The Need for Fresh Perspectives in 2025

Technology continues to redefine how we engage with art, poetry, privacy and people. One inventive project could be the spark that changes how we approach a challenge entirely. The inspiration is all around us - we often just need the right stimulus to help them crystallise into something of meaning or use. From AI capturing a beautiful moment in words, to helping you put a name to a face, we’re now in a position to begin to rethink the familiar. 

Here are three innovations from 2024 that feel like they capture this spirit of reimagining the rulebook moving forwards. 

1. Poetry Camera 

Why take a picture to remember your holiday, a selfie to show off your best outfit, or queue for the latest Insta hot spot? Why not capture the moment in a moving stanza instead? The Polaroid-inspired device from Kelin Carolyn Zhang and Ryan Mather uses AI to analyse the shots you take, but, rather than providing a visual output, it prints off a short poem based on the scene you snapped.

This device offers users a completely fresh creative output based on a given stimulus and new way for us to think about photography. We should be thinking about new ways to narrate visuals or even create a mood board. This device could be used to provide event audiences with a different kind of takeaway, versus the standard photo op. By leaning in, we might even find something out about the world around us that we’ve taken for granted. 

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2. I-XRAY 

Ever been afraid to talk to someone at an industry event because you can't recall their name? Were they a client from a pitch gone bad, or perhaps they told you the story of their life which is too important to have forgotten. 

I-XRAY is an upgrade to Meta’s new Ray-Ban smart glasses with more AI heft that can scan the face of anyone in the wearer’s field of vision and automatically perform a reverse image look-up via image recognition website Pimeyes. This provides the user access to pretty much whatever personal information the stranger in their eyeline has left in the public domain of the internet. But this isn’t simply the: ultimate networking tool, the project’s two creators from Harvard University want to demonstrate the relative ease with which a commercially available product can effectively ‘dox’ unwitting members of the public, highlighting the need for greater individual stewardship of the personal data we submit to the web. 

Through their AI supercharging of Meta’s smart glasses, the creators have showcased both a proof of concept dream and a privacy nightmare, asking key questions of both big data and little people.

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3. Saltburn LP 

Did you see Saltburn? Following the December 2023 release of the controversial class satire starring Barry Keoghan, Blood Records put out an LP of the movie soundtrack packed not just with music from MGMT, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Bloc Party, but - you guessed it - 'bathwater'. 

Blood Records proudly state that "We don't do normal", and for a company that specialises in creating beautiful, limited run vinyl's (including a few other one-off liquid-filled pressings), this definitely meets the manifesto.

It's always great to see another spin (pun shamelessly intended...) on revival tech, and this is a completely ingenious, and thoroughly authentic example. Something old can become new again, if you give it the opportunity, this goes for both the vinyl and Murder on the Dancefloor, originally released in 2001. 

We all need a little shift in our viewpoint sometimes. And whilst conventional wisdom proffers a trend of technology turning our worlds upside down, this leaves space for more practical ways of achieving this.

All three of these innovations demonstrate how being able to look at things - people, problems or possessions - from a different perspective can create fresh creative connections, new inspiration and deeper meaning. 

For more everyday inspiration from Wonder’s wrap of 2024 - check out ICYMI here.

Jonathan Izzard is head of strategy at Wonder, Amplify's B2B and B2E specialist agency.