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The Future Starts Here
100 projects shaping the world of tomorrow
This show is stimulating, inspiring, exciting and challenging
Times
From smart appliances to satellites, artificial intelligence to internet culture, this exhibition brings together more than 100 objects as a landscape of possibilities for the near future.
Supported by
The Volkswagen Group is a proud partner of The Future Starts Here at the V&A. In aiming to become a world-leading provider of sustainable mobility and driver of digital transformation, we know that innovation needs inspiration. The arts and culture are integral elements of a vibrant society and generate perspectives for its continual development. Therefore we support the arts in unfolding their power to inspire creativity worldwide.
Exhibition Highlights
Anthropocene spike, a golden spike driven into a rockface to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene geological era. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Superflex, Aura-powered bodysuits, Yves Behar. Courtesy of Superflex
Tomás Saraceno, Aerocene, launches at White Sands Natural Park, 2015. Courtesy the artist; Pinksummer contemporary art, Genoa; Tanya Bonakdar, New York; Andersen’s Contemporary, Copenhagen, Esther Schipper, Berlin. © Photography by Studio Tomás Saraceno, 2015
Technology in Bed, Hanif Shoaei, 2014. Courtesy of Hanif Shoaei
Body Code Animation, Drew Berry, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. © E.O.Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
Protei, autonomous sailing ship that cleans up oil spills, 2014. © Scoutbots LTD, Cesar Jung-Harada
Radical Love, DNA portrait of Chelsea Manning, by Heather Dewey-Hagborg, 2015. Courtesy of Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Fridman Gallery, New York City
betamodel, Bento Labs. © Bento Bioworks
Shooting Stars project, Ale and Co Ltd, 2016. © ALE Co. Ltd
Luchtsingel, pedestrian bridge crowdfunded by citizens, ZUS, 2011 – 2015, Rotterdam. Photography: Ossip van Duivenbode. © ZUS
Living Network, dummy antenna around fake tree, Jalila Essaidi. © BioArt Laboratories
Masdar City, the world's first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city, Foster + Partners. Photography by Eteienne Malapert, 2014. © Etienne Malapert, The city of Possibilities, Ecal
More to Do
Past Events
Featured
About The Future Starts Here exhibition
Find out more about our 2018 blockbuster exhibition
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Project focus | Miranda July: 'I'm The President, Baby'
Using smart curtains as storytelling devices
Project focus | Cryonics: who wants to live forever?
Freezing human bodies to be re-awoken in the future when we have 'solved death'
Project focus | Jonas Staal: New World Summit – Rojava
Developing parliaments with and for stateless states, autonomist groups, and blacklisted political organisations
Interview with DeepMind – Google's AI research lab
Teaching artificially intelligent 'agents’ to play classic 1980s Atari videogames
Big Glass Microphone digital commission by Stamen Design
Discover a world of fascinating detections through the Big Glass Microphone
Exhibition shop
The Future Starts Here
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The Future Starts Here tote bag
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We are all connected, but are we still lonely? Digital print
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Teachers’ Resource: The Future Starts Here
This resource introduces the critical themes and ideas explored in the exhibition and sets out discussion points and design challenges inspired by some of the key objects on display
Download the resource
The Future Starts Here
Background image: The Future Starts Here, 2018. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London