Design for Desirable Futures @ IxDA Lausanne

by Marie-Cécile Godwin

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Marie-Cécile Godwin Thomas di Luccio IXDA Lausanne —16 April 2019 Design for  desirable futures

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Science & Vie n°500 - 1959

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Desirable futures? newscientist.com Artist: zearz lowtechlab.org NieuweMobiel.nl

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Field of action Photo by Greg Baker - AFP

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Field of possibilities

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design desirable futures? How do we

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2079 Business  as usual A future where we did not change anything to the way we live and design things

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Photo by Collin Armstrong on Unsplash — Event — Population Climate change conference 2042 500 millions — Society — Climate States collapsed, very high child mortality 25°C / 53°C — Resources — Lifestyle No more fossil fuels Empty cities 2079

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Photo by Collin Armstrong on Unsplash — Problems — Learnings Decline is slow and almost invisible, we cannot see a collapse before it happens Hell is other people Technical locks are very powerful We need to reconnect to the living, to Earth. We need to detect and break down technical locks 2079

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2063 Corpocracy A future where corporations join forces to save our current modern civilisation

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Photo by Asa Rodger on Unsplash — Event — Population GAFAM coalition for Earth 4 billion — Society — Climate corpocracy, regulated births 8°C / 45°C — Resources — Lifestyle Rare and heavily managed Security quarters and slums 2063

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Photo by Asa Rodger on Unsplash — Problems — Learnings Waiting for problems to solve themselves Trusting capitalistic corporations to solve problems "Hell is other people" — until it really is Everything is political Empowerment, individual and collective intellligence Free and open commons 2063

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2055 Climatoscientism A future where science tries to counteract the planet’s limits and their consequences

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Photo by Zack Smith on Unsplash — Event — Population ReTerraForm project 5 billion — Society — Climate Authoritarian scientiﬁc ecocracy -10°C / 40°C, 25°C / 60°C — Resources — Lifestyle Managed natural resources Hard outside of thermoregulate cities 2055

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Photo by Zack Smith on Unsplash — Problems — Learnings Protect only one part of humanity Clutter and "technologism" Loss of purpose Never underestimate toxic system’s resilience Repair Earth and the living, respect its limits We have to make choices 2055

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2048 Compensated Ecocracy A future where we try to compensate negative externalities, without stopping nevertheless

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Photo by Arkadiusz Podniesinski/REX Shutterstock — Event — Population 2038: raw materials crisis 10 billion, decreasing rapidly — Society — Climate High mortality, worldwide state collapse -5°C / 35°C — Resources — Lifestyle natural: abundant / fossil: depleted Violent / depopulated cities 2048

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Photo by Arkadiusz Podniesinski/REX Shutterstock — Problems — Learnings Hiding problems just make them worse Social, technical, philosophical locks Repair Earth, reconnect to it 2048

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2057 A sustainable future? A future that we enable right now and which takes into account our planet’s limits

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Photo by Arkadiusz Podniesinski/REX Shutterstock — Event — Population Climate strikes 5 billion — Society — Climate Ecofeminist democracy -10°C / 35°C — Resources — Lifestyle natural resources back to sustainability Resilient, green cities 2057

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Photo by Arkadiusz Podniesinski/REX Shutterstock — Problems — Learnings Sociological and technical locks prevent us from moving forward Alterity & pluralism Enable people to exercise their autonomy and intelligence Prepare ourselves emotionally and intellectually 2057

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These futures have something in common.

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How can we close these futures right now?

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You will ask us… "How? Where should we start?"

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Change starts from within

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"In my last breath, what will I say I have done?"

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Action ! How can we change the way we practice design?

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•Acknowledge and integrate Anthropocene as a focal starting point in our practice, •Refuse the inﬁnite growth dogma, •Plan and handle our artifacts and systems' externalities and life cycles, •Prove and assume design as a political act, •Preserve, even regenerate our planet's habitability, •Support ourselves as peers by creating convivial design tools.

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Anthropocenic Design Heuristics New postures of the self New  beginnings New modes  of action

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Anthropocenic Design Heuristics

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New  beginnings Planetary limits Empowerment Resources and scales Dismantling lock-ups Justice & re-politisation

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New  beginnings

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New  beginnings Corollary 1 : we cannot allow ourselves to genette any négative externality. The concept of "trash" must disappear from our practice. Corollary 2 : any resource utilisation creates either a human, social or environmental debt that has to be reimbursed anyhow. Actions : Design and plan life cycles, manage resources as debts, deﬁne every system’s perimeter, etc References : The Limits to Growth — Donella & Dennis Meadows - 1972 The Shift Project (https:// theshiftproject.org/en/ We exist within a ﬁnished and hermetic world: no matter and no energy comes from nowhere nor disappears. Planetary limits

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New postures  of the self Alignment / inspiration Prepare yourself emotionally Introspection, humility Inspect our tools for thought Alterity and pluralism

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New means  of action Bring beauty to the world Knowledge and commons Transdisciplinarity, offset skills "Show, not tell" Decrease negative, increase positive

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Tools Circular economy Energy Climate Low-tech design Ethics and inclusivity Economics Low-tech practical skills Defuturation Externalities …

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origensmedialab.org/closing-worlds/ Project Design Fiction Tools for action

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Good read Knowledge base Tools for action reinventingorganizations.com

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sarawb.com Good read Training Tools for action saﬁyaunoble.com

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theshiftproject.org Political program Training Tools for action

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Training Knowledge base Tools for action ourworldindata.com

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unschools.co Training Knowledge base Tools for action

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gauthierroussilhe.com/fr/posts/convert-low-tech Methods Low-tech Tools for action

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lowtechlab.org Training Low-tech Tools for action

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bloomsbury.com/uk/design-futuring-9781847882172/ Design Knowledge base Tools for action

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You might feel overwhelmed. And you might feel unable to see what to do next. It’s okay. You are far from being alone.

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Action ! Help us build our heuristics! You can add resources and links, enrich the knowledge base, reﬁne the principles, etc frama.link/commonfutures-heuristiques

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Action ! Let’s build frameworks and matrices for life cycle design and externality planning As well as some for energy consumption, CO2 production etc

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Action ! "Show, don’t tell" A tangible artifact or a real project is worth ten thousand words. If it’s real, no one can deny its existence. Release this POC into the wild!

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Action ! Let’s be radical The world will change only because of our radicalism and the way we don’t negotiate with ourselves. Soft compromise is not an option.

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Action ! Let’s be leaders, but not just any leader And let’s demand better leaders too!

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"Great warlords only ﬁght for the dignity of the weak"

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Action ! Let’s write our stories and wear them like a badge Your values, the path you took, your story are worth writing and reading. We need as many tales as possible. medium.com/common-futures

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No fight or cause is better than any other. There is room for everyone and every fight. Room for every way of fighting. Room for all angles. Let’s be better allies. Fight so that others can fight the way they want.

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What if it’s not enough? and our future becomes everything but desirable?

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There is no "good solution". There is no solution. We will not capture all the CO2 we produced during the last century. We cannot change the course of time. We have to deal with this new state of things. Will we collapse? Or will we degrade? It doesn’t matter. The difference lies in what we choose to do as of today.

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""In my last breath, I will be able to say that I did my best."

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So let’s do our best :)

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common-futures.org mcgodwin.com thomas.diluccio.fr Thomas di Luccio Marie-Cécile Godwin Designers

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common-futures.org mcgodwin.com thomas.diluccio.fr Thomas di Luccio Marie-Cécile Godwin Designers frama.link/futursdesirables