FUTURE(s)

How can we think of the future if its foundations are an unstable present? We tend to look at the future as a single point in time: The Future. However, the future is multiple and uncertain...

This print belongs to the first series: "One concept, One print". As a designer we are taught to construct, to build, to innovate but with this series I wanted to leverage the creative potential to do the opposite: destroy, deconstruct, critique. Each print of this series started with a concept which was then deconstructed into a visual.

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How can we think of the future if its foundations are an unstable present? We tend to look at the future as a single point in time: The Future. However, the future is multiple and uncertain, so why bother trying to predict it? Shouldn't we just embrace and uncertainty and the serindipity that time brings? Shouldn't we consider more than the probable and plausible and venture our imagination into the possible and even the impossible?

FUTURE(s), 2019. Linocut print, 420x594mm, edition of 10

Edition: limited edition of 10
Size: 410mm x 590 mm (~A2)
Paper: Japanese Simili paper 80gr (Ivory White)
Colours: 2 (Black ink on Ivory white paper)
Ink: Cranfield "Caligo Safe Wash" Relief Ink (Black)
Process: Handmade Linocut print

CONCEPT

Foresight or futures thinking, is the discipline associated with studying the future. However, contrary to popular belief, Foresight doesn't concern itself with predicting the future¹ as there is nothing to be predicted about the future: “Although there are past facts, present options, and future possibilities, there are no past possibilities and no future facts”². By speculating and exploring the possibilities for the future we can make it more clear and, as a consequence inform better our decisions for the future and have an active position in building the desired 'tomorrow'.

Futures cone by Joseph Voros (2001), image by Julia Kloiber

This design is based on a commonly-cited model in the futures studies and speculative design community called the "Futures Cone". A model coined that presentes the future as a multiple and complex entity that can develop itself into multiple outcomes. It proposes different types of futures: Probable (what we know today), Plausible (what might happen), Possible (what could happen but we don't know how) and Preferable (what we want to happen).

In the print, the small circles are future scenarios that might fall within the different types of futures. The shaky and wobbly ground represents the idea that the present might be unstable and so it might be difficult to think about the future.

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1. Voros, J. (2001). A Primer on Futures Studies, Foresight and the Use of Scenarios, prospect, the Foresight Bulletin, No 6, Swinburne University of Technology

2. Bell, W. (2004). Foundations of futures studies, volume 1: Human science for a new era (Vol. 1). Transaction publisher