Town Hall Notes:
Contributors
Quote Bank
It is time to throw out your strategy completely and go back to zero - Bracken Darrell
This is the beginning of a renaissance of creativity - Bracken Darrell
We all understand that it is not about ‘returning’, we have to leap forward - Karin Soukup
What I love about design fiction is that you can talk about a time or a place or a philosophy outside the constraints of reality - Karin Soukup
By using design fiction, we can help give stories that are hopian, not disptopian - Mark Bergin
There is a continual requirement as humanity to keep on pushing on - Mark Bergin
The AIDS epidemic changed how we behaved intimately, this epidemic is changing how we behave publicly - Debbie Millman
The most important thing is having courage - to step into the unknown and do something that you’ve never done before - Debbie Millman
Right now... we are living the lives that we would need to live to stop the climate at a 1.5degree increase - Turi McKinley
Because we are all focussed on the same problems and see the same needs, we can work together very quickly to make things real in the world - Turi McKinley
If we could be succinct, and take a poetic and concise design philosophy and communicate it in a way that is truly collaborative, I don’t think the word 'isolation' comes close to what we are experiencing - Rick Bell
Cartesian Dualism is being overcome by our new habits - Rick Bell
The opportunity that the internet is giving us right now is phenomenal - Ronnie Peters
We have been here before, what have we learned about the past? - Brian Collins
We are in a completely new world, and when you enter a new world you need a new language for it - Brian Collins
Design is hope made visible - Brian Collins
What we are doing now is almost pornographic, it’s sensation without experience - Brian Collins
How we frame this story will determine our future more than we can possibly imagine - Brian Collins
We can now see where the system is breaking - Brian Collins
Down here at the bottom of the earth [Australia], we should have the luxury of looking up to see that the lessons are all there - Julie Ockerby
Disasters happen all the time - how do we design things differently to deal with them? - Julie Ockerby
Let’s create the new, because we can - Julie Ockerby
The dissemination of information has happened and now it is time for us to utilise and implement that knowledge to reform what the future looks like - Jon Windebrenner
I’m wondering if there is an aspect of being isolated that is forcing us to ‘think’ rather than ‘do’ - Dan Formosa
This event is going to be a catalyst to face reality and make meaningful contributions - Dan Formosa
Mark Bergin
We are going to be putting out a treatment program asking designers to put forward their ‘design fiction’ of now, next and future
By using design fiction, we can help give stories that are hopian, not disptopian
How we get everyone’s minds to begin to exchange and accelerate?
We are going to have to work out how to make our cities more resilient
We need creative people to imagine a future
There is a continual requirement as humanity to keep on pushing on
Bracken Darrell
80-90% of our business is driven by these secular trends that are becoming more dramatic now:
1. Video
2. Remote working
3. Streaming and content creation
4. Gaming
I think this is a time that if you are running a business, it is time to throw out your strategy completely, go back to zero
The time for a total reset – there will never be a time like this again
I’m not a designer but I grew through design
The power of constraints – the more you constrain something the more power and creativity you have
This is the beginning of a renaissance of creativity
Karin Soukup
We all understand that it is not about ‘returning’, we have to leap forward
We have to be able to pivot along the way, with an understanding that there are points of ambiguity moving forward
Using design fiction to think about the future, in both a macro and micro sense
What I love about design fiction is that you can talk about a time or a place or a philosophy outside the constraints of a reality
I hope that in this moment we are also looking at the virtues of the ‘in-person’
Let's understand the values of the physical and bring them into this new future
Debbie Millman
It’s so hard to talk about courage and confidence when you’re not feeling courageous or confident
Moving the in-person experience to the online
Confidence is overrated, there is no holy grail for confidence. The most important thing is having courage - to step into the unknown and do something that you’ve never done before
What builds confidence is the successful repetition of any endeavour
The AIDS epidemic changed how we behaved intimately, this epidemic is changing how we behave publicly
The way in which live entertainment is shared now is going to change
Unless Actors Equity starts to allow streaming and the likes, the performing arts might not survive
Turi McKinley
Going remote has been an exercise in coming together and creating frameworks very quickly
Right now, except for the fact that we can’t have dinner parties and have physical contact, we are living the lives that we would need to live to stop the climate at a 1.5 degree increase.
The question that is so interesting to me is if we are living the lives we need to lead now to not damage the climate, how can we create a business environment in this reality that still works?
Assuming that COVID-19 is gone, what will the world have to look like to make this reality plausible?
Because we are all focussed on the same problems and see the same needs, we can work together very quickly to make things real in the world
Our team in Milan connected with several academics who had a lot of good information about how medical practitioners can effectively move into tele-health, but they didn’t have a way to reach the people they needed to reach with this information. Over the course of a week, we worked together to very quickly launch the tele-health platform.
