Futurium permanent exhibition, 2019

At Futurium, a 3,000 m² comprehensive and permanent exhibition invites visitors to explore potential futures. Its mix of analogue and digital media make complex information and competing ideas of the future easily accessible. Large-scale spatial designs concepts create three “thinking spaces” and an introductory space, each dramatically different in mode and atmosphere.

In the “Thinking Space: Nature,” a huge sculpture seems to grow organically out of the floor, twisting and striving in various directions, arcing up to a height of eight metres. It is surrounded by numerous presentations of different approaches to how people can live in closer harmony with nature and learn from the natural world. A number of installations such as the “Neo-Natur” sculpture convey visions of the future visually:

Above the staircase leading up to the exhibition, an expansive installation reminiscent of a tornado whirls upwards. This display represents the exponential development with which global processes such as CO² emission increases, and population growth have taken place over the last two hundred years.

The invisible, intangible, and constantly expanding data space that we move through and contribute to can be experienced as an immersive light-and-sound installation. The idea of global data space is translated into an atmospheric choreography of light that is infinitely multiplied through reflections.

The “Thinking Space: Technology” investigates the future-shaping potential offered by new technologies. Its “objective” aesthetic of white, backlit walls and multiple media stations clearly sets it apart from the other two exhibition areas. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the future of cities, work, and consumption with an augmented reality app. With it, animated scenes of the future can be experienced as a virtual data layer in three-dimensional models.

The “Thinking Space: Humans” deals with the question of how we can positively influence our future through behavioural changes. With its small “houses,” many seats, and participative stations with media such as pens, paper, and chalk, the room offers space and opportunity for collaborative, analogue experimentation.

A “token-wristband” can be used at media stations to evaluate visions of the future and collect information on individual topics. At the end of the visit, it sets a huge “future machine” in motion. The machine issues a card printed with individualized motives and a personal code that can be used after visiting the exhibition to access and retrieve in-depth information on topics of interest via a web interface.

Exhibition design: ART+COM Studios and Schiel Projektgesellschaft mbH
Project management: Schiel Projektgesellschaft mbH
Media design: ART+COM Studios
Exhibition graphics: Polygraph Design
Lighting: Studio Dinnebier
General contractor: ART+COM AG
Client: Futurium gGmbH