✦ Process - What does Futurelessness mean to us? + ꩜｡ Materialism Gigamap ⋰˚
We define futurelessness through the emotions that come up when we think about the future in relation to the current state of the world; this includes feelings like hopelessness, loneliness, apathy, indifference, powerlessness, and helplessness. In some ways, futurelessness can even feel like the absence of thinking about the future at all.
Mapping something like futurelessness turned out to be a real challenge. The topic is incredibly broad, and there are so many different forces that contribute to it. Our first attempt at creating the Giga Map felt chaotic. We spent hours trying to sort through what futurelessness meant to us and how all the pieces connected, but it was difficult to see a clear structure at first. Even so, the process was insightful because it forced us to confront just how complex the issue really is.
Things started to make more sense once we began exploring the topic through the Futures Triangle and PESTEL Analysis methods. These approaches helped us organize the different forces shaping futurelessness and gave us a clearer way to map them. Through this process, we noticed a common thread: materialism and the systems that enable it kept appearing as major contributors to our feelings of futurelessness.
Of course, materialism is only one part of the picture, but ideas connected to it, overconsumption, exploitation of labor and resources, waste, and status-driven lifestyles, showed up in our final Giga Map. Looking at futurelessness through the lens of PESTEL helped ground these ideas in real systems and conditions that shape everyday life. Using the Futures Triangle, on the other hand, allowed us to map the emotions tied to different moments in time: for example comfort in the present, survival in the future, and nostalgia for the past. Together, these frameworks helped us move from a chaotic collection of ideas toward a clearer understanding of how futurelessness is produced and experienced.
Additionally, Materialism can lead to futurelessness when society becomes focused on immediate consumption rather than long-term meaning or collective goals. In areas like Sociology and Cultural Theory, scholars argue that constant cycles of buying and replacing goods create short-term thinking and endless desire without lasting fulfillment. This weakens shared visions for the future and contributes to ecological strain studied in Ecology. As a result, the future can feel less like a space for change and more like a repetition of the present. Materialism became our driving force for the intervention we wanted to create to combat futurelessness.
** Futurelessness Ideation + Iteration **
After our initial Giga Map explorations, we pushed our thinking further through a series of rapid five-minute design and idea iterations. Each round introduced a prompt word, these included Silly, Strange, Risky, Extreme, and Deep + Serious. And with each round we were asked to respond to the theme of futurelessness. The goal was not necessarily to design products or programs, but to explore possible future systems and interventions. The openness of the prompt made the exercise exciting and freeing; it ultimately encouraged us to think more broadly about how different ideas could address a sense of limited or collapsing futures.
Many of the concepts that emerged touched on materialism, which reinforced our interest in exploring it further as part of our final intervention. Other ideas were more speculative or radical, but they all shared the intention of imagining ways to shift current systems toward more sustainable or hopeful futures.
For example, some proposals included using human keratin byproducts to create household items, or speculative organisms capable of consuming nuclear waste. While not all of these ideas were fully developed, several were closely related to our ideas on Materialism and helped inform the direction of our eventual futurelessness intervention.
⋆˚ Solution: Clutter Cutter 1000
After those days of brainstorming we came up with our solution: The Clutter Cutter 1000.
This machine focuses on the problems that result from materialism, overconsumption, capitalism and the desire for a higher social status.
As a condition for this product to be used as it should be, it must come with a social media and advertisement campagne, which influences people to recycle and declutter their homes.
To the use the machine you'll want to either have the corresponding app, or access the machine directly. First, you will scan your body and the clothing item. Through this, your updated body measurements are saved and you can receive a list of things that you can do with the item you chose.
You then insert the clothing into the top of the machine and click the „Start“ button. You can either wait or run errands while the machine takes approximetely 10 minutes to finish your new piece of clothing.
Once finished, the desired item will dispence from the front of the machine and you can take it home.
Now, to avoid an overusage and therefore a waste of resources, the machine is thought to be situated in (semi)public spaces, such as malls, grocery stores or communal laundry rooms.
₊⊹ User Journey ࿐
To explain the Clutter Cutter 1000 and its usage in detail, we put together a Costumer Journey chart. Through that, we were able to separate the process into Decluttering, Searching, Scanning, Inserting, Uploading, Waiting and Receiving the finished clothing item.
The only touchpoints needed are the phone - for choosing designs and scanning both body and old clothing - and the machine itself.
The actors in this scenario are also very limited, as the machine can be easily operated by the user. Only the designer comes into play when it comes to choosing the design for the new clothing. He would also profit from this, as the Clutter Cutter 1000 gives him new opportunities to reach clients and make money through a Patreon-like system.
In the emotions column you can also see the user's feelings turning from a lot of mental clutter to feeling excited for the new piece of clothing.
Story Board ❀
As already described about, the storyboard begins with a moment of awareness. A person walking through the city notices a poster about overconsumption and the growing problem of clothing waste. The message prompts reflection about the amount of clothing they own and rarely use. Inspired to act, they return home and begin sorting through their wardrobe, gathering garments they no longer wear. Instead of throwing them away, the clothes become raw material for something new.
Next, the user downloads the Clutter Cutter 1000 app, which allows them to scan and measure their body accurately. The app generates personalized clothing options that can be created from the garments they plan to recycle. With their measurements saved and design ideas selected, the user takes their old clothes to a Clutter Cutter 1000 machine located in a supermarket or shopping mall or even a laundry in their apartment building. They feed the garments into the machine and choose how the fabric should be transformed, whether into new garments based on the suggested designs or separated into usable scraps.
While the machine cuts, dyes, embroiders, patches, alters, synthesizes, and sews the clothing into new pieces, the user is free to continue their day. They can run errands or go shopping while the process completes. Once finished, the machine produces newly designed garments made from the user’s own materials. The user returns to collect their redesigned clothing, giving their old garments a second life while reducing waste and participating in a circular fashion system. The use can donate any old items or scraps to the machine for use by other users.
.ೃ Final Models ༘⋆
In order to find the most optimized design of the machine, we used the same Blender render and each added our own concepts, details and environment. See models below to understand how we arrived at our final design shown above. Below the images you can read about the concept and reasonings behind each designers designs.
Sophie's design was influenced by old sewing machines. These often had intricate patterns along the body. As a modern/futuristic interpretation of that, this Clutter Cutter 1000 was decorated with cybersigilism patterns and kept in sleek white & black colors.
Steven's design's are also influenced by old sewing machines, vintage 1950-60's products + advertisements, and, in a way, children's toys. Treating the machine as a toy makes it playful and more approachable. It also makes it a little kitsch and a little whimsical. The use of pink and green makes it feel funny and not so serious.
Zain’s design blends floral, esoteric patterns inspired by traditional Asian sewing machines across the entire body, merging heritage textiles with modern technology. The garment transformation process is illustrated by jeans being reworked into a denim jacket to make the concept intuitive. The subtitle reinforces the idea of denying futurelessness by accepting conservation as the future.
༘⋆ Final Presentation + Final Poster *
