Makers of the Future
Designers are the makers of the future
This is from my keynote at the International Integrated Design Camp (IIDC) 2018 organized by the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) in 2018, where I was invited to contribute as a chair.
60 students majoring in design and engineering and 12 design professionals and professors from 10 countries participated in IIDC for an intensive 3-day workshop.
The theme of IIDC was A Better Future By Design and Emerging Technology coincide with 17 Sustainable Development Goals created by UNESCO. My keynote, given at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) designed by Zaha Hadid, was to encourage participating students to view them as makers of future. Below is the summary of the keynote with slides.
Let me first introduce Doris Day and her famous song - Que Sera Sera (Whatever will be will be). The song was so popular when I was young.
It is a conversation between a girl and her mom (or a boy and his dad) about the future. A girl asks her mom whether she will be pretty and rich (a boy asks his dad if he will be handsome and rich).
The mom (or dad) tells her daughter (his son) that the future is nor ours to see and things will happen as they are supposed to happen.
True, the future is not ours to see. But we can make the future because we are people who are makers of the future. If we are waiting to see what tomorrow brings to us, we will have to take it no matter what it is. But it will be better if we are going to make it as we wanted.
The second person to meet is Mr. Keating "the Captain" from the movie Dead Poet Society. Keating makes a considerable influence on his students. One day, he introduces a Latin adage - Carpe Diem, which translates as Seize the Day. While this motto asks us to make the most of day and time, it has some passive nuance, too.
Rather than using day and time as given, making the day and time as we wanted is more active attitude and it is what is necessary for the makers of the future.
I would like to introduce a few future makers we had.
First, Leonardo da Vinci. Being famous as a painter, sculptor, inventor, anatomist, and engineer, da Vinci was known for few characteristics:
- Unlimited curiosity
- Creative in how things work
- Unrivaled visualization skill
He had a curiosity for almost everything, creativity for finding new things, and visualization skills to show his ideas to others in an impressive way.
These characteristics are necessary for all designers and engineers, in fact.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the fathers of America, was such an influential person in many ways with the characteristics including:
- Masterful in politics
- Deep knowledge in science
- Hands-on inventor
As a politician, he knew how things work in society, had an in-depth knowledge of science, and was a hands-on inventor.
It is a famous story that he flew a kite on a stormy night to prove that lightning is strong electricity coming down from clouds to the ground and how to avoid it. He also invented an innovative stove than burns much less wood to produce much more heat. He could make a fortune from this invention. But he didn't file a patent of it to benefit more people.
Franklin shows us that we, as makers of the future, need to have more than science and technology. They are the understanding of how things work in society and empathy in people.
"Dasan" Jeong Yag-Yong was a Korean scholar and politician. He is respected as a father of Practical Science in Korea. Practical Science (as opposed to neo-Confucianism which had been dominant among Korean scholars for thousands of years) is to apply theory to useful applications.
Dasan is known as a:
- Respected scholar and philosopher
- Pioneer of Practical Science (實學) in Korea
- Expert in policies, economy, and engineering
While he published books on how good government can serve people, he also invented a hoist mechanism to build castles easily. The hoist was used to construct Hwasung at Suwon, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage.
Besides the knowledge and talent, he had open eyes for new sciences, a warm heart for people, and ability to bring imagination to implementation.
The last one to introduce lived much after those three. Steve Jobs made lots of things and services - personal computers, iPod, iPhone, iPad iTunes and many more. But what he brought us is smart living that was not easily imaginable before.
- Dare to break the rules
- Imagined the unimaginable
- Brought us a smart living
He had an ability to break the rules that everyone was accustomed to, was so good in imagining what was unimaginable, and brought us smart living that we all dreamt of.
These future makers had few things in common. They are:
- Curiosity: Eager to see what comes after next
- Courage: Dare to change what we know
- Creativity: Look for different ways always
- Connection: Ideas and the reality
- Communication: Efficient in disseminating ideas
It may be a coincidence that these share C as an initial. Makers of the future need to have the boundless curiosity for what is beyond next, courage for making steps towards the unknown, creativity for finding new ways and things, connectivity to develop new things my making valuable relationships, and communication skill to bring everyone on the same page.
There are two things these masterminds didn't have. They are:
- Fear: Failures are not failures for them
- Failure: It is just another discovery
When a reporter asked Thomas Edison, who failed over a thousand times until he found a right material for a filament for electric bulbs, how many times he failed. Edison said 'none.' Out of curiosity and knowing Edison did fail a lot, the reporter asked Edison again, 'none?' Edison told the reporter 'I discovered over a thousand materials that aren't suitable for make filaments.'
Indeed, there are no failures for the makers of the future. Even failures are valuable discoveries.
Please meet more makers of the future - you. Everyone who is participating in the International Integrated Design Camp 2018 - and the ones who are reading this article - is the maker of the future.
As long as we have the curiosity for what is after the next, eager to make steps with courage, use creativity to make new stuff, bring things together to find the things that didn't exist, and communicate well with words, drawings and prototypes, we are the makers of the future.
The evolution of design tells us that designers first focused on making good things, then good experiences, and values. To make the future that has lots of value, we need wide views and diverse expertise, which is the core of integrated design. Integrated design requires more than the integration of technology (hard integration); it needs integration of views and dialogues (soft integration).
What if our future is a result of just hard integration? The movie Wall-E has an obvious answer.
The first part of Wall-E shows the future of the planet as ruined by mass production, mass sales, and mass consumption. We are halfway towards what the movie shows because all corporations want more profit and designers and engineers are asked to make thing happen through the mass economy.
What is visualized in the second part of the movie is even scarier. People on the spacecraft after leaving Earth live with all kinds of advanced technology such as Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Driving, Augmented Reality, Robotics, Virtual Reality, Smart Mobility, Smart Accident Management, Smart Fabrics. It is what we are dreaming of. But those who enjoy the technology are living in an entirely different way from what we would desire.
They don't need to use fingertips, and thus they cannot lift fingers. They do not need to think and decide thanks to the artificial intelligence, and therefore they cannot think intelligently anymore. Technology made by humans made human less capable as human.
We all wish technological advancement, but we do not want us to be like those in the movie Wall-E. But if we believe technological progress will bring a better future to us, we may end up like seeing the future as illustrated in the film. And it will be too late to reverse it.
People with diverse backgrounds, expertise, and thoughts should work together to lay out what a better future can be. That is the essence of integrated design.
Let's talk about the design process as the making of future - a real future not as merely another today.
The first step is flying - flying high. To see what is not around us, we need to fly up into the sky. We need curiosity to see farther and the courage to do so. We will need big wings and muscles, too. These are what those makers of the future possessed.
Once found something new from high up, we need to land there - land elegantly. This requires good knowledge and lots of experiences. An integrated approach is necessary for this phase.
Interestingly, this 'flying high - landing elegantly' overlaps with the Double Diamond Design Process developed by the British Design Council very well.
The DISCOVERY phase is flying high to find what's new, DEFINE stage is recognizing new opportunities, DEVELOP is trying to connect all resources to land safely, and DELIVER is landing to achieve the goals efficiently.
I would like to introduce one more person before concluding the keynote.
Frank Sinatra left us so many beautiful songs including Fly Me To The Moon. It is still loved by many.
This very romantic and adorable song begins by asking someone - a lover, "fly me to the moon."
But if you are a maker of the future, you don't need someone to fly you to the moon. Instead, you need to find ways to get there and fly others there.
Sooshin Choi
Northville, Michigan
