This project explores how speculative design can be a powerful tool in cultivating imaginations and embracing the emergence of various narratives and perceptions. It explores how speculative and participatory design methodologies can be part of the educational paradigm introducing the need for an education of imagination alongside an education of knowledge and skills. Through a series of activities, workshops and personal explorations it stands as a collection of methodologies and speculative objects or dialogic prototypes, generated by individual and collective imaginations, each of those raising inquiries about alternate presents and possible futures. What tools do we have to initiate critical dialogues for our presents and futures ? How can we collectively imagine and therefore design our future narratives? How do  we start navigating towards systems that are not afraid of radical imaginations?

Machine learning for creative practice. Augmenting Creativity is a project about exploring the opportunities of collaborating with Artificial Intelligence in a creative process and expression. From discussing and reflecting how technology would impact how creators think and act, to speculating the possible future scenarios of new relationships between human creators with machines. Finding the intersection between AI and the creative field, inviting artists and designers to create with the creative machine and identify their roles in the age of creative AI. The project not only makes creators know about the possibility of applying AI in creative practice, but also provides them tools to actually learn machine learning and have the ability to use them. Aiming to broaden the imagination and augment creativity.

Balconnect is a green initiative addressing the biodiversity crisis in cities and the disconnection between urbanites and nature, by highlighting the ecological importance of native plants raised on balconies, terraces and window sills. It aims to build a social network of outdoor plant owners, engage them in collaborative learning, and in building habitats for wildlife together – because a balcony is our gateway to nature.

What small change could influence both our deep misunderstanding and underappreciation of how our food grows, and make our cities greener?  What if we make the effort, energy, and money used on fitness and channel it into gardening? Can we change perceptions and attitudes, reconnect with public spaces, and get more food sustainable? After the current pandemic, we need to rethink our cities and leisure. Could we get more #GARDENFIT?

Internet emissions currently account for two percent of global emissions, which is more than that of the aviation industry, and continues to rise. With the rise of AI, 5G and the monumental surge of internet users due to Covid19, creating a low carbon internet has never been more important than during this hyperconnected era. Through conscious web design, increased awareness, and responsible data management we will reduce the impact of the internet on the environment.

Waste is a bad design. We must reevaluate the value of the product and the packaging, and stop designing for abundance. So the question is: can we redesign convenience? Throughout the years it has been proved that change cannot be made from one side only. Businesses, governments, and citizens must work together to move towards a circular economy in which plastic never becomes waste or pollution. We need to rethink our practices, and the way we design, use, and reuse plastics. As citizens, we represent an important part of moving forward to a circular economy in our cities, but it is crucial that we change our ways… BFP is a citizen movement for citizens looking to create a community in an effort to reduce single-use plastics within our neighborhoods. The goal is for the movement to evolve, calling on businesses and the government to work simultaneously with citizens to improve the city while helping the planet.

Through this project, I would like to call for cultural intelligence and ethnic equality through the processes of making in the context of large scale migration and displacement crises. As ‘making’ exists in every culture, it is a mid-ground for different communities to understand and appreciate one another. Merging the local host communities with the ‘displaced’ new communities and encouraging collaboration in the context of a Maker Space will yield astonishing results. ‘How to Collaborate: between the displaced communities, cultural organizations, and maker spaces.’ This methodology is written and designed by myself and a few co-designers to be open to evolution and development by any and all who have experience within the target group. The co-designers of this methodology range between entities, individuals, or organizations who have experiences in conducting or designing workshops, running an organization supporting the target group, or by makers who shared their skills.

How can we change the things we make by changing the way we make things? After the industrial revolutions, manufacturing processes have become so efficient that mass-producing things has become faster and cheaper by the day. The technologies we have developed have a way of keeping up with our imaginations. The question then is – what futures do we imagine? We have systems for mass customization using automation as well as making machines for markets of one, so how we make things that make sense and add value to the world? Through a series of design actions and explorations on making and meaning at different scales, the study concludes with a model/framework to make meaningful interventions in the world and understand what it means to make things that make sense.