from XHealth Lab II (2019) - a design game
studio andnand is a futures thinking studio specialising in the design research, development and practice of design-/art- based futures thinking methods, usually related to health(care) and wellbeing. By definition, the futures contains uncertainty and possibilities and are just alternatives i.e. the futures. Where does preferable sit? That depends on who you ask. Workshops and playful constructs such as design games are ANDNAND's way to facilitate people from different backgrounds to explore preferable futures together on critical and strategic works.
At the leading edge of expanding participation, ANDNAND is exploring practices to work in more-than-human ways through speculative design activities and artistic creations.
Dystopia or utopia is not preferable.
from sketchbook (1999)
For any given “problem” there are, of course, multiple ways of seeing it, which frames the way we choose to address or “solve” it. Quite often, the multiple ways and blurry boundaries get reduced to one axis (this or that - a dichotomy) or two axes (two “this or that” juxtaposed - a matrix). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Simplified linearity can work as a thinking tool. However, it is at its most anti-collaboration when it inadvertently serves to engender polarisation along existing dividing lines. Inevitably, the reality is more complex, messy and nuanced and the futures, by definition, contains unknowns.
Speculatives
Co-design of
near and far futures
in Digital Spaces
Workshops, visually facilitated conversations and design games for serious and important issues, for 3-70 people online.
Read an example of work (Belonging Care Repair) with our client Careful Industries).
from a co-design sprint in 2020
from SensoryXD
- a wearables catwalk at GIANT Health Event 2017
model on photo: Stacey Dorling
garment on photo: Danielle Jordan
choreographer: Mariana Lucia Marquez
photographer: Maggie Wong
producer: Stephanie Pau
from Making of Imperfect Futures - Wellbeing and Ecology (2021) - co-creating a collective design fiction; photographs of craft-works are creations and courtesy of the participants.
in Hybrid Spaces
Embracing the global connectivity of online conferences and the richness of knowledge in physical places. Check out early traces of this work in its making here.
It’s about attending, whether it is art, design or futures thinking. Attending as in “show up”, “deal with” and “pay attention to”. The word has a connotation of being a guest, which I think is humbling rather than disempowering. To genuinely care even as a guest, imagine that.
Work with ANDNAND
Co-design workshop design and facilitation
Speculative design / participatory art project / commission
Methodologies on collective imagination / participatory design / futures thinking
Bring your own idea
Stephanie Pau
Participatory Speculative Designer
(work in progress title, if it doesn't make sense, let's talk)
Stephanie Pau holds a Master of Research (MRes) degree in Healthcare and Design from the Royal College of Art (2017-2019) and practices as a designer and an artist at ANDNAND. She specialises in researching and designing methods to bring together a broad range of people to collaborate, converse and collectively find visions beyond watered-down consensus. She practices with tomato plants and waste materials to examine dominant constructs and explore signals of more-than-human care and belonging.
Prior to that she was a solution architect and had founded a health tech start-up, which adds up to about 15 years of deep dive into patterns of machine and human systems and business ecosystems. She also holds a Masters of Engineering (MEng) degree in Electronics and Electrical Engineering with Management from Imperial College London (2004, 1st Hons).
She has published about methodologies of design-based futures thinking and collective imagination in academic journals/conferences and has been sharing her knowledge through visiting/associate lecturer roles at the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins, UAL.
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