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In my book ‘It’s time to imagine harder’, my hypothesis was that bringing the creative consciousness back to work is a clear path to unlocking the unexpected and unanticipated. A way to sense into and feel for the unseen. The creative consciousness - which has a proclivity or impulse to operate comfortably even enthusiastically with the unknown — can dream of the undreamt as if were soaking in a warm bath of ambiguity.

The creative consciousness ambles around in the new territories and terrains for which the old ways of knowing and being do not fit — they are not big enough to make sense of the territory. They are The Old. The new is The New.

The creative consciousness is the thing that fosters the accidental discoveries, and that fosters unintended breakthroughs that challenge conventional boundaries. The creative consciousness is a catalyst for organic evolution within any effort for which uncertainty looms large.

When we embrace uncertainty, we open that new terrain, providing avenues for originality that rigid ideation frameworks often obscure.

This episode of the podcast gets into the sometimes painful but always fascinating struggle by which we try to maintain the creative spirit in an increasingly optimized world.

When the denizens of efficiency and productivity are the ones who set the rules, it can feel like a losing battle to keep the spark of innovation alive. But what if we flipped the script? What if we embraced the chaos, the messiness, and the unexpected as essential ingredients for creativity?

In this episode, I chat with the guys at ‘Normals,’ a creative studio that thrives on the unexpected, the illogical, and the beautifully tangentially inflected. They argue that true innovation isn’t about relentlessly pursuing efficiency, but about deliberately disrupting it – a vital conversation for anyone wrestling with the pressures of modern work.

This episode is a vital discussion for anyone who believes that the creative spirit is worth preserving, even in the face of relentless optimization. It’s a call to arms for those who feel that the relentless march of efficiency is stifling their creativity and and ultimately that thing we loosely call ‘innovation’ — the space where sense can be made out of chaos and confusion.

So have a listen as we have a coffee and chat. Come along and see how ‘Normals’ cultivates a creative environment built on embracing ambiguity, challenging assumptions, and ultimately, celebrating the power of human imagination to create something truly new.

I hope this episode serves as a reminder that sometimes the best solutions are found not in perfectly polished plans, but in delightfully messy explorations.

Very much like the editing of this podcast.

Oh, one last thing to say: this podcast, the newsletter, everything that goes on here is not free. It takes time and costs money.

If the podcast and the community have value to you, please consider supporting it.

There are three ways you can do that: first, is to become a professional tier supporter on Patreon. That’s easy. Just go over to Patreon and become a supporter.

The second way is to buy the books and zines over at the shop.

The third way is to hire me to work with you, your team or your organization. There are a multitude of shapes that can take, from workshops to commissioned projects to engaging me as a consultant.

You can find more about that over on the website in the services section or simply book a call with me.

The Intersection of Imagination, Science Fiction, Strategy and Creativity.

we wandered into something I keep circling back to: the idea that strategy is a kind of science fiction. Not in the “space battles and robots” sense, but in the deeper way that science fiction gives us permission to imagine futures—plausible or not—and then build toward them. Jarrett and I talked about design not just as a tool for solving problems, but as a mode of inquiry, a way of asking better questions and shaping new cultural narratives.

We both share this instinct that branding, design, and strategy aren’t just reactive—they’re speculative. They make bets on the kind of world a product or company wants to inhabit. They tell stories about futures that don’t exist yet, and then use those stories as scaffolding for action. That’s what excites me about this work: it's not just about “making things,” it's about materializing possibilities.

There's also this important undercurrent about imagination as a form of intelligence. We don’t talk enough about that. Creativity isn’t some whimsical add-on—it’s central to how organizations find direction, how they differentiate, how they respond to change. And good strategy? It needs to evoke, not just calculate.

This episode was a reminder that strategy and design, at their best, operate in the realm of the imaginary. They’re speculative tools. And maybe the real work is helping people see that imagination is infrastructure.

Jarrett Fuller is a designer, writer, educator, editor, and podcaster. He is an assistant professor of graphic design at North Carolina State University and hosts the design podcast Scratching the Surface.

https://jarrettfuller.com/

http://scratchingthesurface.fm/

In which Tobias and I converse about the release of the book 'Practices of Future Casting', the importance of events that gather thought leaders to spur creativity and career development in design and futures thinking, the compilation and production of the book, the value of speculative writing as a legitimate form of future making, the significance of in-person events for fostering impactful professional and creative relationships, the concept that imagination, like a muscle, must be exercised and integrated into both creative and professional contexts to drive meaningful change. We also ponder the challenge of replicating the studio environment digitally and stress that the embodied experience of shared physical spaces is vital for deep creative engagement.

Check out the book 'Practices of Future Casting': https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/library/2024/11/practices-of-futurecasting/

Check out our essay: https://nearfuturelaboratory.com/essays/2024/11/stories-to-imagine-alternate-futures/

Follow Tobias: https://tobiasrevell.com/

Support the podcast, join the community: https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory

Phil Balagtas' book "Making Futures Work" is a comprehensive map of the work of futuring.

https://www.philbalagtas.com/

Learn how to get started with Futures Thinking. With this practical guide, Phil Balagtas, founder of the Design Futures Initiative and the global Speculative Futures network, shows you how designers and futurists have made futures work at companies such as Atari, IBM, Apple, Disney, Autodesk, Lufthansa, and McKinsey & Company.

