Duanduan Hsieh Contributors

An Mertens

Artist/Researcher
Constant

Tour | Trees as Futures Thinking Tools

An Mertens is an artist, storyteller and nature guide. She is a core member of Constant, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation for art and media with a focus on free software, feminist methodologies and free culture. An conducts research projects on how algorithms and code transform (literary) creation. Apart of that, she also started a series as ‘boomgriffier’ or ‘tree clerk’. http://www.constantvzw.org; http://www.boomgriffier.eu


Trees are privileged witnesses of life on this planet. Most often they largely survive us as a species. Planting a tree is always a future oriented action. Observing trees can therefore inspire us to surprising perspectives on futures, presents and pasts. Storyteller and nature guide An Mertens introduces you to some of the trees that live in the neighbourhood of Muhka. Each of the chosen trees invites you in the specific context of this part of the city to reflect on one of the four future scenarios presented by the Temporary Futures Institute. Your guide assumes that the futurists participating in this walk will come up with many more future thinking techniques, once they enter in conversation with the trees.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors

Tyler Mongan

Innovation Consultant; Doctoral Candidate
Heart Lab LLC; Quantum Medicine University

Workshop | Cultivating Physiological Coherence with Possible Futures

Tyler Mongan is the founder and lead researcher at Heart Lab. He researches the latest in neuroscience, heart-brain communication, human behavior, team dynamics, and quantum theory and applies his discoveries to develop innovation strategies for the emerging business landscape. He speaks at conferences, trains start-ups and consults fortune 500 businesses internationally on actionable innovation and human physiology science to help business leaders understand the link between physiological states and business innovation and forecasting. Tyler has launched seven business organizations, is a published biochemist, attended medical school, is a Hawaii Music Award nominated musician, an avid surfer, and is a Ph.D. candidate at Quantum University studying physiological coherence and possible futures.

Research on heart-brain coherence suggests simple techniques for experiencing enhanced cognitive function, increased creativity, and group collaboration. A physiological based approach to foresight allows us to understand how to cultivate more optimal physiological states for not only thinking into the future, but also feeling into the future. The idea is that we can begin to develop empathy with a possible future.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors

Sheila Ochugboju

Co-Founder and Director
Africa Knows

Dr Sheila Ochugboju has been active in the design and implementation of futures programmes for organisations and governments in sub-Saharan Africa over the last decade. She is the co-founder and Director of a knowledge management and media consultancy called Africa Knows. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, her team is currently convening futures workshops across Africa to generate insights from emerging leaders on the most promising solutions to economic, social, and environmental challenges. In her role as the Global Roving Ambassador for The County Government of Kisumu, Kenya, her team convened a futures workshop for government leaders, along with international advisors and key influencers to develop strategies on “Transforming Kisumu – Enabling Technologies for Smart Cities and Resilient Economies” Jul 5-7th, 2016, Bellagio Center, Italy. She is currently leading a new initiative called The Barefoot Digital Youth Squad” which aims to train millions of young people across Africa to contribute to the Africa Data Revolution. Sheila holds a Ph.D in Biochemistry and was the Daphne Jackson Trust Research Fellow at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She is a TED Fellow, co-Curator of TEDxNairobi and in New York, Oct 2016, she was awarded the Wings World Quest Foundation “Women of Discovery” Award for Humanity.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors, Design, Futurist

Stefanie Ollenburg

Futurist and Designer
Freie Universität Berlin

Presentation | A Model for Design and Futures Studies

Stefanie Ollenburg, lives in Berlin, Germany. She works as a consulting futurist and a communication designer, aiming to translate innovative ideas into real life projects. She also lectures at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the FH Münster on design and future studies. After Stefanie received her B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in advertising design from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco, CA (USA) she worked as an art and creative director for international agencies in New York, Vienna and Berlin. But her aspiration to support sustainability projects drove Stefanie to go back to school. She studied at the Freie University in Berlin and received her M.A. in Futures Studies. Currently Stefanie also works pro-bono in the project: “D2030 – a map for the future” (d2030.de). It is an open-source scenario process to show the risks and possibilities for Germany until the year 2030. Its objective is to nationally establish an active dialog about these future scenarios. Stefanie’s goal is to generate an understanding of futures thinking within groups and organizations, because: We need to keep in mind that today’s decisions affect how the future will become. And different plots i.e. actions will create different narratives of the futures.

