Dear Future

Implementation

The first step of the experience we produced was based around an interactive, digital journey. In the case of the physical installation, the interaction took place in the Bogotá city center, while the online experience happened on a mobile app (or website) that anyone could access remotely. As participants interacted, they answered a series of questions about their present and future, such as "What do you look for in your day-to-day present?" and "What would you like to save for?", selecting from potential answers given on the screen. Through the questionnaire, a specific wish was defined for each visitor; the shape, color, and attributes of their wish - represented by an animated sphere - were organically determined by their answers to each question.

Once verbalized and shaped, the wish then went into a small box, which was then sent into a larger NuBank savings vault, containing all the boxes of wishes created by other visitors to the installation. Inside this communal space, individual wishes joined with hundreds of others, creating a living archive of hopes and aspirations shared by all. Simultaneously, as the wish was fit into a box, a QR code (or link) appeared to redirect the visitor towards creating a savings account for the dream goal in question.

The physical installation - a giant cube - featured four interactive faces. Two identical sides were dedicated to creating and defining the wishes: each had the questionnaire screen positioned against a larger display of neatly stacked empty wish-boxes, waiting to be filled. Once a wish was created, and placed inside a box, it would move to one of the other two sides, which displayed the ever-growing pile of wishes from previous visitors.

Rather than remaining static, the installation display evolved dynamically over time. Throughout each day, as more visitors formulated wishes, the pile of “empty” wish-boxes would go down, and the amount of emitted wishes in the collective display would rise. In parallel, each individual wish-sphere would change throughout the day, growing larger and brighter inside the box, as a way to symbolize saving towards the dream it represented.

The experience, accessible in person, on a mobile phone, or computer, was the same across all three platforms, following the same journey of wish creation, visualization and growth, although viewing the full display of collective wishes was only possible in the physical installation. To build the software for the interactive touch terminal, we partnered with Fil Studio, who deployed their digital toolkit to develop a visual engine used in both the physical installation and the online versions. To ensure each interaction felt personal, we crafted hundreds of AI-generated responses, each reviewed by humans. This fostered conversations that felt unique to each participant’s dreams and aspirations - opening up a space for personal reflection, online or in the middle of the city.

“Dear Future” data

•  The questionnaire system contained 278 different texts, 180 of which were generated by AI & reviewed by humans.
•  In just one week we collected 55,188 dreams.
•  More than 4,000 people interacted with our big cube in a plaza in Bogota.
•  Around 150,000 future-focussed minds made it the landing page.
•  The average convo with the future lasted 7 minutes online, and 3 minutes 30 in person.
•  34,737 dreamers left their email address so we could keep working towards the future together.
 

Next you can see what exactly the respondents were dreaming of: