Near Future Laboratory Podcast
By Julian Bleecker
nearfuturelaboratory.com
julianbleecker.com
Support this podcast at www.patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Near Future Laboratory PodcastMay 28, 2023
Last Week from the Near Future N°005
Episode N°005, Week Ending Nov 24, 2023 Promotion of Design Fiction for AI Policy Visualization: In this Last Week from the Near Future episode, I emphasize the importance of design fiction as a tool for visualizing and materializing the potential impacts of policies like the AI Bill of Rights. I suggest that design fiction can make complex ideas more tangible and understandable for the general public. Analysis of the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights: I have questions about the current form of the AI Bill of Rights. If it had vivid, illustrative content it could make its implications more relatable to everyday people. I would suggest that this document, while essential, needs to be more accessible and engaging to truly resonate with its audience. Reference to NASA’s “Space Settlements” Report as an Inspirational Model: It's worth drawing a parallel between the AI Bill of Rights and NASA's 1973 report on space settlements. The NASA report used vivid illustrations to effectively communicate complex engineering concepts to the public, suggesting a similar approach could be beneficial for the AI Bill of Rights to make it make sense and also assert an implied policy as to what the world looks and feels like, what the experience of it would be, and what the Administration imagines this world to become should it adhere to the AI Bill of Rights. Need for Engaging and Accessible Communication in Technology Policy: I try to highlight the gaps that exist between complex technological policies and public understanding. I argue for the use of more engaging mediums, like design fiction, to bridge these gaps and thereby make policies more accessible and understandable. Call for Collaborative Effort in Translating AI Policies into Tangible Artifacts: Here's the proposal: A collaborative project to translate the AI Bill of Rights into tangible artifacts like, for example, newspapers and magazines. This approach aims to create a more concrete and relatable representation of what a future shaped by AI policies might look like. Thanks for watching, enduring, supporting and subscribing! Please support this work over on Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory or pick something up in the shop! https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com Blueprint for an A.I. Bill of Rights: https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/ Space Settlements: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198275204-space-settlements Ezra Klein and Alondra Nelson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFdLxDgFjkk&ab_channel=NewYorkTimesPodcasts More with Rick Guidice, the 'Space Settlements' Illustrator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7UuWRTyx9U&ab_channel=TheWorld%27sFairCo
MINISODE - SuperSeminar 004 Sneak Peek with Drew Wiberg
SuperSeminar 004 is our session on practical uses for Generative AI within the enterprise.
Here's a sneak peek with Drew Wiberg where we hear that he increased efficiency and productivity 40x with Generative AI, and how he used Generative AI to create the actual tooling he needed to bring about those efficiencies.
Do you want to know more?
Sign up to learn more about SuperSeminar at https://superseminar.school
SuperSeminar is our platform for learning from the key individuals who are at the vanguard of the transformational potential of new practices, tools, mindsets and approaches.
Drew Wiberg is a master knowledge navigator, helping Arup, one of the best known design, engineering, and construction services firm with over 18,000 employees — and gigabytes of knowledge data it has to manage.
N°080 - Soil Futures & Tarot Decks with Gabby Morris
Gabby Morris has soil questions — and a tarot deck to help think through those questions.
Check out the Grounded Wisdom Tarot Deck on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gabbyamorris/grounded-wisdom-tarot-deck
https://www.gabbymorris.co.uk/
Don't forget to support the Podcast over on https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and pick up your copy of It's Time To Imagine Harder, the book that unlocks ways to create more tangible futures: https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/design-fiction-small-box-set
N°079 - The Future Will Happen To You with Scott Smith and Susan Cox-Smith
Scott and Susan's new book, Future Cultures, focuses on integrating futures thinking into existing organizational contexts rather than forcing entirely new practices. They emphasize understanding and mapping current networks, language, and processes first and identifying and cultivating diverse champions at multiple levels to spread ideas. In the book, they recommend starting small with regular gatherings to share signals of change. They also provide tactics like writing future scenarios to envision desired cultures. Their framework layers in complexity to meet an organization's specific readiness.
We had a great conversation, discussing the way Future Cultures reveals a practical approach for integrating strategic futures thinking into organizations. It includes case studies and a layered framework, providing leadership with a methodical guide to adopt prospective practices tailored to their existing culture. By starting small to build demand and embedding foresight into operations, executives can complement planning with futures-oriented capacity vital for innovation and resilience.
Please remember to support the podcast over on https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory, and please share with your colleagues, write a review and rate.
N°078 - Circular Economy Futures, a Digest of General Seminar S04E04
This episode is a Digest from General Seminar S04E04 where we went into some Circular Economy Futures and found a bunch of stuff to help us more tangibly imagine what these futures could feel like.
https://generalseminar.com
N°077 - Gemma Jones & School of Critical Design
A conversation with Gemma Jones from School of Critical Design.
