What we do (our Mission Statement):
Empathic Futures Lab is a blog dedicated to investigating, understanding how to design more humane, personal environments. We don’t mean that natural thing outside either. We mean the our everyday surroundings: the space and places we inhabit, and everything in them. This includes the natural environment, out built environment, and, increasingly, our digital environment and they are incredibly important. They facilitate who we are what what we do. Rather than looking at each separately, as we often do, at Empathic Futures Lab, we intend to study these elements as a complete system: a series of local environments that make up our regional and global ecosystems.
It is a ground up approach that uses information to keep humanity at the forefront of the spaces we inhabit. As the environments around us change and we move deeper and deeper in the information age, the walls between various disciplines/practices seem to break down with increasing speed. “Interdisciplinary” is a buzzword for a reason. At Empathic Futures Lab, we believe that we ought to embrace this disciplinary fluidity rather than hide behind some vague notion of disciplinary “autonomy”. After all, the computer engineer will play as much a role in designing the future as any “designer” will. This want to engage outside of our discipline comes, to some degree, from our education as architectural designers where we were/are very much segregated from other disciplines. But It also comes in part from our belief that as we start to increasingly rely on “smart” technology to run our lives, we must also make sure that the “human” portions of our lives keep path. In this way, we see not a utopian or dystopian techno-future but just one of opportunity if engaged thoughtful. It is an important balance to discuss: how do we keep technology as a means to the end of a more human world?
This is a big goal for a small blog. For the time being, the projects will seem small in comparison to this stated mission statement. We must start small though and understand what we are up against. We must refine our vision through iterations and conversations. Perhaps one day, something will click and we will make the leap. Until then, its small steps forward.
Who we are:
By night, I am writing, podcasting and just generally creating for both myself and for Empathic Futures Labs. For the most part I’ll be sharing all these endeavors with everyone. The only exceptions being my keyboard projects which may not always be “on topic” for what we discuss here (though I did write 1 post about them). Anyways, I am a strong believer in the effects that space/environments have on our lives. I just want to be more thoughtful about how we engage in its future.
Christian Pepper: Very recently self-proclaimed sci-fi-aholic and recovering design professional. Currently working at the University of Illinois School of Architecture as an adjunct faculty in the third year studio. My passion is in peoples’ perceptions and interactions in environments and this becomes even more important as we continue toward into an exciting future.