ERA is the newest project by Phil Balagtas, founder of the Design Futures Initiative, Speculative Futures Global network and PRIMER conference. in 2021, Phil left the Design Futures Initiative to continue his work in education and consulting on Futures Thinking. In 2023, Phil moved to Barcelona. Eager to continue creating futures experiences, building communities and activating hearts and minds about critical future topics, he began exploring how to bring more immersive and experiential models into futures discussions. Inspired by immersive theatre and interactive, participatory experiences. He sought to bring these interaction and theatrical devices into the futures space.

The original pitch for the event was. “What if we had an experience focused around a meal where each artist designed a different dish? But each dish was implicilty meant to teach you something about the impact of climate change. Maybe you would eat a piece of endangered seaweed. Maybe part of the experience would be blindfolded to shut down other senses and highlight others such as smell and tactility” The idea of engaging more than 2 human sense (as opposed to sight and sound which is what you typically engage in a conference or classroom setting) we would be able to create more sensory memories that could be more likely to sustain themselves in your mind. These multi-sensorial aspects could potentially change how people think and experience the future. The same kind of muscle memory that is engaged when you smell something that reminds you of a particular event or moment in your life.

In 2022, Phil convened several artists, designers and futurists to begin discussions about how to create such an event in Barcelona, Spain. He commissioned the first artists and brought them together to determine how, when and where to hold such an event. Each artist and design group was specifically chosen for their expertise in Design Fiction, Food futures, Food art, and Futures Thinking to provide a wide variety of perspectives, research and experiences. Originally conceived as a multi-day experiential event with multiple installations and modes, it was scaled back due to financial and logistical challenges. Espai Puntal, a sustainable Catalan restaurant in El Born district of Barcelona became the first partner and venue for the experience.

The Theme

The theme of the first event was inspired by Futurity Systems’ Cosmovore concept—the idea that we might at some point in the future be a species that feeds on celestial objects like asteroids or meteorites for sustenance. Given all the news about asteroid harvesting, aliens, and billionaire space travel in 2022-2023, the teams decided to focus on these topics as the connective theme of the event. Research was done across many areas and we invited experts in immersive theatre and scientists who worked directly with food and lifestyle on the International Space Station.

Models and devices for teaching

It was very important for all of us to design an experience that was subtle yet impactful. With all the immersive art experiences that were happening around the world there was a fine line between going too far into a “Disney” type of experience and being suggestive and subtle enough to get people to suspend their reality and belief systems. It was necessary to achieve a balance without having to create too many props and set pieces but enough artifacts and diegetic prototypes to immerse people in a narrative. Many challenges emerged around how we communicate directions, how do we keep peoples minds and perspectives fresh through surprise and delight, and how do we take them into an uncertain, foreign, yet familiar territory in the future to immerse them in the challenges we are facing today. Advised by Joanna Bucknall of the Immersive Experience Network, we employed many devices from immersive theatre to install implicit suggestions of the speculative world. Lights, sound, video, food, environrmental soundscapes, and even actors were used to create situations and ceremonies.