Is the <s>climate</s> crisis a failure of our imagination?
Ottawa Architecture Week Pecha Kucha Night
Background:
I was approached by Ottawa Architecture Week to join their Pecha Kucha 20x20 night. The theme of the year is “Re-” and particularly design for resiliency and responsibility in architecture. I could talk about the past work I’ve done in re-imagining adaptive reuse and vernacular architecture, but I thought that there’s a bigger problem than the lack of solutions — the lack of visions and actions. It is hard to act in a time of constant change, and it is even harder to have the space to imagine what effect your actions might have on our shared futures. I thought the 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide format is the perfect medium to communicate that despite the need for leadership and actions in response to climate change, we need to create space where we can come together to imagine alternatives and possibilities. I took on the responsibility of leading the Ottawa chapter of Speculative Futures with this intention.
The slides don’t need to be there, and they are my cue cards.
I never actually talked about myself at any of the Speculative Futures Ottawa events or any talks, but this time, I decided that it is contextual. I’m a designer, creative strategist, and explorer of possibilities. It’s hard to find me only working on one particular aspect of design or creative practices. I guess you can call me either an aspiring polymath or a true master of none.
In 2018, while trying to get a business, Nomadic Labs, going, I started the first Canadian chapter of Speculative Futures. It’s been a very humbling experience to explore both spaces, but this talk will be primarily on Speculative Futures.
This community intends to pull together all the different branches of design and creative practices into a conversation of what our shared futures might be and in turn, inspire collaborative actions. It is not about which branch of design is superior, and which design thinking method we should use.
The Ottawa chapter started with six people around a table talking about the future of our city. Not everyone around the table identified as designers, but everyone had great perspectives on how they can contribute to the multiple futures of the city and anticipate changes that may come.
I’ve had tremendous help from my co-organizer Dr. Vanessa Thomas and a whole slew of creatives in Ottawa when we transitioned from talks and discussions to learning and applying design frameworks, building narratives, and art-based explorations that help us depict what a preferable future might be. In agreement with many professional futurists out there, there are no predictions, only depictions. It is essential that we imagine what’s possible and create narratives to depict them because fiction will eventually make its way back to reality. It is more important that we do this as a community.
Designing that does not already Future, Fiction, Speculate, Criticise, Provoke, Discourse, Interrogate, Probe, Play, is inadequate designing.
— Cameron Tonkinwise
I assume that everyone’s life is touched by design and that many of you attending Ottawa Architecture Week work in professions that involve design one way or another. I want to share this quote with you because the work you do can shape the future. It is necessary that we think about design not only in ways it can provide solutions to problems, but also in ways that we explore, imagine, and question.
I know the audiences have been sitting the majority of the day, so I prepared a little exercise.
[In hindsight, it was a funny moment. I remember the audience hesitating, and eventually started running towards the stage. Of course, there was only room for three — you hesitate, you miss the chance to get on stage. 😂 ]
I know these are questions that require more than 20 seconds to come up with proper responses, but I still want people to think and tinker. I have no recollection of what the responses were, but I do remember the discomfort and some talk about how the world will end sadly. It was as chaotic onstage as the race to be on stage. The three amazing humans on stage were uncomfortable, and they were probably getting judged, again, they probably all hesitated a bit when giving their best try under 20 seconds.
For those of you who have not done a Pecha Kucha before, it is hard enough for presenters who have practiced their talk many times, let alone having to react to a slide and speak on the spot.
I asked the audiences if they can come up with a better answer.
Silence.
I asked the audiences if they can come up with an alternative answer.
A large portion raised their hands.
This is not what the media is portraying public participation.
The media tells us that someone will have a better solution to climate change. Pop culture depicts the future as this bleak place where we are all doomed but rarely depict alternative visions that are not apocalyptic, dystopian, or hero-saves-the-world.
Start by asking yourself, “what if we don’t need to make things better, but make things different?”
What if the act of design is not just a negotiation between problems and solutions, but providing space for possibilities to emerge, to be talked about, and to be made possible?
Remember, design shapes futures.
Let’s try again, with prompts that are even harder to respond to in under 20 seconds.
[my favourite is “we go fix the solar system” and “oh no the slide changed so fast”]
I hope you all noticed that when we face a short timeframe to give answers and constantly changing conditions, we don’t respond well. We think we are always in crisis mode because we can’t come up with the answers right the way, while everything is changing. We don’t need to.
What we need is to make space so we can think, tinker, imagine, and explore. We are told that the planet is burning, we are running out of time, and we are running out of options. We are told that we need to act now. What we were not told is that we can see this as a time for new possibilities. We can redesign the way we live, work, and play. We can reimagine the way we see and relate to this world. The superpower doesn’t belong to only the leaders and visionaries (or billionaires lol). We all have it. We need to practice it.
The world we stand on today used to be the future. This 20 second is where we all take a deep breath, and appreciate the lives and beings before us.
They have made their futures our present, and we shall do the same for our futures.
Remember, design shapes futures. The future is only bleak because we cannot imagine otherwise. The future is only bleak because we don’t know how to act. Design is a superpower — use it to create narratives, make worlds, and carve the paths for all to shape desirable futures.
It’s been a privilege to present among an amazing array of presenters who are doing important work shaping more sustainable futures. Have the opportunity to hack the 20x20 format for some audience participation is also quite a fun experience despite the fact that I clearly had horrible English grammar…
