Dreams of 2088
June 15, 2009
On Saturday I went to see The Hangover...
[I was going to go sea kayaking but hey, it rained. Whatever. It's awesome. The movie I mean. Not the rain. Although I have nothing against rain. It's awesome in its own way.]
...and I saw this trailer. It's wonderful. And then I saw that it was in fact a trailer for some web films Honda is doing, with leading thinkers from within and without, and I was blown away.
I write, and think, about the future a lot. I'm a stated meliorist, and think its incumbent on all of us to think about the future when things are changing this fast, because thinking about the present stops being relevant so very quickly.
But getting people to think about 2088 is a lovely piece of projective legerdemain. It's impossible to attempt any realist projection of course, but allows you to totally free your mind from the shackles of possibility.
It moves the conversation away from when will the recession end and towards the realm of dreams.
The responses show the various interests of the minds involved [including Mitchell Joaqium, who spoke at SpringFest] and subtly makes the point that the future is built with the power of dreams, and that Honda are working on it right now.
It's part of a series of documentary films about Honda, and things that are important to the people at Honda:
Honda is a company founded by a dreamer. And we are a company that believes in the Power of Dreams.
Honda has a rich history of making impossible dreams come to fruition....
We wanted to document our advancement as a company through film to give you a better understanding of the people behind our products. Please join us as we uncover Honda through the candid approach of the documentary film process.
The language they use is telling.
This is an accelerating world. Brands are like sharks - if they don't keep moving, they die. So a company like Honda has to communicate that it is constantly advancing.
This is a social world, and social stuff is about people, especially the people inside your company connecting to the people outside it.
This is a transparent world and the tropes of documentary are being used to create transparency in a very, very controlled way, to dispel the illusion of illusion that is created by the social construct / meaning of 'advertising'.
{Of course, this documentary film IS advertising, but that's not how it chooses to describes itself.}