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Elisava Insights Elisava Insights 75 Challenges Faced by Humans and the Planet An Innovation Report by Elisava Research Elisava Research 01. Foreword 04 Table of 02. Insights 08 Contents Human 10 Information 42 Materials 80 Technology 128 Society 162 03. Dialogues 210 04. Overview 240 05. Experts 264 06. References 254 01. Hello. Foreword We are a team of design and engineering university researchers. Our role is to generate and transfer knowledge to inspire, educate, instigate change and shake the system. We act as a blend of a research-driven studio, a creative think & do tank, and a research training programme. We deliver academic excellence, strategic resilience, quality engagement and creative attitudes. Design and engineering research are transdisciplinary agents for innovation, and more than ever creativity is a driver for purposeful transformation. We understand the design and engineering disciplines not only as research fields in their own right, but also as being intrinsically in dialogue with other areas of knowledge, that we have appointed as Human, Information, Materials, Technology and Society. The interaction between design and engineering and these knowledge areas can make an impact in the following ways: Design/Engineering + Human Design/Engineering + Technology Towards improving the quality of life Towards meaningful applications and integral well-being of individuals. of technology and extended intelligence. Design/Engineering + Information Towards innovative and meaningful Design/Engineering + Society ways of communicating. Towards social and systemic innovation and critical Design/Engineering + Materials thinking that supports emerging Towards environmental and cultural cultural megatrends. responsibility through materials development and new production processes. 4 5 Elisava Insights As researchers, we are constantly asking ourselves the question: with the wider public for societal awareness on what are the What role do design and engineering have in responding to present challenging transformations for humans and the planet, since these and future challenges? And which are those challenges? 75 insights represent the emerging signals for new lifestyles and provide visions of the new and next. This Elisava Insights report precisely addresses our 75 identified challenges faced by humans and the planet. Each Insight sheds The Elisava Insights project is just a manifestation of our role to light on a specific context, its challenge, and references in terms generate and transfer knowledge in order to instigate change, of agents, existing projects and existing literature, where you can providing a tool for creatively driven economical, societal or even dive deeper on. We have identified challenges such as: Can we political transformations beyond our ecosystem. increase the potential to empathise with not just other humans, but perhaps other species and ecosystems? How do we raise awareness Looking forward to your feedback and hoping to co-create soon. on the importance of empathic communication in the digital era? Which materials can help us mitigate climate change? How to promote sense- Laura Clèries making relationships with automated machines? How to explore and & Elisava Research team. experience different realities? How can design help de-growth? How can design promote democratic values and fight misinformation? You will find in this report 15 Insights per each Elisava Research knowledge area (Human, Information, Materials, Technology, Society), identified by our Elisava Research experts: Luis Fraguada, Pau García, Clara Guasch, Varvara Guljajeva and Toni Llàcer respectively. As part of the content, we have included the transcriptions of the five Elisava Insights Dialogues, a series of live conversations with these experts, performed during our global lockdown, and addressing the challenges and their impact on our daily lives. This report is a knowledge package that can be activated by using it as a co-creation toolkit: within the Elisava ecosystem for the formulation of future innovative undergraduate and graduate students’ projects and the identification of topics for research. with our current and future stakeholders (such as international university partners, technological centres, companies and institutions) for creative strategic foresight and as a starting point for collective dialogue and transdisciplinary synergies. Foreword 6 7 Elisava Insights 02. Insights Human Information Materials Technology Society 8 9 Elisava Insights Human H#00 Are humans equipped to deal other humans, but perhaps INSIGHTS with the societal and existential other species and ecosystems challenges of our era? by redesigning our biology. #01 Intergalactic Empathy Moreover, in face of a #02 Post Earth #03 Post Fashion There is a shift from interpreting technological takeover, humans #04 Near Space or regarding the world in strive to make a statement of #05 Augmented Senses terms of human values and our intrinsic, differentiating #06 Remote Interaction experiences (anthropocentrism) and valuable emotional nature. #07 Dermal Interfaces to a philosophy or perspective Mental health and emotional #08 Healthy that places intrinsic value on imbalances are unveiled and #09 Spiritual all living organisms and their embraced as part of our #10 Emotive natural environment, regardless existence, recognised and un- #11 Self-Design of their perceived usefulness tabooed. With the rise of the #12 Morphing #13 Phygital universes or importance to human beings 'mindfulness' movement, we #14 Adaptive survival (ecocentrism). demonstrate our inner power #15 Anonymous in public to achieve a somehow holistic We can increase the potential consciousness of our being in to empathise with not just this world. Human 10 11 Elisava Insights Context Our technology for the first time has travelled outside Insight #01 of our local solar system (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 Space Probes). We are developing instruments that allow us to look farther out in space than ever before, discovering many new stars, planets, black holes Intergalactic and other celestial bodies. Challenge Can a personal connection with a distant celestial body help us to appreciate the uniqueness of our Empathy own ecosystem? Hashtags #AugmentedEmpathy #IntergalacticEmpathy Agents Agustina Palazzo. Artist who in free fall inhabits digital uncertainty; interested in human behaviour, their desires and misunderstandings.H#01 Afroditi Psarra. Multidisciplinary artist and an Assistant Professor of Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington. Audrey Briot. Cofounder of DataPaulette, a multidisciplinary collective focused on research and development in textiles and digital technologies. Reference Listening Space, by Afroditi Psarra and Audrey Projects Briot. To explore transmissions ecologies as raw material for artistic exploration, while regarding knitted textiles as a physical medium for memory storage and archiving. Reference “Listening space: Satellite Ikats,” article by Afroditi Literature Psarra and Audrey Briot. H#01 Human 12 13 Elisava Insights Context While there are attractive and inspiring reasons for Insight #02 humanity to aspire to become an interplanetary species, there are also some significant challenges and realities which might push that endeavour to become a reality. While it will be years or decades before humanity steps on another planet, designers today are Post starting the work of creating the habitats we will need to keep us alive when we arrive. Earth Challenge Are we prepared to move our societies and become an interplanetary species? Hashtags #PostEarth #InterplanetarySpecies Agents Xavier De Kestelier. Head of Design Technology and Innovation at Hassell studio. Daniel Inocente. Architectural innovation through the building sciences and computational design, currently at SOM. Reference NASA 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, by Hassell. Projects If there was life on Mars, where would people live —and what would it look like? Moon Village, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), SOM is implementing new methods for master planning, designing, and engineering the settlement.H#02 Reference “Engineers and Architects Are Already Designing Literature Lunar Habitats,” article by Matthew Hutson. “Master Planning and Space Architecture for a Moon Village,” article by Daniel Inocente, Colin Koop, Georgi Petrov, et. al. H#02 Human 14 15 Elisava Insights Context Functional clothing differs from what we wear every Insight #03 day in that it usually needs to meet specific performance criteria. Thus, the endeavour to design functional clothing typically starts as an engineering challenge rather than an aesthetic one. This challenge becomes even more critical when coupled with limited or scarce Post material resources. Challenge What will we use as a interface to new ecosystems Fashion and what are the fashion aesthetics of necessity and post consumerism? Hashtags #PostFashion #PostConsumer #PostConsumerism Agents Dava Newman. Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Harvard–MIT faculty member. Christopher Ræburn. A collaborative, creative fashion studio where daily design meets responsible production. Reference The MIT BioSuit™, by Dava Newman. A skintight Projects spacesuit that offers improved mobility and reduced mass compared to modern gas-pressurised spacesuits. New Horizons SS20 collection, by Ræburn in collaboration with Xavier de
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