Laura Forlano’s diverse work as a writer, teacher and consultant bridges social sciences, design and emerging technology. She talks to MEX founder Marek Pawlowski about the wide range of projects she’s involved with, from a book imagining what the Bauhaus might look like if it was practicing today through to the impact of autonomous vehicles on urban architecture. The conversation touches on techniques for communicating futuristic design ambitions to the practical challenges in encouraging positive collaboration across disciplines. Get in touch with feedback and questions @mexfeed on Twitter or email designtalk@mobileuserexperience.com.

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On this edition

• Marek Pawlowski, podcast host & founder, MEX (@marekpawlowski)
• Laura Forlano, Associate Professor, IIT Institute of Design, (@laura4lano)
  • Also… Visiting Research Fellow, Digital Life Initiative, Cornell Tech
  • And… Faculty Associate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University

Links

• Our next MEX dining club event is in London on 15th May. Get in touch if you’d like an invite – it’s a relaxed dinner talking about experience design with fellow pioneers.
• “The critic is not the one who debunks, but the one who assembles.” A quote mentioned by Laura, from Bruno Latour’s 2004 essay “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam” (links to PDF).
• Designing Bots, Amir Shevat’s book, published by O’Reilly, mentioned by Laura.
• Bauhaus Futures, the book Laura is working on with Molly Wright Steenson, Mike Ananny, Ben Tarnoff and Moira Weigel, due to be published by MIT Press in October 2019.
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana’s Zuboff’s book, mentioned by Laura.
• The Nayar Prize, from which Laura’s team received a grant for the Driverless City project.
• Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy, a 2005 exhibition curated by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel.
• Amazon’s original press release announcing its intention to establish a facility in New York, and subsequent blog post explaining why it changed its mind. Mentioned by Laura as an example of how local authorities and companies do and don’t work together effectively.
• Designing Futures, a course taught by Laura at IIT.
• Black Mountain College, now a museum and arts centre, but mentioned by Laura as an educational institution founded after the closure of the Bauhaus in the 1930s.
• The Architectural League of New York.
• Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator at the Pratt Institute in New York.
• University of Michigan M-City autonomous driving test-bed, mentioned by Laura as an organisation she worked with on the Driverless City project.
• Sidewalk Labs, a Google company working on a Toronto project to re-imagine cities.
• Material Imagination, a Durham University project led by Professor Tiago Moreira and Dr Margarita Staykova, which Laura will be working with in 2020.

About MEX Design Talk & how to get in touch

The podcast for the MEX community, interviewing UX pioneers, exploring emerging technologies, user behaviour and how to design better digital experiences.

• Archive of previous MEX Design Talk episodes
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Thanks

• Jukedeck, for the artificial intelligence engine which provided the music