HUMAN BY WONDERLAND #18
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HUMAN BY WONDERLAND #18
A newsletter about design and creativity, and how they contribute to a better world.
Hello, Friends. Welcome to Edition #18 of HUMAN.
This week in HUMAN, our hybrid CM and Strategist, Theo de Monchy, has broken down what it is about Wonderland that keeps him happy and engaged, as well as rounding up our usual corners of the internet. We’ve also offered an example of how Digital can help educate and recreate past worlds, and shared a few of the intriguing humanoid portraits created by Omar Aqil.
Enjoy!
Why Wonderland?
It’s often said that you should never not be looking for a new job, a new opportunity. Maybe a step up, a better salary, a 32-hour working week. But what about the reasons to stay in a role, or with a company? To answer the question we asked Theo, our hybrid CM and Strategist, to explain why he wasn’t in a rush to find a new opportunity, and what it was about Wonderland that made him stay.
California recently celebrated almost 100% power supplied by renewables.
Michael Mann’s latest book offers a solution to climate change despair.
Curious about where the fastest EV chargers are? Head to Norway.
Samsøe Samsøe is new sewing ad-generating QR codes into garments for resale.
Rotterdam will soon be home to Europe’s first sustainable highway.
Curious about norm nudging and the benefits it can have? So were we!
Stop rambling in meeting and start getting your message across
Using digital to recreate ancient worlds
It’s often said that ‘those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.’ Countless examples come to mind, like Nazi Germany’s failed invasion of Russia, a mere 129 years after Napoleon experienced the same failure, anyone marrying Henry VIII, or the repetitive overextension of empires.
However, how are we to learn from history if we can’t access it. Unless you have a passionate drive or curiosity about the past, it’s not something we spend hours mulling over and discussing. Most of us have a passing knowledge of things like Ancient Rome and the Aztecs, the campaigns of Alexander the Great or the wars of Napoleon. But how much of this do we really know - and more importantly - how much of this do we understand to a point that we can learn from it.
Chances are high that the answer is: “not a whole lot.”
As digital technology continues to evolve, the barriers that block our access to the past are being broken down on an almost daily basis. Outside of the worlds that are realised through popular movies and video games (e.g. Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey), are those created by individuals and creative studios.
Artur Dias, our new Art Director, was recently involved in a project with the Getty Museum in LA where they reimagined the ancient city of Persepolis in 3D. Designed to work alongside a physical exhibition full of artefacts from the great cities of the Achaemenid Persian empire, the 3D experience gives a walk-through experience of their ancient capital. With the goal of showing the city in the closest possible light to what it could have looked like in reality, Artur and his team succeeded in recreating that which was previously invisible.
The limits of our digital world are constantly shrinking, especially with the developments being made in VR, MR, and AR technology. While the focus of this article is to show its power in bringing the ancient world to life, it’s not hard to imagine using the technology to educate on other topics, like what climate change could do to our world if we don’t change our ways, or the true scale of non-organic waste contrasted against a city such as London or New York.
The digital world is a cornerstone of our modern society, and just as it can benefit society from a productivity perspective, so too can it help us prepare for a future that is greener, wiser, and more conscious that the one that’s come before.
Produced by Omar Aqil, his Portraits V-2 Series creates intriguing and engaging humanoid faces out of random shapes and structures.
If you're enjoying HUMAN, feel free to share it with friends and colleagues! We’re always happy to welcome new readers! If we’ve left you wanting more Wonderland, you can check out our latest work here, or follow us on social.
Thanks for reading,
Team Wonderland.
