A Sprint For A Brave New World

Andra Bria
Jul 20, 2017 · 5 min read

The Ageing Initiative

In May 2017 we held a debate and hack around the issue of Ageing, a broad societal initiative that has proven to be of interest for many young professionals within science, design and UX, who wanted to challenge themselves in order to find creative solutions around the topic.

1. We suggested eight themes

1. MOBILITY 2. WORK 3. A FRIENDLY CITY 4. SOCIAL LIFE 5. ENHANCERS FOR AN ACTIVE LIFE 6. AGEISM IN MEDIA AS A FEMINIST ISSUE 7. INTER-GENERATIONAL EXCHANGES 8. HEALTHCARE AND WELLBEING

It’s worth mentioning that, while ideating, we found out that the themes were inevitably connected, and that you can find a solution for a topic, while ideating for another. So here are a few of them:

2. And we have found several solutions

2.a. Smart devices for mobility and a friendlier city

We have been thinking about smart watches and how we can connect them to the owner’s medical records; or to the public transportation infrastructure, in such a way that those elements can become active and responsive whenever a senior is approaching (let’s say ramps or bus seats for elders).

Further on, we explored the idea of mobility devices sharing- such as sharing your wheelchair.

After doing some research, we found WeDrive, a service that connects WHILL owners (personal electric wheelchairs) to set-up test-drives and share experiences.

2.b. Wellness and healthcare

Here, we thought about ageing more in terms of wellness and prevention, rather than disease treatment. And from this point of view, sports and social life play an important role.

We also concluded that inter-generational spaces, fitness spaces in parks and residential areas could be an efficient way to deal with isolation and loneliness.

2.c. Social life and inter-generational exchanges

We started exploring the issue of inter-generational exchanges and how we can foster more interactions between generations. One way would be through skill-sharing.

We asked ourselves how business cards for the elders would look like, and we realised their professions might very well begin with Teacher of or Master of… because what they really are is Masters of life-skills.

Then we started questioning how we could make them feel less lonely- maybe by developing their network and their social lives? And what if we created a newspaper or magazine where they could find dedicated events?

Or maybe there could be a way of connecting them through common hobbies: take fishing, for example.

There was this joke about Tinder for elders. But I didn’t take it as a joke. I think that wanting to connect, even at an intimate level, happens at any age.

Elders often feel depressed while they age, so they need community and friends more than anything. They need to feel useful. So enabling them to offer services such as: babysitting, home-cooking or even life advice would be a good idea.

2.d. How we tackle preconceptions?

How we can convince a generation that has been so inflexible, so disengaged, so resistant to change, to think differently? How can we make someone who believes pension is a right, to start thinking about making an income on its own? Becoming self-sustainable?

How many decisions are elders making each day? And how many are the youngsters making?

Asking ourselves these questions could change possibly be a way to think over our preconceptions on ageing.

2.e. Workplace ageism

We ideated around how a CV should be built and how hiding age, profile pictures or education could enable a less biased judgement and could foster more equitable assessments.

2.f. Ageing as a feminist issue

What if we gave up anti-ageing creams? What about ageing in grace? We started questioning the issue of fashion and age. And how stereotypes such as: “she’s too old to wear that colour / size / model” can contribute to the propagation of stereotypes.

So we thought about starting a campaign: Wear clothes, not labels, where we would lead a social experiment: take two similar pieces of clothing and put different labels on them: one that writes: *for the young*, another that writes *for the old* and wait to see reactions, both from women and men.

2.g. And some food for thought — dialogue between generations

What are those questions that we will spark conversations and fresh ideas between generations? What would you ask an elder person? How about not asking people about their age, but about the historical moments they lived?

What are your plans for the future? What do you think about travelling to Mars? What would you do if you were 20 again? How to cut wood? Tell me about customs and traditions. What decade would you live again? What historical moment would you live again? How many experiences have you lived? How many times did you listen to your intuition and your intuition was right? What are your plans for the future? How many experienced have you lived? How many Moore’s laws have you lived? “

Because life is not defined by your age, but by the number of meaningful experiences you had.

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Andra Bria

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Just a left wing girl in a right wing world

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