“What if carbon footprints were as valuable as currency? What if carbon footprints and offsetting practices are a part of education? What if cycles become customizable based on our needs?” holding the mic, Vyn addressed the questions to the students of St. Xaviers College. She had been invited as a guest speaker to talk about her recent works on Design futures and how it can be extremely useful in provoking conversations about topics like climate change, intergenerational justice, politics, inequality, etc.
“The future is not just you or me but the entire generation that doesn’t even exist yet”, she continued, “This responsibility and unpredictability that the word ‘future’ brings with it, is scary. We are often heard saying ‘Don’t think of the future, live in the present’ but we forget that they are interconnected and thus need equal attention.” Pointing at the screen with her laser pointer, she explained, “The Futures cones, the diagram by Hancock and Bezold talks about different types of futures represented using a flashlight. Each beam has its own significance with the broadest one bringing light to every ‘Possible’ future. The second one showing ‘Plausible’ futures stemming from our current understanding of physical laws, processes, causation or systems of human interaction. The third one showing the ‘Probable’ futures that are most likely to happen. And finally, the ‘Preferable’ futures that overlap between the other three and are the most desirable ones.”
Moving to the next slide she showed them the Preferable World she had created with her friends a few years back, inspired by Mesh’s article on Southwark Weekly 2031. She explained, “The Preferable World makes us think about what the future likely holds thus helping us decide our course of actions to be taken in the present and motivates us to achieve those goals.”
Changing the slide once again she continued, “Following this, another method that is useful in deciding these actions is Backcasting. With just three easy steps, it helps us identify actions, systems, organizations, etc. that need to be banned today, amplified for tomorrow and created to exist in that future.” Sharing another example from one of her projects she explained further, “These newly created concepts with the ban or amplification of others, helps us think about the ‘What if’ questions, such that were mentioned earlier.”
“However”, with a sense of seriousness, she continued, “These concepts or objects of the future would only make sense and provoke right conversations if they are believable. And to be convincing, there has to be a balance between being completely dystopian (creating a future with great suffering) or utopian (creating an idealistic or perfect future).” Sharing her personal experience, she said, “Drawing attention to things that people usually fail to notice or that are part of our daily life brings out curiosity. Ordinary objects like our credit cards, a vase, specs, etc. that surround us casually can tell extraordinary stories of the type of world we live in. Objects as simple as straws explain the shifts societies go through over time, for example in this case, from being plastic users to moving to greener options.” Giving the audience a few minutes to comprehend everything, she was suddenly aware of the number of eyes on her. With a slight smile, she finally broke the silence. “And now, to understand it more practically, I would like all of you to do a small exercise.” She explained the task and gave everyone half an hour to think of Concepts or objects of the future. Conscious of the time constraint, she asked them to base these objects on the ‘What if’ questions she had displayed earlier and remarked, “Speculate, don’t exaggerate!” Keeping the mic down and starting the timer, she moved backstage. The excitement and enthusiasm in the crowd filled her with joy. It was her dream come true.
To be continued…
Reference to exercises conducted in class. The second and third images are actual outcomes of the activities, ‘Preferable World’ and ‘Backcasting’ respectively.
Other References:
Allen, S. (2019, May 1). How Thinking About The Future Makes Life More Meaningful. Available at: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_thinking_about_the_future_makes_life_more_meaningful (Accessed: May 5, 2021).
Bland, J., Westlake, S. (2013, May). Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: A Modest Defence of Futurology, pp.9.
