Connecting the dots in science, technology & creativity.

the Energy Paradox:
Powering a Growing World

Our latest Emergent Futures Report identifies global innovation signals in energy, shaped by research and conversations with innovators in academia, industry, and the arts.

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Latest

nextrends
Emergent Futures Report 002: The Energy Paradox
Emergent Futures Report 002: The Energy Paradox
Racial Pseudoscience in the Age of AI
Racial Pseudoscience in the Age of AI
Eyes Without a Face: San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition
Eyes Without a Face: San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition
Technology Doesn’t Drive Itself: The Future of Workers in the Automation Era
Technology Doesn’t Drive Itself: The Future of Workers in the Automation Era

DISCOVER Nextcasts

Presented by swissnex San Francisco, nextcasts is a platform to share conversations with the interesting people we connect with, and ideas on the forces shaping the emergent future.

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Intelligent machines

nextrends
Racial Pseudoscience in the Age of AI
Racial Pseudoscience in the Age of AI
Technology Doesn’t Drive Itself: The Future of Workers in the Automation Era
Technology Doesn’t Drive Itself: The Future of Workers in the Automation Era
This is the House a Robot Built: Digital Fabrication & the Future of Architecture
This is the House a Robot Built: Digital Fabrication & the Future of Architecture
The Only Child: Imagining the Future of IVF
The Only Child: Imagining the Future of IVF
Switzerland to Confirm Robot as Cabinet Member
Switzerland to Confirm Robot as Cabinet Member
Empathy vs. the Machines: Jodi Halpern & Jonathon Keats
Empathy vs. the Machines: Jodi Halpern & Jonathon Keats
The disk drive is your DNA
The disk drive is your DNA
Taking Updates Personally
Taking Updates Personally
!Mediengruppe Bitnik: Art is a Hack
!Mediengruppe Bitnik: Art is a Hack
Bots Will Break Your Heart
Bots Will Break Your Heart

storytelling & interaction

nextrends
From the Gallery Floor to the Sea Floor: A Conversation with Marie Griesmar
From the Gallery Floor to the Sea Floor: A Conversation with Marie Griesmar
The Future is Sweet: Meet Erika Marthins
The Future is Sweet: Meet Erika Marthins
The Whimsical Side of SciComm, with “Daisy and Chloé”
The Whimsical Side of SciComm, with “Daisy and Chloé”
Game Changers: EverdreamSoft on Blockchain Gaming
Game Changers: EverdreamSoft on Blockchain Gaming
Meet Jason Reinier, listener
Meet Jason Reinier, listener
The disk drive is your DNA
The disk drive is your DNA
Meet Tanja Coray, Science Communicator
Meet Tanja Coray, Science Communicator
7 Tips for Communicating Climate Change
7 Tips for Communicating Climate Change
Artists Mount (Virtual) Guerrilla Exhibition at SFMOMA
Artists Mount (Virtual) Guerrilla Exhibition at SFMOMA
When robots go to art school
When robots go to art school

THIS IS THE HOUSE A ROBOT BUILT

Will AI transform the way we build? How can robotics make construction more sustainable? We spoke with architects Matthias Kohler, Benjamin Dillenburger and Mania Aghaei Meibodi on the innovation behind the DFAB House: the first inhabitable building created by robots.

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Energy & Environment

nextrends
Emergent Futures Report 002: The Energy Paradox
Emergent Futures Report 002: The Energy Paradox
This is the House a Robot Built: Digital Fabrication & the Future of Architecture
This is the House a Robot Built: Digital Fabrication & the Future of Architecture
From the Gallery Floor to the Sea Floor: A Conversation with Marie Griesmar
From the Gallery Floor to the Sea Floor: A Conversation with Marie Griesmar
Green Energy on the 'Edge': Meet Houssem Ben Mahfoudh 
Green Energy on the 'Edge': Meet Houssem Ben Mahfoudh 
Design Thinking and New Business Ecosystems with Michael Lewrick
Design Thinking and New Business Ecosystems with Michael Lewrick
Meet Juanita Schläpfer-Miller, artist and science communicator
Meet Juanita Schläpfer-Miller, artist and science communicator
Meet Jason Reinier, listener
Meet Jason Reinier, listener
Home is Leaving: The Emotions of Climate Change
Home is Leaving: The Emotions of Climate Change
The Wildflower Super Bloom Moves to a City Near You
The Wildflower Super Bloom Moves to a City Near You
7 Tips for Communicating Climate Change
7 Tips for Communicating Climate Change

Structures of Society 

nextrends
Racial Pseudoscience in the Age of AI
Racial Pseudoscience in the Age of AI
Eyes Without a Face: San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition
Eyes Without a Face: San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition
Technology Doesn’t Drive Itself: The Future of Workers in the Automation Era
Technology Doesn’t Drive Itself: The Future of Workers in the Automation Era
Emergent Futures Report 001: Reimagining Mobility
Emergent Futures Report 001: Reimagining Mobility
Switzerland to Confirm Robot as Cabinet Member
Switzerland to Confirm Robot as Cabinet Member
Viral Videos & a Democratic Flu
Viral Videos & a Democratic Flu
The Anxiety of Smart Cities: How Technology Moves People
The Anxiety of Smart Cities: How Technology Moves People
Design Thinking and New Business Ecosystems with Michael Lewrick
Design Thinking and New Business Ecosystems with Michael Lewrick
8 Learnings for Swiss Start-ups in Silicon Valley
8 Learnings for Swiss Start-ups in Silicon Valley
The Future of Digital Health
The Future of Digital Health
 
