HITMXE trend report: A perspective of time

Themes influencing reality for the years to come

It's that time of the year when the topic of trends rises up from underneath someone's desk - here's our offering to you.

"Insight experts" are often asked to look around at what's new in business, technology and consumerism to rustle up something vaguely coherent by people who don't have the time to - in the words of Ferris Bueller - stop and look around once in a while, so outsource not missing "it".

(If a surgeon told any of us that they were too busy in important meetings to advance their skills, we would be looking for another surgeon.)

Anyway, at Humans In The Machine we're not up for that, we're up for how stories both reflect on and influence change.

Inspired by five amazing films that revolve around protagonists' feeling like passengers in progress during pivotal eras - the Enclosure Movement, the Industrial Revolution, the railway era, the financial crisis and climate crisis - how that affects human action and perspective of time.

Of course this is happening right now to you, me and everyone else and feels like it is getting faster. These films are cautionary tales about how people attempt to control complexity and time in ever more reactive ways, with significant unforeseen consequences.

We hope by taking time to watch these films you can also draw some new meaning for everyday life. That's the power of art.