| As we were approximately knee-deep in [[http://lib.fo.am/future_fabulators/scenario_methods#futures_research_methods|futures research methods]], Justin Pickard diverted our attention to Stuart Candy’s thesis [[The Futures of Everyday Life]]. Written in 2010, his work provides a strong theoretical and practical grounding for what he calls "[[experiential futures]]" a term that we’ll happily adopt, as it seems a better fit for our future pre-enactments than say 'design fiction' or 'speculative design'. The thesis begins with outlining ways that can move us away from the usual polarisation of utopian, dystopian futures, with the continuation of the status quo somewhere in between. One of the ways is the [[four generic futures]], that he used to design experiential scenario experiments for [[http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/publications/hawaii/FourFuturesHawaii2050-2006.pdf|Hawaii in 20150]]. The second issue that is identified in the thesis is the experiential gulf between thinking or talking about future scenarios and actually experiencing them. He calls for an integration of futures research and experience design, allowing different ways of knowing to penetrate our futures awareness. From reuniting body and mind, Candy goes on to discuss the uniting futures and design with politics, and looks at some principles upon which experiential scenarios could be built. Going beyond controlled exercises in workshops and gallery spaces, he talks about [[guerrilla futures]], or futures in the wild, where unsuspecting public encounters speculative artifacts from a future scenario, embedded in the spaces of daily life. The three examples of guerrilla futures discussed are the [[New York Times Special Edition]] of the Yes Men, [[http://www.bluelineproject.org/|The Blue Line Project]] and [[http://futuryst.blogspot.com.au/2007/10/bird-cage.html|Found Futures Chinatown]]. It was interesting to read the authors' reflection regarding the effectiveness and ethical issues of such interventions (such as potential distress and misleading of audience caught unawares), as well as his conclusion that the alternative - continuing to work on scenarios on purely analytical and intellectual levels - isn't acceptable, The final chapter of the thesis was quite encouraging for us. It talks about different ways of infusing foresight outside expert fields, moving toward what Stuart calls "futures oriented social ecology". One of the tactics he calls "future shock therapy" and the other "ambient foresight". Future Shock is a tactic deployed by guerrilla futurists, and Hakim Bey's [[http://hermetic.com/bey/taz1.html|Poetic Terrorists]]. On the other end of the spectrum, "rather than demanding attention with fireworks, an ‘ambient’ future awareness is gentle, or perhaps almost invisible." Ambient foresight "nudges" people towards developing the futures skills, as do for example prediction markets and alternate reality games, such as [[http://archive.superstructgame.net/|Superstruct]]. We had a couple of inspiring conversations with Stuart and uncovered many common threads, which we hope will eventually result in some form of collaboration. | As we were approximately knee-deep in [[http://lib.fo.am/future_fabulators/scenario_methods#futures_research_methods|futures research methods]], Justin Pickard diverted our attention to Stuart Candy’s thesis [[The Futures of Everyday Life]]. Written in 2010, his work provides a strong theoretical and practical grounding for what he calls "[[experiential futures]]" a term that we’ll happily adopt, as it seems a better fit for our future pre-enactments than say 'design fiction' or 'speculative design'. The thesis begins with outlining ways that can move us away from the usual polarisation of utopian, dystopian futures, with the continuation of the status quo somewhere in between. One of the ways is the [[four generic futures]], that he used to design experiential scenario experiments for [[http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/publications/hawaii/FourFuturesHawaii2050-2006.pdf|Hawaii in 20150]]. The second issue that is identified in the thesis is the experiential gulf between thinking or talking about future scenarios and actually experiencing them. He calls for an integration of futures research and experience design, allowing different ways of knowing to penetrate our futures awareness. From reuniting body and mind, Candy goes on to discuss the uniting futures and design with politics, and looks at some principles upon which experiential scenarios could be built. Going beyond controlled exercises in workshops and gallery spaces, he talks about [[guerrilla futures]], or futures in the wild, where unsuspecting public encounters speculative artifacts from a future scenario, embedded in the spaces of daily life. The three examples of guerrilla futures discussed are the [[http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/newyorktimes|New York Times Special Edition]] of the Yes Men, [[http://www.bluelineproject.org/|The Blue Line Project]] and [[http://futuryst.blogspot.com.au/2007/10/bird-cage.html|Found Futures Chinatown]]. It was interesting to read the authors' reflection regarding the effectiveness and ethical issues of such interventions (such as potential distress and misleading of audience caught unawares), as well as his conclusion that the alternative - continuing to work on scenarios on purely analytical and intellectual levels - isn't acceptable, The final chapter of the thesis was quite encouraging for us. It talks about different ways of infusing foresight outside expert fields, moving toward what Stuart calls "futures oriented social ecology". One of the tactics he calls "future shock therapy" and the other "ambient foresight". Future Shock is a tactic deployed by guerrilla futurists, and Hakim Bey's [[http://hermetic.com/bey/taz1.html|Poetic Terrorists]]. On the other end of the spectrum, "rather than demanding attention with fireworks, an ‘ambient’ future awareness is gentle, or perhaps almost invisible." Ambient foresight "nudges" people towards developing the futures skills, as do for example prediction markets and alternate reality games, such as [[http://archive.superstructgame.net/|Superstruct]]. We had a couple of inspiring conversations with Stuart and uncovered many common threads, which we hope will eventually result in some form of collaboration. |
| Finding ourselves on more familiar transdisciplinary theory, we continued collecting references to [[design fiction]], a field that has gained traction in recent years, merging design and foresight, to create objects, spaces and experiences as futures prototypes. Alongside (the now usual suspects) Bruce Sterling, Superflux, Dunne & Raby, The Extrapolation Factory are people and works spanning the arts, games, movies and architecture, such as Nelly Ben Hayoun, Natalie Jeremijenko, Atelier van Lieshout, Angelo Vermeulen, Adrian Hon and others. We haven’t spent too much time looking through many new and interesting projects but this is something that could benefit from further studies, conversations, comparisons, pattern-finding, etc. | Finding ourselves on more familiar transdisciplinary theory, we continued collecting references to [[design fiction]], a field that has gained traction in recent years, merging design and foresight, to create objects, spaces and experiences as futures prototypes. Alongside (the now usual suspects) Bruce Sterling, Superflux, Dunne & Raby, The Extrapolation Factory are people and works spanning the arts, games, movies and architecture, such as Nelly Ben Hayoun, Natalie Jeremijenko, Atelier van Lieshout, Angelo Vermeulen, Adrian Hon and others. We haven’t spent too much time looking through many new and interesting projects but this is something that could benefit from further studies, conversations, comparisons, pattern-finding, etc. |
nik