As American author Ursula K. Le Guin once wrote: “The future is a safe, sterile laboratory for trying out ideas in, a means of thinking about reality, a method.” We provide that safe space for executives and teams to experiment with alternative visions for their organization through observations, provocations, prototypes and publications. We do not follow a generic process but offer activities that generate knowledge through explorations:
Do you need a fresh perspective on global challenges and emerging technologies? We scan for the unexpected and discover unanticipated external or internal eventualities. Using the future as a ‘safe territory’ to experiment, we transform local observations and global weak signals into inspiration material that provokes the imagination, fosters lateral thinking and challenges your assumptions. For example, we worked on exploration of the streets of tomorrow with the Foresight department of Lyon. Based on the material they collected on the field, during expert interviews and in multiple documents, we created a series of photomontage to raise awareness for local authorities about new frictions between technologies, environmental issues and urban life.
Do you need to explore ideas, visions, concepts that do not have a shape yet? We define ‘what-if’ scenarios and prototype them as if they had become a reality. By trying to make them real, you will get a first-hand experience on emerging technologies, move beyond loose ideas and uncover blindspots in your visions. For instance, in collboration with armasuisse Science and Technology, we prototyped a whole organization called Swiss Resilience International Support (RESINT). We made it feel real with a website and ‘unboxing’ video that materialize a vision for the fictional organization. The result is used to enrich debates and communicate technological, environmental and societal issues to a wide and varied audience.
Sharing observations, provocations and prototypes encourages discussions and the exchange of perspectives about novel possibilities and challenges. We compile the knowledge produced during these explorations into a publication which conveys alternative perspectives. For example The Bestiary of the Anthropocene is a field guide to our new world of hybrid specimens and catalogs the conflation of the technosphere and the biosphere. A work in collaboration with Disnovation and edited by Onomatopee/Set Margins.
The art of observation, imagining and prototyping futures are our essential ingredients to keep attuned to the changes in the world. Either online, in a room or during a field trip, we share our experience of years field observations, design fiction projects and prototyping experiences. For instance, Nicolas Nova organized a series of research walks in Geneva, Torino and Berlin for professionals to learn to transform field observations of digital infrastructures into design opportunities. This knowledge can be used in prototyping masterclasses which Fabien teaches.