Anab Jain / RCA Interaction Design
futurescapes of work: a documentary from 2012
What will the world of work look like as populations age, natural resources diminish and new technologies liberate us from the fixed office? A fictional neighbourhood called Little Brinkland suggests some clues.
We all know how we work today - most of us in offices in one fixed location for a set number of hours a day. But how will we work in the near future when emerging technologies rethink the rhythms of working life against a backdrop of a rapidly ageing workforce and growing environmental fears? This project addresses these issues by fast-forwarding to 2012 and situating its research in ‘Little Brinkland’, a city neighbourhood populated by workers whose jobs are not entirely new-fangled but more like strange mutations of present-day careers.
Anab Jain narrates the stories of three protagonists: a nomadic city worker/hacker who, in 2012, runs a creative technology enterprise from his café office, using pets inserted with wi-fi technology as mobile communication hosts; a home-based cyber junkie who books a ‘cold zone’ by one of the few trees in Brinkland to have a break from technology; and an anxious banker on the verge of retirement who finds she can continue working in her new role as a data banker from her garden. This scenario study, which is entertainingly brought to life in video interviews with the Brinklanders, has led Anab Jain to imagine a variety of novel office environments in conceptual terms.
