The project in five facts.
Challenge, approach and results.
The Institute for Transmedia Design from Murska Sobota, ** the Sobota Youth and Cultural Club, and Academia Maribor** organised a five-day event in Maribor entitled ** Future Friends**, focusing on the field of speculative design. They posed a fundamental question: what can we change today for a better tomorrow?
Problem
The Institute for Transmedia Design from Murska Sobota, ** the Sobota Youth and Cultural Club, and Academia Maribor** organised a five-day event in Maribor entitled ** Future Friends**, focusing on the field of speculative design. They posed a fundamental question: what can we change today for a better tomorrow?
Solution and Method
'They brought leading practitioners in the field of speculative design to Maribor – from James Auger, whose works are in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art, MOMA, as well as in Design Sight in Tokyo, and who collaborates with the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, to Matt Ward, who heads the design department at Goldsmiths in London, and Michael Smyth, who lectures at the University of Edinburgh – in short, personalities who have made enormous advances in their field of design worldwide,' says Sara Božanić, head of the Institute for Transmedia Design from Murska Sobota: 'They were invited here to offer their young people workshops, discussions, and conferences on new inter- and multidisciplinary methods and practices with an emphasis on the relationships between technology and people in the field of speculative design.' Twenty participants from around the world came to the workshops – from Mexico, India, America, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic, Serbia, and elsewhere – whilst around 100 people registered for the conference, again mostly foreigners – from Germany, Austria, Italy, and other countries.
One of the more important parts of the Future Friends event was also an open discussion. Sara Božanić: 'This was conceived on two levels; the first level is intended to tell and show that – when new approaches or new design disciplines are born in design, it is very important that this is reflected in the educational approach. Why? Because everything goes through education, and the first section is dedicated to how to strengthen this segment.
The second section discusses the current state of speculative design – what are the priorities, critiques, and what is the path forward for this design discipline.' Future Friends is co-financed by Erasmus+ through the ** SpeculativeEdu** project, which is the Union's programme for education, training, youth, and sport, aimed at strengthening new educational methods and practices. Students from the ** Media Production** study programme at Academia Institute of Technology Maribor also participated in the workshops.
Module, programme and stories.
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