Tribal Futures

Social theorists predict that traditional units of society such as
the family are becoming less dominant, and instead - elective, tribal groupings are on the rise.

The Tribal Futures project undertaken by Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art over a 4 week period, and in collaboration with Vodafone, enquires into the changes technology will make to our behaviour in groups - both mundane and extreme. It proposes design interventions to support, subvert and celebrate our tribal connections.

Royal College of Art

title

This project focuses on long term group interactions in particular the family history in an age of omni-present digital recording. To avoid digital clutter and create a moment of reflection, the proposed service-connected device turns writing a family’s history into a collaborative event. Taking into account that there is currently no viable solution for private digital archives, this device enables a family to preserve selected pictures and videos over a long period. The ceremonial device engages the family in a ritualistic archiving ceremony and encourages conversation about the previous year’s events.


  •  The ceremonial device is opened and each family member removes a storage device.
  •  In a process of sorting and selecting each family member decides what their contribution for this year might be.
  •  In the gathering ceremony everyone replaces their storage device into the ceremonial device.
  •  In displaying the saved pictures and videos the device acts as a conversation piece.


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