Project Theme
To imagine media futures that both inspire and aspire to a more equitable and inclusive world.
Groups will discuss and deliberate on various aspects of the future of the world. They will collectively prioritize the most pressing areas in which exponential impact can be achieved, with the goal of actualizing a more inclusive and equitable future. With this goal, students then envision these futures through a media lens and chart a path to reach there via transformative media experiences that include but are not limited to education and entertainment, activism and advocacy, policy and public participation, democratization of physical and digital resources etc.
Ideal futures or utopian endeavors are not imagined and created in a vacuum. You may improve or work on perfecting something if you first acknowledge and are aware of what is wrong with that something currently and second, via identifying the ideal scenario and planning for pathways to achieve the ideal.
While there are some universal scientific realities that cannot be ignored, advancements in media and technology over several centuries have shown us that incredible progress can be made in creating better lives and futures for ourselves. Several discoveries and inventions in media and technology have not just made the world a better place but also improved the quality of millions of lives all around the world. Transformative media that makes the world a better place for all requires making inclusivity and equity an inherent part of systems and structures.
Due to the diversity and subjectivity of the human experience, “an ideal future” means vastly different things to different people. Media and technology that forefront individual liberties and catalyze collective freedoms are those that are most emancipatory in the long arc of history.
In order to ignite the civic imagination towards envisioning and realizing utopian futures, we must use the power of the media and media literacies to not just help us identify the correct utopia but to also plan the correct journey to get there.
