Design Fiction x Humanitarian Futures
However unpredictable the future may seem, many are involved with foreseeing and planning around the greatest challenges it holds. Be it water shortages, a frenzied climate, depleting resources or unstable governments the world we live in is constantly facing complex humanitarian crises.
As many are looking for ways to tackle the causes of these forces, Quicksand facilitated a workshop with Exhibition design students from NID exploring how to shed light on future, unexpected needs and responses the humanitarian sector might develop to the short-term impact of the crises that will affect communities and vulnerable regions of India. Together, we considered and visualized possible future challenges of mitigating humanitarian crises and how aid communities might come together to face these odds.
This workshop is part of a larger exploration of the Future of Humanitarian Work being explored in partnership with Tandem, STBY, HLA and Quicksand for an exhibit in April 2019 at the Barbican’s Life Re-wired Hub.
Edit: The work has now been presented and available to see at futureofhumanitarian.work. Come have a look!
Here are the visions that were created:
Telling story of craftsmen traveling on camels in Kutch aiming to genetically modify their camels’ dependence on water in a world where water and fuel resources have been depleted.
Telling the story of a rescue drone operator aiming to rescue the remaining land survivors who are the victims of rising sea levels in a world where the elite have settled underwater and the poor have migrated to boats.
Telling the story of a group of a sanitation engineers aiming to develop a sustainable outlaw community around a step-well in a world that is on the brink of ruin due to pollution and radioactive waste in the water and soil.
The workshop ran for 3.5 days covering the basics of design fiction (as a theoretical framework) and Unity (as a visualization tool) to think through the crises and responses to those that may develop in the future in a detailed and tangible manner.
The discussion on the topic of Humanitarian aid was framed around the emerging tensions worldwide but more specifically in India regarding increasingly limited access to drinking water, socioeconomic inequalities and drastic weather which has complicated the situation be it through the destruction of homes or sewer contamination of clean water sources.
With this in mind the group also looked at global complications in the wake of such crises as can be seen in the Philippines as well as emerging best-practices as presented in the Overseas Development Institute research into the matter. Some key themes takes from the reports were the following:
How might humanitarian response services better leverage existing skills, livelihoods and local systems?
How might humanitarian response services nurture personal growth and empowerment of those affected by crises?
How might humanitarian response services become more multi-lateral and leverage the potential of the global south?