Speculative Futures #06 - February Meetup

Join us for the first episode of the year! From the galaxy to anti-smog force fields and a snow bleacher for influencers.

After blasting off to Mars in our last Speculative Futures MeetUp of the decade we thought we’d keep up the momentum this year with another exciting line-up for you, this time looking at things closer to home.

Dominika Swierad & Lorenzo Lattanzi are founders of Still Not Quite - a critical research studio engaging with communities to open a discussion about their futures.

They believe that futures explored by critical and speculative design, currently locked in academia, specialist conferences and "design porn", should be of public domain and discussed by people facing real-life issues, everyday. In their practice they're aiming to bring the concerns and ideas of people not usually involved in high-level decision making to the table and help to make them a valid point of consideration.

To address this, the Still Not Quite team opened a fictional online department store displaying the results of the workshops they conducted in various communities. One example is a project involving the citizens of Wroclaw, a Polish city with one of the worst pollution problems in the world. By providing the framework and tools, Still Not Quite enabled the Wroclaw residents to speculate and create their own futures, becoming actively involved in a process of which they were at the heart.

Our lovely hosts this time will be the team at RGA

Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start

About our speakers
Dominika Swierad is a designer and researcher with a background in art and academia. She works in London designing for policies, urban connectivity and placemaking. Her interests are focused around technology’s influence on interactions; speculating on possible futures; and design as a catalyst for critical reflection on human behaviours. She looks at how we both live and speak to each other, exploring the related narratives, both physical and written.

Lorenzo Lattanzi is a designer and researcher interested in mapping complex scenarios and unveiling opportunities for innovation. He works in London, focusing on user research for digital products connected to finances and money management. He’s interested in researching product and service design and how these practices can provide a space to speculate collaboratively on the future.

About Speculative Futures
Started in 2015, Speculative Futures is an international community bringing together those interested in using design as a vehicle to explore potential and alternative futures. Our desire is to create a space in which we can come together to create conversation and exchange ideas.

We invite our audience to cast a critical eye over the norms of today, respond to our context and develop a perspective on how things could be.

Welcome to anyone with a curious mind, not only future-thinking professionals (those in speculative and critical design, discursive design, business strategy, strategic foresight, futurism, architecture, writing, cinematography, art, technology, science), our purpose is to connect industries, fields of practice, people… and ideas.