue
A draft of a script, in development parallel with visual storyboard. This is the text and dialogue side. Images added afterwards.
The situation:
- Money is gone, but not yet forgotten.
- Megacorporations act in the interest of obfuscation. Officially for protection of privacy.
- Many common people do not agree with this approach, currently campaigning for and working towards open source hardware and software.
- Most common people know how to repair common appliances. Many more advanced tinkerers are active as modders while their activities remain unregulated by law.
Scenes to incorporate:
- Living room and mother repairing appliance
- Dinner table
- Hec interacting with a computer
- Train station/place of commute?
- Dialogues mentioning more world details, like education, freetime, The Great Solve, …
Characters:
- Mother
- Likes to keep old tech
- Knows of the world before The Great Solve
- Hectavia, child
- Tweens, in higher education
- If they don’t like something, they’ll do something about it
- Goes on Hacker sites on freetime
- Inherited Mom’s knack for tech
HOME INTERIOR - EVENING The about 30m² room is a mix of a living room and a workshop shed, with couches and lamps sharing space with soldering stations and 3D printers. A mother is sitting at the workbench and is working on an appliance on the desk in front of her, opened, with wires and circuit boards visible. She has closed all blinds to the windows and is working under lamplight. She is wearing a headgear of some sort. The door behind her opens, and a person dressed in outside wear walks in - her child, Hec. HEC - I'm home MOM (focused) - Welcome home HEC (hanging jacket on hangar) - Don't you wanna open the windows? MOM (pausing work, facing backward) - I don't like getting distracted when I'm in the flow HEC (looking at workbench) - Our oven broke? Why don't we get a new one? It's so crusty... MOM - Nuh-uh this one stays, I regret throwing out the old analog one.
DINNER TABLE - EVENING Mom is sitting with Hec at the dinner table, and they unpack their meal packages they have just heated up in the now fixed oven. The room is cozy lit and in the background the 3D printers can be seen working. HEC (chewing) Mom, I wanna run openware on my main PC, the OS is so annoying. MOM (also chewing, swallows and pauses a moment) I mean, I have nothing against that but I don't want you to get too comfy with that, who knows what will change that makes running it tedious again. HEC But I only use it for homework, I've never seen engineers use it! MOM Look, don't be too reckless with it. I don't want the corpos finding out about the pirated stuff. Remember the whole adblock fiasco in the news- Hec rolls their eyes. MOM Yeah it gets annoying. But its for your education. Feel free once you have the grades.
HEC'S ROOM - DUSK Hec walks into their room - a 15m² closet resembling a capsule hotel room. The bed doubles as the desk chair to save space but still takes up half the space. A large window takes up the far side wall and is letting in the last reds and blues of the day. Hec dumps their backpack in its landing spot and sits down on the bed, turns on the PC. Hec is navigating various dull technical websites, it appears they are looking for a user manual, when a series of ads pops up. They mostly obscure each other but the contents vaguely remind of gender-affirming fashion, hormone pills and the sort, all in flashing colors. Hec nimbly clicks through all of them, muscle memory. The ads disappear, then a notification with the score pops up, and disappears. Hec's eye twitches in irritation. On the desk where Hec is sitting, a small electronic device lays open, with wires and circuit boards visible. Next to it a small paper note with large, aggressive hand-written letters spelling 'HOMEWORK'.
Hec shuts down the PC, turns off the lights, slumps down onto the bed and pulls out their phone. They're playing a circuit simulator game. It appears dealing with electronics is not the difficulty of theirs. An update prompt pops up. Hec promptly shuts off the phone and dumps it onto the desk.
DREAM SEQUENCE An abstract series of disjunct activities play forth, mainly in FPV. The rush ends at the sight of a PC display jarredly in the middle of the street. The audio tenses up, a cold chours of breezing wind halling. A familiar logo flashes up. Cut to view of Hec's face. They're staring at the pc display behind the audience. The expression is a intense mix of exhaustion and puzzled anger. The audio cuts out. Without a voice and glossolalic articulation, the abstract thoughts form a question, visible as a subtitle: "Why are you like this?" Cut to PC display, closeup. The previous audio returns, intensifying. The display starts showing a rapidly expanding wall of text in a foreign script. Cut to Hec in bed, morning. The sound turns out to be the heating system.HEC'S ROOM - MORNING It's weekend. After a slow morning and breakfast Hec sits down at the desk and turns on a different PC. The display briefly flashes 'OPENWARE'. Hec logs in, opens a chatroom on the device and starts typing. They're discussing the newest chip hacks and recently decrypted keys. Hec is specifically interested in jailbreaking their phone.
-> More roles and impacts of AI
-> Friction and contrast between Blackbox and Open realm
HEC'S DESK Camera frames the phone, plugged in. The standard boot display is visible, then switches with the OpenMobile boot screen. Hec's eye glances over in excitement.
Corpos catch up with Hec’s activities…
Megacorpos
Originally, there was going to be only one company/logo.
Soph pointed out that this would be too 1984-esque and distract from the plot. So here are 3-ish brands for variety.
MESA "Mesa Enterprise Silicon Alliance" Black silicon Megacorp
SD "Superior Devices" Cheap Hardware Manufacturer --- SD Exp "Superior Devices Experience" Software Subsidiary
Constellation Mobility "Constellation Mobility" Vehicles Manufacturer
KAN/I "Kan-i" or "Kan-i seimitsu so-chi" transl. "Sweet-well precision devices" Sensor Manufacturer Military Subcontractor Megacorp
Alpine Optics "Alpine Optics" Optics Manufacturer
BALUS "Balus" Data Aggregator Megacorp Just like Palantir bases their name off the seeing stones from Lord of the Rings, BALUS bases its name off the famous self-destruct word from Castle in the Sky.
