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.
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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.
Episode 06 welcomes thought-leader, product innovator, and futures designer Julian Bleecker, who is also the founder of Omata and Near Future Laboratory. He talks to host Radha Mistry about rediscovering and cultivating our childhood imagination, finding the harmony between creativity and structure, and joy as a metric of success.
Nicolas Nova was an early and consistent participant in Julian's Near Future Laboratory's research and design studio. He recently passed while doing what he loved — trekking, exploring, observing in curious and out of the way places. The entire design community has lost a gentle and thoughtful collaborator, teacher, mentor, instigator, interlocutor. His curiosity was infectious and his work was always inspired, thoughtful, full of wit, and provocative. We dedicate this episode to his memory and the good work that will continue in his name.
Episode 05 brings together Macy Siu and Robert Bolton, who are both artists and strategists at foresight studio From Later. The two talk with host Radha Mistry about the range of entry points to futures studies, their guiding values of accessibility and human connection, and the imperative role of art in translating and signaling the times.
Episode 04 spotlights speculative designer and futurist speaker Monika Bielskyte, who is the founder of collaborative research and creation platform Protopia Futures. She speaks with host Radha Mistry about how technology shapes our cultural narratives and political realities, the productive ways her own neurodivergence has affected her perception of environments, and the dangers of dystopian and utopian thinking.
Episode 03 features multidisciplinary creative, researcher, forecaster, strategist, freelance writer, and community-builder Asia Clarke, who is also the creator of VERN—a critical futures scenario and film concept set in the Toronto suburb of Malvern in 2040. She speaks with host Radha Mistry about the legacies of Black women in speculative fiction, using hair as a material and medium for expressing futures, and the critical importance of working with and for the youth.
Episode 02 welcomes Anab Jain—a designer, futuristi9/, filmmaker, educator, and co-founder and director of design and experiential futures studio Superflux—who invites us to conceptualize futuring, like art, as a creative modality and process. She speaks with host Radha Mistry about the power of harnessing storytelling’s inherent pathos, reevaluating human-centered value systems, and the importance of pushing ourselves into the imaginative space of the unknown.
This introductory episode provides our audience the opportunity get to know the series host—Radha Mistry—as she speaks to Deem co-founder and creative director Nu Goteh about the discipline of future studies, the personal and professional circumstances that have shaped her career trajectory, and what it means to practice, think with, and cultivate foresight in the context of design.
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.
