Over the summer of 2006 I worked in FORESIGHT (a think tank based in the Government Office for Science) to envision the impact of the predicted obesity epidemic over the next 50 years. I worked in collaboration with Michael Burton in the development of our scenarios which are explained further in the tackling obesities website.

The Foresight project on obesity will launch its findings at the RSA, London on October 17th 2007.

Other links: bbc news, google news

Recent RCA graduates + students together with Fiona Raby ran a workshop at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Lancaster University. The workshop was part of the ongoing 'New Sciences of Protection: Designing Safe Living' research programme [see earlier news entry]

The social scientists and designers began their discussions in the speculative space of the 2018 Tower Hamlets unregulated zone. It was up to the scientists to give feedback as experts in their particular field and work in multi disciplinary teams to instigate new services, protocols and institutes. The merging of these multiple paradigms of thinking created opportunities for much debate and inspiration.

Designers involved: Tanya, James, Jon, Michiko, Michael, Tuur, Revital, Fiona and me.

Michael Burton and I recently introduced our work to the BA Fine Art students at Lancaster University. We discussed how it might be possible to use Superfictions & Self-Fulfilling Prophecies as a tool for idea generation when addressing the future implications of utopian science and technologies on our society. I presented the FATE institute and the 6sense / NANONOIA project whilst Michael introduced THE RACE.

In July I was involved in the Active Welfare Workshop, as part of the World Design Capital International Design Summer School in Torino. The workshop focused on the collaboration between designers and local public health representatives to explore the future potential of the local health system in south Torino.

I worked alongside a number of international designers who were working in various design arenas including strategic design, service design & urban design. Together with the workshop leaders, Lesh and Laszlo from FuelFor, we focused on rehabilitation, obesity and access to care. We worked in teams and carried out fieldwork at a rehabilitation hospital in a town called Fossano, interviewing various patients, family members, therapists, doctors & nurses. We gathered insights from the fieldwork creating various opportunities for a number of design proposals.

This image illustrates a number of issues that related to the freedom of patients when in rehabilitation and their desire to feel a sense of belonging when forced apart.

In October I will be exhibiting The Delphi Party service at EPIC, the ethnographic conference in Copenhagen.

The Delphi Party, a futures forecasting workshop, is a service offered by The Futures Association for Therapy and Entertainment (FATE Institute).

The Delphi Party draws on an area of horizon scanning known as the Delphi Technique; a roomful of experts are brought together in a workshop format to determine the future likelihood of a certain technology being adopted and utilised in society. In place of industry experts, friends and family members of a loved one are drawn together under the guidance of an experienced facilitator from the FATE institute to discuss his/hers future life path.

Using the collective mindset of the 'panel of experts', the FATE facilitator guides them to generate their own speculative outcomes of possible, probable and/or preferable variants of the loved one’s invisible future.

Visit my research blog for more background material

In December, Michael Burton and I were invited by FutureLab to a one day event as part of their long term futures programme; Beyond Current Horizons.

This research programme looks at the future of education, beyond 2025, in the context of social and technological change and investigating its implications for education.

We presented some of our current and past work to highlight ways of discussing futures that would provoke ideas to help other people to think about the future more critically. Our Foresight Tackling Obesities project work was also presented for the first time illustrating one way to synthesise science opinion and hypothesis into thought provoking What If? scenarios.

More can be read of the outcomes of this futures programme on the Beyond Current Horizons blog >

In December ‘08 I was asked to be an ‘embedded reporter’ for the Royal college of art MA Design Interactions 'Tribal Futures' project, sponsored by Vodafone.

Working alongside Matt Jones, Onkar Kular and Tony Dunne, my duties included attending talks and tutorials in order to populate the Tribal Futures research blog that was used as a shared communication channel between all students of the MA course and members of the Vodafone UX team in London and Dusseldorf.

The 4 week project asked the students to consider the implications the emergent changes in communications technology will have on group behaviour. To identify or create a group and propose design interventions to support, subvert and celebrate tribal connections.

