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Anab Jain’s work transports people into the future. The evolving installation Mitigation of Shock by her studio Superflux imagines a random apartment in the London of 2050, or in a Singapore that has become a flooded city in 2219. Both are equipped with an array of DIY interventions, hydroponic farms and other tools for gathering, capturing and storing both food and water under new climate regimes. While their technical solutions are fascinating (and actually work), it is the vision that prevails: we not only survive but also thrive, as we adapt and become smarter, stronger, fitter and better acquainted with other members of the planetary society. We tell ourselves stories in order to live, but we can realise better ones.
Anab Jain is a designer, an artist and a filmmaker. She is a co-founder and Director of Superflux, a speculative design studio based in London that explores the intersections of climate crisis, technology and more-than-human politics. Along with her partner Jon Ardern, she has produced critically acclaimed films, art and installations projecting the many possible futures for humankind. She is also a teacher in the Design Investigations programme at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
Anab has worked for some of the world’s biggest firms like Microsoft Research, Sony, Samsung and Nokia, as well as institutions like the Government of the UAE, Innovate UK, Cabinet Office UK, UNDP, Future Cities Catapult and Forum for the Future. She has exhibited work at MoMA New York, the National Museum of China and the V&A in London. She has earned honours from Apple Computers Inc., UNESCO, Geneva Human Rights Festival and TED.
Reading List:
[Essay]: Calling for a More-Than-Human Politics
[Video]: Trigger Warning
[Interview]: The Future Starts Here
Special guests:
Saša Spačal is a post-media artist working at the intersection of research into living systems, contemporary and sound art.
Anja Planišček is an associate professor at Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture and a practicing architect. Her focus is architecture of social engagement, international development cooperation and humanitarian aid, housing politics, socialization and promotion of architecture, Slovenian architecture in the period of socialism.
Špela Petrič is a new media artist and former scientific researcher. Her practice is a composite of natural sciences, wet media and performance. Much of her recent work has focused on plant life.