Storytelling Futures E-Book

Egbert van Wyngaarden

• Herausgeber: epubli
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 124

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

It's "Code Red" for humanity. How do the media respond to that? This book is for anyone who's interested in using storytelling and media with the aim to shape desirable futures for humanity and all other forms of life on Earth. We're facing a host of serious, global, complex, entangled problems. Nuclear weapons, runaway technology, indestructible waste, resource depletion, overpopulation, pandemics, radicalization, species extinction, ecosystem loss, climate change. It's breathtaking, life-threatening and truly existential. How can anyone look such challenges in the eye without feeling desperate? If humans are the cause of these problems, being as inventive and ambitious as we are, we can also solve them. It's being tried, with some positive effects. But that is not enough. The obstacle seems to be less of a practical nature than a matter of awareness. It's our collective incapacity to feel and act according to what is genuinely beneficial for us and the world we're part of. Humanity lacks a vision of what a livable future – pluralistic livable futures – could look like. There are hardly any convincing, aspirational myths for people to root for. More often than not, stories about tomorrow are dystopias. In the hour of danger our imagination fails us. This is not accidental. It's critical. There is no longer any doubt that we'll only be able to survive on this planet if we radically change our way of life, our economies, our societies. To achieve this, stories and media need to lead the way. We must get better at working with probable, possible and desirable futures. This would be a useful skill for anyone. It's a duty for all those who shape and create realities in the media. As journalists, writers, filmmakers, game designers or XR-creators we can present what we care about to many different audiences. We reach people. We touch them. Our projects can be starting points for collective sensemaking and inspire citizens to become agents of change.

Leseprobe

Imprint

First Movie Plus

Bavarian Film Centre–Bayerisches Filmzentrum

Bavariafilmplatz 7

D–82031 Munich

Germany

© Egbert van Wyngaarden / Story X / First Movie Plus, 02021

Cover/Layout/Design Mathias Nickel – www.mathiasnickel.com

ISBN 978-3-00-069781-4 (Book)

ISBN 978-3-00-069782-1 (PDF)

‘In the heart of the fire Lies a hidden spring.’

Zen Master Giun (01253-01333)

‘Whether it is to be Utopia or Oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment. The race is between a better-informed, hopefully inspired young world versus a running-scared, misinformedly brain-conditioned, older world. Humanity is in ‘final exam’ as to whether or not it qualifies for continuance in Universe.’

Richard Buckminster Fuller

Storytelling Futures: Five workshops in the making

In the year 02020 the Bavarian Film Centre organized a Futures Literacy Workshop for media professionals. Using futures thinking methodologies for media making turned out to be a vast and fascinating field of study. So, the team decided to organize a series of practice-based research workshops and to summarize its learnings in this book. These are the workshops held so far:

Constructive Cinema (May 02020) adapted the concepts and approaches of constructive journalism to the realm of fiction and considered its implications on film dramaturgy.

Future Vision Makers (September 02020) applied scientific methods for future re­search and other foresight practices to scriptwriting, filmmaking, journalism, game design and XR creation.

Story X Change (May 02021) looked into systems thinking, complexity theory and transformation design. How can systems change be presented in film and other media?

Future Vision Makers 21(October 02021) explored the full view of Futures Literate Media Making in a three-day international lab, with a particular focus on the Poetics of Change.

Media Transformation(January 02022) once more extended the picture and investigated how narratives and media may catalyse the evolution of human perception and awareness.

This initiative is grounded in the UN 02030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UNESCO recommendations for Media Literacy and Futures Literacy.

If you’re wondering about the extra 0 in front of the years, it’s there to expand your sense of time. This book is about what comes after, right?

