Futureality:
Exploring methods and practices to frame critical questions that shape future scenarios
WORKSHOP / EXPERIENCE DESIGN / ACADEMIA
As part of the Digital Futures team for Central Saint Martins MA Innovation Management Degree Show, ‘Futureality, Shaping Tomorrow Today’, I organized and facilitated a panel discussion and workshop that explores the topic on responsible technologies, as well as contributed a piece on our first publication of the innovation management journal, Æffect. As a member of the creative team, I also designed visitor experiences and brand identity of the show.
Date
June 2017 – June 2018
Role
Workshop Facilitator, Graphic Designer, Editor
Responsibilities
Events planning, workshop design and facilitation, brand/identity design, print design, interviews, content creation
Tools
Adobe Create Suite, Google Suite
Overview
What is Futureality?
Futureality came to life through 2 creative brainstorming sessions as a concept of anticipating the future in a strategic and resilient way. As graduates of MA Innovation Management (MAIM) program, it was our way of making impactful decisions to shape 4 different futures in a form of interactive workshops – ethical, experiential, resilient and digital.
Find out more about MA Innovation Management:
→ Digital platform
→ Annual journal
Why digital futures?
The Digital Futures Team was comprised of 5 MAIM members based on our final dissertation theme revolving around the topic of business, social and ethical impact of digital technologies. Through our final show, we wanted visitors – no matter their professional backgrounds or experiences – to engage in the conversation around the impact of digital technologies on people and society.
To achieve this, we organized:
A panel discussion event on the topic of: ‘How can we responsibly shape digital futures?’
A workshop on the topic of: ‘How can artificial intelligence strengthen human relationships’
An interview with Sputniko!, a Japanese artist on the topic of: ‘From Menstruation Machine to Penis, Cybernétique and Beyond…’
Find out more about my dissertation:
→ Medium
Digital Futures
Panel discussion
We organized an open event at Ustwo in Shoreditch, inviting 4 panelists from the tech industry. The panel consisted of Akil Benjamin, Co-Founder & Head of Research at Comuzi, Francesca Cuda, Head of Engineering at Ustwo, Shane Duffy, Head of Digital Experience a Mimecast (and ex-MAIM), and Michael Karliner, Technologist and Co-founder o ThingStudio. The event was opened by MAIM’s Alexander Fefegha and chaired by me.
Some of the questions discussed were:
How can we manage the impact of emerging technologies?
How can businesses foresee the impact these technologies bring to people’s lives?
How can they stay afloat in this rapidly changing digital landscape?
And where is the user in all of this?
Find out more → full report (written by Laurie Atkins)
“People are very complex, we’re all different and from different backgrounds. It’s not just about gender. We need to consider the user in all their complexity.”
– Francesca Cuda (Ustwo)
Workshop
Following up on the panel discussion, we also organized an innovative workshop as our final masters graduation show. Addressing the question: “How can artificial intelligence strengthen human relationships?” we employed the framework of Future Mappings and rapid prototyping to encourage the participants to speculate what the next 10 years with AI could look like, what its ethical implications are and its impact on human relationships.
Outcome
5
ORGANIZERS
23
ATTENDEES
4
IDEAS
98%
SATSIFACTION RATE
Design and image by Identity Lab
Interview with Sputniko! for Æffect
For our very first innovation management journal, Æffect, I conducted an interview with an artist Sputniko! with John O’Reilly, exploring the theme of gender and racial issues, creativity and artificial intelligence and the importance of future-making.
Interview: ‘From Menstruation Machine to Penis, Cybernétique and Beyond…’
→ Purchase the journal
The journal was recognized as It’s Nice That’s “September list of printed goodies”
→ Find out more
“Combining interviews with fascinating artists like sci-pop-gendernaut Sputniko! and key experts from futurists including Bruce Sterling and Franco Berardi, Æffect’s first issue “Futureality” remaps the changing terrain of innovation, putting ethics and resilience at the centre.”
– Review from It’s Nice That
Futureality brand identity
As an experience/graphic designer, I also developed a brand identity design of our concept of Futureality. Circles were used to as a metaphor for our 4 futures: resilient, ethical, experiential, and digital. The circles visually represent the concept of time, bringing future and reality into the same realm. Simple enough for people to hand-draw, but stylized enough to stand on its own.
Process
Circle as a symbol appeared constantly in our discussion about our Futureality concept, from a simple venn diagram to Voros’ futures cone, which classifies scenarios in possible, probable, plausible and preferable futures.
The team avoided using cliche “flashy” neon colors (which have become a major discourse of “future” design) and focus instead on color palettes that evoke a sense of action & playfulness. The pattern & surface area of each circle were selected based on how one sits with the other:
Resilient: showing that resilience isn’t just about being robust but also about filtering and being flexible to change
Ethical: inspired by “circular economy” and stance against linearity (whether in terms of consumption, management etc.)
Experiential: the layers signify layers of engagement, as well as a hint to the idea of “target” market, and “stakeholder map” which are languages often used in experience design/brand strategy
Digital: dots to signify bits/pixels and its technical operation as being that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