 

A presentation given to the 1st and 2nd years of MA Design Interactions at the RCA about my Post RCA adventures since 2007. A great opportunity for reflecting on my past and deciding on my future.

Recent collaborative work to create five 'ad-hoc' book boxes with Tim Parsons for the Airmail exhibition at the GOODD gallery space in Glasgow.

Lightness can be seen as a state of being & thinking as well as a physical quality of material. The book Adhocism by Charles Jencks & Nathan Silver published in 1970s presents a treatise on lightness through the re-use of what is around us. The book boxes express the philosophy of the contents of the book they contain.

Airmail presents twelve new products that deal with lightness in everyday objects. Open from 29 May - 28 June, show open to public, (28 May, private view)

The latest in tourist holidaying is the "Holiday at the Airport ". There is no longer the need to actually leave the country but to enjoy the experience of being at the airport about to leave for a fantasy trip abroad.Similar to the theme park experience, at the end of the security queue you receive a photo of your xray baggage and footage of you and your friends/family queuing with fear and excitement.

You receive photos of the people you meet, the places you loiter, the food you consume at the many vending and fast food chains.You relish the moment you find that your flight is delayed and the electricity in the airport has failed. The moments you share with strangers will never be replaced, they are unique and you savor every angry word, stressed and confused face. You audio record the moment the airport representatives fob you off and the budget airlines blame each other...

This is the new 'Holiday At the Airport", just as Ballard might have depicted.

What if you could create a self-reflective diary that made use of our everyday thoughts to provoke us in such a way that you were able to change your future actions?

Inspired by the abundance of self-help books, self-discovery personality tests and psychometric questionnaires, the Microtrend Diary is a mirror of your daily actions and emotions that reveal provocative ways to alter your future actions.

This personalised diary, is printed to order based on a set of preliminary personality questions. As the owner makes a daily record of their actions, a unique set of provocative aide memoirs are revealed under a perforated flap that suggest changing your behaviour in certain ways for the following day.

‘The Microtrend Diary’ was generated during my final year on the MA Design Interactions course in 2007 and recently developed this 2nd prototype. I am currently looking to develop this further with some initial user testing and then publish a small batch for distribution.

Highlights from a two-week holiday to Japan with a focus on interactions, interfaces, electronic devices, cultural phenomena, paper making, kimono dyeing, sakura and hanami.

Tackling Obesities: the two-year project Michael Burton and I were involved in during our internship at the FORESIGHT government think tank was nominated for the:

Science and Technology Civil Service Awards for 2008 !
"An award that recognises best practice in the innovative use of science and technology as part of the policymaking or business planning process. "

 

 

In January I was involved in a 5 day workshop focused on discovering future applications for Decision Support Systems (DSS). As part of a team of designers, developers, risk managers, facilitators + SME investors, we discussed the near to far future implications of DSS applications in various sci/tech, geopolitical and socio-demographic contexts.

More topics relating to DSS will be covered in my research blog in the near future.

I recently presented my nanonoia project at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Lancaster University as part of their academic research programme entitled New Sciences of Protection: Designing Safe Living.

Over the year a range of experts will present their research relating to the notion of safe living. I presented my project for their 'Proximities' workshop session and will be attending their next workshop entitled 'Protocols and Procedures' in February 2008.

I am currently their rapporteur for the year long programme attending workshops and creating an online presence to engage a wider audience.

Please visit the blog to learn more about telecare robots, slash proof school uniforms and robotic cow milking machines

How far down the rabbit hole do you really want to go? Do you live for the now or invest in your future? These questions are posed by the "Futures Association for Therapy and Entertainment"

The FATE institute, founded in 2021 is a quasi-scientific institute which applies an holistic approach to developing techniques of future self-knowledge.

The institute is divided into three therapy groups:"nature, nurture and neither" This system of services implements design-led strategies to create new personalized future forecasting methodologies in times of genetic determinism.

The FATE institute brings together research and design ideas to underpin "The Future of Self-Knowledge” philosophy; the cross fertilisation between three methodologies of future forecasting; ancient divination, corporate futurology and predictive gene testing.

Visit my research blog for more background material