The New School 100 Year Participatory Futures Workshop

Project Type
Futures Studies + Co-Design + Speculative Design

This workshop gathered a range of individuals from across The New School, including students, alumni, faculty, administrators, and partner organizations. The aim of the workshop was to construct alternative visions for the university's next 100 years, including desirable, undesirable and ambiguous possibilities. It was designed and facilitated to establish a forum for discussing the potential impacts higher education institutions could face in the next century, as well as ambitions which should lead our actions.

Challenge

The New School recently turned 100 years old. At this critical juncture, an opportunity to evaluate both its past and it potential futures was presented. To explore this opportunity, a group of classmates and I asked:

How might we curate a space, set of resources, and process which enables a reflective, imaginative, and informative futuring experience for participants and facilitators?

Approach

Participants worked with futures-oriented thought tools to rigorously examine and devise concrete scenarios to influence near term decisions.

The three hour workshop was designed and facilitated in six phases:

1. Introduction

2. Rapid Future Creation

3. Critical individual and group reflection

4. Ideation: Inventing a Subculture

5. Making: Artifacts of our Subculture

6. Sharing

Outcomes

The New School 100 Year Futures Workshop resulted in the short video, above, which summarizes the event and affords rapid sharing of learnings.

Process, insights, and key takeaways were also summarized into this Press Pack. It is, primarily, meant to support future decision making by New School faculty and administrators.