Future Booth – a transformative research project

A digital living lab for determining visions and images of the future in the context of energy transition.

Supported by
Horizon 2020: DESIGNSCAPES
(Building Capacity for Design enabled Innovation in Urban Environments)

Timeframe
2019-20

Partner
PUSH
Ilaria Fresa Visual
Thanks to Scienza Palermo

Key Elements
Future studies / Transformative research / Development of target knowledge / Conception and implementation of digital workshops / Storytelling / Event organization

CHALLENGES

What do climate-just and desirable futures look like? This is a question that cannot be answered in one single discipline or nationality. Scientists and practitioners must cooperate with each other and strive for transdisciplinary knowledge integration. New practices are sought to involve different stakeholders to generate knowledge in transformation processes. This is where the Future Booth project comes in – it is an international and interdisciplinary research project between Germany and Italy.

PROCESS

Future Booth is an innovative process prototype – a 3-part digital workshop format. The workshops build on each other in content and methodology, and are simultaneously accompanied by a graphic recording. While the first workshop creates a kind of inventory of the greatest challenges and criticisms with regard to climate-just futures, the second workshop develops desirable future scenarios (starting from the main points of criticism). In the third workshop, the desirable future scenarios are translated into stories and thus enabled to communicate and discuss about.

All workshops require active participation of the attendees. The workshops alternate between rational/analytical and intuitive/creative work phases, with targeted ‘media breaks’ and continuously changing working groups.

The workshops were held in parallel, in German and Italian. At times both groups met in the digital space to exchange their perspectives and insights.

PROCESS STEPS

1

Future Booth Intervention (analog) during the Friday demonstrations in 2019

2

Concept and planning of the digital Future Booth

3

Execution of the 3-part workshop in Italian and German language

4

Evaluation of the process prototype

5

Exploitation of the results

RESULTS

With the living lab project Future Booth, insights can be gained into what desirable visions of the future currently exist within cultures, and what consensus and dissent prevail within them.

By combining verbal exchange with graphic recording, the knowledge could be directly visualized, providing space for alternative interpretations, joint learning, debate and critical reflection. The drawings function as so-called ‘focal points’, i.e. ‘attractors of action’, as they attract attention and initiate conversations.

The creation and communication of target images can provide orientation, motivation and can call for action.

WHAT OUR PARTICIPANTS SAY

„The work done in such a short time is remarkable. […] A great resource, indeed, is the diverse composition of the participants.“

“This is all very new to me, especially in my approach to the problem, which is essentially based on what is imagined for the future, rather than on the analysis and search for viable solutions. A new point of view for me.“

“[…] speculating together has helped me greatly in stretching my mind and imagination.”

“[…] For me personally, I took from Future Booth a great deal of faith in the good that groups and communities can still express.”

RESULTS FROM OUR PARTICIPANTS

“I was continuing as a blind man driving on a motorway, the motorway of the production: produce to produce to produce….One day, a memorable one, a friend of mine with whom I had no contact since a lot of time, sent me a very short message via eco- mail (a new sustainable communicating system I barely knew); the message simply said: “when the hell are you gonna start thinking?”

– Matteo

“Cara Giulia,

Oggi vor 35 anni questa nostra länderübergreifende l’amicizia ha cominciata und schau was wir erreicht haben! Oggi parliamo in due lingue gleichzeitig und trotzdem capiamo quasi tutto! Chi l’avrebbe mai imaginata! Unsere kleine Idee von damals dadurd lustige Züge angenommen, ma laccami raccontare anche delle cose incredibile e che scaldano il cuore: Kannst du dich noch erinnern an undere Überlegung, wie wir die Begegnungsräume auf den Balkonen auch nach der Corona Zeit erhalten können. Wir haben hier nun bei gutem Wetter jeden Mittwoch abend das cena mit der Nachbarschaft! Jeder bringt seine Stühle und Tische raus und nach dem Essen, dann sitzen wir für einen Abend zusammen und essen und überlegen was wir verbessern wollen im Viertel.

Die Postkarte ist zu klein aber ich schreib dir bald wieder!

Bacio bacio

– Vera”

Man hat mich verteilt, das war sehr angenehm. Es war ein bißchen wie zwischen Balkonen geteilt, besungen und zugerufen zu werden, wie früher, wie 2020 im März. Aber klar, ich wurde auch durch Leitungen geschickt, ich habe Quantenrechner durchquert, den Globus umrundet, war Satellit, kam dem Mond nah. Ich war völlig gleichzeitig und nirgendwo dasselbe. Ich war spukhafte Fernwirkung, ein paralleles ein mehrfaches Ding.

Sie haben sich etwas einfallen lassen. Ich meine das wirklich, einen wirklichen Einfall. Früher war das alles glanzlos: Disziplinen und Egos, Männer in Anzügen, Frauen in Anzügen, schlechter Atem, Streit um etwas simples wie Geld.

Noch simpler war aber das Ding mit Konkurrenz. Ich hier, Du dort. Mein Spielzeug, Dein Spielzeug. Als ob man mehr kann, wenn man sich trennt und gegeneinander arbeitet? So kommt man mir nicht auf die Spur, fängt man mich nicht. Der Elfenbeinturm ist ein schlechter Witz, den man sich fast zu lang erzählt hätte, ein kleinliches Unterfangen. Das haben sie kapiert damals auf den Balkon, als man es zusammen anging, als sie mich am Schlafittchen bekamen.