February 25, 2026

Photographs from Tomorrow

Five AI-generated black-and-white images. Five real research projects. One question: what does the future look like before it arrives?

Zürich, February 2026 — What does the future look like before it exists? That is the question at the heart of Near Futures — an exhibition by ETH Zürich’s π Innovation Hub presented at photoSCHWEIZ 26 at the Kongresshaus Zürich from 6 to 10 February 2026.

The exhibition brings together five black-and-white photographs, each depicting a technology currently in development at ETH Zürich. One shows researchers cultivating edible micro-algae that could sustain astronauts on long missions far from Earth. Another imagines satellites built from wood composites — lightweight, carbon-neutral, and designed to burn up cleanly on re-entry. A third captures students conducting experiments aboard a future commercial space station. The remaining two turn toward our own planet: a swarm of micro-sensors navigating rugged terrain, and a forest in the early stages of bark beetle infestation, detected from the air before visible damage sets in.

None of these technologies exist yet in the form shown. Since we cannot travel to the future, the images were created using artificial intelligence and rendered in black and white. The choice of monochrome is deliberate: rather than reaching for the glossy aesthetics of science fiction, the series borrows the visual language of documentary photography. The effect is quieter and more grounded — less about spectacle, more about the human effort behind every technology that eventually reaches orbit.

The exhibition was conceived by Marco Tempest, Director of Creative Technology & Innovation at ETH Zürich | Space. Before joining ETH, Tempest spent eight years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was a Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab. At ETH Zürich, he leads the π Innovation Hub, which supports researchers in turning early-stage ideas into actual space missions and experiments.

The π Innovation Hub is part of ETH Zürich | Space and was founded with seed funding from the ETH Foundation. Its work sits at the boundary between academic research and orbital deployment, connecting researchers, students, and industry partners across the Swiss and European space ecosystem. Presenting at photoSCHWEIZ 26 — Switzerland’s leading photography fair — was a deliberate step toward broader audiences, bringing the ambitions of space research into a cultural setting and inviting the public to engage with futures that are already being built.