Bruce Sterling uses 'Petroglifs' to search for eternal truths

During spring 2013, science fiction legend, design critic and futurist provocateur Bruce Sterling served as the inaugural Visionary in Residence at Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination. During his residency, Sterling was hard at work with a diverse team of collaborators from the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and the Design School testing the limits of our rapid prototyping and fabrication facilities.

The result of this whirlwind of creativity is Petroglifs, an original exhibit of 21st century petroglyphs carved into native Arizona rock with laser cutters. The exhibit was on display at ASU’s Gallery of Design during Emerge: The Future of Truth, an annual event that unites artists, scientists, humanists, engineers and futurists to draw, write, imagine, perform and prototype the future of the human species and the environments that we share. Sterling has posted a short documentary film (directed by Jasmina Tesanovic) about the creation of the exhibit at his blog, Beyond the Beyond, at Wired.com.

Petroglifs asks the question, “In the digital, virtual age, what are our eternal truths?” To find out Sterling’s answer, watch the film at the link below.