Preferable Worlds: Design Practices for Alternative Futures — A few months ago, just weeks before the pandemic began to rip apart the fabric of our everyday lives, I went on record with an admittedly silly, perhaps childish idea. If human history was a TV series —say, a thrilling cinematic documentary—the period we are living through would be a…

On images of the future as cybernetic belief systems — This is a slightly modified version of the paper I presented at the 23rd World Conference of the World Futures Studies Federation “Uses of the Futures” in Mexico City, September 2019. I want to thank my friend and colleague Emma Herrera for reading my paper. I explored the same ideas…

A brief for a new golden age. — There seems to be a lot of reflection going on these days about the evolution of design, the role it plays in shaping the way we live, and, perhaps most importantly, the potential futures for the discipline. This type of historical reflection always comes, either explicitly or implicitly, with a…

Algunos comentarios sobre ‘Diseño de Futuros.’ Mi amiga Elisabet Roselló publicó hace algunos días un excelente artículo titulado “Diseño de futuros: ¿el futuro se crea? Unas aclaraciones.” En él, hace una revisión de algunos términos que se utilizan para denominar distintas prácticas que integran diseño y prospectiva. Su argumento es…

This is an English translation of a thread I recently tweeted in Spanish. Of course, the recent hype around “futurism” — notice the scare quotes — to which it refers is, to some extent, particular to Mexico and Latin America. However, I believe the overall argument and the check list…

Imagine that you’re walking. The space in front of you is dark, pitch black. You can’t see where you’re going. Only the ground you’re stepping on. You’re walking on a road. But at times it’s not even that, just a path or an open field. At least you’re not alone…

Or why designers need to get political. — About a year ago I published a personal take on strategic design and its futures (original Spanish version here). In the third part, I half-jokingly proposed the term ‘superdesign’ to designate a three-dimensional evolution of the practice: from objects to systems, from the present to futures, from affirmative to critical…

La variable del poder en el diseño de servicios. — Me pasa lo que a todos: a veces me da mucha pereza platicar con los taxistas o conductores de Uber. Cuando eso sucede, les pido una disculpa y me pongo mis audífonos para escuchar música o algún podcast. Otras veces sí me pongo a charlar largo y tendido con ellos…

Aquellos a los que nos interesa imaginar el futuro estamos siempre listos para aclarar que la prospectiva no se trata de profecías ni de predicciones. El propósito, solemos decir, es explorar el universo de futuros posibles para descubrir las direcciones de cambio más probables y, lo que es más importante…