My work over the years has consistently been driven by my curiosity to explore new technological developments, particularly their impacts and potential in the digital world. This curiosity has led to a more critical perspective on these impacts, a viewpoint I express in my writings and events. Despite this, I remain inspired by the possibilities arising from the interaction between humans and technology. I firmly believe that a design perspective, which is essentially a deep probe into the potential meaning and effect of our creations, is crucial to this exploration. I’m interested not just in the immediate outcomes, but in uncovering the future implications of technology. This curiosity forms the core motivation for my work:
A practice for making sense of unpredictable futures in human-AI partnerships.
A practice, as in bringing the sense-making into practice of inspirational and knowledge-building artifacts
Making sense, as the point of departure of projects is an open quest on what might come
Unpredictable futures, to stress that we are operating in a time with lots of uncertainty, something to be afraid of but good to keep acknowledging
Human-AI partnerships have been my main focus of the last years of research and exploration; however, this does not limit my view on other societal changes.
If you would like to know more about my background and the experience I bring, check out the About page.
Futures deliverables
To structure my activities and the services I can offer, I have mapped out some potential deliverables in a two-by-two format.
- from rapid explorations to deep-research
- from delegated projects to co-design
In short, the list of deliverables. In general, futures are never an overnight change into a new world; they are always extensions of the present, just like we live with the residues of our past.
- Topic columns are short, opinionated explorations of a topic relevant to the organization that can inspire new and more precise questions. They are like futures op-eds, modelled to your contextual reality. The format can be a visually rich two-pager and/or a presentation that can inspire internal teams.
- Day-in-the-life extends on this, putting the vision of the future into practice in a real-world situation. Depending on the needs, this can be a small essay, an illustrated essay, or even a small video.
- It can become even more of a deep dive by creating a magazine of the future—a proven concept for bringing the future to life and putting services into context.
- Another format for creating a tangible asset in the future is a mock-up of a future service or even designing the artifact of the future. The design process can teach us a lot about the choices at hand.
- An applied research paper or report can support future explorations by deep-diving into context and related research. Depending on the possibilities, internal and external interviews with experts are part of the research process.
- Combining the design and prototyping of artifacts of the (near) future can be done as a design sprint, which involves a team or combination of experts from the organization. A design sprint typically takes a week from start to finish and requires engaged teams. The deliverable is not only an inspiring concrete artifact of the future but also an embraced and supported outcome.
- A shorter version is the co-prototyping workshop that focuses on learning by doing and creating prototyping. It can be more like a hackathon or using a prototype kit like the WijkbotKit is offering for urban robots.
- Community events, workshops, hackathons, conferences, can deliver quick insights and inspiration to build upon, or deliverable shared deliverables. I have been organizing public events on specific topics such as behavior design, technology ethics, the Internet of Things, robotics, AI, and more. I have also organized multiple hackathons and workshops.
Topic-driven and organization-inspired
As indicated, the overall focus is on human-AI partnerships, or formulated a bit broader: the partnerships of humans with interactive technologies.
Topics can be more theme-based as a point of departure. I have been exploring future mobility, energy futures, Web3, media perspectives, new things, trust, haptics, and the mailbox of the future, urban robotics, to name a few.
Bringing in the organization’s perspective is key. Together, we define the level of mining in terms of organizational aspects. Sometimes, an outside view within the relevant domain can be very useful already. Analyzing an organization from outside or by doing internal interviews or panel sessions can be added.
Involving clients through a co-design process or reflecting on first explorations works best.
This can be a two-step approach. The outcomes of a co-design workshop with experts or users will deliver even more insights as the starting question is based on framing. To build upon or object for reframing.
Cases
Over the years, I have gained experience with all the mentioned deliverables, both internally in the organizations I was affiliated to and for external advising. With this experience, I can make a quote for an activity that fits your budget and needs.
Case: topic columns & presentations
In my weekly newsletter, I write a weekly short column to reflect on current topics. You can find them here on the website.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a vision on the future of mobility for the company I was working for, INFO. It was published on their website and Emerce’s website. Based on this vision, I gave several presentations, including an internal knowledge session for Vanmoof, an organization for booking agents, a podcast.
Find an overview of all my public speaking engagements at the About me page.
Case: expert review from the future
A Swedish ad agency invited me to share my opinion on the mailbox of the future as part of the future shopping lab program they ran for their client.
I was interviewed, and I reviewed the concepts, helping to validate and support the designs they created for their client.
The end results are still online here.
Case: research paper
For a large pension provider, I was asked to write a report on the protocol economy and developments and impact of Web3. The report was based on literature research and interviews with experts from the organization.
The research gave a general overview of the developments, the critical reflections, the relation with the organization, and a day in the life of the future within the protocol economy.
Case: ThingsCon Salon
For ThingsCon, I organized multiple salons that were always connected to one topic. The typical Salon consists of a hands-on workshop and a meetup with a couple of expert speakers. Salons are always organized with a partner, such as a research or educational organization or a company like VanBerlo or VPRO Medialab. I design the workshop together with the partner, curate the program, and coordinate the production.
Case: Wijkbot-workshop
Within the Cities of Things LAB010 project, we developed a prototyping kit and workshop approach. In general, we start with defining the context of urban robot exploration. When starting with a blank sheet, often deliver the first-level ideas, so we stimulate iterating on a more defined starting point.
We present the backgrounds of the starting point, leaving triggers open for reframing if necessary. Iterating is only better. We provide a quick canvas for the ideation based on proven methodology.
The prototyping is facilitated with a balanced set of prototyping materials. We stimulate interactions between teams.
Finally we go testing the creatures on the street. The standard prototyping kit makes it possible to divide into three roles: one is the impersonation of the urban robot, steering the movements from a distance. The other is observing behavior and starting conversations triggered through the interactions. The third person is logging through pictures and movies.
At the end of the workshop, the experiences are not only shared; specific learnings are collected for follow-up policy-making or design briefings.
Check all of Wijkbot via de dedicated website.
Get in contact!
Thanks for scrolling all the way down! Let’s get in contact, and I can tell you more about the options. E-mail will work (iskander[at]targetisnew.com), or DM via one of the social channels.
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