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Bizarre future travel, by MINI

If this is the future count us out! MINI goes a little mental...


If you're like us, with little appreciation of modern art, and you're looking at these pictures with a mild bemusement, don't worry. These are exhibits inspired, apparently, by the MINI brand, and they are all part of the build-up to the London Design Festival in September.

The themes that are, er, explored, include genetically engineered cars and vacuum packing bodies for space travel. And no, we're not kidding on that last score, either.

These are the visions of six 'cutting-edge designers' and they're part of the tie-up between MINI and Dezeen, with the aim being to show how design and technology could transform the way we travel in years to come. They'll be part of an exhibition at the London event called 'Frontiers - The Future of Mobility'.

The six artists involved are: body architect Lucy McRae (vacuum-packed bodies); Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (genetically engineered cars grown from living materials); filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda and his augmented reality, with digital traffic information and road signage superimposed onto the physical world; Dominic Wilcox, who has gone for a stained-glass vehicle (no, really - he has), because future cars will be fully automated and therefore crash-proof and so can therefore be made of stained glass; Matthew Plummer-Fernandez has reimagined 'Bobblehead' figures (probably our favourite); and architect Pernilla Ohrstedt will design MINI's exhibition space, with her take on future travel (real-time 3D mapping) showcased within.

Anything else?
McRae's 'interactive performance' is arguably the most alarming of the lot, as visitors will be invited to step inside pods to prepare their bodies for the rigours of a zero gravity environment. She explains: "Astronauts that come back to Earth suffer an extreme osteoporosis because there's no gravity for bones. So the idea is you get under these golden aerated cocoons and slowly the air is sucked out of these pockets... It is going to be weird!" And possibly also a bit dangerous, we reckon...

Find out more, if you dare, at www.dezeen.com/minifrontiers.

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Published on August 20, 2014