Near Future Laboratory Podcast cover image

Near Future Laboratory Podcast

Latest episodes

undefined
Dec 6, 2021 • 59min

N°21 — Mieke Marple & Medusa Collection

Mieke Marple is an artist and writer, and creator of the Medusa Collection, a set of 2,500 unique NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s a large scale artwork + restorative history + fundraiser that dedicates 25% of all sales to Steven Van Zandt’s national education non-profit TeachRock.org Mieke and I talk about art, running a traditional art gallery, and her motivations to move to digital and specifically crypto art. Please consider supporting this podcast over on Patreon or buy me a coffee! Thank you for ranking this podcast, and for your support! LINKS [Mieke Marple] (https://miekemarple.com/) [Medusa Collection] (http://medusacollection.io/) [Teach Rock] (https://teachrock.org/) [Become a Patron] (https://www.patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory) [Near Future Laboratory Discord]( https://discord.gg/PHbDruNGN5)
undefined
Nov 30, 2021 • 54min

N°20 — Nick Foster

A discussion with Nick Foster, Head of Design at X (a/k/a The Moonshot Factory). Please consider supporting this podcast, or if you want — buy me a Coffee! You may also be interested in the Design Fiction Newsletter as well as the Near Future Laboratory Discord, high-signal / low-noise channel discussing design, technoculture, and futures. Thank you for listening! Julian
undefined
Nov 9, 2021 • 1h 38min

N°19 — Parsons and Charlesworth

Collaborative artists Parsons and Charlesworth discuss their sculptural practice addressing key social and technological challenges. They explore the limitations of online interactions, the potential impact on the medical industry, and their participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale. The podcast also touches on QR codes, retail challenges, and creating a retail experience. They wrap up by expressing gratitude and promoting their design fiction newsletter and the Near Future Laboratory discord community.
undefined
Oct 21, 2021 • 39min

N°18 — General Seminar N°10 CRYPTO GAMING (Something unsettling happened.)

This is a special episode of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast — an annotated highlight reel from our General Seminar N°10 — a discussion on CRYPTO GAMES. You can find out more about this General Seminar here: https://generalseminar.com/general-seminar-no-10.) Yeah. CRYPTO GAMING. That’s like..games and blockchains, right? Or pay-to-play-to-earn, as I’ve heard it referred to? Or is it, like..being able to take your broadsword from Fortnite into Call of Duty or something?  Listen along to General Seminar N°10 with hosts Julian Bleecker, Katie Dreke, and Ian Bogost and our 16 participants. Please consider supporting this podcast! You can do so at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory or you can buy me a Coffee here:https://ko-fi.com/bleeckerj! You can also send $ETH to https://bleecker.eth. (Oh, also— I mention in my introduction that something really unsettling happened when I was producing this episode and I refer to a tweet — it's this one here — https://twitter.com/slavin_fpo/status/1449455253670309895)
undefined
Oct 18, 2021 • 55min

N°17 — Blockchain Artist Sarah Friend

Sarah Friend studied painting as a fine artist and is now one of the more audacious media artists. Her art projects probe the contours of possible kinds of social relations built on top of blockchain mechanics, inspired and shaped by her interest in science-fiction and futures. Sarah's medium is software, her canvas is the blockchain, and her paintbrushes non-fungible tokens and Solidity contracts. He project Lifeforms and Off are especially evocative, pushing into the near future of how cryptodynamics and blockchain architecture can operate as instruments and expressive media.  Please consider supporting this podcast. You can do so at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory or by buying me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/bleeckerj. You can also send crypto here to me directly at bleecker.eth ====== Some links to Sarah Friend's work https://isthisa.com/ https://twitter.com/isthisanart_ https://off.supply/ https://lifeforms.supply/about https://github.com/ana0 Extracting Computerized Desires — A Review of Clickmine Near Future Laboratory Discord: https://discord.com/invite/j7DggW2ahj Design Fiction Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/designfiction
undefined
Oct 11, 2021 • 34min

