My name is Mar and I live in ch. 32.
To give you some background, this is year 2050 and things are a little different around here than they used to be. Way back in 2016 something called Augmented Reality had only just surfaced as a utility within society. At the time, they only used AR for things like entertainment or games, little did they know how influential it would become.
As AR advanced in breadth and accuracy, societies began to experience a reorganization and reinterpretation of identified “place.” This new technology soon mixed so thoroughly into the physical world that disillusionment and disordered experience of place became prevalent in communities around the world.
Great minds from everywhere came together and decided to build a more organized system where people experienced the world through the lens of their personalized, schematic data. These lenses came to be known as “channels.”
“Welcome to the 2063 Channel Expo, your chance to discover new realities and transform your life in one flip!”
Exhibiting hundred of channels of augmented reality to the city, the Channel Exposition is an event that occurs every three years. Each channel’s unique attributes- namely, their distinct values, opportunities, media, interfaces, abilities, and interests- are unveiled and exhibited at the expo. People from all different channels come to the event to taste and experience potential futures. A ceremony of sorts, the Channel Expo offers people the 1-in-3-year opportunity to flip channels and tune in to a new life.
Channels open up unique opportunities for individual growth, education, and relationships. Augmenting physical senses – what you see, what you hear, who you interact with – the right channel can uncover an entirely new worldview. This system reaches into exclusive values, impacting your interests, thoughts, and behaviors.
Role of Design
In a speculative future where augmented channels of reality exist, designers play a fundamental role in shaping and preserving the welfare of such a system. The multi-channel structure itself will, predictably, arise under the influence of design as each channel touches the center of human life, value, and behavior. For example, understanding and anticipating the human identities that will originate within certain channels will be contingent on the designer’s role in society.
