ISKRA
Speculative design / Creative facilitation
Iskra, meaning “spark” in Polish, is the brainchild of Karolina Thakker and I. We wanted a way to bring our friends, colleagues and strangers together in an informal, living room format to question current practices and imagine new realities. We hosted three events, each centered around a different topic: sexual behaviors of animals, transhumanism and fermentation.
Each evening opened with a short presentation, followed by a discussion and a speculative workshop to bring a design lens to each topic.
Posters were a collaboration with Karolina Thakker.
For our second workshop Cyborgs, Senses and Circuits, we created a card set called Design Yourself! The card set contains three types of cards: context, body part and activity. During each round, one of each card is drawn and players are challenged to come up with an adaptation within the constraints of the cards drawn. The cards were designed to be silly to stimulate out-of-the-box thinking.
During the same workshop we challenged participants to think about what cyborg traits they would like to have today. People asked for seamless internet connectivity via a brain chip and the capacity to physically empathize with other human beings. Here are photos from that workshop and the others.
If you’re interested in learning more about any of the Iskra events, check out our Medium posts.
