Future Thinking in Art and Design. A Book

New Z33 Research book, ‘Future Thinking in Art and Design,’ approaches questions imagination, future literacy and ethics of future-oriented design and art practices. The publication, which will be published in the early 2018, consists of essays and reflections of prominent art and design thinkers and designers, and art and design projects.

Studio Makkink & Bey, PROOFFLab at Home. Work at Home #3, 2013. Z33 Commission. Atelier à Habiter, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, 1 December 2013–30 March 2014. © Kristof Vrancken / Z33.
Studio Makkink & Bey, PROOFFLab at Home. Work at Home #3, 2013. Z33 Commission. Atelier à Habiter, Z33 House for Contemporary Art, 1 December 2013–30 March 2014. © Kristof Vrancken / Z33.

The ability to use imagination and envision future needs is crucial in art, design and architecture. Imagination and capability to create narratives for near and far futures are the starting point for future thinking and making.

Future-oriented creative practices also require future literacy. Understanding the temporal continuum in which future-oriented work is created, roots the works into their contexts, as does awareness of underlying incentives and motivations as well as structures of self-initiated works or commissions. Similarly, viewing or consuming the speculative creative works require some level of understanding of the context of the works.

Speculative art and design projects also raise questions of consequences and ethics of future-oriented practices. This discourse will become ever more relevant in the near future due to technological development, which increasingly allows speculative designs to become reality – even projects that were originally created as dystopias and warnings.

The new Z33 Research publication ‘Future Thinking in Art and Design’ (Black Dog Publishing 2018) approaches these questions with essays of prominent design and art thinkers, reflective practical cases and a selection of art, design and architecture projects that highlight the current, future-oriented discourse on creative practices.

Edited by Jan Boelen, Ils Huygens and Heini Lehtinen, the book will draw together research and exhibitions of Studio Future, which is one of the research studios of Z33 Research. Studio Future has focused on a variety of aspects on future-oriented art and design practices through different research and exhibition projects, which have been accompanied by online and offline publishing. The book ‘Future Thinking in Art and Design’ is a closing chapter to the Studio Future research cluster.

Publié à

13.03.2017