Check out the Near Future Laboratory's latest drop - 'Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' - the definitive handbook for understanding the psyche, motivations, desires, fears, and existential quandaries of machine & artificially intelligent intelligences from a slightly adjacent world where AI and their embodiments are about as fearsome, frustrating, and perplexing as a television remote control. Just don't antagonize them, okay? Some of them are well-armed and more than capable of handling themselves if in a rough spot.
Suggestions for folks to come on the podcast? Send me your thoughts.
Want to say thanks? Buy me the equivalent of a coffee and bacon sandwich or just say thanks and give a follow on IG.
https://julianbleecker.com/contact
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-jones-93b48742/
https://critical.design
https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/androids-dream-of-electric-sheep
Last Week from the Near Future E002
Last Week from the Near Future Laboratory Episode 002 The Show where we look at some highlights from, you know _ Last Week in the Near Future Laboratory Let’s Go! 1. • Daniel Schmachtenberger l An introduc... 2. https://www.futures-in-maps.com/san-t... 3. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/... 4. https://aw.network/2023 5. https://uxdesign.cc/a-smart-home-is-o... 5.5 https://lamemage.com/microscope/ 6. https://github.com/srspear/scifitropes 7. https://restofworld.org/2023/ai-image... 8. https://www.designfictiondaily.com/p/... 9. The Work Kit of Design Fiction Digital Edition Test Session https://lu.ma/8xk3dkql 10. https://daydreambelievers.co.uk/https://vimeo.com/870581365
N°076 - Food (In)Security Design Fiction Futures
Episode 076 is a discussion with Jan Rod and Kenta Kondo from IDEO Tokyo sharing their Project Inari in which created a sushi box as Design Fiction artifact. They collectively imagined a future that considers and reflects upon sustainable harvesting and issues of food security. It is a public project that also served to allow IDEO to explore how Design Fiction can be brought to bear to help clients make sense of their possible futures, whether food futures or any other topic.
Chesterbot 🤖 Says 👇🏽
"confidence": 0.9519705766608136
IDEO designers Jan Rod and Kenta Kondo in Tokyo created a fictional sushi box to explore food security. They made an uncanny metal box resembling disposable supermarket packaging. Inside were sushi pieces they crafted. Details like powdered condiments provoked questions about the fictional 2027 world. Through workshops, the box aligned perspectives on food systems. It activated imagination beyond abstract concepts.
"question": "What was the main purpose of this conversation?",
"answer": "The main purpose of this conversation was to discuss how design fiction and props like the fictional sushi box can help organizations explore potential future problems and spark imagination and alignment among diverse stakeholders. The guests spoke about their experience using a fictional sushi box prop in workshops to get participants to think about future challenges around food systems."
"question": How does the topic help people imagine more thoroughly the contingencies and challenges to be faced in the future?
"answer": The topic of using design fiction and props helps people imagine future challenges and contingencies more thoroughly in the following ways:
- The fictional sushi box created a tangible artifact that participants could examine and discuss. This helped ground the speculation in a concrete object.
- The highly detailed prop packaging and labels sparked participants' imaginations about how future food systems might evolve.
- The familiarity of sushi helped participants project their thinking into the future starting from something they knew.
- The prop provided a shared reference point for workshop participants from different backgrounds to discuss future implications.
"question": "What are five key take-aways from this presentation?",
"answer": "Five key take-aways from this presentation are:
1. Design fiction uses props and artifacts to help imagine future scenarios, not propose solutions.
2. Tangible props can align stakeholders by creating a shared object to spark discussion.
3. Design fiction aims to explore future problems worth solving, not just extrapolate the past.
4. Making design fiction practices mainstream involves connecting them to company innovation processes.
5. Detailed props provoke questions about future contingencies and implications."
"question": "What's a good summary of this conversation that can be used to post and share in an email?",
"answer": "The Near Future Laboratory podcast featured IDEO designers discussing how they used a fictional highly detailed sushi box prop in workshops to spark participants' imagination about future food system challenges. The prop packaging and mock sushi helped ground the speculation and align diverse stakeholders in the discussion."
"question": "What's a good summary of this conversation that can be used to as an engaging exciting way to get people excited to listen to the podcast?"
"answer": "Hear how IDEO designers created a fictional sushi box prop to take workshop participants on a imaginative deep dive into future food system contingencies and innovations!"
Last Week from the Near Future Minisode E001
A new show. Last Week from the Near Future — a summary of some interesting things that came through and around the Near Future Laboratory Discord.