Acknowledgements

The Bavarian Film Centre and the author would like to thank all partners and participants who helped produce this book, in particular:

Alex McDowell, Alexandra Müller, Andri Snaer Magnason, Anne-Marie Voorhoeve, Beate Thewalt, Ben Kempas, Caty Borum Chattoo, Christiane Rabe, Claudia Gladziejewski, Cymene Howe, David Peter Stroh, Dominic Boyer, Elisabeth van Wijngaarden-Vinke, Elke Fein, Ewa Szurogajlo, Fumon Shōju Nakagawa Roshi, Helen Coulman-McCrone, Henk van Wijngaarden, Ingeborg Degener, Ioannis Kentzeas, Irini Dimola, Jonathan Steigman, Josefa Kny, Julian Baller, Louis Götz, Mark Allan Kaplan, Martina Oettl, Mathias Nickel, Oliver Seibert, Otto Scharmer, Phoebe Tickell, Pupul Bisht, Simone Stoffers, Stefanie Ollenburg, Susanne Biedenkopf-Kürten, Thomas Steininger, Volker Angres, Wouter van Noort.

A special thanks goes to Akis Bardakis from the Greek Fire Service, who kindly contributed the quote and the picture on pages 42-43.

PREFACE

Way back in 01972 a report entitled ‘The Limits to Growth’ stated that the earth’s interlocking resources—the global system of nature in which we all live—probably can’t support elevated rates of economic and population growth much beyond the year 02100, even with the help of advanced technology. Half a century later the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms these limits have already been reached. It believes global warming presents such a terrible risk that humanity is left with only unknown and unfamiliar futures. ‘Nothing short of transforming society,’ a leading scientific adviser commented, ‘will avert catastrophe.’

It’s ‘Code Red’ for humanity. How does the media respond to that?

Climate breakdown isn’t the only challenge we’re facing, of course. We also have nuclear technology, artificial intelligence, biogenetics, geoengineering, resource depletion, overpopulation, pandemics, radicalization and mass extinction. The list is long. These challenges are complex and existential, and they call for coordinated global responses. The one phenomenon that dominates, however, is the climate crisis.

If we humans—who are incredibly inventive and ambitious—are entirely or partly the reason for all these problems, then surely we can solve them. To date, our efforts have had limited success. The obstacles seem to be less of a practical nature and more of a matter of consciousness. We have a collective incapacity to feel and act in a way that benefits us all. True, we’re skilful at imagining dystopias. But we’re much less skilful at envisioning a liveable future, or even a variety of futures. At the eleventh hour, our imagination is failing us.

So, how can we shape tomorrow’s world, and how can media creators help in this endeavour? These two questions lie at the heart of this book. Politics, education, science, religion, art—all these activities play (or don’t play) leading roles in the forthcoming transformation of our societies. But only media platforms can cut across diverse cultures speedily and at scale and, at the same time, convey convincing and inspirational visions that the world so desperately needs. It’s time for media professionals to become futures-literate.

STORYTELLING FUTURES has been written for scriptwriters, journalists, game designers, XR creators and social media specialists. Consider it an extension of the storytelling toolkit, a tool to sharpen creative skills and boost the impact of media projects. The book may also be valuable to commissioning editors, foresight practitioners and change agents working from the emerging future.

The book follows an interdisciplinary approach. Pages on the right contain introductions to ‘futuring’ and storytelling techniques. Pages on the left contain corresponding tools, graphics and thoughts. Feel free to adapt and extend. Suggestions are always welcome. More information, references to the text and contact details can be found at: story-x.com/storytellingfutures.

‘Despite the fact that people, communities and organisations all use imaginary futures all the time, few pay explicit attention to the why, what and how of these anticipatory activities. In other words, they are futures illiterate.’

Riel Miller

What is a Futures Literacy Lab?

Good question. Let's answer that by first clarifying what Futures Literacy is. Futures Literacy is the innate human capacity to imagine the future, and we use this skill to help us understand the impact of our actions on tomorrow’s world. In other words, being futures-literate empowers our imagination and enhances our ability to come up with better ideas for dealing with change.

To help people from all walks of life and all ages learn about the origins and power of what they imagine, UNESCO has developed an experiential learning cycle called Futures Literacy Lab. The idea is to take participants on learning journeys to strengthen their reflexive and methodological capabilities. This is done through structured, on-the-ground, learning-by-doing activities.

