Professor Behnaz Farahi, head of the Critical Matter research group, joined GBH's The Curiosity Desk to discuss Ocean of Dreams, a participatory public art installation that projected participants' collective hopes for the future into a "living ocean" at Kendall Square Plaza as part of MIT Future Fest. 

Through a multilingual website, people were invited to share a hope or dream, which was then transformed into flowing handwritten text and projected into the installation. "At the moment when we have so much conversation about the future that is shaped by uncertainty around AI, war, climate change, and displacements, I hope this work creates a space for something a little different," said Farahi. "Before we can build a different future, we first have to be able to imagine one."