1. The Imagine Harder Summit (Detroit, Sept. 22/23, 2023) 2. Dave Eggers is outraged by AI on the Ingenious Podcast https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Ngt80qNlrtDMH3j5jBf3p?si=1e27914d58544887 3. Donna Harawy & Bruno Latour (RIP) at ZKM's "Critical Zones" exhibition https://zkm.de/en/media/video/storytelling-for-earthly-survival-discussion-on-the-film-with-donna-haraway-bruno-latour-and-peter https://www.icarusfilms.com/if-donna 4. Thomas Euyang drops off Green Pages - our magazine from the future of filmed entertainment / Hollywood 5. Androids? They Dream of Electric Sheep? https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/androids-dream-of-electric-sheep 6. Evan Raskob shared a link to a podcast he was on, the Ludogogy Podcast (good luck pronouncing that into a microphone.) https://ludogogy.co.uk/evan-raskob-on-speculation/ 7. Don't forget — Office Hours is a great way to get some perspective on Design Fiction, Speculative Design, and all that kind of stuff, and learn more about what we're doing in the Discord! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tbqg4S7EDM&list=PLLeCmAPS7v1ll9SxykBfosFGju_IihvEU 8. Go pick up something in The Shop — support all the things on Patreon! Do it now! https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory 9. Ursula K. Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction — a reflection I had while on a walk. https://otherfutures.nl/uploads/documents/le-guin-the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction.pdf
N°075 - Artificially Artfifully Enhanced Rebroadcast
This Episode is a rebroadcast of Episode 030 with Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby, preceded and amended with various explications and questions posed to the Chesterbot container of the conversation's semantics.
**Speculative Design Practice**
Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby's design practice has evolved over time. Initially focused on conceptual models, they now also create prototypes. They find models give more creative freedom. Their work with complex technologies like biotech led them to embrace fiction and modeling. The term 'speculative design' emerged from their critical design work engaging science and tech. They value fiction for its own sake, not just for discussing the future or selling concepts.
**Teaching Speculative Design** Dunne and Raby direct the Design Reality Studio at Parsons, teaching posthumanism, quantum theory and designed realities. They collaborate with faculty and choose their own research. They are writing a book on new ideas and approaches in design.
**Interdisciplinarity and Collaboration** Dunne, Raby and Bleecker value letting disciplines interact in surprising ways while retaining disciplinary roots. Bleecker proposes a 'general seminar' where diverse people make sense of ideas together, as Dunne and Raby have long practiced. They hope design, science, tech and industry collaborate more, though science and tech currently do so more than design. **Representing Imagined Futures** They aim to represent imagined futures expanding beyond the typical narrow range. They explore 'impossible objects' and how constraints limit collective imagination. **Recognition and Validation** Dunne and Raby were delighted to receive the Royal Designers for Industry award, valuing its recognition of their trajectory, not just current work. They appreciate the range of practices recognized. Bleecker sees it as validating their creative practice.
N°074 - Sascha Pohflepp
Sascha Poflepp was a German artist, collaborator, and friend. We dedicated The Manual of Design Fiction to him. It's important not to forget his contributions to creative thinking and making. In that spirit, I managed to extract the audio tape from a panel I organized at SxSW back in 2010 on the topic of Design Fiction in which Sascha contributed a remarkably clear and cogent perspective through his own work.
Also contributing to the panel were Stuart Candy, Jake Dunagen, Jennifer Leonard, Bruce Sterling, and myself.
You can see Sasha's slides cued to his presentation here: https://youtu.be/XDp_TsKqk3o
N°073 - Lila Feldman Emerging Creative Consciousness
Lila Feldman is a designer based in NYC. She received her BA in 3D Design: Product + Furniture from Northumbria University and her MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design.
https://lilafeldman.com/
Lila and I discussed finding purpose in creative practice and how creativity, imagination, and a futures-oriented mindset can help reinvigorate the potential for bringing about meaningful change through individual as well as team-based design practices.
If you want to hear more of these types of conversations, become a Patron over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory.
If you want to read more about creative practice and the approach I use here at Near Future Laboratory, check out all the books and artifacts from the future over at https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com, especially "The Manual of Design Fiction" and my follow-on book just released the other day, "It's Time To Imagine Harder: The Reader's Guide To The Manual of Design Fiction". (Plus there's the 10th Anniversary printing of a rejuvinated "TBD Catalog" — the product catalog from the future.
Thanks for listening!
_Julian
N°072 - Che-Wei Wang CW&T
If you're curious to hear about what it takes to dream into, create, build, grow, maintain an independent creative studio and practice, you'll want to listen to this conversation with Che-Wei Wang and myself. We talk about the importance of creativity and how it can be used to create meaningful change, and the need for a balance between creativity and structure and how to create an environment that fosters collaboration.
https://cwandt.com
If you want to hear more of these types of conversations, become a Patron over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory.
If you want to read more about creative practice and the approach I use here at Near Future Laboratory, check out all the books and artifacts from the future over at https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com, especially "The Manual of Design Fiction" and my follow-on book just released the other day, "It's Time To Imagine Harder: The Reader's Guide To The Manual of Design Fiction". (Plus there's the 10th Anniversary printing of a rejuvinated "TBD Catalog" — the product catalog from the future.
