Phantom Residents, 2014
The Extrapolation Factory was invited to set up shop at Gizmodo's Home of the Future on May 20th, 2014. The home of the future was a Sims-esque symbolic structure, of partitioned rooms set up inside a former gymnasium. In each room, one could find a plethora of curated consumer items that boast to be on the bleeding edge of their category - from enormous dished television screens to self-adjusting standing desks.
The Extrapolation Factory spent the afternoon inviting visitors to imagine the 'Phantom Residents' of this vacant home, as well as the other items they might have around them. Participants started their thought process by selecting one object from the home's collection, and pairing it with a recent occurrence in the field of synthetic biology to inspire a personality who might reside in the home. After sketching and describing the characters, participants envisioned a new object that didn't exist in the home, and illustrated their vision. Finally paperkraft models were constructed to visualize the fictional objects, and placed in the home.
Thanks to Natsuki Hayashi, Stephanie Beattie, Selim Budeyri, Leah Cabrera Fischer, Dongin Shin, Lillian Tong, and Mollie West.
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