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The Imaginal Power of Movies & Visual Effects
This spring has been a rich season of cinematic exploration, where I’ve immersed myself in the imaginal power of movies and visual effects. From rediscovering acclaimed films of the 95th Academy Awards to anticipating the 76th Cannes Film Festival, I’ve found myself captivated by how visual storytelling shapes our perception of reality and possibility.
In this mood, I’ve launched a new publication I call ‘The MooDvies IMAGINAList’: a personal journey into Cinematic Futures through my Top Films, with a focus on stories that stir our imagination. This complements my ongoing publication ‘The CREAtive TECHnologist’, which explores the intersection of creativity and technology, from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) to Visual Effects (VFX).
VFX Voice From AI to Virtual Production and the ‘The Everything Bagel’
To begin this journey, I’ve found an inspiring community in the Visual Effects Society (VES). The society hosts exclusive screenings and networking events in hubs like Los Angeles and London, and publishes VFX Voice, a magazine offering industry insights. The Spring 2023 edition, in particular, explored the paradigm shift brought by Virtual Production (VP) and how studios are redefining workflows in an increasingly hybrid world.
Naturally, the publication also addressed the rising role of generative AI in art, from industry protests to the deeper questions around authorship and authenticity. For a complementary perspective, I recommend reading WIRED’s argument that the rise of AI will make human Art more valuable.
VFX Voice also spotlighted the winners of the VES Awards, most notably Avatar: The Way of Water, which, as many anticipated, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects just three weeks later. Equally remarkable was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, the breakout film that claimed seven Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards. Despite working with a budget nearly ten times smaller than James Cameron’s epic, the film delivered innovative VFX that captivated both audiences and critics.
These movies demonstrate how imagination, from the VFX of big productions to indie movies, can reveal simple facts about our human nature, family, friendship, and love through sci-fi while acknowledging the immense possibilities and absurdity of our condition in this world. ‘The Everything Bagel’ may have become a cultural icon, revealing our search for meaning and love.
This spring also took me to the Science Fiction Film Festival at the Science Museum, where I joined immersive IMAX screenings and thought-provoking panels for a ‘Voyage to the Edge of Imagination’. Highlights included the panels Building Sci-Fi Worlds with Paul Franklin (Oscar-winning VFX Supervisor of Inception and Interstellar), and How to Build an Android, which explored the legacy of Blade Runner and the evolving conversation around AI.
Imagining the Design Futures of Work, Space, and Species with Visual Effects
As we re-enter the age of space exploration toward the Moon, Mars, and beyond, films and series like The Expanse (with VFX by Rocket Science) reignite our collective imagination. This mirrors the visionary legacy of 2001: A Space Odyssey, made during the Apollo era.
In this tradition, Christopher Nolan’s commitment to practical and accurate VFX, such as the collaboration between DNEG and Nobel laureate Kip Thorne on Interstellar, extends cinematic visuals into realms of genuine scientific insight. Their work on simulating gravitational lensing by spinning black holes was not only visually stunning but also scientifically groundbreaking, contributing to the publication of two peer-reviewed research papers.
Sci-fi films and visual effects offer a powerful starting point for imagining the Design Futures of work, space, and species itself, what I call ‘WQrksPÆCE Futures.’ As design futurists, we can envision these futures through architecture, (bio)engineering, and autonomous systems, rethinking how we build and operate in space and extreme environments on Earth without compromising the planet’s climate or biodiversity, thanks to the bioeconomy and hydrogen revolutions.
Business Solutions for Digital Wealth, Health, and Care From Sci-Fi to Product
Blade Runner 2049 stands as another powerful sci-fi vision, with John Nelson — Overall VFX supervisor on the Academy Award-winning production. He led a global collaboration across DNEG, Framestore, and six additional VFX studios to bring its dystopian world to life. Both Ridley Scott’s original and Denis Villeneuve’s sequel, each interpreting Philip Dick’s novel in their own moods, explore the status of being a person in the advent of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
In this context, humanoid robots serve less as literal forecasts and more as powerful metaphors, mirroring our evolving cyber identities, the rise of personalised medicine, and the emergence of AI-powered assistants. They reflect our fascination with sentience, control, and, ultimately, our enduring desire for power, legacy, and even immortality.
From this other angle, sci-fi films and visual effects also serve as imaginative springboards for business solutions in the realms of digital wealth, health, and care, what I call ‘W3althCARE Solutions.’ As business solutionists, we can translate these speculative ideas into actionable strategies through product management and (bio)marketing, harnessing the potential of AI and XR to enhance human performance guided by values that preserve not only our well-being but also our autonomy and freedom.
