The Futures Archive

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you a recent conversation between TFA host Lee Moreau, Design Observer founder Jessica Helfand, Cindy Chastain leader of customer experience and design at Mastercard, and Ellen McGirt from Fortune. For three days in March, Design Observer and Mastercard leaders gathered with some sixty people—designers and scholars, social entrepreneurs and independent consultants, creative leaders and senior practitioners from across a range of industries—to discuss the current state of everything from collaboration and craft to cultural transformation, technological innovation, and the social and systemic changes impacting the ways we live and work. The Futures Archive will be back soon with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show — Sketch Model from Olin College of Engineering and previous cohost Sara Hendren. Sketch Model is a limited series that delves into the engineering classroom and looks at how perspectives from the arts, humanities, and social sciences shape the why and should questions about the technologies we build. On this episode, Sara talks to creative technologist Mimi Onuoha about teaching young designers—and artists, and engineers, and creative people whose work lies somewhere in that mix—how to learn. How to learn not just skills for designing the built world, but how to contend with the ideas behind the things we make. To hear more from Sara on TFA check out her episodes on the insulin pump, the refrigerator, and the defibrillator (AED). A transcript for the episode an be found here. The Futures Archive will be back soon with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show, Design Future Now from AIGA. Design Future Now is podcast that asks: How is design changing as a discipline and profession, and how do we face these opportunities as a community? Host Lee-Sean Hung explores these questions and more with creative practitioners and leaders. On this episode is Sloan Leo, the Founder & CEO of FLOX Studio Inc. You can hear more from Sloan Leo on co-hosting on The Futures Archive talking about the blender, the bug zapper, and the automatic door. The Futures Archive will be back with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show, Scratching the Surface. Scratching the Surface is podcast about design, theory, and creative practice. Hosted by Jarrett Fuller, each episode features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with designers, architects, writers, academics, artists, and theorists about how design shapes culture. New episodes every other Wednesday. You can subscribe at https://scratchingthesurface.fm/index or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can support the show on Patreon and get bonus content each month at https://www.patreon.com/surfacepodcast. On this episode is Daniel Barber, Associate Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Graduate Group in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and prolific climate and architect author. You can hear Daniel on The Futures Archive S02E05, all about the air conditioner. The Futures Archive will be back with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show from Design Observer's library, The Design of Business | The Business of Design. On this episode — Perrin Drumm is a writer, editor, and head of publishing at A24.

On the final episode of season 2 of The Futures Archive, Rachel Lehrer and Lee Moreau explore pleasure with a conversation about the vibrator and women's control over their bodies. With additional insights from Lynn Comella, Ti Chang, Jenny Winfield, and Mireille Miller-Young.

How many microphones are in the room you are in? Did you count the ones in your earbuds? On your phone? Your smart device? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Liz Danzico discuss the microphone as an embedded technology, and the power it commands from center stage to tucked away in a drawer. With additional insights from Susan Schmidt Horning, Jonathan Sterne, and Meryl Alper.

The automatic door is a part of most peoples everyday lives, and certainly considered a convenience. But when you walk up to one does it feel magical? Futuristic? Frustrating? On this episode of The Futures Archive, Lee Moreau and Sloan Leo discuss the automatic door, and how we can design thresholds of all kinds to be inviting to all people. With additional insights from Laurent Stalder, Bess Williamson, Wendy Ju, and David Gissen.

How does the act of care get designed into our everyday lives—beyond medical procedures and technology, into our relationships, our schedules, our lives? On this episode of The Futures Archive, Lee Moreau and Sara Hendren consider the insulin pump, and discuss what it might look like to think about a medical device in the context of all that’s actually human. With additional insights from Jeff Bennett, Gianna Marzilli Ericson, Aaron Oppenheimer, and Christina Harrington.

What do you listen to when you are in your car? Or when you are traveling? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Liz Danzico discuss the car radio and what sounds you are conditioned to hear. With additional insights from Ian Punnett, Phylis Johnson, Karin Bijsterveld, Yuri Suzuki, and Olga Touloumi.

