Imagineering A Better Future

August 11, 2023 Impact, Business, Arts, Design, Science, Technology

***Image created in Midjourney by Daniel Simons***

Words: Daniel Simons

“Imagination allows us to conceive of delightful future possibilities, pick the most amazing one, and pull the present forward to meet it.” - Jason Silva

In 1952, Walt Disney founded Imagineering Inc., a research and development arm of the Walt Disney Company responsible for bringing the magical worlds of the Disney theme parks and attractions to life.

A fusion of the words "imagination" and "engineering," imagineering is the art of dreaming up something that doesn't exist and then turning it into a reality. It empowered Disney to 'turn the impossible into the possible’ and led them to play a gigantic role in shaping our collective imagination.

But what if we broadened the concept of imagineering beyond theme parks and cartoons? What if we harnessed its power to conjure a better future?

Imagination, creativity and vision play a pivotal role in shaping our world. Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize and author of The Future Faster than You Think, evangelises the power of having a ‘big hairy audacious goal’ and embracing ‘moonshot thinking’.

Kevin Bankston from The Center for Science and Imagination has documented the world-changing influence of speculative fiction, in what he refers to as the Sci-Fi Feedback Loop, and we all know the unifying power of Dr. Martin Luther King's ‘I Have a dream' speech.

Thanks to exponential advancements in research and communications technology, endless streams of reports from organisations like the IPCC, UN and Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the acknowledgment of our challenges being broadcast and embraced by the worlds of business and education and culture, we are all now largely awake to the scale of what we are facing.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals have become our new compass, but they mostly help us to imagine a world that is less bad. They don’t give us a roadmap to, what Charles Eisenstein refers to as, ‘the more beautiful world our heart knows is possible.’

More recently, the world has woken up to the potential of positive visions and solutions-focused dreaming to inspire action. Thought leaders like Damon Gameau, Rebecca Solnit, Katie Patrick, Leyla Acaroglu and even Margaret Atwood are calling out for new, positive, solutions-focused myths and maps.

We don’t need to drill too deep into our imaginations, or teleport into distant futures to imagineer solutions. As William Gibson reminds us, "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed."

To create the scaffolding for a new civilization, we can find inspiration in the projects and ideas that are already thriving today. Frameworks like Donut Economics provide us with a lens to reshape our economic systems. Websites like Project Drawdown, Project Regeneration, and Atlas for the Future, or The Institute for The Future, offer a wealth of knowledge and actionable solutions, and books like "Utopia for Realists" by Rutger Bregman and Jess Scully's "Glimpses of Utopia" illuminate pathways to a better tomorrow.

Imagineering isn't just for writers and designers, it can take virtually any form. It might look like Damon Gameau’s 2040 documentary, or Cochella’s POSTed Studio art project that crowd-sourced concept art for posters that advocate for solutions.

It could look like The United Nations invitation to dream up #TheWorldWeWant, or The Foundation For Young Australia’s Collective Imagining project, or Regen.Mebourne, or Imagination Activism in Camden. It might even lead to real-world policy like Future Melbourne’s crowd sourced vision for 2026, which saw 2000 participants submit almost 1000 ideas for what the city could become.

Whether it's through writing fiction, creating documentaries, participating in innovation jams, or engaging in citizen juries or crowdsourcing projects, imagineering can stimulate our collective imagination, amplify our creative potential, and, as Jason Silva puts it, ‘impregnate the future with the contents of our minds’.

Looking for inspiration to start dreaming up a better world? Here are 9 ideas and resources to get you started:

SOLARPUNK AND CLI-FI

Cli-fi or climate fiction is a genre of literary fiction where the story is set in a world that has been shaped or impacted by climate change.

Coined by Dan Bloom, who curated the world’s first Cli-Fi database, the genre has exploded in recent years. Kim Stanley Robinson’s and The Ministry for the Future, Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam series and James Bradley’s Clade are all fantastic examples of modern Cli-Fi.

Unlike Cli-fi which can be either utopian or dystopian, Solarpunk is a literary and artistic movement focused on stories that present positive visions for humanity.

The term ‘Solarpunk’, was coined in 2008 by an anonymous author. In 2019 researcher Adam Flynn and the curators of solarpunks.net released ‘A Solar Punk Manifesto’ which defined Solarpunk as a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question, ‘what does a sustainable civilization look like and how can we get there?’

Although some science fiction works could fall into the category, the first works to be officially published under the Solarpunk genre were Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastic Stories in a Sustainable World, (2012), Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation (2017) and Glass and Gardens (2018).

More recently, Grist has begun to publish ‘Imagine 2200’ a series of short stories from writers from different backgrounds that explore what 180 years of equitable climate progress might look like.

PROTOPIAN FUTURES

‘Protopian Futures’ was first coined by Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of Wired Magazine. The term was inspired by the concept of ‘pronoia,’ the exuberant or irrational belief that something good will happen or that the entire world is rooting for you. Kelly originally conceived of protopian futures as distinct from utopian and dystopian imaginings. A protopia is a future that is better than today, but not perfect.

In a framework published in 2021, by futurist Monika Bielskyte, she suggests that Protopias should depart from the idea of a finding ‘better future’ via incremental technological innovation and that it should now emphasise proactive prototyping of radically hopeful and inclusive futures that focus less on technology as panacea and more on cultural values and social ethics.

According to Monika, protopian visions are anchored in the principles of plurality, community, celebration of presence, regenerative action, symbiotic spirituality, creativity and emergent subcultures and the evolution of cultural values.