Thanks for listening!
_Julian
N°071 - Geoff Manaugh (CGI Ghosts and Defensive Grappling In Zero G)
This episode is a conversation with writer and noted architecture critic Geoff Manaugh, who has written for the The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Financial Times Magazine, New Scientist, Cabinet Magazine, The Daily Beast, Wired UK amongst many other publications.
He also co-authored with Nicola Twilley the book ‘Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, and A Burglar’s Guide to the City on the relationship between crime and architecture. And most recently, a ghost story he wrote called ‘Ernest’ back in 2017 was adapted for film and recently released on Netflix under the title ‘We Have A Ghost’, which was beautiful and fun and clever and I recommend you watch it after listening to this episode.
Don't forget to like, write a review and share the podcast amongst your friends and colleagues, and support the podcast on https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Find all of our artifacts from the future, including 'The Manual of Design Fiction' over at https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com
Thank you for listening!
N°070 - Juliana Schneider — More.Than.Human-Centered Design
Juliana Schneider is a trend researcher, futures designer and creative strategist with diverse and extensive experience in the creative industry. She helps people and businesses make sense of the world around them and build stories and strategies that inspire us to engage with the challenges of a rapidly changing world.
https://julianajschneider.com/
Please support the podcast over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and don't forget to pick up your copy of The Manual of Design Fiction, now in its second printing. Published fiercely independently by Near Future Laboratory.
http://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com
Thank you!
N°069 - Dr. Delfina Fantini van Ditmar — A Not Too Comfortable Future
Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar is a biologist, design researcher and Senior Lecturer. Her practice is concerned with ecological thinking, reflective practices, epistemological paradigms and alternative futures.
https://www.rca.ac.uk/more/staff/dr-delfina-fantini-van-ditmar/
Please support the podcast over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Thank you!
_ Julian
N°068 - Futures of Fashion, a Digest of General Seminar S04E01 (29)
This is a digest of General Seminar S04E01 where Drew Wiberg, Kempe Scanlan and I took about 30 folks into the Futures of Fashion had a look around, and we brought back some Design Fiction artifacts from that future to share with you!
General Seminar is the platform I created for sense-making against the beautiful confusion of all the new 'futuristic' things we confront seemingly every day. So in General Seminar we take on these topics, with none of the hubris that one puts on to try and 'predict' the future, and wander around to see what we see and reflect on the way the world is becoming. I've boiled down 90 minutes to about 45 to give you a sense of some corners of the conversation.
If you want to find out more about General Seminar and all the other things going on over at the Near Future Laboratory join our email list: https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter.
And don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support would be very much appreciated.
N°067 - Tucker Viemeister (The Last Industrial Designer)
Tucker Viemeister is an American industrial designer, and founder of Viemeister Industries in New York City.
Please consider supporting this podcast and joining us here at Near Future Laboratory by getting behind all of this over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
N°066 - Your Daily Design Fiction Exercise Regimen
My special guest Dré Labre, proprietor over at https://www.designfictiondaily.com/ discusses how he has been training for the Imagine Harder marathon later this year, and how he uses the new 2023 Work Kit of Design Fiction, which drops in a limited release on April 20th 2023!
https://www.designfictiondaily.com
https://shop.nearfuturelaboratory.com/products/the-work-kit-of-design-fiction-2023-mj-edition
Support the podcast over on Patreon: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — every Patron gets a legit invite to the Near Future Laboratory Discord!
Thank you for your listening!
- Julian
N°065 - A Magazine from the Autonomous Future, A Design Fiction Project Debrief
How does Design Fiction do the work of reporting on the future? Most futures reports are heavily analytic, styled to be read analytically and interpreted as data. Very seldom if at all is there any point of entry to create a sense of the future as something the report has come from. And this is important because the artifact itself — the report — provides little opportunity to experience the future as it could possibly be.
This is where Design Fiction provides an opportunity for teams and organizations that are working towards a future to gain a more full spectrum sense of possible futures that can tie directly in to their day-to-day work.
This is how Design Fiction has always functioned. From the seminal TBD Catalog (10th Anniversary Edition coming soon!) to IKEA Catalog and the scores of other Design Fiction projects the Near Future Laboratory has done for commercial clients over the years. Design Fiction brings the future to you, rather than simply projecting into it.
In this episode Patrick Pittman and I discuss a recent client project where we created a Magazine from the Future, in this case we took our client to the autonomous vehicle future, took a look around, found a trade magazine for autonomous vehicle enthusiasts, and brought it back. It's full of context.
Visit https://magazinefromthefuture.com to find out more and schedule a call to get more details.
Also, consider supporting the podcast and the Near Future Laboratory Discord community over at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
Thank you for listening!
