FUTURE LABs Design

Future trend research and editing for FUTUR(S) (professional and global publication distributed on five continents) based on a weak-signal method, and presenting a panorama of societal transformation on a 3-5 years horizon. Topics: identity codes and societal models, well-being, environment, collaborative economy revolution, cultural globalization and decolonization, relation to time and space, quest for meaning and transcendence, new frontiers of science and technologies, etc.

Pedagogy about territorial resilience strategies and new innovation cultures. Workshops to co-design inspirational future scenarios for the city of Arles and the Camargues bioregion. Critical analysis and keynote during the Luma Days. Prospective topics: Future of cultural institutions, collaborative economy and resilient innovation, inclusion and social innovation, new rurality, sustainable tourism, hospitality, culture and agriculture synergies, campus-city, 21^st century factory-city, Unesco 3.0 city, neo-nomadism and the Global Village.

Future insights on contemporary world transformations (digital and environmental transitions, globalization, new innovation ecosystems and cultures, AI, anthropological redefinition, identity crisis, Art-Science frontier, etc.). Identification of CNRS and Science key future challenges. Design of strategic scenario prototypes based on key macro-trends and workshops to co-design a visionary strategy (event formats and content) for the institution’s 80 year anniversary (local, national and international reach).

Series of future trends books written with Peclers on the future of cities (ecology, mobility, well-being, technology, citizen life, creative and economic fertility, inclusion, branding and attractiveness, collective past and future imaginaries, etc.), of territorial and urban resilience (new sustainable development school declined in 4 dimensions: ecological, inclusive, collaborative and cultural), and of social, societal and urban innovations. Curation, casting and moderation of a round-table on the mobilization and power of new social and urban innovation networks.

Insights on new economic models at the crossroads of profit and not-for-profit sectors.  Experience sharing on the economy of culture. Critical and creative analysis via a series of conceptual diagrams elaborated between the workshops at IFTT and at Aalto University Design Management Dpt. See: iftf.org

Insights on urban innovation and resilience. Collaborative research to amplify the cultural and urban innovation of the group (via its real-estate branch and the Lafayette Anticipation Foundation). Topics: historical renovation, art’s contribution, experience and space design, retail, place-making, sustainability, etc.

Insights on the role of art and artists in societal innovation. Co-design of an international and trans-disciplinary societal innovation camp (8 day task force – 150 participants – 40 nationalities). Design of an exhibition kit to stage, share and discuss groups’ work. Topics: life-long learning, urban inclusion and transition, aging society and silver potential, knowledge economy paradigm, etc.

Contemporary world transformations masterclass at Palais de Tokyo in Paris (topics: Anthropocene and territorial resilience, digital transition, A.I. era, urban innovation, Creative City, role of art, patronage, etc.).  Innovative project co-design workshops (Reinventing the Metropolis program).

Editorial direction of the Vision section (art, architecture, ideas, literature) of online publication Tales Magazine (8 quarterly issues – in French-English). Mobilization of a community of contributors. Design of a creative platform strategy and innovative partnership models.

Co-design and writing with Peclers of an in-depth study of the future of campuses (weak signals methodology). Topics: new approaches to and spaces for pedagogy, universities’ national and international positioning, innovation ecosystems, inclusion in territorial dynamics, Y and Z generations’ well-being, etc.

Insights and collaborative research on new wider visions of the social and environmental responsibility of private and public corporations. Design of a conceptual map. Insights and open-lab on the meaning and model of “companies dedicated to art”.

Future insight on the Creative City, urban and social innovation, and digital transition. Mobilization of a local creative community to set-up an Art District. Project design workshops to activate it. Staged open-lab with a pool of potential partners. Project international partner and online space: arte-sur.org

Design of “polygonal” (multifaceted) research methods and spaces (work-station, performative installation or conference, mood-board, collaborative diagram, workshop direction, round-table, etc.). Experimentation during exhibitions at Apex Art, NY, Espace d’En Bas, Paris, Corner College, Zurich and Forde gallery, Geneva.

Design of an ecosophical (Guattari) and resilient territorial utopia, inspired by a trip in Iran and evolving into something more fictional. Photography, diagrams, installation and workshops at Atelier Martel Architecture, Paris, 2013. Fiction Design conference, Art & Sciences chair, Polytechnique, ENSAD, 2019.

Series of research workshops on the digital era and the rise of the “digital natives”, the Y Generation, and their relation to work, time and the world. Research on the impact on organizational models and the separation of private and professional spheres. Design of a conceptual map overview.

Contribution to the research program on the challenges and new models of “Creative Territories” developed by Science-Po director, Frederic Gilli, for the DATAR State planning agency. Insights on the contribution of art and art-based research to territorial innovation. Publication of an article on metropolitiques.eu.

Creation of image banks, photographic installations, photomontages and critical methodologies to interpret and value images and the city, exhibited or published (see rbidaultwaddington.net). Narration of a photo-based fictional world questioning the digital era, the data-sphere and green global governances.

Co-design with Dr Zhang Kai of an urban program and planning scheme for Shanghai World Expo “Better City – Better Life”, including the creation of an urban lab (Urban Best Practice Area). Design of a strategic map.  Photographic research, exhibition (France Fiction gallery) and publication (La Tribune).

Series of open-labs (Corner College, Zurich), conferences (Science & Fiction seminar, Paris 8 University, Second Fictions Symposium, Paris 1 University) and a text + images publication (d-fiction.fr), using LIID’s experiments to explore fictions and fictions embedded in fictions, as performative instruments.

Aesthetic audit of the self-organized neighborhood of Copenhagen to identify the levers and potential of its creative reinvention (published in 2006 in Knowledge Cities). Photographic research. Design of a future strategy in a governmental competition (3^rd prize). Exhibition at Over Gaden Art Center. Publication of a critical future scenario (horizon 2030), France Fiction review.