In this episode, Christian and Colter sit down with architect Alex Bahr in the lobby of UIC’s Gallery 400 to discuss speculative architecture, subversive detailing, and alternative means of shaping the built environment. Bahr’s thesis project, the Play of Parts is also explored, check it out at the link below! The Play of Parts (Portfolio +Thesis) …

This episode’s home base is “AI” or rather...the current iteration of AI which attempts to pass as Intelligent. The idea behind the conversation is really that AI is at the cusp of being quite useful but it still is flopping around, making decisions that are almost right but wrong in silly ways. Essentially, the conversation is about Dumb AI. Enjoy…

Welcome to another episode of Empathic Futures Lab. This one features a guest appearance by Souyma Dasgupta. It's a pretty intellectual episode (after 5 minutes of fun/goofy introduction anyways) so buckle up. It was a really good discussion if you like that sort of thing. The topic is about “Authenticity” and “Heritage.” Soumya is a Phd student wh…

We are trying this new thing where we come up with a topic and then just riff on ideas that come from that topic. This episode’s discussion was nominally about “interfaces.” That was our jumping off point, our “home plate” if you will, was interfaces or invisible interfaces. Before we jump into the ideas though, we define what we mean by interfaces…

This discussion is our follow-up to our last discussion on Mirror World’s. This time, we have Colter on with us as well. We start by discussing different ideas for mirror worlds such as how we might simulate feelings or very large spaces within the context of small physical spaces. Somehow, we end up on a tangent of really “bad” technology. Ideas s…

This episode was inspired by Kevin Kelly's MirrorWorld article for Wired. Here is the link: https://www.wired.com/story/mirrorworld-ar-next-big-tech-platform/ Our conversation starts with summing up the article and describing what a Mirror World actually is as an augmented reality future. While doing this, we dig into particular sections of Kelly's…

At Empathic Futures Lab, we often put technology on a pedestal. This episode's discussion is about stepping back and trying to figure out how to get away from technology when we feel the need to. Colter is back with us as well this week. The episode starts off with Colter discussing this time in a sensory deprivation tank and what that experience m…

Christian and Chris step back into the news cycle (or at least the news cycle at the time that this was recorded rather than the time of release) to discuss AirBnB's recent announcement of their Project Backyard. Not much new has come from AirBnb since that initial press release. We start the discussion by talking about what AirBnB is and what it m…

This episode features a special guest: Colter Wehmeier. Christian and Colter took on the final design and construction of the Digital Picnic and absolutely killed it. It looked great while it was up. Colter is a fascinating and very intelligent guy so it was great fun to have it on the show. During the episode we discuss the Digital Picnic, the des…

Christian and Chris delve discuss the how the digital world is formalized in the physical world through interface design. They discuss how our interfaces and interactions with digital environments have evolved over time. How have physical forms of digital entities been explored in the past and what has led to the reduction of formal elements over t…

This week, we started out discussing biases in our media, machine learning, and our world in general. This lead to a discussion revolving around how do you temper the bias in Artificial Intelligences, looking specifically at Amazon's intelligent resume filter. Do you set up distributed systems that put that check on rogue bias? How do you establish…

This week, Chris and Christian discuss advertising and the media. They begin by trying to define a basis for what media is. They then contrast the human focused characteristics of media with that of more natural landscapes. Following this they question the incentive structures of media and how that might be augmented to introduce a system that is m…

We're Back! Season 2 is finally kicking off after a long layoff. We hope to have a good season for you all. In this episode, we recap what we did with our Summer. Go over what we have done this fall with our installation in the lead up to today. We go over what are next projects are for Empathic Futures Lab. Finally we touch on the future of this p…

In this 20th episode we discuss the role that reputation will play in the future. We worked from a poignant article written in Fast Company by Gloria Origgi, an Italian philosopher. In this piece she dissects how she believs that reputation will take over information as the primary driver for how we make decisions. From here we discuss how reputati…

In this episode Chris and Christian discuss the architectural detail. How its meaning has evolved over time, and what its significant might be in today's archtectural landscape. Using Edward Ford's The Architectural Detail as the primary conversation vehicle, we start by picking apart the 5 definition of architectural detail that he identifies. Fol…

This week we got the conversation kicked off with a segway from Molly Wright Steenson's Architectural Intelligence. Here she introduced both of us to a fresh take on the work of Christopher Alexander, and because of this we decided to dedicate a full episode to exploring the structure of A Pattern Language. We initially looked at the comparison dra…

