Speculative fiction, strategy planning, future studies: We work our way through the field of futurism and use its methods as our creative tool
The future: let’s patch it together from scraps. Future studies and strategic foresight are methods of guiding businesses and politics. Punk means to take the master’s tools apart, repurpose them to serve our own goals.
The compound of the words future and punk, just like in cyberpunk or steampunk, indicates that in the case of futurepunk, future itself would be setting the stage for the narrative, provide the condition against which the human beings in the world of the story have to struggle. Science fiction readership is skyrocketing. Strategic foresight and speculative design have become standard features in business events. While the former pulp genre has turned into a commodity, a new generation of creatives re-appropriates futurism into emerging subcultures of non-western identity-focused speculative fiction and art.
Futurism can be a key skill for a fast-changing humanity that has become aware of global media exposure and global threats: To dream up, conceptualize, and prototype outside the strict factual norms. The Emirates, with the strong dedication to a long-term future strategy, are the most fascinating place to study the applications of futurist thinking.
The class introduces speculative fiction and the more scientific forms of speculation. Students envision, draft and draw their own images and imaginations of alternative worlds, discuss, critique and apply the futurist methods in the good old punk tradition, taking futurism and use it for their own creations.
*Subject to minor modification and clarification of language. Readings/videos refer to the complete text/video except when indicated otherwise.
*Introduction: What is the future? How can we think about the future?
Paul Saffo, scenario planning, “the dark spot of the next five to ten years”, Hype cycles, Possible vs. preferable, Speculative design, Planning your startup
Manifestos, creating the future, declaring the future, understanding what might come, Ethno- and other identity-futurisms
Con- and a-temporality
McLuhan’s Tetrad etc.
Fuller, Teilhard, Kurzweil, Singularity
Future punk in strategy and warfare
Soft signals and good narratives
The weirdness of the present
Going really far to talk about important things
Week 12 through 14 focus on the final project.
Gulf Futurism
Studio class
Studio class
Presentation of the final project.
For the links to the videos on Youtube see here: /files/videos.md
Assignments are submitted on NYU Brightspace. Here is an overview on the weekly schedul with the topics and assignments
NYU Abu Dhabi Future Punk by Joerg Blumtritt @jbenno - Other classes I teach: github.com/jbenno