Telling the Truth Through Fiction: The Power (and Risk) of the Imaginal
As V for Vendetta suggests, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” This serves as a reminder that we must remain aware that the imaginal power of movies and visual effects can also be used as a tool for propaganda or, at the very least, cultural homogenisation.
That’s why diversity in cinema matters more than ever, offering us a rich array of images, stories, and even revolutions that reflect the complexities of our times. The recent Hong Kong Film Festival UK, for instance, reminds us of cinema’s imaginal power to raise difficult questions about identity, migration, and artistic freedom.
Looking ahead, the second phase of The MooDvies IMAGINAList will explore emerging mediums for storytelling and moving images as moviemaking and gamemaking are converging through AI-generated content and Extended Realities. Nevertheless, we must reaffirm human creativity as an imaginal power in the face of growing challenges such as deepfakes and synthetic media.
Mindful Technology Leadership for Tomorrow’s Moonshots
This decade witnessed a profound shift in the technological landscape, one that might be remembered as the turning point of a new era of DeepTech: the great wave of innovation that encompasses a range of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and quantum computing.
As we embark on this new era, my thoughts immediately turn to the transition to an AI-driven society over the next ten years, and how we can ensure Designing a Mindful Tech Xperience that benefits humanity. Max Tegmark’s book, Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, comes to mind as a guidebook for navigating the challenges and opportunities of this transition.
Moreover, the Quantum Future of Information Technology is an area of immense promise, with quantum computers projected to reach a million qubits and connect through a fully deployed quantum internet based on satellite constellations by 2030. As we consider the implications of these developments, it’s worth wondering if Europe can seize the opportunity to regain its technology leadership supporting the greatest DeepTech Minds to become a Quantonation and be more ambitious with a New Space Alliance.
Photo of la Manche / the Channel between France and England taken by Thomas Pesquet during his last mission at the International Space Station sent by SpaceX’s Crew-2 for NASA, ESA & JAXA
As we look towards the future, billionaire technology leaders are setting their sights on the next frontier of innovation, such as self-driving cars, hyperloop transportation, 6G satellite constellations, and space tourism, all expected to be commonplace by 2030. While returning to the moon is scheduled for 2025, Elon Musk is already looking beyond that, with a vision for a human mission to Mars that may drive tomorrow’s moonshots.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who joined the International Space Station last year as part of SpaceX’s crew-2 mission, is now involved in the US NASA-led Artemis program for lunar exploration, in which the European Space Agency (ESA) is also participating. However, Europe faces the risk of falling behind in the race for lunar exploration, as the US and China are currently competing with two leading lunar exploration projects. It’s also worth wondering: “can Europe compete in the quantum ‘space race’?
France is keeping pace with the traditional leaders in Europe and even pushing ahead in some areas, thanks to the pioneering work of three Nobel Prize winners in physics on quantum research. Alain Aspect, a renowned quantum physicist whose work focuses on quantum entanglement and quantum simulators, has also been instrumental in advising entrepreneurs running the quantum rising star Pasqal, which may become the next French Tech champion.
Their quantum computers, along with others, are set to revolutionize life science and chemistry research, while the discovery of the mRNA molecule by three French Nobel Prize winners in 1965 was a fundamental breakthrough that enabled the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. With quantum computing and mRNA, the Crispr gene-editing pioneered by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna is poised to become tomorrow’s moonshot in the treatment of diseases such as cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis, and many others by 2030.
The Future of Life in the Universe still holds many secrets, but we have high hopes for the James Webb Telescope en route to discover the origins of the Universe and study exoplanets. In addition, we can anticipate more groundbreaking discoveries in nuclear research at CERN, where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. From Web 3.0 to Life 3.0, it is important to be mindful of emerging technologies and to embrace tomorrow’s moonshots while reducing existential risks.
This article is part of the Mindful Future Technology series with Designing a Mindful Tech Xperience and Quantum Future of Information Technology
The (Ethical) Paradigm shift of Fintech and Blockchain
Finance and Technology are interlinked and evolve together in the perspective of the Evolution of Fintech. The last paradigm emerged in 2008 following the financial crisis based on the widespread use of information technology and the need for regulatory innovation. The same year, a paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was published by the unknown Satoshi Nakamoto, who created the well-known cryptocurrency, one of the first use cases of blockchain technology. One may wonder if this paradigm shift is an incremental evolution of Fintech or a more disruptive revolution similar to nuclear power or electricity.