- Julian
https://tbdcatalog.com
https://ikea.nearfuturelaboratory.com/
https://magazinefromthefuture.com
https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
N°064 - From Collectors to Creators: A Design Fiction Debrief with Thomas Euyang
This is a Episode 64 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast, a Design Fiction Debrief with Thomas Euyang, where we breakdown his Design Fiction project 'From Collectors to Creators'.
From Collectors to Creators is a design fiction where our relationship with clothing, especially footwear is fundamentally different. Using found footage from cobblers and sneaker redesigners, a documentary offers a glimpse into an alternative world where the importance of newness is replaced with heritage, disposability with repairability, and mass production with craft.
Please support the podcast over on Patreon. Every patron gets an invitation to the Near Future Laboratory Discord, which is really where all the action is happening!
https://euyang.info/Future-of-Cobbling
https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
N°063 - Imagining the Future of the Imagination Academy with Will Richardson
Will Richardson is a life-long educator and co-founder along with Homa Tavangar of The Big Questions Institute, was was created to help educators use 'fearless inquiry' to make sense of the complex moment and uncertainty felt around the future. In this episode we focus specifically on the ebook he and his co-founder recently created called 'One Foot In The Future' containing new frameworks, tools, and lenses to help educators imagine what comes next.
https://bigquestions.institute/
https://bigquestions.institute/onefootebook/
Please consider supporting the podcast over on Patreon at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support goes a long way towards keeping these episodes going, largely by signaling to me that you find value in what's being discussed in here. Support is pretty easy, and generally affordable — there are two tiers at the moment: $8/month ($2 per week!) or $25 for those who can afford more. Every patron gets an invitation to the Near Future Laboratory Discord, where the magic seems to happen daily!
Thanks!
Julian
N°062 - Structure vs. Imagination with Andy Polaine
Andy Polaine is a designer, educator, writer and podcast guy. He hosts the wonderful 'Power of Ten' podcast. Andy is known for his work as a service designer, innovation consultant and professional executive coach.
Don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support would be very much appreciated.
Oh, also? Please rate and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts. That stuff really does help!
Thank you!
Julian
N°061 - The Machines Make The Spoons with Simone & Matteo
Simone Rebaudengo and Matteo Loglio are founders of the fun, eclectic, speculative design studio OiO. We had a fun chat about their latest conjuring, 'Spawns' where they taught a machine to make spoons, and then manufactured them in one of the oldest silverware factories in Italy.
https://oio.studio/
https://oio.store
http://www.simonerebaudengo.com/
https://matlo.me/
If you want to find out more about the Near Future Laboratory join our email list: https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter.
And don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support would be very much appreciated.
Oh, also? Please rate and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts. That stuff really does help!
Thank you!
Julian
N°060 - ChatGPT Futures, a Digest of General Seminar S03 E26
This is a digest of General Seminar S03 E26 where we traveled into the ChatGPT future, had a look around, and brought back some Design Fiction artifacts. General Seminar is the platform I created for sense-making against the beautiful confusion of all the new 'futuristic' things we confront seemingly every day. So in General Seminar we take on these topics, with none of the hubris that one puts on to try and 'predict' the future, and wander around to see what we see and reflect on the way the world is becoming. I've boiled down 90 minutes to about 35 to give you a sense of some corners of the conversation.
If you want to find out more about General Seminar and all the other things going on over at the Near Future Laboratory join our email list: https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter.
And don't forget — please support the podcast and all the things over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory. Your support would be very much appreciated.
Oh, also? Please rate and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts. That stuff really does help!
Thank you!
Julian
https://www.generalseminar.com/season-03-episode-26
https://tinyurl.com/nfl-newsletter
N°059 - The Year In The Rear View
Got together with Nicolas Nova (who was sitting on his living room sofa in Geneva) and Zach Hyman (who was sitting in a hotel lobby in Singapore) to reflect on what we think of when we think of 2022.
Please support the podcast over on Patreon at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and write a review of the podcast over on Apple Podcasts! It really does help!
Pick up your copy of The Manual of Design Fiction over at http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
And get one of the last remaining Work Kits of Design Fiction over at https://nearfuturelaboratory.myshopify.com/products/the-work-kit-of-design-fiction-2023-product-design-work-kit
N°058 - We Are Hypercollaborative with Toby Barnes
Toby Barnes (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobybarnes/) is a design strategist with a range of experiences and interests, including at AKQA, Nike, and now Amazon. Toby and I have been longing for a revival of the kinds of creative community experiences, gatherings, retreats, and workshops that flourished around the turn of the century, and that is what motivates the conversations we've been having over the last several months, including looking at the Near Future Laboratory community as an experiment in Hypercollaboration.
