Futures I

Catalog description

The Futures 1 course focuses on aligning near term design action with longer time horizons aimed at sustainable futures. We introduce the students to Dexign Futures. Dexign is defined as "an experimental type of design that integrates Futures Thinking with Design Thinking." A distinguishing feature of dexign in our usage is the focus on aligning current action with long-term sustainability goals. The course covers different approaches to interpreting the future: from the extrapolations of trend forecasting, through the risk assessments of scenario planning, to attempts to steering the present through backcasting. Students explore the future through utopian and dystopian fictions that are created by authors, filmmakers and themselves. Students also attempt to evaluate futures in terms of their longer-term consequences.