 
 
 
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An Eye Unruled looks at images and imagination in the era of AI and computer vision. Five artists from the US and Switzerland present screen-based works that explore the image and digitization through the lens of politics, identity, culture, and community. Gene Kogan (@genekogan), Simone C Niquille (#simonecniquille), Maria Guta (@maria_gucci), Dominique Koch (@dominiquekoch) and Pinar Yoldas (@kittyai_rules) present works with insights into automatic cognitive methods, which show us different ways to include processes of machine learning in an artistic practice. An Eye Unruled is presented in partnership with the #SwissTouch Campaign of Presence Switzerland, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia (@prohelvetia), Fotomuseum Winterthur (@foto_museum), Création Baumann (@creationbaumann), the Canton de Vaud (DGES) (#cantondevaud), the University of Lausanne (@unilch), and Maison d’Ailleurs (@maison_dailleurs). The entire program was developed in collaboration with the Fotomuseum Winterthur, a leading Swiss institution for the presentation and discussion of photography and visual culture. The partner for bench coverings and curtains is Création Baumann, with its internationally renowned Swiss textile label. Upholstery and curtain fabric ALEX — with sound absorption properties. #AI #AIart #machinelearning #swissart #bayareaartists
Day 1 of the #wcsj2019 - the World Conference of Science Journalists! The organization brought nearly 1,400 #scicomm professionals to San Francisco in 2017, where they recorded podcasts at the #swisstouch table & heard a pitch to take the conference to Switzerland in 2019. It won — and it’s here! Day 1 kicks off three days of pitches from leading Swiss academics and researchers at Swiss Science Lounge at @epflcampus in Lausanne. We’re excited to present the lounge with the #swissnexnetwork and our various #swisstech partners!
Tonight! How could the digitization of #architecture, as realized by the research labs of @ethzurich, apply to the reality of the San Francisco Bay Area? Could digital methods such as 3D printing and robotics provide solutions to issues such as the housing crisis or climate change? Sarah Holder of @citylab will host a critically engaged dialogue with architect Peter Testa of @sciarc and Testa & Weiser, and Hannes Mayer of @ethzurich and @gramaziokohlerresearch. Join us as part of #SFDW2019 — tickets are available through sfdesignweek.org.
What makes a workspace collaborative, flexible, and creative? For our #SFDW2019 Design Crawl Open House, we were proud to showcase the work of the California College of the Arts (@cacollegeofarts) Interactive Design Department (@ccaixd) “Future of Work” course to explore the transformation of workspaces — including our own, with projects exploring modifications of @vitra furniture and work stations that adapted them to accommodate a variety of our site-specific applications. Photos by @fotosbyflee. #cca #sfdw #futureofwork #ccaixd
Welcoming Zürich-based artist group U5 (@u5_uv) to a creative lunch session today. U5 is a Zürich-based artist collective which works in various media, today presenting an archive of snapshots taken through a series of digital cameras dispersed to a variety of public users, capturing an archive of millions of unplanned images of various lives. The group is in San Francisco working on a research project at the @thelaundrysf sponsored by swissnex SF and the City of Zürich. #sanfranciscoartist #swissartist #digitalarts
Big night in #Zurich! The main event of our roadshow for #swissstartups was last night — full house at @kraftwerk_zurich with @kickstart_inno hosting program leaders from @swissnexsf, @swissnexboston, @swissnexny, @swissnexindia & the Swiss Embassy UK — who brought their international perspectives to help Swiss startups think globally. There is still time to apply for our next #startup camp — join our cohort in Silicon Valley! Find info at swissnexsf.org/startups — and we will see you this summer in sunny San Francisco. 🇨🇭🇺🇸
What brings a #Swiss #artist to the center of a Californian desert? @urs_august_steiner launched the Swiss Pavilion at the #BombayBeachBiennale, a kinetic installation examining the desire for immortality through motion. The Biennale is a renegade festival, celebrating art, music and philosophy — all on the site of an abandoned California resort facing an environmental crisis. (Photos courtesy of Urs August Steiner.)
We celebrated the 30th anniversary of the open web last week with a birthday party! The celebration also marked the launch of infomesh.org, a platform designed by students and instructors from the Swiss art and design school @ecal_ch, presenting interactive timelines and visualizations of the cultural, legal, and technological milestones on the web since 1989. These timelines were created with input from the Internet Archive, Wikimedia (and the Wikipedia community, who created the various historical entries!). The project officially launched at #thewebconf and the party included talks from @epflcampus’ Robert West; Tim Smith of @cern, @lauraperrenoud and @alfatiharufa of @ecal_ch, Amir Saber Esfahani of the @internetarchive, and Jan Gerlach of the Wikimedia Foundation. #openweb #www #webhistory #web30