This book demystifies the process of Futures Thinking into a language that's practical and useful for both designers and strategists. You'll learn about Strategic Foresight for using ideas about the future to anticipate and prepare for change; explore Speculative Design to deal with the relationship between science, technology, and humans; and Design Fiction to explore and critique possible futures.

Balagtas also shares stories from his journey to build a global community and describes how he works with clients to reshape the futures vocabulary. With this guide, you'll learn how to:

We discuss the challenges and triumphs of writing an all-encompassing book on futures practice, exploring the evolution of speculative design and the importance of imagination as a critical element in futures work. Phil shares his experiences from initial concept to publication, the personal and professional obstacles, and the intricate process of curating a methodologically rich and visually engaging text. We discuss the collaborative nature of futures work, the delicate balance of practicality and creativity, and the potential of immersive experiences to enhance learning and engagement in futures studies. Imagination, much like a muscle, needs to be exercised and nurtured through diverse techniques and collaborative efforts.

Please support the podcast by becoming a Patron over on https://patreon.com/nearfuturelaboratory which also gets you access to the Near Future Laboratory Discord server, a vibrant hub of engaged, thoughtful, creative generalists oriented towards creating more habitable near future worlds.

Please become a paid supporter over on Patreon. Your support helps keep the Podcast going and gets you membership in the Near Future Laboratory community on Discord.

A conversation with Troy Campbell who describes his journey from graduate school to becoming a professor and the Chief Scientist at On Your Feet, where he became passionate about the power of behavioral science.We talk about concepts like identity, memory, and mindset activation, and how they can be utilized across consumer, organizational, and personal contexts. Troy talks about how he fuses behavioral science with artistic practices like storytelling and applied improvisation. We also get into specific methods, such as using portals for easing transitions when imagining into possible futures, the kinds of warm-up activities that help foster creativity, and the importance of grounding ideas, understanding imperfections, and leveraging narrative to communicate effectively. Throughout we wonder about the interlinks between structured approaches and expansive creative exploration and how these in the right proportions can achieve meaningful, impactful, and wonderfully unexpected (innovative) outcomes.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-hiduke-campbell/

https://www.hidukehouse.com/

This is Episode N°093 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast with filmmaker, director Gary Hustwit, the creative punk mind behind documentaries Rams, Helvetica and Objectified. We dive into his journey in independent filmmaking, his DIY ethos, and his bold ideas about storytelling in a digital world. Gary shares his approach to creating generative cinema—films that evolve and change with each viewing. We explore what it means to push against the boundaries of trad filmmaking, trad distribution, and the creative process. A deep and inspiring conversation about art, risk, and ways of imagining harder.

Read More 👉🏽 ⁠https://detroit.imaginesharder.com

Can you imagine your idea of the future of work, beyond Zoom calls from the beach?

• What is the Onboarding Guide for the Future of Work?

• What is the Resumé from the Future of Work?

• What does the equivalent of the ‘org chart’ look like?

Want to help create a reinvigorated future imaginary of what work could be? Want to try your hand at Design Fiction Worldbuilding?

Join me for Detroit Imagines Harder: Futures of Work, a 3-day Design Fiction Summit & Workshop held in real life in real Detroit.

Just a few spots left!

October 16-18, 2024.

Read More 👉🏽 https://detroit.imaginesharder.com

Tobias and I have a tidy morning/evening conversation that revolves around the impact of Philip K. Dick's science fiction, particularly how his imaginative devices influence modern technological narratives. We talk about the ways he refers to and anticipates AI and other artifacts, of course there's a deep dive into the significance of the Minority Report's gestural interface created for the 2001 film adaptation, and how it has influenced real-world technological advancements.

What prompted this discussion was the recent release of the book Towards the Realm of Materiality: Designing Philip K. Dick's Non-Existing Technologies and Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the PKD book from an "adjacent now."

The question I have is this: what methods can be adopted in order to operationalize these science fiction themes into practical realities, with the aim of constructing a more habitable world using advanced design and speculative concepts.

Please consider supporting the podcast and joining the Near Future Laboratory community over on Patreon!

Exploring AI Imaginaries and Future Speculations In this episode, we discuss the continuation of the AI magazine project and the upcoming season of the Super Seminar series. And then we jump into discussing the book in which Tobias has an essay about the philosophy and conceptualization of technology in Philip K. Dick's works, particularly focusing on the adaptive nature of everyday technology. We get into the production design and cultural impact of the 2001 film "Minority Report", based on the 1956 (!) PKD novella of the same name, emphasizing how media can shape and influence technological advancements. 00:00 Introduction and Recap 01:53 Discussion on AI and Philip K. Dick 05:17 Minority Report and Technological Vernacular 11:25 Speculative Design and Future Technologies 16:44 Cultural Impact and Future Visions 25:03 Breeze Punk and Green Transition