So what did you have for breakfast? Did any of it come from your refrigerator? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Sara Hendren discuss designing for health and safety within the everyday context of refrigeration and the mysterious coldscape. With additional insights from Jonathan Rees, Nicola Twilley, Vipul Saran, and Robyn Metcalfe.

Note: This episode addresses topics particularly sensitive in light of this week's school shooting in Texas. While Design Observer has never shied away from difficult conversations, the editors acknowledge that this content may be difficult for some listeners. Content Warning: Violence, killing, and death are discussed in this episode. It would be hard to find someone who wants to share space with a mosquito. Hence, the creation of the bug zapper. But as designers, how do we address what lives and what doesn't? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Sloan Leo go deep on how human-centerd design doesn't always reflect humanity. With additional insights from David MacNeal, Juliano Morimoto, Spee Kosloff, Paula Antonelli, and Lindsay Garcia.

On a hot summer day there's nothing like walking into a freezing cold office building to remind you of how much humans are modifying their environments. On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Rachel Lehrer discuss the pleasures and pains of air conditioning for ourselves and the sustainability of the planet. With additional insights from Salvatore Basile, Daniel Barber, Kofi Boone, and Gail Brager.

Do you notice the defibrillator on the wall or behind the cash register in the places you visit daily? Have you ever been called on to use one? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Sara Hendren discuss the defibrillator, designing life-saving machines for everyday users, and the power of the power button. With additional insights from Christine Ball, Rachel Plotnick, and Lucienne Roberts.

Do you have a blender? Do you use it? Does it make your life more convenient? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Sloan Leo discuss the blender, gender roles, and power structures. With additional insights from Alice Naylor, Dan Formosa, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, and Michelle Lokot.

What does our need for dongles say about the sustainability, or obsolescence, of the electronics we are designing and consuming? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Liz Danzico discuss dongles and how we might find a more sustainable way forward. With additional insights from Jason Scott, Susan Strasser, Kem Laurin, and Nathan Proctor.

What are the relationships between design and pleasure? How can we design the most pleasurable experiences? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Rachel Lehrer discuss the disco ball and the importance of embodied design. With additional insights from Änne Söll, Nadine Hubbs, Gary Hunt, and David Rose.

Season two of The Futures Archive launches next week and we’re excited to introduce you to our four co-hosts for the season. Just like last season our host Lee Moreau, his co-host, and a variety of experts will explore an object to learn about it's design and cultural history, and unlock a larger conversation about human-centered design and the future. This season, each episode will take an object with power, look for the human at the center — and keep asking questions with our following co-hosts. Liz Danzico is part designer, part educator, and full-time dog owner. Liz is the Founding Chair of the MFA Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and was most recently Acting Senior Vice President, Digital for National Public Radio (NPR), as well as Vice President, Design, responsible for leading human-centered design across NPR’s products and platforms. Rachel Lehrer works on high risk, high reward projects that span violence to pleasure. She builds global, multi-disciplinary teams to design and test life-changing, scalable solutions for those affected by conflict and disaster. She most recently developed a program that resulted in 27% reduction in the frequency of intimate partner violence, in half the time and at half the cost of the leading violence prevention programs. She's now building a company for men with the goal of increasing pleasure for women. Sloan Leo (they/he) is a Community Design theorist, educator, and practitioner. They are the founder of FLOX Studio, a community design and strategy studio FLOX Studio is on a mission to alter the future of work by integrating community & social justice values, design thinking, and organizational development. We work with nonprofit capacity builders, design institutions, and social impact leaders to foster collaborations, facilitate meaningful conversations and prepare for the near future. Sara Hendren is a humanist in tech—an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering. Her book What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World explores the places where disability shows up in design. In 2021-22, she is Lecturer in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design and a fellow in Education Policy at the New America think tank, where she is researching the future of work for adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities.

Do you have a pet? Do you name inanimate objects in your life? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and guest host Liz Danzico discuss her dog Harriet, and the anthropomorphization of things. With additional insights from Greger Larson, Gail Melson, and Hannah Chung.

Do you have a favorite recipe? Do you follow it to the letter? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Lesley-Ann Noel discuss how recipes apply to human centered design and the importance of abductive thinking. With additional insights from Xinyi Liu, Julia Collin Davison, and Jon Kolko.