Critical Utopias: Designing for Conviviality

Interactive Content Development & Speculative Futures Design

A collaborative transatlantic COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) studio course in strategic foresight, speculative design, and systemic transformation. Partnering California State University, East Bay (IxDIA) with Technische Hochschule Mannheim (Communication Design).

Instructors & Faculty

US Instructor

Prof. Ian Pollock, MFA

Cal State East Bay

ian.pollock@csueastbay.edu

German Instructor

Prof. Dipl. Des. K. Beiderwellen

Hochschule Mannheim

k.beiderwellen@hs-mannheim.de

Joint Sessions & Schedule

Joint Session:Thursday 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM PST / 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM CEST
US Lab Session:Thursday 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST

MIGRATION 2070

In the year 2070, human movement across the planet will be one of the most defining issues. Driven by climate niche collapse, resource scarcity, and shifting political landscapes, hundreds of millions will be displaced. For our graduate students (currently aged 23–28), the year 2070 is not a distant, abstract projection—it is a future they will personally inhabit in their 70s. This Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) course connects German-American student cohorts to apply strategic foresight methods, designing reciprocal frameworks of conviviality (hospitality, dignity, and reciprocity) to prepare for this shared future.

Core Deliverables & Outputs

A1 Visual Research Poster Portrait Format (594mm x 841mm)

Synthesizes foresight scanning, scenario worlds, user journeys, and speculative interventions into a high-visibility research document.

  • Headline & Authors (5% top, text-heavy)
  • Hero Visual of Speculative Intervention (40-45% high-visibility)
  • The Challenge/Introduction (5% hook)
  • The Foresight Process: Journey to 2070 (25-30% STEEP mapping)
  • Ethical Impact & Conviviality (10% bottom)

Speculative Video Trailer Cinematic Provocation

A dynamic media narrative designed to dramatize and communicate the team's envisioned future world and design interventions for a wider audience.

The Thing from the Future Tangible Speculative Prototypes

An artifact, device, practice, or scenario brought from the future into today. It serves as a tangible provocation (or 'provotype') to challenge current-day assumptions about privacy, automation, and social control.

Foresight Process & Timeline

Weeks 6–8

Phase 1: Signals & Drivers

Scanning signals of change (e.g., policy, climate, refugees) and building STEEP maps (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political).

Weeks 9–10

Phase 2: World Building

Constructing future scenarios using the Six Scenario Archetypes. Developing user stories and mapping the lived experience of migration (e.g., Alongsideness 2070).

Weeks 11–13

Phase 3: Speculative Interventions

Designing speculative interventions, service blueprints, interactive mockups, and critical artifacts.

Weeks 14–17

Phase 4: Deliverables & Exhibition

Synthesizing research into final A1 posters, filming the video trailer, and fabricating physical models for final exhibition.

Syllabus Literature & Resources

Futures Thinking Playbook

Foundational workbook on foresight scanning and systems thinking.

Playbook for Strategic Foresight and Innovation

Methodologies from Stanford University on designing speculative futures.

Global Trends 2040

National Intelligence Council report on geopolitical and technological drivers.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025

The official United Nations report monitoring global progress.

Globaia: Habitability & Planet Boundaries

Visualizing and mapping the shifting environmental boundaries of the human climate niche.

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Illuminem: Future Climate Migrants

Analysis of dynamic human displacement pathways as temperature niches collapse.

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World Economic Forum: Human Climate Niche

Research tracking how greenhouse emissions could shift 1/3 of populations out of historic zones by 2070.

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SUNY COIL Center

Foundational guidelines and best practices for Collaborative Online International Learning.

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EAIE: Cross-Boundary Collaboration

Resource guide on structural frameworks for virtual exchange partnerships.

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Virtual Exchange Resources

Platform compiling intercultural tools for cross-border student collaboration.

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