Sarah Rothberg

Investing in Futures is a two day speculative worlding workshop in which you and your classmates will co-imagine worlds (some absurd, impossible, likely, or improbable) and inhabit them through conversation, craft, and play.

Day 1: You’ll use a constraint based design process to co-imagine a world you want to live in. You’ll be introduced to concepts of world-building, speculative design, and systems thinking to develop this world. Depending on class’ interest, there may also be a brief introduction to Unity3d as a tool for depicting your shared worlds – though note the workshop is tool-agnostic and you may use a medium or technology of your choosing.

Then, over the course of a week you’ll create artifacts and a story around your co-imagined world (physical, digital, or performance-based).

Day 2: you’ll use the artifacts you created to share back the story of your world. As a class, we’ll discuss the themes and ideas your world embodied!

This class can be especially fruitful for students looking for a creative way to see their thesis research through a totally new lens!

You might also consider taking this class if they are interested in: Designing interactive pedagogical tools and workshops, Having lively conversations with your peers about systems and our roles within them, Constraint-based design as a way of generative creativity, How imagination and play can produce change, A break from our world.