The study, the science, and the art of predicting and preparing for the future has long been a preoccupation of humankind, and is of particular concern to designers. The stakes of our global present are especially high. We’re facing the compounding repercussions of climate change and rapidly transforming technologies alongside the catastrophic fallouts of a deeply flawed, centuries-old geopolitical system. It’s difficult even to parse the present, let alone conceive both of what might come next, and how we might exercise agency in shaping it. In this series, Radha Mistry, a designer with a background that spans architecture, narrative environments, and strategic foresight, unpacks the purpose and practice of futuring, and introduces us to six venerable practitioners who approach this work in myriad ways.
Radha Mistry is the Americas Region Foresight Leader at Arup, teaches futures studies in the Master of Architecture programs at Southern California Institute of Architecture, and spends most of her time exploring the impact of emerging drivers and how they’ll change the way we design and make things in the future. She is based in Los Angeles.
Exploring Future Realities: An Interview with Radha Mistry and Anab Jain
Radha’s got a podcast! And it’s called Future Feelings!
The inaugural episode of this collab Radha is doing with Deem Journal is with Anab Jain, who we all know as a distinguished designer, futurist, filmmaker, and educator based in London, and operating out of her studio with Jon Arden called Superflux.
The dialogue betwix Radha and Anab gets into the complexities of futuring — the art and practice of anticipating and preparing for possible futures. Anab candidly shares her initial reluctance to embrace the title of ‘futurist’, and how her work at Superflux has evolved to incorporate more creative, design-centric approaches to envisioning the future.
They reflect on designing alternate realities to question and reframe our relationship with impending global challenges, such as climate change. Anab describes her remarkable and renowned ‘Mitigation of Shock’ project, which immerses people in a tangible future scenario to provoke critical awareness and action.
It’s useful to note that both Radha and Anab are educators (amongst other things — Radha also leads Foresight for Americas at Arup). In the pedagogical context, they discuss the challenges of teaching futures stuff and particularly speculative design to an emerging generation of designers, creatives, architects and such. What do we need more of? More critical thinking, resilience, to try and imagine the kinds of outside-the-box ways of asking the kinds of questions that will open up conversations that may lead to the innovative solutions we need.
Looking forward to future episodes!
Tune in to Future Feelings in collaboration with Deem Audio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify , Youtube — and explore more at deemjournal.com/audio/future-feelings-radha.
