Isn’t it strange that people continue to make movies focusing on the theme that dead bodies come back to life and assault humans? Zombie-themed movies belong to the so-called genre movie. In my opinion, the genre movie depicts a set of scenes that are hard to believe at first glance but finely processed to provide a common view anyone can share without having doubts about it. The thought of being assaulted by dead persons is presumably associated with a sense of horror people around the world have in common at the bottom of their hearts.  

Because this kind of assumption can be accepted by anyone, those who produce zombie movies are granted leeway to assign various roles to characters in a closed landscape of movie and their viewers find it easy to empathize them.

People can create meaningful things if they have some common notions that support their beliefs. That also holds true for our profession. If we know what kind of notions are required in the future, we will be able to understand which way to go. Then we can understand what we should do in preparation for the future.

I have recently read a business book called SF Prototyping. It showed me the importance of backcasting, a way of thinking about business backward from a vision of a breakthrough future, instead of forecasting, which aims to come up with new ideas based on notions and technologies that already exist at present time. What kinds of products will be needed in the future if we have to live together with zombies staying around us in droves. That’s the idea I enjoyed flirting with last weekend.

Munehisa Honda

Digital Experience Design Dept.

Design Director