The Kodansha x Media Do New Book Research Project held its “SF Prototyping Workshop” over a period of about five months starting in October 2022. The purpose of this workshop was to come up with “new books in 2050”. Hidenori Watanave Lab members, students of the III Exhibition, and members of the New Book Research Project divided into four teams and participated in a series of online group work sessions.

In the workshop, members were required to use the concepts of “SF thinking” and “SF prototyping”, which involve recalling future events and issues as in SF novels, and then working backwards to consider “what should be done now”. They were also required to describe specific gadgets/objects and submit them as the final product of the workshop. Each team invited guest lecturers to participate in the workshop, including SF novelist Kyosuke Higuchi, media artist Ai Hasegawa, Keio University Associate Professor Hirotaka Osawa, and science culture creater Michito Miyamoto.

At the final presentation, the four teams presented their results with completely different approaches. Here are summaries of the results:

The team in which this author participated, led by Mr. Higuchi, used AI-generated text and photos to create a world view that blurs the boundary between humans and AI. The members of the team wrote SF novels and abnormal papers related to “new books” and distributed them as e-books (Figure 1). Through SF prototyping, they shared “outrageous” worlds with each other, deepening their discussions while praising each others’ work. The author wrote a short story based on the theme of future funerals and books.

Another team introduced a LARP (Live Action Role Playing) design set 50 years in the future, and came together to role-play in the real world. They raised social issues from a future where people rely on technology to control their emotions and embed expressions on their “faces,” and presented a video work that focused on facial expressions. (Figure 2 and 3) Another team presented a world where books made of natural materials were introduced, incorporating text into food, in the form of picture books. (Figure 4) Another team created a magazine concept called “Gekkan Tokyojin” for walking around the future city, featuring a special issue on natural expressions being represented by scientific and technological advances. (Figure 5)

All of the results were complex, multi-layered, sharp, and cool. Parallel with this workshop, the Kodansha x Media Do New Book Research Project is also considering developing an app to realize the ecosystem of “new books in the not so distant future”. Please look forward to the release of the application!

Text: Makiko Harada (Project researcher)
English proofreading: David Buist (Project senior specialist)