If we look at some ethical considerations, blockchain gives rise to several issues in terms of security, privacy, efficiency and the integrity of the system itself, and the risk of crime and oppressive conduct that a mediating institution would otherwise offset. Those issues are only the emerged part of the iceberg of blockchain ethics which is a broader quest to redefine the value of our society since blockchain technology is changing the nature of money and organisations. In this way, we shouldn’t only consider the risks brought by the technology and the opportunity of blockchain for good based on evolved moral principles.
Fintech and blockchain are paradigm shifts in our society, with other technologies that include artificial intelligence and big data. Alone this paradigm is an evolution of Fintech. But combined with AI and cybernetics, this paradigm shift is a cognitive revolution that may either decentralise the power of monopolies or control the decentralised power of people. That’s why blockchain ethics should examine what the technology can do and ponder the potential consequences like the control of nuclear power that led to the atomic bomb or the electricity that led to the electric chair for the death penalty.
This article is part of the Ethics of Fintech & Blockchain series with the 5 key principles of digital currencies and cryptocurrencies and Are Digital Currencies the new Technological Power?
Toward a Global Fintech ecosystem based on Blockchain
Hong Kong and Singapore are competing to become the leading Asia-Pacific Fintech Hub. The Fintech ecosystem had a busy month in November with the Hong Kong Fintech Week and Singapore Fintech Festival. The innovation hubs are also trying to become the leading place to launch a blockchain for business gathering several communities, conferences, festival, and meetups. Hong Kong has even welcomed two major blockchain events in March with the Hong Kong Blockchain Week and Asia Crypto Week that focused more on cryptocurrencies.
These events highlight different approaches to develop new applications based on blockchain following the bitcoin and cryptocurrency bubble that has burst last year. On the one hand, the blockchain ecosystem still focuses on the competition between blockchain platforms, mainly based on a cryptocurrency funded by an ICO (Initial Coin Offering). On the other hand, STO (Security Token Offering) may take centre stage in 2019 to raise funds and to digitise illiquid assets. Finally, a consortium approach based on private blockchains has led to concrete applications in finance most of the time.
We are still at the inception of the blockchain technology to build the next FinTech: Global “Open Finance” Infrastructure. This new paradigm is led by Global Fintech Hubs, such as Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia-Pacific, that can scale through blockchain to connect with other hubs. The deployment of digital finance platforms based on Distributed Ledger Technology is one of the first use cases whereas the tokenisation and traceability of assets in various sectors will spread fintech solutions based on enterprise blockchain and Web 3.0 standards through the whole economy.
I share my overview of a Global Fintech ecosystem based on Blockchain as follow:
The paradigm of Fintech and blockchain platforms
Connecting Global Fintech Hubs to foster Financial Innovation
Leveraging Blockchain for Banking and Business Processes
Fintech at the age of decentralised applications and Web 3.0
The emergence of CreaTech Hubs
There is an increasing number of workshops and online courses dedicated to creativity, new technologies, innovation and design thinking which are crucial knowledge for sustaining the competitive advantages of firms. People who learn those soft skills and new competencies, altogether with creative and knowledge-based workers (artists, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs), are representative of the creative class which is described by Richard Florida as the leading force of growth in the economy. Those creative professionals are essential for the attractiveness of cities that we can call “Creative Technology Cities” or “CreaTech Hubs”.
Major Tech Hubs from all around the world cover almost any tech vertical based on digital and key enabling technologies. San Francisco, well known for web technologies, has moved towards BioTech and CleanTech. Moving over FinTech, CreaTech and DeepTech are tech trends taking off in London. CreaTech is a new core vertical promoted by the British Creative Industries Council which hosted the festival Createch 2017 to highlight sectors like fashion, games, design or media. Keeping in mind the wider range of the creative class, we should define CreaTech as a broader spectrum of Creative and Tech sectors.
CreaTech Hubs are cities at the core of the creative economy, a concept defined by John Howkins to bring together ideas about the creative industries, the cultural industries, creative cities, clusters and the creative class. In this way, CreaTech is a new paradigm that involves creativity, innovation and design at the intersection of technology to transform traditional sectors from RetailTech to Fintech. The digital transformation and smart cities are the factors of this incremental innovation process which, altogether with DeepTech (disruptive innovation based on substantial scientific advances), create innovation spaces.