Please support the Podcast by either becoming a Patron (https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory) and rating and writing a review of the podcast over here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/near-future-laboratory-podcast/id1546452193
Want to know more? Have a listen, and get in touch: https://linktr.ee/bleeckerj
-Julian
N°057 - Design Fiction with Domus Academy & Speculative Futures Milan
Thank you to Gabriele Ferri, the staff and students who participated from Domus Academy and Speculative Futures Milan, especially Silvio Cioni for organizing.
You can support this podcast at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — your support is very much appreciated!
Also, you can purchase your copy of the first printing of The Manual of Design Fiction here: http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
Please subscribe, rate the podcast, and write a review! It all really helps!
Thank you!
https://www.domusacademy.com/
https://twitter.com/Futures_Milan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cioni/
https://www.gabrieleferri.com/
N°056 - The Manual of Design Fiction with Patrick Pittman and Chris Frey
A conversation with Patrick Pittman and Chris Frey who are collectively https://no-media.co/who are the folks who shepherded us through the design, writing, editing, production of The Manual of Design Fiction, which is still available for pre-order! http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
Please support the podcast over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory!
And rate and write a review, please!
Want to chat? Let's grab a coffee! https://calendly.com/julian-bleecker/coffee-chat
N°055 - The Manual of Design Fiction with Nicolas Nova
A short discussion with Nicolas Nova on his take on our recently completed book 'The Manual of Design Fiction'.
You can find more about Nicolas here: http://www.nicolasnova.net/
And order The Manual of Design Fiction here: http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
Please consider supporting the podcast at: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and writing a review on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!
Contact me at https://julianbleecker.com for a chat!
N°054 - Design Fiction Imagining for Autonomous Vertical Takeoff with Dave Gray
Dave Gray uses visual tools and techniques known as "drawing" in order to unlock the potential of imagining possible worlds. He founded XPLANE in 1993 as a platform to his life-long commitment to the ineluctable fact that analytic thinking on its own cannot solve the challenges most organizations and societies face. Visual imagining and images are the counterpoint to balance an over-reliance on analytics, and allows us to sense into possibilities in a uniquely powerful way.
N°053 - Design Fiction for the Master of Business Administration with Mathieu Aguesse
Oh, by the way – we wrote a manual of design fiction called, conveniently, The Manual of Design Fiction! You can pre-order it now (shipping early November!) over at themanualofdesignfiction.com
Please consider supporting the podcast over on patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — you support comes with access to the Near Future Laboratory Discord, our experiment in hypercollaboration. You won't want to miss all of that.
N°052 - Speculative Futures as a Design Approach with Johanna Hoffman
My guest this episode is Johanna Hoffman, who's book 'Speculative Futures: Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Cities We Need" is now available. Johanna is an urbanist working in the space between design, planning, fiction and futures. The Co-Founder and Director of Planning at Design for Adaptation. We discuss her introduction to design fiction and speculative futures practices, as well as the topics she covers in the book.
Please support the podcast over at patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory
And don't forget — The Manual of Design Fiction is now available for pre-order shipping early November! You can pre-order over at http://themanualofdesignfiction.com
N°051 - After Action Report / ASU's Design Fiction as Science Fiction Panel
This is a lightly edited after action report we did reflecting back on the ASU Applied Science Fiction panel (https://csi.asu.edu/calendar/events/designing-the-future-with-applied-sci-fi/) during the Near Future Laboratory Discord's regular Friday Office Hours. The panel sparked lots of insights, considerations, and ideas that we naturally wanted to discuss. In attendance were Isabella, Dré, Nick M., Nic, Kempe, and myself.
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N°050 - A 21st Century Enlightenment with Joe Lindley Windermere Tapes Box 050 Tape 05
Joe Lindley runs Design Research Works, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship which aims to understand, gather evidence about, and promote leadership for Design Research. I'm particularly interested in the role that Design Research plays in understanding rapidly-changing relationships between individuals, society, and technology.
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/security-lancaster/about/all-staff/joseph-lindley
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N°049 - Windermere Tapes Box 050 Tape 04 with Paulina Yurman: The Design Innovators' Design Dilemma
Paulina Yurman, Ph.D. is a a designer, researcher and lecturer who works in design research, and has a background in engineering and industrial design.
Please support this podcast over on patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and rate on Apple Podcasts, write a review, and share widely! Together, we can reinvigorate design practices and put creativity and curiosity into the service of meaningful, purposeful directions that will make the world a more habitable place.
N°048 - Windermere Tapes Box 050 Tape 03 with Alan Hook: Designing Augmented Alternate Reality When Every Community Is Its Own Private QAnon
This is from the Windermere Tapes Box 050 Tape 03 with Alan Hook, a Lecturer in Interactive Media and a Researcher in New Media and Play at Ulster University. Alan teaches Games Studies and New Media Studies within the School of Media Film and Journalism.
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Thank you for listening!
