WINSight // WIN LDN x Gensler - Shifting Perspectives: Designing New Futures through a Female Lens
The future is inevitable. But as innovators, we have a key role and responsibility in defining and designing what that looks like. We’re now at a point in time where we are collectively experiencing seismic shifts on a global scale - from recovering from the pandemic to bracing the impact of the climate crisis. As a result, we’ve had to think radically differently about how we might live and work - and do so together.
And increasingly, the way we think about innovation is changing. For many of us, our experiences of working in and learning about innovation have centred on designing new products, services and systems for a Western audience. But as we come to realise what we are really capable of as a community and what’s really necessary amidst today’s complexities, it’s clear that innovation now is really about evolving how we behave, think, and respond to global shifts in order to make a positive contribution to the world.
On Thursday 16th February, WIN LDN hosted their first in-person event of the year at global design and architecture firm, Gensler’s Europe Headquarters in London. We invited four leading innovators, visionaries and change-makers to share their experience of innovation and how we can apply it to the current state of the world.
Alex Quicho: Head of Futures at Canvas8, Lecturer in ‘Speculative Futures’ at Central St. Martins
Minna Salami: Feminist Writer & Social Critic, Author or ‘Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone’
Lara Marrero: Principal Global Retail Practice Leader at Gensler, Top 100 Retail Influencer
Jane Clay: Principal Design Strategist at Gensler and our moderator for the evening
Innovating for alternative futures
This event was more than a practical lesson in the methodologies and tools used to develop the latest products and services, but focused on re-positioning innovation in different contexts and perspectives. With a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences, our panellists challenged us to take a deeper and more critical look at how we - as innovators, as a community, as humankind - see, feel and build our futures.
What we’re asking of the future is shifting. As Lara Marrero pointed out, we’ve moved into a vision of the present and future that is much more human-focused. As a society, we’ve lived through eras defined by efficiency, then by e-commerce. And now, it’s the emotional connection we form with people and the planet that drives current and future experiences. As we move out of the ‘permacrisis’ that’s defined recent years, we’re in a new ‘Age of Belonging’ where place is more important than ever.
Belonging - and who belongs - is critical when we think about innovation. Historically, we’ve based our innovation on ‘Europatriarchal Knowledge’ - a point of view that sets the world within rigid boundaries and is biased to both males and western communities. Instead, Minna introduced us to the idea of ‘Sensual Knowledge’ - a worldview and a way of being in the world in which there isn't a distinction between those things. It’s a holistic approach to knowledge that’s non-hierarchical, inclusive, pluralistic and ultimately - feminist.
Crucial to innovation, sensuous knowledge is really about having a very open mind as you navigate the world. It requires opening our dialogues and understanding of what the future - or futures - really means, and who should be included in designing it.
Alex Quicho took this challenge one stage further, starting her keynote by claiming that, “The future is, in fact, dead”. It’s fair to say that she got the attention of the room! But rather than deeming futurism a futile exercise, Alex also argues that we need to break boundaries of innovation in the current context of the world. Alex introduced us to the idea of ‘Tropical Futurism’ as a powerful lens through which to do this.
Climate extremities have tripled over the last 30 years. Futurism so far has failed, by perpetuating the structures, systems and an existence that accelerate the destruction of the planet and devolution of society. By continuing to innovate within our current and comfortable paradigm, we could risk doing further, irreversible damage to our people and planet.
Solving the climate crisis requires the localised knowledge that exists in indigenous communities. It requires looking at problems from outside the ‘norms’ - to question the very conditions for innovation for a radically and fundamentally different vision of the future.
Innovating for feminist futures
But what can we do about it? Through our audience and panel discussions, we continually circled back to the same answer - feminism.
Women can be accelerators and translators to help those in power to understand the future. We can use our feminism as a powerful tool to cut through realms and sectors. It empowers us to offer new perspectives that challenge the norm - and that’s where, in the spirit of co-creation, innovation can thrive.
It also requires us to invite new perspectives, too. As Lara eloquently put, “In order to make an impact, you need to bring people with you”. It’s about using your perspective as a catalyst to tell a story and get buy-in from others. But this approach is reciprocal. In turn, we need to acknowledge that our unique perspective doesn’t offer all the answers. We need to let people use their own voices to respond to their problems, and be allies in creating that solution.
The future is whatever we make it. But that really requires us to question our very understanding of the future, our definition of the present and the role that innovation has to play. If our evening together taught us anything, it’s a reminder that innovation is a process of learning, unlearning, and relearning.
We still need innovation, but need to change the conditions of its necessity. That means embracing a truly empathetic, human-centred and ultimately feminist approach that creates fairer, stronger and more ‘joyful’ futures for us all.
Written by Kasia Maynard (WIN LDN Programming Producer) and Lucia Corry (WIN LDN Content Lead)