Hong Kong – Shenzhen Innovation Hub
When I arrived in Hong Kong almost two years ago, the local startup community was booming with the first edition of the RISE Conf 2015. The number of startups has increased by 24% between 2015 and 2016, according to a Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem survey led by StartMeUp, and has doubled from 1,000 in 2014 to 2,000 in 2016. Many founders from overseas choose the city as a hub to start or expand their business in Asia with communities such as the French Tech Hong Kong. There are also more and more locals among the founders, 63% in 2016 compared to 50% in 2015.
To gather the StartupsHK community, InvestHK organises an annual, one-week startup event StartMeUpHK Festival. The aim is to promote and encourage Hong Kong’s startups to showcase the city’s vibrancy, lifestyle and business scene. Among other startup events, another highlight is the Startup Weekend Hong Kong. I organised the last Startup Weekend dedicated to healthcare and biotechnologies in partnership with HKUST students. Still, I think that the lack of a culture of innovation is an issue although universities are trying to foster more entrepreneurship and technology transfer.
The Greater Bay Area (Guangdong – Macau – Hong Kong) is an excellent opportunity for the Hong Kong tech hub to tap into one of the largest markets in the world, similar to Tokyo or San Francisco, and to benefit from the complementarity with Shenzhen. The government is planning to develop the Lok Ma Chau Loop at the border of both cities into a Hong Kong – Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park. I recommend you to read Benjamin Joffe’s point of view about this “ShenKong metropolis” that blends electronics, finance, and healthcare.
I share my overview of the Hong Kong – Shenzhen Innovation Hub as follow:
Hong Kong: an Asia-Pacific Fintech Hub
The complementarity between Hong Kong and Shenzhen for DeepTech
Wearables from FashionTech to BioTech
Wearables from FashionTech to BioTech
During the StartMeUpHK Festival, I was curious about the FashionTechAsia event organised at the creative space PMQ after the Retail’s Cutting Edge. Both events put Hong Kong as a strategic place in Asia to lead a business in RetailTech/ FashionTech, such as GRANA, which became the eCommerce success story or the wearable rising star ORII. Among the speakers, Nan Fung Group introduced one of the most ambitious FashionTech projects, The Mills, based on the rehabilitation of a former textile factory. Another large company, the Fung Group, announced that Explorium, currently running in Shanghai, will expand soon in Hong Kong.
FashionTechAsia Show
HealthTechAsia was another great event to discuss the digitalisation of healthcare, biotechnologies, and the so-called quantified self. In addition to connected devices, genomics is one of the most promising enabling technology. It allows personalised digital health with solutions such as nutrigenomics or pharmacogenomics provided by Prenetics. The Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks gathers most of the other leading biotech companies in Hong Kong, including Novoheart that engineers bioartificial human heart or Sanwa that provides Lab-on-chip diagnostics.
Benjamin Joffe, one of the speakers at the HealhTechAsia event, uses the term “wearapeuthics” to talk about the connected things that can replace or complement various therapies. From the creation of connected things or fashion products to the digitalisation of healthcare, I had the opportunity to share new ideas during two “Startup Weekends” dedicated to those topics. The mentors and judges of both competitions inspired me just as much as the students of the HKUST Entrepreneurship Center, The BASE, with whom I have organised one of the competitions.
This article is part of the Hong Kong — Shenzhen Innovation Hub series.
From French Tech to Crea Tech
After launching the French Tech Hub in Hong Kong with French entrepreneurs in 2016, I have come to find a new angle to talk about technology and startups, which prompted this new website createch.io. Crea Tech came to my mind because it represents the entrepreneurial and creative sides of the technology that should be seen at the intersection of business and design. The event VivaTech, which aimed to become the leading event in Europe dedicated to startups and technology, hence particularly interesting because it seemed to encompass the concept of creative technology.
Viva Technology Paris was organised from 30th June – 2nd July 2016 by Publicis and Les Echos for the first edition. The event gathered 2 500 startups to have a booth and join different challenges. I discovered promising startups through the spaces organised around several thematic labs (Automotive Tech, Fintech, Insurtech, Retail Tech…) at the event. Other areas were dedicated to Venture Capitalists, individual French Tech champions such as Devialet, global international leaders, local innovation centers and of course La French Tech.
VivaTech was a really good opportunity for me to catch up with the Parisian and French Tech scene through meeting the startups and innovation centers. I spent a few more days in Paris before the event to feel the vibrant Tech ecosystem visiting NUMA, La Paillasse and Usine IO. At the moment they are quite representative of the Creative Technology scene in Paris, but the grand opening of Station F which is going to operate as a huge campus housing 1000 startups will for sure contribute a greater boost.
