1 00:00:01,433 --> 00:00:03,933 JUDY WOODRUFF: Question: What will the future look like? 2 00:00:03,933 --> 00:00:07,866 That's a big question posed by a new exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Eighty 3 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,500 designers from around the world have put their imaginations to work to address both the anxieties 4 00:00:15,366 --> 00:00:18,800 and excitement over the possibilities brought by innovation and new technology. 5 00:00:20,733 --> 00:00:24,433 Jeffrey Brown visits the museum as part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas. 6 00:00:26,433 --> 00:00:29,633 JEFFREY BROWN: It's usually the stuff of sci-fi films, books and cartoons, but now the future 7 00:00:32,066 --> 00:00:37,066 is on display at a new design exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 8 00:00:37,066 --> 00:00:39,433 KATHY HIESINGER, Philadelphia Museum of Art: We want people to find their own paths. 9 00:00:39,433 --> 00:00:43,366 JEFFREY BROWN: Kathy Hiesinger co-curator of Designs for Different Futures. 10 00:00:43,366 --> 00:00:48,333 KATHY HIESINGER: The idea of the show is to make us think of, you know, who we are as 11 00:00:50,333 --> 00:00:55,100 human beings and how we relate to each other and to the world around us, and what that 12 00:00:56,333 --> 00:01:00,333 means in terms of both design and the future. 13 00:01:00,333 --> 00:01:04,033 JEFFREY BROWN: But why is design a good way to explore the future? 14 00:01:04,033 --> 00:01:09,033 KATHY HIESINGER: Design today now encompasses more than making chairs or simple physical 15 00:01:11,266 --> 00:01:14,833 objects. Designers collaborate, as the show demonstrates, with scientists, with anthropologists, 16 00:01:16,966 --> 00:01:20,200 with sociologists, biochemists, across all fields. 17 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:25,200 JEFFREY BROWN: Divided into 11 sections, the exhibit explores innovative ideas, often mixing 18 00:01:27,066 --> 00:01:31,266 high tech with the natural world, textiles made of seaweed, artificial organ implants, 19 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,466 even a robotic baby feeder. 20 00:01:35,466 --> 00:01:40,466 It offers hope, inspires fear, and asks ethical questions about the choices involved. 21 00:01:42,533 --> 00:01:46,800 How will our clothes be made? Who will be watching us? And how might we hide from surveillance? 22 00:01:48,766 --> 00:01:53,466 How and what will we eat? That was the focus for Orkan Telhan, an artist and designer at 23 00:01:54,366 --> 00:01:56,800 the University of Pennsylvania. 24 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:01,533 His display, titled Breakfast Before Extinction, offers several futuristic meals that may or 25 00:02:03,500 --> 00:02:07,533 may not whet your appetite, 3D-printed pancakes, genetically modified salmon and, strangest 26 00:02:09,633 --> 00:02:12,966 of all, steak made from our own blood cells. 27 00:02:12,966 --> 00:02:17,133 ORKAN TELHAN, University of Pennsylvania: In the future, imagine you receive a kit coming 28 00:02:17,133 --> 00:02:22,133 to your house, where you can get a little kit where you can take your cells from your 29 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:23,533 body. 30 00:02:23,533 --> 00:02:25,600 JEFFREY BROWN: My own cells. 31 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:27,666 ORKAN TELHAN: Your own cells, almost like getting a swab from your cheek, putting them 32 00:02:27,666 --> 00:02:32,433 into a little dish, where you let them incubate for, you know, six, eight weeks, so that you 33 00:02:35,233 --> 00:02:40,233 can have your little meat, which you can consume by yourself in front of... 34 00:02:41,433 --> 00:02:43,533 JEFFREY BROWN: And I'm eating myself? 35 00:02:43,533 --> 00:02:45,366 ORKAN TELHAN: Yourself. Yes, you're eating yourself. And so no animals are harmed. 36 00:02:45,366 --> 00:02:47,900 JEFFREY BROWN: And why do I want to do -- why do I want to do that? 37 00:02:47,900 --> 00:02:50,333 ORKAN TELHAN: First of all, it's the most sustainable way of making food. 38 00:02:50,333 --> 00:02:54,566 I'm not saying this -- it's going to be a replacement for all your protein needs, but 39 00:02:54,566 --> 00:02:58,400 making you think about, you know, do we need to kill an animal to be able to feed this? 40 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:03,366 JEFFREY BROWN: Scarcity and diminished resources are coming, he says. It's up to us to make 41 00:03:04,100 --> 00:03:06,166 some difficult choices. 