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| future_fabulators:antipodean_musings [2014-03-11 02:23] – [Experiential futures] alkan | future_fabulators:antipodean_musings [2014-03-11 02:32] – [Experiential futures] alkan |
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| 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 to better describe what we're doing in our future pre-enactments than say 'design fiction' or 'speculative design'. Candy's thesis begins by outlining ways we can move beyond the usual polarisation of utopian and dystopian futures with the status quo sitting somewhere in between. One such approach is the [[four generic futures]] that Candy used to design experiential scenario experiments for [[http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/publications/hawaii/FourFuturesHawaii2050-2006.pdf|Hawaii in 20150]]. | 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 to better describe what we're doing in our future pre-enactments than say 'design fiction' or 'speculative design'. Candy's thesis begins by outlining ways we can move beyond the usual polarisation of utopian and dystopian futures, with the status quo sitting somewhere in between. One such approach is the [[four generic futures]] that Candy used to design experiential scenario experiments for [[http://www.futures.hawaii.edu/publications/hawaii/FourFuturesHawaii2050-2006.pdf|Hawaii in 20150]]. |
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| A second issue identified in the 'The Futures of Everyday Life' is the experiential gulf between thinking or talking about future scenarios and actually experiencing them. Candy calls for an integration of futures research and experience design to allow different modes of knowing to penetrate our awareness of futures. He proceeds from reuniting body and mind to discuss 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 an unsuspecting public encounters speculative artefacts from a future scenario embedded in the spaces of daily life. Three examples of guerrilla futures he mentions 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 note the author's reflections regarding the effectiveness and ethical issues of such interventions (such as potential distress and the misleading of an audience caught unawares), as well as his conclusion that the alternative – continuing to approach scenarios on purely analytical and intellectual levels – isn't acceptable. | A second issue identified in the 'The Futures of Everyday Life' is the experiential gulf between thinking or talking about future scenarios and actually experiencing them. Candy calls for an integration of futures research and experience design to allow different modes of knowing to penetrate our futures awareness. From this effort at reuniting body and mind he proceeds to discuss the unification of 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 an unsuspecting public encounters speculative artefacts from a future scenario embedded in the spaces of daily life. Three examples of guerrilla futures he mentions 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 note the author's reflections regarding the effectiveness and ethical issues of such interventions (such as potential distress and the misleading of an audience caught unawares), as well as his conclusion that the alternative – continuing to approach scenarios on purely analytical and intellectual levels – isn't acceptable. |
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| 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 a '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 their 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. | 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 a '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 their 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. |
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| Finding ourselves on more familiar transdisciplinary theory, we continued collecting references to [[design fiction]], a field that has gained traction in recent years which merges design and foresight to create objects, spaces and experiences as futures prototypes. Alongside (the now usual suspects) Bruce Sterling, Superflux, and Dunne & Raby, The Extrapolation Factory are people and works spanning 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 perusing the many new and interesting projects but it is something that could benefit from further study, conversation, comparison, 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 for merging design and foresight to create objects, spaces and experiences as futures prototypes. Alongside (the now usual suspects) Bruce Sterling, Superflux, and Dunne & Raby, The Extrapolation Factory are people and works spanning 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 perusing the many new and interesting projects but it is something that could benefit from further study, conversation, comparison, pattern-finding, etc. |
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| Another interesting marriage of disciplines emerged as [[action foresight]], combining action research and futures studies into anticipatory action learning. One of the inspiring proponents of this field is Jose Ramos, who carries out his work on the edges of (critical) futures, activism, open democratic processes and community development. This work is particularly relevant given our concern to create change in the present, as we’re still gradually formulating ideas around [[possible futures parallel presents]] and [[non predictive strategy]]. We are interested in finding ways to thrive in turbulence, including [[strategies for antifragility]], [[doing democracy]] and perhaps even a touch of [[rewilding etiquette]]. Further research and/or practice required. | Another interesting marriage of disciplines emerged as [[action foresight]], combining action research and futures studies into anticipatory action learning. One of the inspiring proponents of this field is Jose Ramos, who carries out his work on the edges of (critical) futures, activism, open democratic processes and community development. This work is particularly relevant given our concern to create change in the present, as we’re still gradually formulating ideas around [[possible futures parallel presents]] and [[non predictive strategy]]. We are interested in finding ways to thrive in turbulence, including [[strategies for antifragility]], [[doing democracy]] and perhaps even a touch of [[rewilding etiquette]]. Further research and/or practice required. |
nik