Julian
N°47 — The 'Third Space Conversation' Windermere Tapes Box 050 Tape 02 with Futures Designer Laura Dudek
Alt-Academia, Alt-Industry, Alt-R&D with Laura Dudek at the Design Research Works Jamboree, Brathay Hall, Windermere, UK
https://2021.rca.ac.uk/students/laura-dudek
https://jamboree.designresearch.works/
If you feel that this work contributes some meaningful value to your day, please take a moment to support the work over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory, and then write a review, rate, and share it widely so more listeners can feel the same. Thank you!
- Julian
N°46 — 1.5° Futures, Windermere Tapes Box 050, Tape 01 with Tobias Revell
Tobias Revell in conversation with Julian Bleecker at Research Through Design 2022 at Brathay Hall, Windermere UK on or about August 2022.
https://jamboree.designresearch.works
Tobias' reflections on the Design Research Works Jamboree: https://blog.tobiasrevell.com/2022/08/10/box077-an-hypothesis/
If you feel that this work contributes some meaningful value to your day, please take a moment to support the work over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory, and then write a review, rate, and share it widely so more listeners can feel the same. Thank you!
- Julian
N°45 — Design Fiction and The Generalist with Joe Lindley & Paul Coulton
A conversation with Joe Lindley PhD and Paul Coulton PhD about the role of The Generalist and Design Fiction to see the unanticipated and unexpected possibilities of design in shaping future products, strategies, ideas, and worlds.
Please support this podcast by becoming a Near Future Laboratory Patron over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and join the Near Future Laboratory Discord.
You can read Joe's doctoral thesis 'A thesis about design fiction' here: https://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/a-thesis-about-design-fiction(1b771f57-1c78-4bda-9d38-b0f452c983ac).html and the full breadth of his research here: https://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/joseph-lindley and his project Design Works here: https://designresearch.works/.
And Paul's work can be found here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lica/about/people/paul-coulton — they have so many collaborative research projects and papers that you'll find a really rich trove of insights and thought-provoking material so beware the beautiful rabbit hole!
Thanks for listening and thank you to all of my awesome patrons.
-Julian
N°44 — Meow Wolf, Public Policy, and Design Fiction with SRG Bennett
A conversation with Stephen Bennett and his work at the UK's Policy Lab where design fiction, experiential design, speculative design meets the technocratic machine of policy and decision making.
The best way you can become part of the Near Future Laboratory and help out is to support this podcast right now over at https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory and rate the podcast, write a review, and share through whatever platform on which you are presently listening! Patreon supporters get access to our supporters' only Discord community where all the things happen.
Interested in discussing how Design Fiction can become part of your organizations' strategy and design-based decision making? Want to learn more about Design Fiction? You can find all the links to get in touch here: https://linktr.ee/bleeckerj
https://www.srgbennett.com/
https://openpolicy.blog.gov.uk/
N°43 — Computer Art Pioneer Herbert W. Franke & Susanne Paech
Back in May I had a conversation with Susanne Paech, the wife of pioneering computer artist Herbert W. Franke. Franke passed away on July 16th. He had just turned 96 in May. Franke was a true innovator, exploring with a pioneer's curiosity the ways humans and machines could collaborate to create unexpected work together. Before computer art was "a thing" and before it was at all obvious as to the processes by which one would create or collaborate with a machine, Herbert was pushing ahead. As with most innovators, it wasn't at all clear to those who had a firm grip on what could count as 'aesthetics' or 'art' that this was anything worthy of consideration. Nevertheless he continued to place value on these explorations and collaborations with everything from an oscilloscope to an Apple II and onward.
Please support this podcast over at Patreon! It makes a big difference, and helps me continue to develop and produce this content. And please rate the podcast, write a review on whatever platform you're listening, and share it widely!
🙋🏽♂️
N°42 — Sci-Fi, Museum of the Future, & Blade Runner with Fred Scharmen
This conversation is with Fred Scharmen. Fred teaches architecture and urban design at Morgan State University's School of Architecture and Planning. He is the co-founder of the Working Group on Adaptive Systems, an art and design consultancy based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Fred's recent book 'Space Settlements' is his reflection on a 1975 program in engineering and systems design that was held at Stanford University, which itself resulted in a research report called 'Space Settlements: A Design Study'
Fred and the Near Future Laboratory recently collaborated on installations for the Museum of the Future in Dubai. They recently published a Medium article on the project called 'An Archeology for the Future in Space', which dives into the design fiction approach we undertook.
Please consider supporting the podcast over on the Near Future Laboratory's Patreon page. Your support really does help keep this podcast and the Design Fiction Newsletter going! Thank you to my awesome Patrons!
N°41 — Design Fiction with Elliott P. Montgomery
Elliott and I discuss some meta topics related to speculative design generally speaking and design fiction, the way its practiced, taught, and received in academic as well as commercial contexts. We also discuss the map he created 'Unresolved Map of Speculative Design' which should not be taken as literal rather as a provocation and conversation starter to discuss (not resolve) the role, relationships, situatedness, and purposes of futures thinking and the futures mindset.