42 00:03:06,166 --> 00:03:09,433 ORKAN TELHAN: This is not about, oh, this is a solution for it. But maybe we can, you 43 00:03:09,433 --> 00:03:12,466 know, change certain things, and then maybe avoid this future. 44 00:03:12,466 --> 00:03:17,466 JEFFREY BROWN: The exhibition's top celebrity was found in the jobs section, where Quori, 45 00:03:19,433 --> 00:03:22,933 a robot designed by a team including architect Simon Kim mimics basic human movement. 46 00:03:24,966 --> 00:03:29,666 Kim says an enormous amount of thinking goes into the look and feel of the robot and how 47 00:03:30,833 --> 00:03:32,800 that will impact our interactions with it. 48 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,833 SIMON KIM, University of Pennsylvania: It is meant to be a genderless robot. So there's 49 00:03:35,833 --> 00:03:40,833 great pains in the design to maintain the kind of not only male or female traits. 50 00:03:42,333 --> 00:03:44,033 JEFFREY BROWN: Why is that? 51 00:03:44,033 --> 00:03:47,266 SIMON KIM: It's a large issue in the human-robot interaction community. 52 00:03:47,266 --> 00:03:52,266 So, if it's taller than us, if it's bigger than us, if it looks aggressive, these are 53 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:58,233 things that, in our perception, turn us away from the robot, whereas the robot is meant 54 00:03:59,766 --> 00:04:02,500 to be helpful. We might not engage at all. 55 00:04:02,500 --> 00:04:07,500 JEFFREY BROWN: Here, Quori performs simple gestures, but it can be programmed to do more, 56 00:04:09,133 --> 00:04:11,933 including things that could raise fears of the machine's power over us. 57 00:04:11,933 --> 00:04:16,533 SIMON KIM: So, it takes more than just smart engineering or smart design, but it's also 58 00:04:16,533 --> 00:04:19,933 going to take, you know, somebody who can work psychologically to make sure that the 59 00:04:19,933 --> 00:04:24,933 rules for which we hope these robots occupy work with us, so that we're not turned off, 60 00:04:28,900 --> 00:04:33,166 nor do we think so negatively about the robot that we don't assign it any role at all. 61 00:04:33,166 --> 00:04:38,166 JEFFREY BROWN: The exhibition includes a futures therapy lab, where visitors can digest and 62 00:04:39,033 --> 00:04:41,166 contemplate their experience. 63 00:04:41,166 --> 00:04:43,300 Emily Schreiner is a curator for public programs. 64 00:04:43,300 --> 00:04:48,266 EMILY SCHREINER, Philadelphia Museum of Art: A lot of people come in with their eyes really 65 00:04:49,666 --> 00:04:52,433 wide. They have just seen a lot. They have experienced a lot. 66 00:04:52,433 --> 00:04:57,433 But this is a space that has people and paper and books, and that has been sort of a hyper-analog 67 00:05:02,566 --> 00:05:07,566 counterpoint to a very dizzying perspective of the future. 68 00:05:09,500 --> 00:05:12,666 JEFFREY BROWN: People gather in the lab to read from the crowdsourced library, make art, 69 00:05:13,833 --> 00:05:18,500 and listen to designers talk about their work. 70 00:05:22,233 --> 00:05:24,333 Wendy Rosenfield felt a range of emotions. 71 00:05:24,333 --> 00:05:29,266 WENDY ROSENFIELD, Visitor: It actually gave me a little bit of anxiety walking through, 72 00:05:31,266 --> 00:05:34,866 just like how quickly everything's changing and how much technology and the development 73 00:05:36,300 --> 00:05:39,100 of technology even plays into that. 74 00:05:39,100 --> 00:05:44,100 JEFFREY BROWN: Curators hope to inspire visitors to reflect on the human condition, how we 75 00:05:45,533 --> 00:05:48,966 can design better solutions, and also recognize our own agency. 76 00:05:48,966 --> 00:05:53,966 KATHY HIESINGER: In today's climate, political, environmental, the present seems to be very 77 00:05:56,633 --> 00:06:01,633 urgent. And making decisions that will affect the future seem more important now than ever. 78 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:05,166 JEFFREY BROWN: In a show like this allows us to think about that. 79 00:06:05,166 --> 00:06:09,766 KATHY HIESINGER: I hope so. And I think there are many projects here that show what can 80 00:06:11,133 --> 00:06:16,100 be done or speculate about where we could go in the future. 81 00:06:18,066 --> 00:06:21,666 JEFFREY BROWN: The exhibition Designs for Different Futures is here through March 8, 82 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:24,866 before traveling to Minneapolis and Chicago. 83 00:06:24,866 --> 00:06:29,833 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 84 00:06:29,833 --> 00:06:32,800 JUDY WOODRUFF: And some of it, we have never thought about before.