ABOUT
ABOUT
FUTURE SENSITIVE
FUTURE SENSITIVE
A WORLDBUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR FUTURE HUMANITY
A WORLDBUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR FUTURE HUMANITY
A WORLDBUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR FUTURE HUMANITY
Future Sensitive is a worldbuilding research institute at the frontier of body futurism and post-nature, investigating how science and technology are reshaping humanity through art, design, fashion, and film, creating the vision, frameworks and cultural infrastructure for transformative technology to flourish democratically.
Future Sensitive is the practice of Lucy McRae — artist, body architect, filmmaker — and a constellation of biologists, innovators, creators and next-gen educators partnering with institutes, industry, startups, and the private sector imagining plural futures.
Future Sensitive is a worldbuilding research institute at the frontier of body futurism and post-nature, investigating how science and technology are reshaping humanity through art, design, fashion, and film, creating the vision, frameworks and cultural infrastructure for transformative technology to flourish democratically.
Future Sensitive is the practice of Lucy McRae — artist, body architect, filmmaker — and a constellation of biologists, innovators, creators and next-gen educators partnering with institutes, industry, startups, and the private sector imagining plural futures.
OUR
OUR
SHOP
SHOP
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
ARTEFACTS
FUTURE SENSITIVE BUILDS ARTIFACTS OF CONTEMPLATION TO EXPAND CONVERSATION ON HOW TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE IS SHAPING HUMANITY CREATING PROTOTYPES THAT ARE WORN AND FELT. LIMITED EDITION. MADE IN LOS ANGELES. EACH ARTEFACT ACCOMPANIED BY A FUTURE SENSITIVE CERTIFICATE.
FUTURE SENSITIVE BUILDS ARTIFACTS OF CONTEMPLATION TO EXPAND CONVERSATION ON HOW TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE IS SHAPING HUMANITY CREATING PROTOTYPES THAT ARE WORN AND FELT. LIMITED EDITION. MADE IN LOS ANGELES. EACH ARTEFACT ACCOMPANIED BY A FUTURE SENSITIVE CERTIFICATE.
FUTURE SENSITIVE BUILDS ARTIFACTS OF CONTEMPLATION TO EXPAND CONVERSATION ON HOW TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE IS SHAPING HUMANITY CREATING PROTOTYPES THAT ARE WORN AND FELT. LIMITED EDITION. MADE IN LOS ANGELES. EACH ARTEFACT ACCOMPANIED BY A FUTURE SENSITIVE CERTIFICATE.
UNIQUE CAPABILITIES
UNIQUE CAPABILITIES
INTROSPECTIVE
FUTURISM
INTROSPECTIVE
FUTURISM
INTROSPECTIVE
FUTURISM
INTROSPECTIVE
FUTURISM
Future Sensitive works across three capabilities – Introspective Futurism, Speculative Prototyping and Material literacy.
Introspection is a Future Sensitive method — both a subject of enquiry and the lens through which every project is made. The way we work shapes what we produce. Introspective Futurism [worldbuilding] interprets signals at cultural fringes and translates complex research into probable scenarios that make emerging futures felt and legible. The work takes the form of film, production design, installation, photography, and consultancy.
For: Film and television, research labs, innovation teams, cultural institutions, brands.
Case study: Swallowable Perfume — smell is immune system data, excreted through sweat. The provocation to science: could we produce a biological fragrance from the inside out? Developed in partnership with synthetic biologist Sharef Mansy, the concept anticipated what is now active commercial research territory. Delivered as campaign film, product design and future artefact.
We build speculative worlds grounded in emerging science: thought experiments, scenario planning, and design fiction that make the promise, consequence, and afterlife of frontier technology tangible before it arrives.
Future Sensitive works across four capabilities – Worldbuilding, Speculative Prototyping, Material literacy and Introspection.
Its worldbuilding is grounded in science and technology — interpreting signals at cultural fringes and translating complex research into probable scenarios that make emerging futures felt and legible. The work takes the form of film, production design, installation, photography, and consultancy.
Case study Swallowable Perfume — smell is immune system data, excreted through sweat. The provocation to science: could we produce a biological fragrance from the inside out? Developed in partnership with synthetic biologist Sharef Mansy, the concept anticipated what is now active commercial research territory. Delivered as campaign film, product design and future artefact.
For Film and television, research labs, innovation teams, cultural institutions, brands.
UNIQUE
UNIQUE CAPABILITIES
CAPABILITIES
SPECULATIVE
PROTOTYPES
SPECULATIVE
PROTOTYPES
SPECULATIVE
PROTOTYPES
SPECULATIVE
PROTOTYPES
Speculative prototypes are designed as conditions in service of a narrative. Translating technological discourse into physical form — props, machines, conceptual fashion, artifact.
Case study: Heavy Duty Love — a proposition about new tools of care in a touch-deprived world. Not a diagram of the problem, a machine that holds the body. Delivered as 1:1 immersive installation, exhibited at Venice Biennale Architettura 2021. Acquired into SFMOMA permanent collection.
We build speculative worlds grounded in emerging science: thought experiments, scenario planning, and design fiction that make the promise, consequence, and afterlife of frontier technology tangible before it arrives.
Speculative Prototypes are designed as conditions in service of a narrative. Translating technological discourse into physical form — props, machines, conceptual fashion, artifact.
Case study Heavy Duty Love — a proposition about new tools of care in a touch-deprived world. Not a diagram of the problem, a machine that holds the body. Delivered as 1:1 immersive installation, exhibited at Venice Biennale Architettura 2021. Acquired into SFMOMA permanent collection.
UNIQUE
UNIQUE CAPABILITIES
CAPABILITIES
MATERIAL
LITERACY
MATERIAL
LITERACY
MATERIAL
LITERACY
MATERIAL
LITERACY
On Blade Runner 2099, director Jonathan van Tulleken would tell the Art Department to "make it more Lucy" — meaning anything generically sci-fi was off the table. No hard edges, no monochromatic metal and chrome. Lucy McRae's material vision is embodied, domesticated, intimate, felt. Costumes become tools. Machines can be worn. Foams are biological. Material literacy is Future Sensitive's physical vocabulary, using familiar materials to make the future more graspable, personal, and participatory.
Outcomes: Creative direction, visual consultancy, production design
We build speculative worlds grounded in emerging science: thought experiments, scenario planning, and design fiction that make the promise, consequence, and afterlife of frontier technology tangible before it arrives.
On Blade Runner 2099, director Jonathan van Tulleken would tell the Art Department to "make it more Lucy" — meaning anything generically sci-fi was off the table. No hard edges, no monochromatic metal and chrome. Lucy McRae's material vision is embodied, domesticated, intimate, felt. Costumes become tools. Machines can be worn. Foams are biological. Material literacy is Future Sensitive's physical vocabulary, using familiar materials to make the future more graspable, personal, and participatory.
Outcomes Creative direction, visual consultancy, production design
LUCY
FUTURE SENSITIVE
FOUNDING MEMBER
For two decades artist and body architect, Lucy McRae has been prototyping frontier technology — investigating the convergence of biotech, ethics, and the body. In 2006 she led Philips' far-future design research lab, developing an Electronic tattoo and emotional sensing dresses, winning the Time Magazine Fashion Innovation Award. In 2011, invented Swallowable Parfum - a speculative pill now active in commercial research. She is design consultant to TV mini-series Blade Runner 2099, a TED Fellow, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and Visiting Professor at the architecture school SCI-Arc. Her work is held in the permanent collection of SFMOMA and has been exhibited at Centre Pompidou, Venice Biennale, and London Science Gallery.
