As seen in the section 'Little Brinkland 2012', creation of this fictional town helped me project the three protagonists into the future and invent new jobs for them. Through this method I was able to explore the kind of design spaces that might arise to accommodate the new jobs of the future when demographic and scientific forecasts have come true.
The jobs these protagonists do are not entirely new-fangled but more like strange mutations of present-day careers. By visualising the scenarios of their future working lives I was able to imagine a variety of novel office environments in conceptual terms which are not to be regarded as prototypical designs, more as a means of broadening creative thinking about the future of work.
I
take on the role of a chronicler in Little Brinkland and narrate the stories of three protagonists in the form of three documentary films set in the year 2012 in Little Brinkland.
My first protagonist, Andrew, who used to be a nomadic city worker, hacker and an aspiring entrepreneur, now owns the 'Pet Implant Consultancy' in Little Brinkland, alongwith his friend, Ronny, the pet surgeon.
The pet implant consultancy augments the functionality of real pets and makes them more useful and appealing. Andrew demonstrates this by augmenting his own pet dog Luka and using it as an advertising campaign.
Duration: 3 mins 52 seconds
My second protagonist, Alice, who used to be a cyber junkie, data neurotic, young home worker, now often visits one of the many coldzones in Little Brinkland to work and meet people. For someone like Alice, who could never imagine going offline, this was an exciting new experience.
Coldzones are physical, non-technological, transient spaces in Little Brinkland where the digitally exhausted Brinklanders can go offline, and stay away from surveillance and constant tracking. Through location-specific, unique services coldzones have created new forms of social exchange in the urban landscape.
Duration: 4 mins 21 seconds
My third protagonist, Elizabeth, who was an anxious librarian on the verge of retirement has found a new job as the Data Bank Archivist in Little Brinkland. She visits people's houses, archives their data, asseses their unique data needs and suggests the best account for them in the newly opened data bank.
Duration: 3 mins 32 seconds
