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| future_fabulators:antipodean_musings [2014-03-11 02:23] – [Experiential futures] alkan | future_fabulators:antipodean_musings [2020-06-06 12:00] (current) – old revision restored (2019-02-23 09:45) nik |
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| ==== Musings from an antipodean research retreat ==== | ==== Musings from an antipodean research retreat ==== |
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| by Maja Kuzmanovic & Nik Gaffney. Glenelg, Australia. 020140210 - 02140305 | by Maja Kuzmanovic & Nik Gaffney. Glenelg, Australia. 020140210 - 020140305 |
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| During February 2014 we spent a few weeks on research for Future Fabulators. We wanted to gain a better understanding of the techniques, tools and theories of 'futures studies' and if they could be applied to our work in future pre-enactments. After much practice-based research in [[:/resilients/future_preparedness|future preparedness]], we found that a more theoretical underpinning was needed, which meant that our focus was primarily on the literature. We spent the retreat in more or less uninterrupted reading, following interesting leads down often fractal rabbit holes. We attempted to answer questions that had arisen from the last few years of experiments in [[prehearsing the future]]. Our starting points were both methodological and philosophical in nature: on the one hand we wanted to know how to improve our practice of scenario building and pre-enacments with new, transdisciplinary techniques, and on the other hand we were wondering what would happen if foresight became a part of everyday life, where uncertainty is not seen as a threat but an opportunity. | During February 2014 we spent a few weeks on research for Future Fabulators. We wanted to gain a better understanding of the techniques, tools and theories of 'futures studies' and if they could be applied to our work in future pre-enactments. After much practice-based research in [[:/resilients/future_preparedness|future preparedness]], we found that a more theoretical underpinning was needed, which meant that our focus was primarily on the literature. We spent the retreat in more or less uninterrupted reading, following interesting leads down often fractal rabbit holes. We attempted to answer questions that had arisen from the last few years of experiments in [[prehearsing the future]]. Our starting points were both methodological and philosophical in nature: on the one hand we wanted to know how to improve our practice of scenario building and pre-enacments with new, transdisciplinary techniques, and on the other hand we were wondering what would happen if foresight became a part of everyday life, where uncertainty is not seen as a threat but an opportunity. |
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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. |
| ==== What next? ==== | ==== What next? ==== |
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| All of our explorations of experiential futures are at the moment geared towards [[prehearsing the future]], improving our [[prehearsal pocket guide]] and designing the futurist fieldguide. In the three short weeks we only began touching on different [[prehearsal methods]]. There are several threads around improvisation that we'd like to follow up, including various experiments from "Impro" by Keith Johnstone, and ideas around incremental prehearsals that we discussed with Sarah Neville, during a follow up of her [[residencies|Weather Lore residency]]. | Our explorations in the realms of experiential futures are all presently geared towards [[prehearsing the future]], improving our [[prehearsal pocket guide]], and designing the futurist fieldguide. In the three short weeks at our disposal we only began to scratch the surface of the many different [[prehearsal methods]]. There are several threads on improvisation that we'd like to follow up, including various experiments from 'Impro' by Keith Johnstone, and ideas on incremental prehearsals that we discussed with Sarah Neville during a follow up of her [[residencies|Weather Lore residency]]. |
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| Our next steps will be translating some of our research into practice. We're designing a series of scenarios about the futures of food for the [[http://fo.am/late-lab-open-sauces/|LateLab]] in Edinburgh. Aside from food, we're keen to prehearse the futures of [[/:doing nothing]], but we're still searching for the right scale and venue for this. We'll be conducting a scenario workshop for one person: Michka Melo, as part of his [[http://lib.fo.am/michka|macrotransiency]] at FoAM in Brussels and a collaborative session with Time's Up on combining prehearsals and physical narratives in Linz. Talks are underway about facilitating four days of visioning and futuring with [[http://pulsenetwerk.be/|PULSE]] transition network for culture, and long-form prehearsals for [[http://www.z33.be/projecten/future-fictions-present|The Future fictions from the present]] exhibition at Z33 in Belgium. We will experiment with the short-form prehearsal at [[http://xcoax.org/|xCoAx]], together with the other Future Fabulators. Last but not least, we're putting together a list of potential contributors and guidelines for the Futurist Fieldguide, FoAM's FFab publication, that is at the moment planned for distribution in early 2015. | Our next steps will be translating some of our research into practice. We're designing a series of scenarios about the futures of food for the [[http://fo.am/late-lab-open-sauces/|LateLab]] in Edinburgh. Aside from food, we're keen to prehearse the futures of [[/:doing nothing]], but we're still searching for the right scale and venue for this. We'll be conducting a scenario workshop for one person, Michka Melo, as part of his [[http://lib.fo.am/michka|macrotransiency]] at FoAM in Brussels, and in Linz a collaborative session with Time's Up on combining prehearsals and physical narratives. Talks are underway about facilitating four days of visioning and futuring with the [[http://pulsenetwerk.be/|PULSE]] transition network for culture, and long-form prehearsals for the [[http://www.z33.be/projecten/future-fictions-present|Future Fictions from the Present]] exhibition at Z33 in Belgium. We will experiment with the short-form prehearsal at [[http://xcoax.org/|xCoAx]], together with our fellow Future Fabulators. Last but not least, we're putting together a list of potential contributors and guidelines for the Futurist Fieldguide, FoAM's FFab publication slated for distribution in early 2015. |
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| As our current research phase comes to an end, we can conclude that we've found a fertile ground with many [[background]] threads to continue following. We're looking forward to sharing our findings at the [[http://fo.am/data-ecologies-experience/| Data Ecologies: Experience]], hoping to encourage some of the Future Fabulators, and anyone else interested in these subjects to keep feeding these pages with interesting, relevant and/or surprising information and insights. | |
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| | As our current research phase comes to an end, we can conclude that we've found a fertile ground with many [[background]] threads to continue following. We're looking forward to sharing our findings at the [[http://fo.am/data-ecologies-experience/|Data Ecologies: Experience 2014]] symposium, hoping to encourage other Future Fabulators, and anyone else interested in these subjects, to continue feeding these pages with interesting, relevant and/or surprising information and insights. |
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| {{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/zzkt/8647294919/}} | {{>http://www.flickr.com/photos/zzkt/8647294919/}} |
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| | globalwarmingfuturist's blogpost inspired by these musings: |
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| | "A journal style article I came across was Maja Kuzmanovic and Nik Gaffney sharing their experiences in finding an understanding of futurism through an Anitpodean Research Retreat. In this written work Kuzmanovic and Gaffney exemplify the importance of culture as being an overwhelming notion in predicting the possibilities of what the future may behold. These comments and observations by these two journalists enlightened me into predicting the possible circumstances of an overwhelming single worldwide culture, which could potentially be perceived as a more peaceful outcome in the future." |
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| | https://michaelcobley1.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/the-possibility-of-a-single-culture/ |
alkan