L'université Unimail où s'est déroulé le workshop de Nicolas Nova et Bill Cockaine


Nicolas Nova



Bill Cockaine



1er des éléments de cadrage fourni par Cockaine : la ville est complexe



Le futur aussi.



Quelques considérations sur l'innovation, la perception des changements :
The future is a complex problem (uncertain and ambiguous: we don't even know what to measure)
· You can't predict the future but you can invent it
· Use "data" and analytical reasoning to discern what might exist and what we could build
· While predictions are foolish, there is value in the underlying discussions
· Focus on the questions generated, not "answers"
S-curves: idea -> sc discovery -> breakthrough -> invention -> techno -> product
· X-Y (mapping) / needs to work à generate stories; be able to populate corners
· Design tools :
· Observation
· What is timeless
· Think about people today and in the future time
· If you assume people change, what's the single most important reason/driver?
· When thinking about a change, what are the early indicators / triggers / incipients
· Brainstorming
· Ideas are fine, questions are more important
· Assumptions are critical
· Stories will tie it all together
· Prototyping
· The best models generate questions around the areas of highest change
On pourra se reporter au wiki de l'atelier: http://foresight.pbwiki.com/LIFT07.



Puis on s'est mis à travailler. Première partie : réfléchir ensemble sur la prospective, deuxième partie : raconter une ou des histoires sur la ville en 2025. Dans notre groupe, de gauche à droite : Jan Chipchase (Nokia), Stowe Boyd (consultatnt-designer-gourou), Sanjay Khanna (designer de Vancouver), et un bout du front de Daniel Kaplan. Il y avait aussi un jeune étudiant d'Amsterdam, une finlandaise, et Julian Bleeker (Université de Californie du Sud).



Entre les deux parties du travail de groupe, Bill nous a projeté un film étonnant, inédit pour moi : la présentation, minutieusement mise en scéne, du projet EPCOT par Walt Disney en personne. Puis les 5 groupes se sont mis à inventer des histoires de ville.



1er scénario, trés riche, avec notamment 3 hypothèses :
- 100% digital : primary life is second life (un des gimmicks de Lift07)
- 50/50 digital/physical : avec cette belle idée (sur la photo) de "connected gypsies", le point fixe c'est le numérique, le physique est entièrement mobile ,
- 100% physical.



2e scénario, centré autour de la fracture numérique cognitive (new ways of learning/digital illiteracy), de l'Opt-in et Opt-out ...





3e scenario, un des plus intéressants à mon avis : le moins c'est le plus, pas de biens c'est bien. Avec la densité, le coût du m2, celui des produits, des services, on se débrouille avec peu, on habite à l'hotel, on campe, on sqatte, on partage les voitures, les maisons, on travaille où on peut, dans des espaces publics de travail, On ne posséde plus rien, on utilise quand on a besoin sans excés avec des formules du type "all inclusive".



4e scénario, totalement centré sur le vélo dans la ville.



Dernier scénario, le notre, qui est une histoire écrite par le groupe, et lue par Sanjay :

CITY OF THE FUTURE
{Based on Mumbai-type cities}

In our city, you walk into an apartment and the density of its inhabitants change one's ideas of privacy. People are sometimes warned that the crowds are so dense, you can't make your way through it [by force] and can only go with the flow. One of the things urban dwellers do to recreate privacy is to go to places virtually and socially. There are physical and virtual places amenable to social contact, a combination of physical and virtual contact that makes citizens feel interrelated to one another.

While places and locations and locations are important, the city also pays attention in formal and bottom-up ways to match people with resources they need. In this apartment in the city, the ability to sustain oneself is changed because of expensive resources; sometimes there are catastrophes where people die because of starvation, warming, cooling. The explosion of people has changed what you consider to be your community, and certain neighborhoods become self-regulated entities where people can be shunned based on their behaviors and how they fit in. Kindness and trust become more important as people feel pressured by environmental and social density--kindness becomes as necessary as water.

People in the city begin to design systems to address disorder and benign indifference and, within the high density and diversity, there remains the thrill of unknown experience. In general, the city is responsive to environmental and social changes through economic and technological tools that make the city responsive in a positive way. The city is resilient and gives people access to resources: Individuals find ways to regulate the state through self-publishing media and individuals' ideas of ownership change as they question what they need and don't need. Social services in our crowded city require individuals to band together to put out fires, police themselves and be first responders.

There are attempts to build common interests. In the tight quarters of the apartment, people live longer so there are many generations in one place--the building needs to support their care because of actual or potential collapse. One of the most important survival tools is the ability to have friends who will share their water and, in so doing, build a social currency.