Salon: Rethinking the Future

Timeframe: 2011-2018
Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering

Funded through the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor’s scheme, this project looked at concepts of design, ownership and use within the context of diminishing global resources. The project involved award-winning industrial designer, Adrian Stokes, working with students and staff of the BA(Hons) Design for Industry programme, together with Vitsoe, Intel and the Royal Society of Arts. Modelled on the coffeehouses of The Enlightenment; a place to discuss “matters of mutual concern”, the project’s aim was to raise awareness and stimulate debate around the need to develop curricula where responsible innovation was a fundamental underpinning as opposed to a stand-alone ‘sustainability’ module. Rethinking the Future is a short film about the project which catalysed action and, supported by further work with two other RAE Visiting Professors, Gavin Proctor of Philips Design and Dr Phil Sams formerly of Unilever, was fundamental to the re-design of the BA(Hons) Design for Industry programme and the complete repositioning of MA/MSc Multidisciplinary Innovation programme as an educational research entity exploring Responsible Innovation. To view Rethinking the Future, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ_5mIsdE2I