about us

perfect future design

We are a design research collective working at the intersection of technology, politics and society. 

Imagining future scenarios and sharing and discussing them with others reveals how we perceive the present. It also allows us to assess what kind of future we would like to create and what kind we should avoid.

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WHAT WE DO

We initiate plattforms for discussions on technology-related futures, which take place either digital or analog.

HOW WE DO IT

We organize public workshops and critical exhibitions on topics of societal concern. Discussion is at the core of all events.

METHODS WE APPLY

We speculate about futures and make them accessible to a broader public. Speculations are recorded in critical designs and discussed.

FUTURES WE PURSUE

Possible futures are at everyones stake, thus, everyone should have a voice. The future can be formed today. It’s our task to make it

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our source of inspiration:

Everyday, countless technological applications are distributed worldwide. They are bought and applied in the form of various products by a wide range of different people, having different cultures, believes, norms and habits. Many of those technologies reach the most remote places on earth and have a great impact on societies all around the world. Because of the great influence of technology on human life, it is very important to discuss its threats as well as its opportunities from different perspectives.

our values & believes:

First, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to join the discussion and share her or his thoughts on the futures of technologies and societies. Second, we are optimistic and therefore believe in the sense of striving for a perfect future. Our current perspective should not limit us in our vision of the future. Instead, the multitude of possibilities that lie ahead of us encourages us to design multiple visions of futures today. What are we waiting for? Let’s strive together for perfect futures. Let’s discuss and create them.

the team

Chiara Ullstein

We are a research unit from Munich, Germany. Combining „Social Design“ (MA) and „Politics and Technology“ (MSc), our research focuses on the intersection of the impact of new technology on society and the potential of design methods. Since early 2019, we are working together on the design research project DIGITAL DEMOCRACY.

Public spaces in the internet, that are, for instance, generated by social media plattforms, have brought many advantages to society. However, also new challenges emerged. Because of the global scale of digital public spaces, issues can become quite complex and their impact on society unforeseeable. To overcome challenges for democratic societies like misinformation or privacy issues in digital public spaces, we invent methods to rethink the status quo by speculating about possible futures. Using speculative design as a method we support creating critical design artifacts in interdisciplinary workshop-teams.

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