COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION
Plans* are speculative fictions,
Collective speculative fictions, though, might make collective plans.
LAW OF THE INSTRUMENTS
Often times, in imagining the futures, dystopia or utopia is invoked.
Three lines,
four quadrants,
which can be read as 2x dichotomies juxtaposed,
are used to stratify the futures.
The tools (e.g. models and concepts) we use to think-with constraints the shapes of the futures that can be conceptualised.
Convening to make collective plans
A workshop is an event, a point in time - a time to discover, to relate, to connect.
I stage workshops as a standalone activity or as part of a project/research/commission, most of which are under confidential agreements. Here are some examples of collective futuring (workshop, design games, etc.) that were open to public or is permissive to sharing.
| Duration | 2.5 hours |
| # Runs | Custom |
| # People | 3-70 |
Futures thinking workshops
Online workshops, visually facilitated conversations and design games for serious and important issues broadly linked to health and wellbeing. Most of these works result in internal coordination and strategic decisions.
For an example of the kind of output these types of workshops can lead to, check out "Belonging, Care, and Repair" with Careful Industries under Publications page.
| Duration | 2.5 hours |
| # Runs | 3 |
| # People | 3-5 |
Making of Imperfect Futures - Wellbeing and Ecology
A hybrid online/offline workshop to collectively, at times, asynchronously, create a collective design fiction through crafting and writing. Guided by a process called Crafting Alternative Futures.
Part of Design Research Society, Festival of Emergence.
| Duration | over 10 days |
| # Runs | 1 |
| # People | Asynchronous, 2-3 at a time |
XHealth Lab II
A stage, a design game installed in a 2x6m space where people (non-experts), asynchronously, each imagine and envision beyond the narratives of dominant futures of health and well-being in an extreme environment - space. Guided by pre-designed props, the installation and a small guidebook.
Part of an 18-month research project on collective imagination at the Royal College of Art.
| Duration | 2 hours |
| # Runs | 1 |
| # People | 10-16 |
Speculative design of health and wellbeing in space for future adventurers
A 1.5-2.5 hours workshop to create two design fictions with props and action (improv sketches) all from scratch - no experience necessary!
Part of an 18-month research project on collective imagination at the Royal College of Art.
| Duration | 6 hours |
| # Runs | 1 |
| # People | 12-18 |
Living off Earth Lab II
A full-day workshop to create two visions of healthcare troubles in extreme environments (spaces) with prototyped interventions.
Part of Borders Sessions Festival (Hague, NL)
| Duration | 20 minutes |
| # Runs | 1 |
| # People | - |
Sensory XD
A catwalk showcasing wearables related to health and an accompanying academic conference track on desirability in healthcare at GIANT Health Event. From first conversation to delivery in 2 months with 22 crew and 6 speakers and volunteers!
CREDITS Photography: Maggie Wong, Ligeia Luigli; Choreographer: Mariana Lucia Marquez; DJ: Keith Jones; Fashion designers: Danielle Jordan, Solely Original, WalkWithPath; Models and dancers: Stacey Dorling, Babara Agostini, Chatelle Billson, Kamila Hussien, Catriona Johnston, Gwen Nelson, Sapphire O’Neil, Suzanne, Mahtab Gamsari, Anna Wonjnarowska; Producer: Stephanie Pau.
Tooling for Collective Futuring
EXAMPLE METHOD
Crafting Alternative Futures
A method designed to support collective investigation, in hybrid online-offline locations, of the futures through a combination of non-verbal experiential knowing and storytelling - of neither a utopia nor a dystopia.
This process has been applied at Design Council (2020) on post-covid futures and at the Festival of Emergence (2021) on the imperfect futures of wellbeing and ecology.
FRAMEWORK
Collective Imagination Framework
Long term thinking is full of challenges and is also necessary, especially on topics related to systems that take time to change, such as society, cultural values and policies. The further we look into the horizon, the more unknown-unknowns we encounter and the harder it is to rely on existing knowledge, trends and extrapolation for envisioning the future. Expertise is limited when applied to long term futures. An 18-month design research project has been conducted to develop a methodology for participatory future studies with non-experts, given a complex and challenging context. A context of extreme unknowns: healthcare for future space missions. What does it mean to efficiently conduct productive futures studies in the face of unknowns with non-experts? The study does not reject expertise per se, however it does explore how to conduct futures studies with non-experts...
Read the paper
CONCEPT
Imperfect Expert
From healthcare products and services to hospital environments, designers have been involved in shaping tangible transformations and improvements for the future of health(care). Lesser developed are design practices for shaping care models, strategies, sustainability, policies and other less tangible and longer-term health(care) futures. Critical speculative design, scenario planning and road-mapping have been practiced by designers to address such futures. However, there are problems with using these methods to envision new futures in action: critical speculative design has poor feedback loops and dissemination issues, confining it to special interests, and scenario planning has the top-down issues of ‘impartial’ observation, making it unsuited to wicked problems. ... Through abductive thinking and participant observation, a new concept of the ‘imperfect experts’ was developed to address the issues of design futures, scenario planning and participation in complex futures.
Read the paper
Project Outcomes
Workshops (series) in tandem with research and creative work designed to inform specific topics and actions starts to look like a project.
Here are some of the more immediate outcomes of ANDNAND's projects.
01.
Change of plans.
02.
Shared understanding / ideas between very different people.
03.
Rediscover joy in heavy / stuck work.
04.
Swapping silver bullets for more nuanced, textured concepts.
05.
Knowledge deposited -publications.