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Synthetic food, a Hyperloop train and a farming robot

The joint exhibition by Heureka and Sitra explores Finland’s future.

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Take a seat in Simone’s hairdressing salon, help Laura repair a hacked food machine, and work with Auvo to design the world’s tallest wooden skyscraper! Heureka’s latest exhibition, Seven Siblings from the Future, presents Jukola, a city of tomorrow.

What will Finland be like about fifty years from now? Among the topics of Heureka’s new exhibition are future professions, a synthetic food machine, and a hyperloop train that shoots through Jukola at a thousand kilometres per hour. In Jukola, food is grown by farming robots, and artificial intelligence keeps up with visitors on their explorations of this utopian city of the future.

The themes of the exhibition – such as well-being, movement, food and housing – are presented vividly in more than twenty exhibits by focusing on the lives of seven siblings of the future. Visitors to the exhibition help the siblings make the choices they face in their everyday lives.

“We want visitors to experience the exhibition themes in a personal way. The seven siblings represent different sets of values and different kinds of choices, making it possible to see our future in seven different ways,” says Heureka’s Experience Director Mikko Myllykoski.

Seven Siblings from the Future transforms how exhibitions are narrated

The exhibition is interactive and game-centred, and at its heart are stories and storytelling. The exhibition is a thought-provoking look at the future, but is also a highly memorable visual experience.

“Visitors to the exhibition get to meet the siblings in their real-life size. The look of the future that’s presented in the cinema-quality videos has been created through animations and 3D effects,” says Heureka’s Exhibition Developer Jussi Kahlos.

The exhibition covers an area of 650 m2, and visitors are followed through it by Jennifer, Jukola’s artificially intelligent narrator. All the choices each visitor makes during the visit are recorded in a wristband they are given at the beginning, so that at the end visitors can learn about their own values. They’ll also find out which of the siblings holds values that are closest to theirs. At the end of the exhibition, Heureka’s friendly robot Pepper and the AI narrator Jennifer will examine what the Finland of the future will look like.

“Seven Siblings from the Future transforms the way exhibitions are narrated. The exhibition visitor is the main character, and receives feedback about their own choices and about other visitors in the future setting,” Myllykoski explains.

Although the exhibition is located in a future Finland, it is not set in any specific time. The aim instead is to deal with potential future scenarios.

“Talk about the future is often so abstract and generalised that it can be difficult to grasp and get a clear sense of it. We wanted to work with Heureka to consider how the megatrends that are shaping the world could be combined with everyday choices in ways that would inspire children and youth,” says Päivi Hirvola, who is senior lead in societal training and development at the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.

Heureka is responsible for the design and implementation of the exhibition, and Sitra has funded the project and acted as the content consultant.

“The aim of the exhibition is to get people to reflect on the desirable direction that the future could take, and to think about how each of us can influence the future through our own choices. Our highest hope is that the exhibition will lead visitors to learn something new about themselves,” says Jussi Kahlos.

The exhibition Seven Siblings from the Future is a joint project of the Finnish Science Centre Heureka and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. The exhibition is part of Sitra’s 50th anniversary celebrations and of the official programme in honour of Finland’s 100 years of independence. The exhibition is on display at Heureka until January 2019.

More information:

Heureka:
Mikko Myllykoski, Experience Director, mikko.myllykoski@heureka.fi, tel. +358 40 9015 244
Jussi Kahlos, Exhibition Developer,  jussi.kahlos@heureka.fi, tel. +358 40 9015 284
Vesa Lepistö, Exhibition Producer, vesa.lepisto@heureka.fi, tel. +358 40 9015 397

Sitra:
Päivi Hirvola, Senior Lead, societal training and development, paivi.hirvola@sitra.fi, tel. +358 40 5498 008

https://www.heureka.fi/exhibition/seven-siblings-future/?lang=en
https://staging.sitra.fi/en/projects/7siblings/

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