Look at the ways in which communities can come together in these times to do amazing things
Rick Bell
What is the Plan C for this type of disaster?
The ‘C’ words: Talking about Courage, Confidence and Collaboration, Communication, Conjunction, Climate and Change, Co-habitation, Company, Convention, Contention, politics of Connivance
Courage comes from the heart, whereas the word confidence comes from the mind
Cartesian Dualism is being overcome by our new habits
What are the new technological changes that are going to drive a market that doesn’t exist now?
Concentrating on Jobs – that is what students are worried about
The collective to the collaborative
In many spheres of endeavour, the ability to participate as a spectator through technology is not a new phenomenon, it is something that has been going on for a hundred years
If we could be succinct, and take a poetic and concise design philosophy and communicate it in a way that is truly collaborative, I don’t think the word isolation comes close to what we are experiencing
How do we remain optimistic about communication and collaboration when everything is going to change in some ways?
We will see public spaces that are much more flexible
How do we get into a spectator culture that is collaborative?
Ronnie Peters
Embracing the opportunity and the moment
Here is a method of transportation [Hyperloop] where we can deal with pollution head on, we can still bring people together, we can still face the fact that we do need to get around – mobility will always be there.
Addressing the time factor
Because of the way Hyperloop works (with capsules going on a continual basis) we can reduce the number of people per capsule at no additional cost
A huge infrastructure project
Very bullish and super excited about what is around the corner
The opportunity that the internet is giving us right now is phenomenal
Brian Collins
We have already lived through a pandemic in the 80s… I have been here before
There are two things that I have learned: 1. We cannot depend entirely on the government 2. We need activism and science
This is different as it affects everybody
We are working with a lot of our brands to help confront this
E.g. we are working with the Good Plus Foundation to help accelerate their social media presence and donations
E.g. We have been working with former Apple Engineers on ‘Fix the Mask’, to find ways to make masks safer
A lot of the brands we have been working with have accelerated their desire to direct consumer systems and technologies
We are not PRing, we are just trying to help organisations on the front line
Design is hope made visible
I interviewed Richard Danne, who created the NASA design program in 1975, which was discarded in 1992. Last week the NYT announced that this design program from the 70s is being brought back for a triumphant return and Richard Danne, at 86 years old, will be the Design Director. Richard’s vision of the future was so specific and clear. 22-year-old UX designers are showing up to hear him speak and are flawed by his thinking from the 1970s.
We have been here before – what have we learned about the past?
This is an unprecedented opportunity to completely reimagine.
We are in a completely new world, and when you enter a new world you need a new language for it.
pain points, customer-centric, user-centric, minimum-viable-product, run fast and break things – this language is no longer going to work
We have to create system-centric work
All our mind tools are from the 20th century, we need new ones
What we are doing now is almost pornographic, it’s sensation without experience
At the moment we are not getting the physical energy from conversations with others
There is this great quote from G. K. Chesterton; "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
How we frame this story will determine our future more than we can possibly imagine
We can now see where the system is breaking
All the things that we wanted to get to at speed… we are paying the price for that right now
Using Beowulf to illustrate the long game: there is always another dragon and we will always be battling them from now on
There is no return to normal
Noam Chomsky: “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”
Julie Ockerby
For us here in Australia, people are saying there hasn’t been a precedence for us to learn from
Down here at the bottom of the earth we should have the luxury of looking up to see that the lessons are all there
In terms of age-care, COVID-19 has impacted this demographic significantly
Disasters happen all the time - how do we design things differently to deal with them?
This is a moment to collaborate with people we thought we never would, people who have been our competitors even
Any notion of picking up where we left up just isn’t going to happen
Now is the time to make bolds moves – look at opportunities that we never had the time to, look at problems in our models and structures
Let’s create the new, because we can
‘What If?’, ‘Why Not?’ isn’t as scary anymore
Jon Windebrenner
Relative to software, hardware takes a long time to come together
Different to big organisations as I am Independent and flexibly work with a small group of people
Felt the impact since December
Based in Steveston, Canada which remains largely unaffected (comparatively to somewhere like NYC)
Coming at this from a more personal level
Looking at how those in the arts industry, e.g. Girlfriend who is a dance teacher, are completely rebuilding their businesses and adapting to digital platforms
Creatives have a very empathetic view of the world
This pandemic is decimating the arts and small businesses
The dissemination of information has happened and now it is time for us to utilise and implement that knowledge to reform what the future looks like
Dan Formosa
I’m wondering if there is an aspect of being isolated that is forcing us to ‘think’ rather than ‘do’
The whole topic of design and behaviour has really been untapped – we know that design affects behaviour, but we don’t know that much about it
Areas of knowledge like ‘design and behaviour’ are really going to spur up
This event is going to be a catalyst to face reality and make meaningful contributions
Hosted by: Mark Bergin
Podcast production: Pat Daly
Notes: Lucy Grant
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