Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

In confusing times of fake news and fake truths it seems feasible that people look for comfort in symbolic rumours. As we live our daily lives engaging with ‘the real’ how do we interpret what is ‘normal’? Perhaps by thinking about what is beyond our current knowledge we can find ways to encounter and explore territory we still don’t currently understand. As artists and designers respond to ‘problems’ do we inhibit our opportunities to design ourselves into new possible futures? By focusing on fixing and being ‘realistic’ are we placing barriers in front of our creativity to re-work rather than re-invent? Are we inhibiting our opportunity as creatives or perhaps should we be celebrating being unrealistic in order to imagine things that perhaps haven’t been imagined before (Dunne, 2019). Could this be where true innovation lies? Testing the previously thought to be un-testable? To imagine the previously un-imaginable.. what do we have to lose? Perhaps we should be materialising our dreams, listening to our imagination and celebrate being constructively unrealistic in order to explore new territory. Creative practices have the ability to create new methods for living and new modes of reality, enabling opportunity to mobilise change through shaping human existence in modern times. By exploring the territory between ontology (the way we make sense of being), phenomenology (the way we read our environment) and psycho-geography (the way we translate space and find meaning in the design of places) we can choose the Visionary Rumours we create that shape how we engage with ‘LIVING THE DREAM’.