STORYTELLING AS A VISIONING TOOL

Before diving straight in to research, an exercise was done to allow for some ‘blue sky thinking’ into the world of the future. To be able to talk about how watches would exist in the future (or whether they would in the first place), one needed to be able to understand the world that would be. This exercise was inspired from reading Alvin Toffler’s ‘Future Shock’. Like with Future Shock, an attempt was made to look at how systems existed in the past and make projections as to how they might take shape in the future - how individuals formed groups, what the state of wealth generation would look like, etc.

Storytelling was an essential part of this. Building a sequence of events and scenarios allows us to visualize what the future might look like without having something to show for it in any visual form. When this was presented to Revathi Kant and the other heads of departments, they were informed that there would be no screen, no slides for the presentation. They just needed to close their eyes and allow the narrative to unfold.

What is beautiful about stories is that they are capable of grabbing everyone’s attention. As human beings, we are so hooked to stories that they get us to listen and initiate discussion. As it turns out, topics surrounding the future get everyone excited. The presentation was followed by a round of discussion where different people from different departments would excitedly talk about how they felt about the future and where it might go.

Figure 194. Jansher 2018 Design is Human

Figure 193. Rohit Kartha 2018 Instagram page expe.des