21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

21_21 DESIGN SIGHT holds the exhibition "The Year 2121: Futures In-Sight" from 21 December, 2021. The exhibition director is Michiaki Matsushima, an editor who has published numerous books and magazines, all revealing his interest in issues relating to the future. His perspectives consider how technologies bring change to our cultures and styles of living.

The term "20/20 vision" is used in English to denote perfect sight. The name, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT refers to our wish to provide a place where people can look far into "the future". One hundred years from the opening of this exhibition will fall in the year 2121. Our concept is to ponder how the world will look in a year which is coincidentally also the name of this institute.

Since ancient times, humankind has made predictions and prophecies about the future, whether tomorrow's weather, the next year's harvest or the future prosperity of the nation. We have recently gained more confidence in the process, thanks to the detailed and elaborate prognoses now available via advancing technology of analysis and measurement of information. Yet, in every case, from the very beginning of time, has "the future" even been more than just an extension of the past?

The experience of global pandemic has brought drastic and widespread changes to our life-style, communication methods and sense of community, as well as to people-values and general ways of thinking. It has brought home to us how unpredictable "the future" really is.

This exhibition employs a tool called "Future Compass" to trigger ideas about the future. We use it to visualize perspectives on a future which is already present today, and which can be uncovered through our contemporary behavior and creativity. We have engaged a range of participants, from designers, artists and thinkers, to engineers and researchers, who provide their own perspectives on the future. These ideas have been generated from the act of pondering timelines, whether familiar or yet unknown. The participants' ideas constitute the exhibition content, which manifests itself as "the Future in Plural Form," like a flourishing plant.

With its multiple ideas of what lies ahead, this Exhibition offers space in which to think about "the act of considering the future." We provide the generations alive today, and those yet to come, with opportunities to nurture rich insights into how we might create a tomorrow through the medium of design.