Richard Buchanan SxSW despatch writes:

Last night WKplatform was able to attend Plutopia- the future of play at the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin –

“The Purpose: To leverage a combination of art, media, and entertainment as a persuasive mechanism in order to demonstrate emerging trends and positive future scenarios.”

This year Plutopia focussed on the future of play. It was really insightful. The event list included:

Bruce Sterling – Keynote (Italy, Science Fiction Author / Thinker)
Joe Tankersley – Keynote (LA, Walt Disney Imagineering, Expert on the Future of Storytelling)
David Merrill – Keynote (USA, MIT, co-founder Sifteo)
Bodytronix (Austin, Experimental Electronica)
Intimate Stranger with Telefunken (Chile, UK, US, Croatia, Music & Interactive 3D Audiovisual Show)
The Text of Light (NYC, Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Ulrich Krieger, Alan Licht & Tim Barnes)
Nullsleep (NYC, 8Bit Artist) with special guest, NO CARRIER (NYC, Real-time video artist)

It was a fantastic event in a great location full of interesting people and objects. One of the best interactive experience. I felt was Akousmaflore by scencosme. Simply put the plants act as a user interface and when touched they emit sounds from a speaker built into the bottom of the plant pot. It is a really strange experience. Why don’t plants make sound in nature? I would love to have one for my home….

Please more on at platform.wk.com you can also watch the live stream of sxsw keynotes here 

Innovation Strategist Eleanor writes:

Last week, W+K was pleased to be invited to the LS:N Global future trends briefing.  Spent an enjoyable afternoon flashing forwards into the near future, and hoping we'd bump into Doc on a hover-board at some point.  I could give you a 10,000 word essay on cultural shifts and transformational economy, but it's sunny outside and you'd rather be out there than reading this.  So instead, I've condensed all of the future into a magic 140 character formula for success:

Human+: the experience of humanity will be turned up to volume 10 in this next decade, physcailly and socially.  Successful brands must b prescient, sentient and intuitive.

And here's another 140 character recap of all the terms you'll be seeing with greater frequency in the next 6 months in your respective places of work:

Turbulent teens.  Anarconomy.  White hackers.  Transformational dissonance.  Bio-connectivity.  Choice architecture.  Ambient networks.  The Solution Generation.

And lastly, because at W+K we like pretty things as much as long words, below are some pitcutres of things you should play with and projects to learn from:

A World Without Oil by Jane McGonigal.  Multiplayer social game to encourage the collaborative solution finding for a cleaner future.

Acure Vending Machine, Japan: uses facial recognition software to detect your age + make a healthy drink recommendation.

Ikea recipe book: using 'infostethics' to represent all their recipes in typical minimal Scandi style.