N°16 — General Seminar N°9 — Synthetic Brands / Synthetic Media

This is a special episode of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast — a highlight reel from our General Seminar N°9 — a discussion on Synthetic Brands / Synthetic Media. We are now nudging into a world in which algorithmically synthetic and computer-generated artificial entities will likely be participating, collaborating, and fully assuming roles up and down the culture stack  — from customer care bots to pop-stars and politicians. How do we make sense of all this? General Seminar is a platform for sense-making through discussion.    One-to-many “expert” platforms like podcasts, TED Talks, and Masterclasses serve a role in the dissemination of ideas and opinions of a small group of experts. By their nature these are largely one-way, where ideas flow to a mostly passive audience who still must make sense of the topic on their own. General Seminar provides an alternative. Sign up to be notified of future General Seminar sessions. This podcast is supported by the good graces of my patron's on Patreon. Please consider supporting this podcast and my Design Fiction Newsletter! Or, you can buy me a coffee to show your thanks!
undefined
Aug 29, 2021 • 1h 1min

N°15 — What is it to be a Generalist? with Patrick Tanguay

Patrick Tanguay is a Generalist, Synthesist, and Curator. He explores tech in society, signals of change, & prospective futures in his fantastic weekly newsletter Sentiers, which I recommend you subscribe to. Every Sunday I get a host of fantastic insights and pointers, one of the most interesting is his mentioning the most clicked story a year ago. This morning it was a great piece from last year — the somewhat manifesto-y article on Squad Wealth, some themes we discuss in this podcast. You can also find Patrick on Twitter at @inevernu  Please consider supporting this podcast on Patreon — doing so helps cover the costs of maintaining the various nozzles and nodes necessary to produce the podcast, plus maybe more than that — it shows that you support the effort that goes into this work. You can also buy me a "coffee" as a kind of tip for the effort. If you like the topics in and around this discussion, please consider signing up for General Seminar — it's my new experimental platform for conversations using the seminar framework to have several-to-several conversations in which everyone has a voice. Patrick has been a web developer for 15 plus years, and co-founded the first coworking space in Montréal, Station C, and co-initiated the critically acclaimed print magazine The Alpine Review. Over the years he also helped start a number of groups bringing people and ideas together: The Awesome Foundation Montréal, Webcamp, Creative Mornings Montréal, and Hacks/Hackers Montréal. Back in the day he was steward of the oldest and longest running blogger meetup, Yulblog.
undefined
Aug 6, 2021 • 1h 14min

N°14 - Speculative Design, IOT & Cultures of Innovation with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino

Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an author, consultant, public speaker, entrepreneur and designer living in London. She is the author of Creating a Culture of Innovation and Smarter Homes She is the founder of the Low Carbon Design Institute, a residency for creative people focused on climate change. She was named 1st in a list of 100 Internet of Things Influencers (Postscapes, 2016), 2nd in Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders (Onalytica, 2014) and in the Top 100 Influential Tech Women on Twitter (Business Insider, 2014). She’s been included in the long-list of Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in Tech in the UK in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. She studied industrial design at the University of Montreal and interaction design at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. You can find her work at designswarm Please support this podcast, which you can do at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. You can also buy me a coffee! You may also be interested in the Design Fiction newsletter, a somewhat weekly newsletter on topics related to design, innovation, culture and technology. As well, we have a new platform for sense-making called General Seminar. New sessions are in the planning phase. Sign up there to be notified of upcoming seminars on Augmented Reality, the Metaverse, and Design Fiction.
undefined
Jul 28, 2021 • 1h 4min

N°13 - Tina He on DAOs, Calvino and Blockchain Social Mechanics

Tina He is a writer, designer, and investor dedicated to creating technology that fosters creativity, growth, and knowledge. Her essay "The New Frontier of Belonging" caught my attention as it navigated through a number of disparate terrains while describing the peculiar kinds of social formations arising out of blockchain mechanics — and it leads with a reference to Italo Calvino, which I found to be unexpected and beautiful. Please support my podcast: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory Or buy me a small coffee: https://ko-fi.com/bleeckerj Here are some links related to this episode: https://tinahe.xyz/ https://fakepixels.substack.com/ https://desktop.pacecapital.com/ https://fakepixels.substack.com/p/fkpxls-the-new-frontier-of-belonging
undefined
Jun 28, 2021 • 2h 10min

N°12 - NFTs, Blockchain, Social Tokens with Sean Bonner

A discussion about the social futures and social dynamics inherent in NFTs and Blockchain, with Sean Bonner. See his https://nftart.lol which compares various NFT platforms. And his blog: http://blog.seanbonner.com/nft/ He also publishes a semi-weekly email newsletter that I can highly recommend, called The Crowd https://tinyletter.com/seanbonner.

Get the Snipd
podcast app

Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
App store bannerPlay store banner

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode

Save any
moment

Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways

Share
& Export

Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more

AI-powered
podcast player

Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features

Discover
highlights

Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode