Transition Lab Workshops

Viv Kuh, Responsible Innovation, University of Bristol

Artist/Celebrant Bec Gee and Lecturer/Creative Futurist Viv Kuh have been working together on utopian futuring methodologies since 2022, supporting people to collectively imagine and critically engage with utopian futures as a means of reflecting on contemporary practice and values. Their work is inspired by Ruth Levitas’ (2013)Utopia as Method and was initially developed to support scientists and engineers to imagine the futures their research may create, but has since found resonance with researchers, artists, designerss and practitioners from a range of other contexts. 

Vivienne Kuh and Bec Gee developed the Narrative Futuring method to help scientists and engineers “feel the futures” their research is helping to create. Using utopian envisioning as method, Narrative Futuring helps us imagine the people, places and emotions that may exist one day as a result of the pioneering technologies being developed right now.

In this workshop, participants will learn about the Narrative Futuring method and use it to create some utopian visions for our plural futures with some of the emerging AI systems in the present day. Narrative Futuring is quick, dirty and iterative, enabling practitioners to swiftly generate multiple possible futures within which we can all play and explore, anticipating the joys and perils in the imaginaries of our shared techno-moral futures.