Protopia explores visions of radically hopeful & inclusive futures centering Queerness, Indigeneity, Disability & previously marginalised cultural perspectives.

Monika’s @protopiafutures is a collaborative research and creative platform that aims to challenge dystopian/ utopian stereotypes and empower edutainment producers to create radically hopeful futures.

THE IMAGINE PROJECT

The Imagine Project is the brainchild of Katie Patrick, an environmental engineer, host of the ‘How to Save The World’ podcast and author of the Forbes bestselling book, of the same name.

In her TED talk, Katie argued that optimism and creativity, not doom, will save the planet. She created the Image Project with the aim of inspiring the environmental movement to embrace a new age that moved from condemning what we are against to illustrating the kind of world that we are for.

The Imagine project is a community-driven movement that gives people the tools, activities and social support to re-imagine their cities as biophilic, ecologically harmonious, and beautiful places. The aim is to inspire creative visualisation of what a city can be and kick-start the actual, on-the-ground ecological transformation.

The project includes an earth imagination toolkit, a network of people sparking positive visions for a better world, an image gallery of eco city futures, and immersive VR experiences.

THE GOODLIFE 2030 PROJECT

Led by Purpose Disruptors and in collaboration with the Insight Climate Collective, Race to Zero and Stories for Life, Good Life 2030 was a campaign for the advertising industry to create compelling visions of the future in 2030.

The Good Life 2030 project asked the question, ‘Can advertising help reimagine a new ‘good life’ for 2030?

The Good Life project included extensive research with everyday citizens, which was then discussed with advertising executives via a series of deep dives and immersive workshops. Over 100 advertising agencies responded to the brief - including top agencies like Gravity Road and Iris, as well as 30 creative teams from Cannes Lions’ Eurobest Young Talent Competition.

Culminating in a 15 minute documentary about the advertising industry’s relationship with the climate crisis and a list of tools and resources, The Good Life 2030 project translated citizens' visions for a better world into creative and inspiring advertising campaigns.

The campaigns premiered globally at COP26 as one of only two advertising-related events at the conference.

MUSEUMS OF THE FUTURE

Museums typically house objects of historic, traditional or scientific importance, but a new iteration of the museum is rising up globally.

In Dubai, in what has been described as ‘the most beautiful building on earth’ the Museum of the Future lets people see, touch and shape the world that awaits us. Featuring near-future technologies, sensory experiences, fantasy worlds for children as well as workshops, camps and future talks, the Dubai Museum of Futures allows audiences to feel the future today.

In Australia, Claire Marshall’s Museum of Futures consists of interactive creative exhibitions that highlight the role we can all play in creating different futures.

Each Museum of Futures exhibition is centred around a specific theme that is explored via 10 artefacts created by artists in response to the imagined futures of their specific communities.

Each exhibit also features an imagined ‘history’ of how the future occurred, letting the audience gain a new appreciation for how the past and the future are connected.

THE FUTURE BAZAAR

Like a museum for the future, but one where everyone can be the artist, The Future Bazaar is a turnkey framework and toolkit for setting up a co-creative gathering or design jam where participants transform everyday objects brought from home into ‘unique things from alternative futures.’

What started out as a large-scale event run by the BBC, the Bazaar evolved into a toolkit that can be downloaded for free by anyone.

Created by Filippo Cuttica and Stuart Candy, and published by Situation Lab, The Futures Bazaar imagination toolkit includes a manual, slideshow and printouts that allow anyone, anywhere to imagine positive visions of the world to come.

DAMON GAMEAU’S 2040 AND REGENERATING AUSTRALIA

Two of the most powerful examples of positive futures thinking to come out of Australia are Damon Gameau’s 2040 documentary and the Regenerating Australia short film.

In the 2040 documentary, Damon embarked on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we embraced the best solutions already available to us.

Structured as a visual letter to his four year old daughter, and based on interviews with children around the world, the project gave audiences a true glimpse at the power of fact-based dreaming.

Structured as a news report from the year 2030, Regenerating Australia is a 17-minute short film based on a four-month interview process with a diverse group of Australians who shared their hopes and dreams for the country's future. More than just a visioning exercise, the filmmakers teamed up with WWF to build a $2 million dollar fund to help bring ideas inspired by the film to life.

Regen Studios, the team behind 2040 and Regenerating Australia have also created theregenerators.org, a platform that shares stories that can regenerate and heal our social and environmental ecosystems.

THE AWESOME ANTHROPOCENE GOALS

Founded by creative change agency Futerra, the 2050 Awesome Anthropocene goals are an attempt to answer the question: ‘what’s next after the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are met?’

The 100 page document outlines 20 goals that humanity can strive for as we approach mid century.

Featuring goals like, Universal Decent Income for All, Everyone Lives in a Doughnut Community, Consumption is Regenerative, Artificial Intelligence Enhances Life and Everyone Optimist, the goals aim to inspire us all to imagine a world that could be truly awesome.

THE URGENT OPTIMISTS

Founded by Jane McGonigal, the author of SuperBetter and Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything. The Urgent Optimists is an online community of people who want to feel authentically hopeful about the future and create positive transformation in society and in their own lives.

Urgent Optimism is a motivating and resilient mindset that combines foresight with creativity. It’s founded on the core concepts of psychological flexibility, realistic hope and a belief in the ability to positively impact the future.

The community includes scenario clubs, imagination training, ‘signals of hope’ scavenger hunts, social networking and a ‘10 days in the future’ online learning journey where the entire community comes together to dream up creative solutions to our global grand challenges.