This document discusses visual methods for building scenarios of urban futures that articulate plurality and differences rather than consensus. It describes processes like visual conversations, participatory scenario making, and design experiments that use images to enable voices to imagine and debate possible city futures. Examples include French magazine Utopie from 1968-1970 that used images and text to provoke debate, and future visioning breakfasts that engaged stakeholders in speculative design. The document outlines an atlas project to make the outputs of visual conversations more accessible and concludes that while not agents of change themselves, such methods can contribute to developing alternative visions of the future in the early stages of the process.

1. VISUAL CONVERSATIONS ON URBAN FUTURES
Participatory methods to design scenarios of liveable cities
Serena Pollastri - Lancaster University

2. A VISUAL HISTORY
OF THE FUTURE
Nick Dunn, Paul Cureton, Serena Pollastri.
2014

3. RESEARCH QUESTION
What would be ways of building visions and scenarios of urban
futures that articulate the plurality, differences, and conflicts that
characterise the city, rather than being based on consensus and
internal coherence? Image from the Collision workshop:
http://blogs.lgru.net/collision/?page_id=2
(the Collision-workshops are an initiative of
Pierre Huyghebaert in collaboration with
http://lgru.net and Constant)

4. RESEARCH QUESTION
What would be ways of building visions and scenarios of urban
futures that articulate the plurality, differences, and conflicts that
characterise the city, rather than being based on consensus and
internal coherence?

5. Processes and artefacts that utilise visual language
to enable or document voices imagining and debating
possible futures for life in the city
VISUAL CONVERSATIONS
ON URBAN FUTURES

6. SUBJECTIVEFUTURES.
WORDPRESS.COM

7. UTOPIE
France, 1968-197X

8. UTOPIE
France, 1968-197X
“the fact that the critical column reacted to
the text or the drawing was good; it
produced fights, overlaps, critiques,
everything you can imagine”
(Jean Aubert, 2010)

9. IMAGINARY
GUIDELINES
Turkey, 2014

10. SUBJECTIVEFUTURES.
WORDPRESS.COM

11. SUBJECTIVEFUTURES.
WORDPRESS.COM
visual
reports
games
platforms
little
magazines
VISUAL CONVERSATIONS ON URBAN FUTURES
Processes and artefacts that utilise visual language
to enable or document voices imagining and debating
possible futures for life in the city

12. DESIGN
EXPERIMENTS

13. VISUAL WRITING
PARTICIPATORY SCENARIO MAKING
CREATIVE SPECULATIONS
DESIGN
EXPERIMENTS
(in the paper)

14. VISUAL WRITING
PARTICIPATORY SCENARIO MAKING
CREATIVE SPECULATIONS
DESIGN
EXPERIMENTS
(in the paper)

15. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES

16. FUTURE
VISIONING
BREAKFASTS

17. FUTURE
VISIONING
BREAKFASTS

18. FUTURE
VISIONING
BREAKFASTS
Processes of
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures

19. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
SEREMIRU.COM/
ATLAS/EXPORT/
INDEX.HTML

20. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
1.
WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT, WHEN
WE TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE?
FOCUS ON EFFICIENCY as discussed in the
RETAIL SECTOR WORKSHOP (a summary)
The urban environment is rationalised to maximise effi-
ciency, . The cyclical economy makes systems mode self
sufficient. Needs are met by efficient solution, and activi-
ties such as travelling and growing are just for leisure.

21. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
1.
WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT, WHEN
WE TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE?

22. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
1.
WHAT DO WE TALK ABOUT, WHEN
WE TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE?

23. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
2.
WHAT WILL CITIES OF THE
FUTURE LOOK LIKE? HOW WILL
WE LIVE IN THEM?
wellbeing
eco-systems
energy
city structure
prodyction/consumption
governance
policy
living
communities

24. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
2.
WHAT WILL CITIES OF THE
FUTURE LOOK LIKE? HOW WILL
WE LIVE IN THEM?
wellbeing
eco-systems
energy
city structure
prodyction/consumption
governance
policy
living
communities
ARCHITECTS AND URBANISTS

25. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
2.
WHAT WILL CITIES OF THE
FUTURE LOOK LIKE? HOW WILL
WE LIVE IN THEM?
wellbeing
eco-systems
energy
city structure
prodyction/consumption
governance
policy
living
communities
EDUCATION SECTOR

26. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
Making
Visual Conversations
on Urban Futures
readable
2.
WHAT WILL CITIES OF THE
FUTURE LOOK LIKE? HOW WILL
WE LIVE IN THEM?
wellbeing
eco-systems
energy
city structure
prodyction/consumption
governance
policy
living
communities
SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT SECTOR

27. AN ATLAS OF
FUTURE
IMAGINARY
CITIES
...have a look,
tell us what you think!
SEREMIRU.COM/ATLAS/EXPORT/INDEX.HTML

28. VISUAL WRITING
PARTICIPATORY SCENARIO MAKING
CREATIVE SPECULATIONS
DESIGN
EXPERIMENTS
this is where I have been able to try the
approach so far...

29. VISUAL
CONVERSATIONS
ON URBAN
FUTURES
further research is needed!
OTHER
CONTEXTS?
DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS/
PURPOSES?
MORE EXPERIMENTS WITH
PROCESSES, TECHNIQUES, MEDIA?
TOOLS FOR
SELF-DOCUMENTATION?

30. CONCLUSIONS
(WHY DOES IT MATTER)
- Visual conversations on urban futures are not themselves agents
of change, but can offer a significant contribution in the early stages
of processes of building scenarios for possible futures.

31. - Visual conversations on urban futures are not themselves agents
of change, but can offer a significant contribution in the early stages
of processes of building scenarios for possible futures.
- Building alternatives to the dominant order by “making possible
what apperar(s) to be impossible” (Lefebvre, 1970, cited in (Buckley
& Violeau, 2011).
CONCLUSIONS
(WHY DOES IT MATTER)

32. - Visual conversations on urban futures are not themselves agents
of change, but can offer a significant contribution in the early stages
of processes of building scenarios for possible futures.
- Building alternatives to the dominant order by “making possible
what apperar(s) to be impossible” (Lefebvre, 1970, cited in (Buckley
& Violeau, 2011).
- While in times of urgent change seeking clarity and agreement
might seem a much preferable route, we argue that articulating
divergence is a necessary step to explore truly radical solutions.
Stepping back from a solution-oriented approach allows us to
critically question the present and the underlying assumptions
of current research and political discourse on “growth” and
“sustainability”.
CONCLUSIONS
(WHY DOES IT MATTER)

33. THANK YOU
Serena Pollastri
Lancaster University
s.pollastri@lancaster.ac.uk
@sere_miru
subjectivefutures.wordpress.com