Well if it isn’t September already! Immerse yourself into our latest monthly edit, highlighting some of the most impactful macro trend signals we have come across, from AI humanoid robots, to airbag backpacks, meditation and space tourism’s ethical problem.

Now let’s get to it! 👇🏻

MATERIALS | Airbags as an actual backpack? Bag Manufacturer Freitag, has developed a new upcycled material from airbags that never saw deployment. Their latest F707 STRATOS backpack is made from ‘B-stock airbags that were undetonated after failing the quality tests.“This new material represents Freitag’s latest step towards finding new, well-designed uses for all of life’s discarded parts.”

DESIGN | Fashion brand DZHUS creates an ‘Ecopack’ collection, highlighting the problem of overconsumption and waste accumulation. Developed by a group of eco-oriented multi-disciplinary talents, the Unpacking project consists of a fashion story and a short film; drawing attention to the importance of recycling. We loved the visual and ‘structural peculiarities of boxes, packets and wraps.’

TECH | Are bots ready to be unleashed into the world by next year? Our apocalyptic ‘killer robot’ nightmare may have just become very real. Tesla has built an AI humanoid, designed to eliminate dangerous, repetitive, and boring tasks. However, what would this mean for workers who may lose their jobs?

WELLBEING | Do you consider yourself healthy? The Wellcome Collection invites you to think about how you feel about your own mental and physical health. Originally part of ‘Misbehaving Bodies: Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery’ which explores experiences of care and chronic illness. 

MINDFULNESS | Meditation without meditating might be a possibility, but how? Over the past several decades meditation has been marketed as a ‘happy pill with no side effects’ and may potentially curb ‘mental anguish and increase wellbeing’. Jay Sanguinetti and Shinzen Young directors of the SEMA Lab (Sonication Enhanced Mindful Awareness) at the University of Arizona, are currently in the early stages of developing a piece of advanced technology that could enable an individual to reach a meditative state without the need to meditate. Their quest to ‘democratise enlightenment’ using ultrasound is truly revolutionary.

TRAVEL | ‘How bad is space tourism for the environment?’ A few things to consider before you launch yourself into space! With the world suffering from several global crises, is it fair for these billionaires to spend their money on rockets to space? It is simply a display of wealth and power. The rise of commercial space tourism is a reality for those who can afford it. However, there are implications that come with the future of space travel such as, safety measure, costs, and environmental impact. Is it all worth it for a joyride to space?

GEN Z | Has the pandemic scarred Gen Z’s mental wellbeing? A sharp rise in children’s mental health has drastically accumulated since the start of the pandemic, at a concerning level as mental services have not been able keep up with the pace. This is a reoccurring pattern worldwide, with psychological problems in childhood, which can have a ‘life-long impact on wellbeing’. 

CLIMATE EMERGENCY | A film that turns viewers into doers! The Climate Emergency Interactive is a virtual watch party, where people from around the world gather online to learn about the climate emergency. It’s a collaboration between UNIT9 and University of the Arts London and aims to help students to find ways to build a more sustainable future political and creative way. 

FILM | New York-based artist Yo-Yo Lin, a bilingual performance film embracing ancient and modern medicine. The artist delves deep into the intimate thoughts of returning to a place of medical and familial trauma, following a four-month visit to Taiwan. Re-collections fuses ‘new media performance, documentary, Chinese medicine and Taoist cosmology to question how identity and language are conceived in the context of disability and immigration.’

FASHION | Is fashion’s erratic sizing fuelling a clothing waste crisis? Clothes are constantly being returned due to sizing discrepancies and don’t always go back into stock, instead, the returned goods are being sent straight to the landfill to cut out costs.‘In the US, 5 billion pounds of returned goods end up in landfill each year, creating 15 million tonnes of carbon emissions’.