_ Ilga Leimanis, UK
_ Sanne Visser, UK
_ Tim Parsons and Jessica Charlesworth, USA
Future Narratives is a transformative project week held each November, designed to break from the traditional rhythms of weekly teaching. It invites students and faculty to shift their approach to designing for life, emphasising deep exploration through extending relationships, reflective practices, and engaging with alternative ways of understanding how we are interconnected ecosystems.
This year, the project focuses on thinking through futures—not only as a concept but as a practical approach. Futures are considered through multiple lenses: as methods of inquiry, as material to work with, as stories to shape, and as systems to navigate. This exploration seeks to uncover possibilities that activate the present, bridging imagination and actionable insights.
Students from Year 1 and Year 2 collaborated with leading practitioners Sanne Visser (UK), Tim Parsons and Jessica Charlesworth (USA), and Ilga Leimanis (UK), whose diverse expertise will guide their engagement. Each day started with a collective gathering, featuring a shared hour of lecture or collective activity, fostering a sense of community and shared understanding. The week culminates in a collective sharing where students present their explorations and showcasing their creative journeys.
By embracing speculative approaches, interdisciplinary collaboration, and hands-on experimentation, Future Narratives encourages students to critically engage with how futures can be imagined, narrated, and built—while always keeping a sharp focus on how these futures can influence and transform the present.
Images diverse processes by our students.
Ilga Leimanis FHEA is a Canadian-born (Latvian origin) visual artist, educator, researcher and author based in London. Her practice-led pedagogy and creative consultancy has brought her into contact with many diverse groups of students, both in the UK (at University of the Arts London) and internationally. For over a decade, she has facilitated experiences of emergence, becoming a specialist in fast, hand-drawn diagrams used for idea generation, understanding and communication. Ilga comes to education and research from an art practice which is often collaborative and features drawing, collage, installation, and walking. Her research interests include sketching potential, possibility studies, creative methodologies and transformational pedagogy. Her first book Sketching Perspectivewas published by the Crowood Press (2021). For more on her practice: arterritory interview (2022).
Studio Sanne Visser is a material design research studio focused on exploring material innovation and future thinking through making and learning for circular worlds. The studio specialises in regenerative design, systems thinking, and sustainable solutions, with a unique emphasis on using human hair as a resource. Through exhibitions, workshops, and collaborations with leading institutions globally, Studio Sanne Visser is at the forefront of driving material change and circular design. Sanne Visser, the founder and director, is a material explorer, designer and researcher with over nine years of experience working with hair. Her main interest as a design researcher is material innovation, regenerative design and systems thinking. Alongside running her practice, Sanne is an Associate Lecturer and PhD researcher at the University of the Arts London. Her work has gained global recognition and media attention, with nominations for prestigious awards, including the AFFA and New Material Award. In 2022, she was named one of UKRI's '101 jobs to save the world' and now is leading the Design Exchange Partnership HairCycle in collaboration with Newham Council.
Studio Parsons and Charlesworth is a future-focused research-based design studio that addresses concerns such as the ecological crisis and the future of work through their collaborative world building projects.Their work enables audiences to experience new ways of understanding and interacting with alternative futures. Co-founded by Jessica Charlesworth and Tim Parsons, the studio’s investigative and speculative approach uses installation, sculpture, designed objects, writing, photography and digital media to explore key social, ecological and technological challenges of our time. Their current project, Multispecies Inc., involves field research and in-depth conversations with specialists in biology, climate science, and climate modeling. This endeavor manifests as a series of narratives and objects around a fictional group of ecologists striving to cohabit with other species using advanced technologies.