This presentation proposes a model for a process that recognises that transformation needs both futures studies ánd design: a mindset that is open for alternatives and different viewpoints and ideas to create something tangible to result in projects that are visionary yet reachable.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors, Transform

Aaron Rosa

Research Scientist
Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)

Case study | Boundary Objects and World-Tweening: Dynamic Entities across Alternative Futures

Dr. Aaron B. Rosa is currently a research scientist in the Foresight department of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) and has worked on numerous EU funded research projects (INCOBRA, BOHEMIA, PROGRESS, CIMULACT, and others), as well as projects for the German government and private clientele. He is also a founding member of ROROSORO, a futures research and design company with a focus on developing games and interactive systems for conducting futures-oriented investigations and creative projects.
His project portfolio includes work with the Prime Minister’s Office of the United Arab Emirates, The European Commission Joint Research Center, the United Nations Development Program, and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Germany). As a graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Alternative Futures graduate program, he continues to be driven towards research in participatory futures methods and practices across many media.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors, Exhibitor, Futurist

Ziauddin Sardar

Islamic Studies and Futures Studies scholar
The Centre for Postnormal Policy & Futures Studies

Ziauddin Sardar, writer, broadcaster and cultural critic, is Professor of Law and Society at Middlesex University, London. He has been described as a ‘critical polymath’ and is considered one of the top 100 public intellectuals in Britain. He works across a number of disciplines ranging from Islamic studies and futures studies to science policy, literary criticism, information science to cultural relations, art criticism and critical theory. Sardar has worked as science journalist for Nature and New Scientist and as a television reporter for London Weekend Television. He was a columnist on the New Statesman for a number of years and has served as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and as a member of the Interim National Security Forum. He has published over 50 books.  Sardar was the editor of Futures, the monthly journal of policy, planning and futures studies, from 1999—2013, and now serves as a Consulting Editor. Widely known for his radio and television appearances, he is currently co-editor of the quarterly journal Critical Muslim.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors, Futurist, Transform

Daniel Schimmelpfennig

Creative Evolutionary Futurist

Presentation | Choice Architecture, Complex and Emerging Issues

Daniel is a young futurist devoted to fighting fascism. As someone who describes himself as a Creative Evolutionary Futurist, where evolution is not regarded as selection but as favorable design, he hopes to master his creative urge in order to contribute, to the best of his potential, to the super-organism called humanity. On this path he hopes to meet fascinating characters to team up with, who are not afraid to question authorities and aim passionately to transform the status quo. 

 

Can we increase our agency within the process of the realization of future images, in order to access previously sealed options for alternative directions? Can we still coherently reveal the actual condition of a complex and confusing reality, while manifesting humanity’s potentialities to the fullest? From Richard Nixon’s Madman Theory to Vladislav Surkov’s ‘Confusion Politics’, choice architecture in Futures Studies enables us to comprehend the multiverse of options, the concepts of choiceless choices, meaningful choices, and the illusion of choice.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors, Organiser

Wendy Schultz

Futurist
Infinite Futures

Dr. Schultz is an academically trained futurist with over thirty years of global foresight practice. She has designed futures research projects for NGOs, government agencies, and businesses. Recent clients include Competition Bureau Canada; the International Labour Organization; Nesta UK; UK’s Financial Conduct Authority; Singapore’s Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Centre; the Industrial Research Institute; and Pepsico. Wendy is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and a Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation.  Her award-winning articles on futures research have been published in Foresight, Futures, the Journal of Futures Studies, World Futures Review, and APF’s Compass.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors, Futurist, Transform

Prateeksha Singh

Entrepreneur/Artist
OCAD University

Case study | Going analogue: auto-ethnographic insights on being steeped in analogue

Prateeksha Singh is a multi-disciplinary experience designer, who is interested in exploring how storytelling and art, in all its incarnations, can be used as a medium for public engagement.  She draws inspiration from her varied background: personally- a serial traveler, black & white film photographer, and someone who has lived in eight countries and speaks four languages, and professionally- someone who has corporate (Certified Public Accountant, U.S), start-up/non-profit/social enterprise, academic and entrepreneurial experiences to draw from. She currently has a boutique design consultancy, mpathy, and attends OCAD University, pursuing a MDes in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. Prateeksha is passionate about social justice, and drawn to working on issues surrounding food, environment, gender, and the need to build greater social and personal resilience.

This case study will share insights and explore how might they be used to create a new and smoother relationship with technology in our life. Auto-ethnographic insights on being steeped in analogue.

Duanduan Hsieh Contributors

Paul Skinner

Creative Director
Tellart

Panel & Fish Bowl | Can a compelling narrative about the future also be the nexus for public debate?
Discussion | Hard or soft hybridity

Paul Skinner is Creative Director of Tellart in Amsterdam. Paul has overseen a broad spectrum of interactive experience design projects, including early-stage product development, global communications campaigns and large-scale interactive exhibitions. Tellart’s work has won many top awards including Cannes Lions, SXSW Experimental, IxDA, Webby, D&AD Yellow Pencil, AIGA Case, Core77 and recently the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Graduating from MediaLab Arts at the Institute of Digital Art and Technology, UK in the early 2000’s, Paul went on to pursue physical computing and software development in digital production studios in London. Branching towards the communications world, he kindled the practice of Creative Technology in London Creative agency Wieden+Kennedy, and subsequently in W+K Amsterdam as Creative Technology Director. Since producing Tellart’s Museum of the Future project in Dubai, and then opening Tellart’s New York studio, Paul is now once again based in Amsterdam, leading projects for clients around the world.