the vision deficit
In an eloquent way Peter Lunenfeld, professor in the graduate Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design, describes what he calls the vision deficit, i.e. people’s lack of or decreasing ability to generate ‘positive, society-inspiring’ images and imaginations concerning the future(s).
“One reason we have so little faith in the future is that the shape of things to come has never been so inadequately imagined. We tend to see utopia as relentlessly personal, while the apocalypse is one of the few shared universals. In other words, while we can posit a future for ourselves as individuals (and even as members of a family) we have little in the way of positive imagination for the realm of the social, much less the political.”
Since it is daily business for us to stimulate and ‘help’ people to think about, imagine, strategize for, envision the future of their companies, their countries, their cities, their products and services, the world around us, one might expect we would grow used to ‘the vision deficit’. Yet, time and again it is a shocking experience to stare into this void … which I guess, is also a big part of what keeps us going.
Peter arguments for future-oriented thinking by introducing the notion of bespoke futures as follows:
“… bespoke futures go beyond profit and loss statements, to create an opportunity space for the imagination, enabling individuals and independent groups to create visions of the future that inspire them. The point is to move from P&L to V&F—profit and loss to vision and futurity—from ROI to ROV –the Return on Investment to a Return on Vision.”
Peter suggests to adopt the future as a client and he explores the possibilities of this mental stance to train designers in positive future-oriented ways (e.g. scenario planning skills etc.). As we do, Peter sees much added value in design with respect to the creation and use of future scenarios and visions.
“What the design fields bring to scenario planning is precisely the power to take discussion and animate it as vision, as interaction, as environment. Not only that, bespoke futures engage with the very essence of the design process, the crafting of potentialities out of the imagination, and their eventual realization—or at least virtualization—in the world. If there’s one thing we ought to be able to do, it’s to train a new generation of visionaries, of young people who not only can imagine a better future, but can visualize and design it.”
As for Peter apparently, it was also one of the fundamental reasons for me to start teaching a ‘future design atelier’ at a design school, creating a space and atmosphere to enhance and develop young people’s skills both in terms of analysis as well as to bring futures to life via the use of various media, methods, techniques etc. Design, in my opinion and in the way we look at it in our work at Pantopicon, plays a role on both ends of that spectrum.
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