Are installations the key to unlocking the future of architecture? The small scale at which they operate allows them the flexibility to explore a wider range of ideas and potential solutions. If approached as part of a larger framework of research and exploration, rather than one-off creative outburts, perhaps they can be better used to push our un…

This episode was a sort of rambling discussion on what we mean when we discuss experience. We really just ask how we can nail down an experience and add a little context to what we mean when we discuss experience. It is a topic that is never too far from our discussion points and yet there is no real easy way to define it. It is extremely vague. We…

We kicked this episode off with a brief history of fiction and the speculative design. Beginning in the 60s looking at Archigram, Ant Farm, Superstudio, and Buckminster Fuller. We briefly explored how these groups approached speculative futures and discussed the categories those may fall into. Then we moved on to examples of the current paradigm, f…

In this episode, we delve into some ideas for the future of the business of architecture. As technology and culture progress towards this world of shared experiences and minimal costs to distribution and manufacturing, how does the nature of space, and who runs space, change? Are architects and their businesses on the right side of history? (resour…

In this episode, we have James Addison and Olivia Huang with us to discuss their joint MArch thesis from MIT. There work can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ss4e9ap92ckefq3/Spaces%20of%20Justice.pdf?dl=0 Their thesis is entitled "Spaces of Justice" and aims to address the more political/social/economic fringes of architecture in that the a…

Sensors Save Us? features a lively discussion regarding the impact that sensors and information collection may have on the police forces of the near future. We start by considering how officers deal with information being collected about them and the ways that can influence how one would act in specific scenarios. We also discuss the role data coll…

This episode is our last installment in our mini-series on Kevin Kelly's book: "The Inevitable." We discuss his chapter on filters. The basic premise of the chapter is that as society creates an increasing amount of content and data, it becomes impossible for us as humans to view/experience/process those creations. Our attention is hard limited at …

This week we are excited to welcome Robert Prochaska to our 10th episode of Empathic Futures Lab. It was recorded with all 3 of us together in Champaign, Illinois. We would like to thank him for taking the time to talk. It was a fantastic way to hit hit double digits. Robert is an architectural designer and freelance photographer currently working …

We are excited to announce our first guest on the show: Marco Fabrega. Definitely give it a listen. It was our longest podcast to date but that is only because we have so much fun in the end. Marco is a User Experience Designer with Havas Group in Chicago as well as a veteran of a couple start-up companies. He shares his experiences of moving from …

This is the second episode in a series where we discuss some of the key trends in Kevin Kelly's book: The Inevitable. The trend for this episode is "Flowing." The idea is that as society progresses, we go from consumer rare, fixed items produced by specialially trained craftsmen to consuming ubiquitous copies of that media and finally to being able…

This episode starts off a series in which we will be discussing Kevin Kelly's "The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future." In this first episode of the series, we discuss the chapter entitled "Becoming." The premise of the chapter is that we live in a Protopia meaning a world that is constantly updating it…

With the end of 2017 and the start of 2018, we are discussing design trends for the future. The design trends we are discussing come from the following article from Fast Company: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90153796/the-9-big-design-trends-that-will-shape-2018 5) We'll finally move beyond Flat Design 6) We'll eat our Feelings 7) AI will turn the w…

Show notes: With the end of 2017 and the start of 2018, we are discussing design trends for the future. The design trends we are discussing come from the following article from Fast Company: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90153796/the-9-big-design-trends-that-will-shape-2018 1) A Revolution in User-Friendly Politics is Coming 2) Inclusivity will go M…

In this episode, we discuss the ramifications that ML/AI has on the privacy and identity. In particular, what design implications and solutions are incurred. The following topics come up during this discussion. We discuss this great article in the NY Times on explainable AI: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/magazine/can-ai-be-taught-to-explain-it…

In this episode, we discuss the differences between Standards and Mass Customization: where is there value in each and how/should we go towards Mass Customization? Show Notes: What do we mean by Standards and Mass Customization/Individualization? How did Corbu and the Modernists define these conversations? First principles and early standards: how …

This week, with the holiday weekend interfering with our usual Sunday Night recording, we decided to keep this episode light and fun rather than on topic. We will resume next week with our Mass Customization vs Standardization topic. Show Notes: Robots - What would we want out of a robot in our home Classes - What classes would we take if we went b…

In this episode, we discuss what home is and where the future of home is going. We discuss how things will change in terms of how we relate to our homes as our homes become "smarter" and more technologically advanced. Please feel free to comment or visit our website at: Https://Empathicfutures.wordpress.com…