Assemble Pittsburgh
Prototyping futures in a dynamic Book of Futures
Assemble is an organization and community space for arts and technology education located in Pittsburgh’s Garfield neighborhood.
Assemble’s mission is to build confidence through making by creating approachable opportunities for learners of all ages to engage with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) based activities.
Assemble envisions a world where learning and creating are transformative experiences and where all people are equipped with the tools to make a difference, together.
The Time Travel Agency participated in their futures literacy program ‘Hack the Future’ guiding a time travel in person in Pittsburgh.
‘THE FUTURES ARE BEHIND YOU’ (renamed ‘HAVE YOU SEEN THIS FUTURE’) is a new solarpunk concept that explores what is behind us, in that space where the futures are not obviously ahead of us.
For this experience we reimagined our Book of Futures and created a sort of artist’s book, sourcing items from the Pittsburgh Center For Creative Reuse (link).
Time travelers played The Writer’s Game with a new set of words designed in 2023, and arrived to a scenario where
The dynamic Book of Futures is made of old agendas where Futures were listed alphabetically according to the travelers. In it, Futures ready to be prototyped can be found. Amongst them:
A
Air pockets betwen phytoplanctonC
CalzonesCommunity polls to decide weather
Composting robots
D
DiGiorno pizzaDisco dancefloor activated with our pressure
I
I’m-Not-Sure FutureS
Squishy sidewalks made of algaeT
Thermodancing (large crowds generate energy and music when stepped on; algae floors; can be seen from the sky; it’s a system in equilibrium)
(above) The Books of Futures
(above) Brose the book using the arrows
To continue the time travel, we decided to rapid-prototype Future T: Thermodancing!
