Systems Thinking
Working to Racially Just Futures
Independent Study w/ advisor Hillary Carey
Spring & Fall 2021
Research Description
How might we extend decolonized design futuring tools to activist communities to help them compel people towards the vision of the equitable future they are fighting for?
Overview
Design practice is inherently Eurocentric and often constrained to individuals that are considered to be “design experts.” This two-fold problem makes it easy for design practitioners to continue to secure racially unjust futures and perpetuate existing systemic problems. Winnows Research - Racially Just Futures begins to tackle this deeply embedded problem within the discipline.
Racially Just Futures opens up the design practice of futuring to on-the-ground activists, providing them with a multiplicity of Futures methods to begin to imagine the futures they hope to realize. Additionally, through creating a space that opens the design practice to non-designers and a plurality of perspectives, our project team will adapt existing futures tools that meet activists where they are at and cater to their specific needs. Finally, our project team will share our work with futures’ designers beginning to start an important conversation on the limitations and places that need work within the design discipline.
Tools:
-
Figma
-
Adobe Illustrator
-
Miro
Skills:
-
User Research
-
Sytems Thinking
-
Service Design
-
Visual Design
Team:
-
Hillary Carey
-
Rachel Arredondo
-
Chris Costes