Abstract
We discuss anticipation as a particular type of future focused thinking. Based on our own design and research practices we position the anticipative mode of thinking and acting in relation to design approaches that are oriented towards qualities of becoming and sense-making. We argue that the act of anticipation in a design context holds the aspect of making artefacts that create openings in the fuzzy reality and act as imaginative probing instruments in the complexity of continuously evolving transformation processes as they occur in our research field: the field of urbanity. In this context, we feel that developing tactics of attentiveness and the competence to anticipate can enhance both the capacity of 'seeing' (as a creative, imaginative act) so-called Kairotic moments and grasping the opportunities to construct and actualise possible futures.
Keywords
anticipation; presencing; sense-making; becoming
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.79
Citation
De Smet, A., and Janssens, N. (2016) Probing the future by anticipative design acts, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.79
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Probing the future by anticipative design acts
We discuss anticipation as a particular type of future focused thinking. Based on our own design and research practices we position the anticipative mode of thinking and acting in relation to design approaches that are oriented towards qualities of becoming and sense-making. We argue that the act of anticipation in a design context holds the aspect of making artefacts that create openings in the fuzzy reality and act as imaginative probing instruments in the complexity of continuously evolving transformation processes as they occur in our research field: the field of urbanity. In this context, we feel that developing tactics of attentiveness and the competence to anticipate can enhance both the capacity of 'seeing' (as a creative, imaginative act) so-called Kairotic moments and grasping the opportunities to construct and actualise possible futures.