Sound and vision: Futures Forum hits the right note

London – The LS:N Global Consumer Futures Forum, held yesterday, 29 November, featured a glacial soundscape by Julian Brown and a video installation by Andy Baker.

Sound design at the Forum struck a stark, wintry note as delegates arrived. Brown’s soundscape wove together recordings from the Shetland Islands, Finland, Norway, and the Arctic Circle. Some sounds were captured with conventional microphones, Brown tells LS:N Global, ‘while others took advantage of ‘hydrophonic’ and accelerometer technologies to capture textures otherwise hidden from the human ears.’

By the time the Forum concluded, the setting had shifted from frosty to convivial. Guests gathered in the Sweet Shoppe for conversation over glasses of Laurent-Perrier champagne, near a virtual fireplace designed by animator Andy Baker. The installation was ‘slightly fantastical and cartoonish, and fit with the theme of storytelling’, says Baker.

Check LS:N Global for details about forthcoming events, including our spring/summer 2013 Trend Briefing. For a copy of the Consumer Futures report, visit The Future Laboratory shop.