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This is me…

I am a curious observer & researcher

As an observer, I am fascinated by stories and social dynamics—the interactions of individuals within groups. In my research, I delve deep, exploring literature, consulting experts, and examining the nuances of these dynamics.

I create spaces and experiences.

I use this knowledge to craft spaces where groups can physically experience and simulate situations they wish to understand, whether current realities or speculative futures. 

I facilitate.

Through these experiences, I take you into a speculative world, where I facilitate you in using your collective imagination. This will help you to discover where you stand, how you arrived here, and what paths you might take forward. Together we create future memories to rehearse possible or even outrageous futures, gaining clarity on what we want and what we don’t.

My focus is on human relationships and our connections with living beings around us, rather than solely on technology or geographical change. For this angle I like to initiate unusual collaborations with researchers and behavioural scientists, change professionals, systemic constellators and other designers. 

My toolbox consists of methods coming from:

  • Future & Speculative Design
  • Design research
  • Systems design
  • Experience Design (interaction and user experience)
  • Serious Game Design
  • Storytelling and Communication strategies

My Role

When I began this master’s program, I was primarily working as a communication advisor and UX designer. During COVID-19, I collaborated with a theater maker on a project that combined storytelling and experience design. Besides my background in communication, I also have a background in design and art, with a consistent focus on human interaction. And I have long searched for a way to unite these worlds. With this goal in mind, I embarked on this master’s journey. I can confidently say that I have succeeded. I have designed two beautiful workshops that I can further develop. I have found new ways of collaboration, where I clearly play the role of a (speculative) experience designer. Additionally, I have discovered that conducting research is something I take great pleasure in.

Although I feel most comfortable in the role of observer, over the past two years, I have worked with groups, led sessions, and presented myself as a researcher and designer. Stepping into the foreground and out of my comfort zone was surprisingly rewarding. I am quite proud of that. For me, this marks a promising beginning of a new chapter with my own design studio.

My Lexicon of Expertise

  • Space: I see myself as a space maker, creating:
    • Physical spaces for experiences
    • Fictional spaces for safe practice
    • Space for imagination in time (a moment, a part of the day) and through interventions that ignite imagination
    • Space to play: to learn, practice, fail, and start again
  • Social Speculative Design: I use speculative design to visualize and make futures tangible on the level of social interaction. I investigate relevant signals and trends and translate them into possible future scenarios, which take the form of a game, script, or experience.
  • Future Memories: Begin in a future and look forward, not back, to see how we got there. In my experiences, participants envision how they live together in this future, what it means for them personally, and what it does to societal groups. We practice the future and create memories to bring back to the present, using them to shape the future as we have practiced it.
  • Collective Imagination: I do not create experiences where I present my imagination to you. Instead, I provide the tools to ignite your imagination. In groups, I facilitate experiences that activate individual imaginative power to collectively envision, enabling a broader and more inclusive perspective.
  • Transformative Play: Play is central to my work. Through play, you learn and create space to fail, making it not only fun but a means to simulate complex dynamics on a personal scale, making them visible and tangible.
  • Interaction: I see interaction in the broadest sense. To me, interaction design is equivalent to a script, where I design all actions, steps, and experiences I want to convey. I enjoy taking people, preferably unconsciously, through an experience.
  • Design Research: Doing research with designed experiences/ simulations and play in collaboration with or inspired by social scientists and field experts. 

 Partners

  • Jennifer van Exel – Studio ToiToi Organizational Change and Serious Games: Jennifer and I have built a strong collaboration. We work together on developing Polaris, where she focuses on the game mechanism, and I concentrate on design and storytelling. Our goal for the next two years is to fully develop this game, secure funding for production and design after further playtests, and offer this product to change coaches, educational institutions, and municipalities.
  • Demian Burgenik – Systemic Coach: In the future, I will further develop the workshop we designed during my expert talk with Demian. We will offer this as part of his group work and my offerings for practicing and utilizing future scenarios in depolarization efforts.
  • Douwe van der Werf – Project Leader & Storyteller, New Planetary Narratives Project, Museum Sonnenborgh: I participated in an initial pilot for 300 library directors at NBD Biblion, where we created a collective imagination experience. This project served as a first pilot for potential projects under the New Planetary Narratives umbrella.
  • Anouck Wolf – Critical Mass: Anouck participated in a play session and advised on making Polaris applicable in education. With her extensive experience with this target group, she is willing to share her network, presenting many possibilities.
  • University of Amsterdam – Academy: I have arranged to present Polaris to a working group on polarization after the summer, exploring its potential use as a simulation game for research.