Mobility Museum 2050

This event was part of the Mixed Classroom 2018 - 2019.

This winter the Urban Futures Studio organised the third edition of the Mixed Classroom ‘Techniques of Futuring’. This year’s theme: Mobility. Over two months, policymakers and students worked together in teams to create fictional arctefacts around mobility disruptions in the future. These artefacts together made up the Mobility Museum 2050. The Museum opened at RAUM and was exhibited later in Utrecht and Amsterdam.

The course is based on the idea that an effective response to societal challenges requires the creation of tangible images of possible and desirable futures. Final presentations were not organised in a lecture room, but were held as a part of the launch of the museum at cultural space RAUM.

Learn more about the Mobility Museum 2050 and read the Museum Catalogue.

Touring the history of mobility

What were they thinking? Looking back at the history of mobility may leave you confused. How on earth could they conceive of transportation as merely a way from getting from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible? How could they assume that ‘technological fixes’ like the self-driving car would deal with the vast accessibility issues or the increasing inequality between cities and rural areas. And even more puzzling: when they realized in the 1980s that the exhaust of fossil fuels is ruining the planet, how could it still have taken more than fifty years before the ban on combustion engines in 2039?

Little did they know.

The benefit of hindsight easily blinds you to the drama of history. Therefore, this museum presents seven artefacts that are signs of their respective times. Ranging from an original brick of from the Nieuwmarkt Riots in 1975 to the conceptual artwork Power Equilibrium from 2031, each piece reflects what was at stake at the time and illustrates how mobility always interacts with our perception of society and ourselves.

Talk a look at the digital museum below and experience the disruptive changes that shaped the mobility system as we know it today.

Launch Mobility Museum 2050 @ RAUM, Utrecht

Photos by Jikke de Gruijter

Colofon

Curators: Justien Dingelstad, Mady Hof, Nadia Hummel, Gustav Thungren, Rolien de Jong, Margot Visschers, Stella Münninghoff, Koen Faber, Martijn Gerritsen, Rianne Hadders, Ywenne Kleiss, Valeriya Ryazanova, Sharné Bloem, Winnie de Jong, Romain Morin, Ilse van der Werf, Dylan Ahern, Eloisa Vittoria Menguzzo, Eva Koolbergen & Pam Wijk.

Initiative & Concept: Jesse Hoffman & Peter Pelzer (Urban Futures Studio, Utrecht University)

Museum coordinator: Astrid Mangnus (Urban Futures Studio)

Building tutors: Emiel Remmelts & Jan Pieter Middelkoop (Goede Vrijdag).

Exhibition Design: Toon Koehorst (Koehorst in ‘t Veld).

Text editor: Wytske Versteeg (Urban Futures Studio).

Crucial input by: Eefke Verheij, Ronald Tamse, Lara Verhagen, Thomas Hoving, Diana van Alterna, Liselotte Bingen, Bokermans, Heleen Payens, Marleen de Ruiter, Doortje Koster, Maarten Hajer, Rinke Vreeke, Koen Frenken, Leo Freriks, Suzanne Potjer, Daniëlle Snellen, Niek Mouter & Thomas Straatemeier.