Co-founding a collaborative path towards plural future narratives
Collaboration: that’s what Civic Innovation Network wants to achieve. And to make collaboration happen, we need future imagining. So it seemed almost like a sign when we bumped into this group of future imagineers that imagined to collaborate on the future of future imagining. Full of excitement, we went to Paris to be part of the foundation of ‘Plurality University’ (U+).
The last weekend of November 2018, 40 creative futures thinkers, activist artists, science fiction authors, speculative designers, reflexive utopians, engaged researchers from all around the world gathered in Paris to answer one question: ‘How can we broaden the scope of thinkable futures’. The hypothesis of Plurality University is that humanity, in the face of today’s and tomorrow’s transitions, will only find its ability to take control over its own future by explicitly building on the power of imaginaries. The purpose is not to write a single grand narrative for the future, but rather to enable the creation and sharing of multiple stories and other imaginary productions, from every cardinal point in our multipolar world.
So there we were, to collectively dream, design and prototype Plurality University.
On Friday, we framed the futures world. Starting with workshops, roundtables and debates, we shared methodologies, discussed the diversity of practices that are happening and challenged current discourses around future thinking. The process took us on a semi-structured creative journey to build new metaphors; we discussed how multiplying the stories of the future could lead to inaction, we considered our bubble, and tried to de-bubblify. At the end of the day, came a clear conclusion: we should get rid of the binary thinking in utopias and dystopias.
On Saturday, all minds gathered to imagine together what Plurality University should be, and to co-create an action plan for the next year. Many topics were discussed: from futures literacy, inclusiveness, resources and visibility to knowledge sharing, collective research, lab context, governance… Are you already feeling like you missed out? Don’t worry, the outcome will soon be published by U+.
What we loved the most and will remember about this unique experience?
The mix of system awareness, engagement, diversity, fantasy and deep respect for each other, created a unique vibe.
And most of all, the way it pushed our plural thinking: we discussed the negative impact of the GDPR on the future of technological innovation with a young Japanese design researcher living in the Netherlands. A Sri Lankan-American science fiction writer in her forties told us how her career started with a waterproof erotic novel. We designed a plural intelligent method to study the plurality of intelligence with a bunch of future of intelligence enthusiasts. Mind you, we discussed the possibility of Plurality University being a conspiracy made up by evil forces that aim to destroy the planet with an Indian futurist filmmaker living in the UK and an Israeli historian and ethnographer based in the USA.
We are proud to be part of this crowd of bright minds. We had amazing conversations, we left with a million ideas for collaborations, and we built relationships with big future potential. What we will do with Civic Innovation Network in 2019 is-co-create, co-decide and co-spread future narratives for a specific local context together with the population. This is definitely not the easiest way to do relevant futures work. It is an experiment that is rare and unique, but needs to be done, and the sooner the better. The support of this network of plural future thinkers, has enthused us even more.
Plural futures of Brussels, here we come!
