interactions magazine | Optimistic Futurism

Optimistic Futurism
Richard Seymour

Seymour Powell
What the hell happened to the future?

Everything was going just fine in the early 1950s, even though much of Europe, Japan, and the Soviet Union were still flattened under a shroud of ash and broken bricks. Even as the icy grip of the Cold War tightened, those of us who were growing up then found time to look with thrall and optimism into the future. Men went to the moon and back, Teflon and liquid crystals and lasers and Velcro changed our lives (as had nylon and cellulose before them). And although life wasn’t unremitting fun, we could all sense a faint, underpinning mantra: Gradually, things were getting better.

And then suddenly it stopped…

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Posted by a thousand tomorrows » Blog Archive » optimistic futures on June 4th, 2008 at 5:13 am:

[…] ACM’s Interactions an overhaul. The latest issue offers a fascinating read, including an article by UK designer Richard Seymour bearing the title “Optimistic futures”. In it he […]

Posted by Pasta&Vinegar » Blog Archive » design+future+optimism on May 25th, 2008 at 3:30 am:

[…] the last issue of ACM interactions, Richard Seymour has this good piece entitled “Optimistic futurism” in which he articulates an interesting vision of […]

Design Credit and a Virtual Tour
By Richard Anderson on June 6th, 2008.

Credit for one of the images included with Richard Seymour's cover story was unintentionally excluded from the magazine. The image, reproduced here, is an aircraft seat design for Virgin Atlantic by British designers PearsonLloyd, Inc., who granted permission for its use to Seymourpowell and interactions magazine. Our apologies to PearsonLloyd for the unintentional exclusion.

Be sure to check out "2009: A Space Odyssey" for a virtual tour -- designed by Seymourpowell -- onboard the Virgin Galactic spaceship.

Preconceived notions
By Richard Anderson on May 2nd, 2008.

Early this year, I started a blog entry of mine entitled, "Preconceived notions" with the following words:

"During his CONNECTING 07 World Design Congress plenary presentation, Richard Seymour argued that the primary obstacle design and designers face is NOT ignorance regarding what design is and what designers do, but is instead 'preconceived notions' regarding the same. As Richard put it, ignorance is easier to deal with; dealing with preconceived notions is very hard."

In the cover story of this issue of interactions, Richard challenges designers to not "get despondent or knocked-back" by the preconceived notions of "the beancounters," "the supply chain," and others:

"As designers, we potentially hold enormous power. And with it comes responsibility. Wield it imaginatively and wisely.

And optimistically."

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