The New York Times examines the trend of museum design exhibitions that portray the future as fraught and ambiguous, replacing the convention of optimistic futurism, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Designs for Different Futures.

“Today, museum curators are promoting the view that conspicuous consumption is bad for the planet, that luxury items exclude those who can’t afford them, and that designers need to acknowledge differently shaped and differently abled bodies. Current shows are meant to provoke conversation, not admiration.”