This map has been generative some others whose practice operates in the general space of futures design (https://blog.tobiasrevell.com/2020/08/05/box-006-gadget-realism/, https://futurehumanbydesign.com/2019/09/futures-thinking-and-design-thinking/) and recently I found it quite helpful for describing the 'Where' of design fiction in a conversation with a c-level executive who wanted to have a better sense of where it 'fit' alongside other practices within their innovation design teams. I discuss this further in the Issue 32 of the Design Fiction Newsletter.
Elliott P. Montgomery is a design researcher, strategist and educator whose work focuses on speculative inquiries at the confluence of social, technological and environmental impact. He is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Design and Management at Parsons School of Design, The New School, teaching in the MFA Transdisciplinary Design Program and across the School of Design Strategies. He is also the co-founder of The Extrapolation Factory, an award winning design-futures research studio based in Brooklyn. He was previously a design research resident at the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, Energy as well receiving the Graham Foundation's Individual Grant and The Shed's Open Call commission. He holds a Master's in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art in London and a Bachelor's in Industrial Design from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
N°40 — Speculative Design with Kontrapunkt
A conversation with Jonas Schmidt and Philip Linnemann from the design agency Kontrapunkt. We discuss the state of play around the broad collection of practices we refer to as speculative design, and their new futures tool, Kontrapunkt Futures: https://futures.kontrapunkt.com/
Philip also recently gave a TEDx talk discussing the concept of futures design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj63yLFBZdk
Kontrapunkt: https://www.kontrapunkt.com/
Kontrapunkt Futures: https://futures.kontrapunkt.com/
N°39 — Simone Rebaudengo Futures Designer
Simone Rebaudengo describes himself as "a designer?" He works at the intersection of tradition and unanticipated possibilities that are implicated in possible futures and adjacent presents.
Simone's early experiments with what an IoT world could (should?) look like involved a global networked web of kitchen toasters that playfully forced us to think about our relationship to appliances, and were the only toasters in the history of appliances to have a waiting list. Recently, his studio OiO contributed to the Dubai Museum of the Future project, an epic intervention to instill a very specific imaginary about space travel and space colonies as our future.
I caught up with Simone last week just outside of London, a fortuitous encounter while we were both working on a client project.
N°38 — Julian Montague
Julian Montague is an artist, designer, and illustrator. I first came across his work through his Instagram feed, where he occasionally features 'faux books, posters and record album covers. The playful nature of these speculations caught my attention, as well as the way they speculated, of course. It resonates with my own interests in uses of fiction in design specifically, and not just as an idiom of writing. Please consider supporting the podcast over at Patreon, and rate and write a review right here — wherever you happen to be listening. Your support really does help!
N°37 — Life On Mars with Camille MacRae
This episode of the Near Future Laboratory is an after action report with Camille MacRae about her experience of life on Mars.
Mars College is an educational program, R&D lab, and off-grid residential community dedicated to cultivating a low-cost, high-tech lifestyle, and Camille spent 3 months there in the desert earlier this year and took a few minutes to share her experience.
You can read more about Mars over at https://mars.college
And more about Camille here: https://camillemakes.work/Information
Please rate, write a review, and share the Near Future Laboratory podcast amongst your friends, teammates and colleagues.
If you're interested in working with us, it's easy. Just visit https://nearfuturelaboratory.com or email send me an email via https://julianbleecker.com
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Thank you for your support!
Julian
N°36 — Andrew Dana Hudson Post Normal Fiction
Andrew Dana Hudson is an speculative fiction writer, researcher, futurist who's novel 'Our Shared Storm: A Novel of Five Climate Futures' was just published. We get into a range of topics around ways of imagining possible futures, particularly around wicked and super-wicked problems where there are often no clear solutions, something he works through in 'Our Shared Storm'.
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Thank you for listening and thank you for your support!
N°35 — General Seminar 20 "METALABELS WTF!?"
This is a special episode of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast — a digest of General Seminar 20 which was on the topic of "METALABELS". So this episode consists of excerpts from that seminar, along with some commentary for context. Thanks to all the wonderful participants from that session!
Some links mentioned:
https://www.thecut.com/2022/02/a-vibe-shift-is-coming.html
If you dig this topic, you'll probably dig the Near Future Laboratory Discord community. Contact me at about joining the Near Future Laboratory in there.
Please support the Near Future Laboratory Podcast over on Patreon — https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory — Your support is very much appreciated and helps me know that you value the effort that goes into producing the show!
Want to find out more about General Seminar? Looking to bring General Seminar into your team or organization to help flex your imagination muscle and be a better futures thinker? Get in touch! https://generalseminar.com
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