"The Future of Imagination" w/ Julian Bleecker
Details
We exist in a particular moment where the future is happening to us faster and faster, and at the same time we seem to be failing to anticipate the change ahead, are unable to imagine and understand future possibilities, and then cannot act in ways today that bring about the best probabilities for tomorrow.
In this critical moment we are excited to be joined by designer and creative leader Julian Bleecker and thrilled for him to share his thoughts with us on our need to "Imagining Harder".
Come explore the future of Imagination with us!
At the end of the talk will have a Q&A with Julian.
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Julian Bleecker
Julian Bleecker is a creative leader with the range of a generalist. He is at his best when he is working with organizations translating the “now” into the “next”. He is an engineer with multiple degrees, so he knows what it means to execute on ideas. He has a PhD in technology and culture, giving him unique perspectives and insights into the meaning of new ideas and how they will fit within marketplaces.
He thinks like a product designer from the future, having built his own physical product company that successfully and demonstrably challenged norms and expectations against all odds. He understands luxury in the technology world, having collaborated with Paul Smith and Pernod. As a thought-leader, product innovator, and futures designer he has been summoned to run design and innovation workshops with high-functioning creative, strategy, and design teams at IKEA, Apple, Google, and Facebook, amongst many others. Throughout his career he has had experiences as a start-up founder (with a successful exit), futures strategist, professor at USC’s famed School of Cinematic Arts, design and technology mentor, author.
His unique skill is to look at the world a bit sideways, and see opportunities to create products and experiences that are unanticipated, unexpected, and beautiful alternatives to the status quo.
Julian is a globally respected designer, creative leader, author, and entrepreneur. He created a movement and approach to design futures called ‘Design Fiction.’
Design Fiction is a practice that entangles design and fiction to create evocative artifacts that express the contexts and outcomes of change. It integrates design with the principles of narrative, speculation and fiction. The Design Fiction artifact effervesces a kind of implied story that can be thought to represent a symptom of a possible near future world. It is often used as an adjunct to more routine prototyping, ideating, and strategic foresight work, except that Design Fiction is more a “bottom-up” rather than “top-down” representation of near futures.
Julian is a partner at the Near Future Laboratory, runs the podcast of the same name, and is the lead author of The Manual of Design Fiction.
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ABOUT SCHOOL OF CRITICAL DESIGN
We are an experimental design school dedicated to the application of emerging methods, like speculative design, to innovation, design and strategy.
Our talks, professional open enrolment courses, and bespoke courses and workshops offer new ways for individuals and organisations to meet the critical challenges facing our planet, people, and businesses now, and the for next 1000 years.
Come and explore the future with us.