In Extrapolation Factory’s Metro Test Zones, actors showcase prototypes for future ways of living with a group of New Yorkers, animating hypothetical infrastructure and social dynamics related to the city’s green urban spaces. This living experiment attempts to imagine how urban spaces could look, feel, and function differently in the future, as a result of the social, technological, ecological, economic, and political changes currently underway.

These theatrical experiments were collaboratively envisioned by the actors and participants through a futures workshop designed by The Extrapolation Factory for this commission. In this workshop, participants were introduced to methods and principles normally used by futurists, and invited to develop their own alternative future narratives for the future. Metro Test Zones’s custom set design was inspired by the visions generated by participants in the workshop, and it is intended to serve as an interactive space for simulating these hypothetical futures.