A Futures Literacy Lab is divided into three parts and best followed through with a diverse group of participants under the guidance of an experienced facilitator.

A fourth step called ‘Realize’ is sometimes added for prototyping the visions developed in the lab, so that participants and stakeholders of the future concerned may interact with them (see page 53).

A Futures Literacy Lab is a playful and effective way to demonstrate, question and alter the assumptions used in thinking about tomorrow. It shows that ‘the future’ is nothing fixed or fatal, but an emergent process that can be influenced by humans. That’s why most experts prefer to speak of ‘futures’ using the plural.

Step 1 ‘Reveal’

Step 2 ‘Reframe’

Step 3 ‘Rethink’

The group discusses its hopes and expectations concerning the future of a given theme, e.g., mobility. How will transport be organized in the year 2030? Implicit anticipatory assumptions, in this case about people’s mobility needs or expedient modes of transport, are made explicit.

In this creative, inventive and experimental phase, unknown anticipatory assumptions are brought into the process. What if cars and airplanes were no longer part of the mobility mix, and people use bicycles instead? This enables the group to explore further future possibilities.

The anticipatory assumptions of the preceding phases are compared, reconsidered and consolidated, in order to identify insights and options for the present. How could airplanes, cars and bikes be used differently in the future and what needs be done today to make that happen?

FUTURES LITERACY FOR MEDIA CREATORS

How can media creators help people imagine a variety of futures (also known as ‘the Next’)? One way is to focus on identifiable events and risks, which may or may not take place. Another is to define a target and sketch the best path towards it. Both methods build on past or present knowledge. That can be useful but may blind you to new or interrupted developments. They also ‘colonize the future’ by imposing a vision of today on a later moment in time. A third way is to use anticipation to ‘discover’ the unknowable.

UNESCO has developed a methodology called Futures Literacy. Riel Miller, head of the UNESCO Futures Literacy programme, explains the usefulness of this methodology like this: ‘We can use our ability to detect and invent, sense and make sense of the ‘new’ in ways that enable a greater appreciation of the constant differences that emerge in our creative universe.’ In other words, it’s a way to unleash our imagination.

We’re called to be architects of the future, not its victims.

Using the Futures Literacy methodology can help on three levels: anticipation, imagination and communication. Cinema, games and XR, which are highly immersive forms of media, give audiences a visceral experience of possible futures. News outlets and social platforms have enormous influence on people’s opinions. The fact that the media can be so persuasive with its images of the future means content creators shouldn’t throw caution to the wind. Guiding people by fantasy or fear is not to be recommended.

A more judicious approach to tackling the Next is a methodical, fact-based manner that uses validated anticipation techniques. This allows our imagination to develop colourful, engaging emotional scenarios that audiences can relate to. Good storytelling and visualization can mobilize citizens in ways that science and data alone cannot. Media projects can stimulate debate and large-scale participation around topics of systems change and societal transformation, which makes them excellent instruments for communication and social interaction.

Helping citizens become futures-literate using the Futures Literacy methodology is an important new task for the media. Empowering others to imagine, share and generate preferred futures will make them feel less fearful and more confident about climate change and other challenges.

The more adept you become at imagining various kinds of futures, the larger the opportunity spaces you create for people to formulate their individual and collective desires. A good starting point is to participate in a Futures Literacy Lab (see left), and to explore the various approaches presented in this book.

Ten reasons why you’re likely to be wrong about the world

Critical thinking is the basis of sound judgement. That’s why we need to constantly update our worldview and correct errors of perception and/or interpretation. Factfulness is the stress-reducing habit of holding only opinions supported by undeniable facts. Here’s how to develop the art of factfulness:

Based on free material from GAPMINDER.ORG

(UN)SEEING REALITY—LIGHT

Reality isn’t always what we think it is. Facts we were taught at school might be outdated. Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving, and the state of the world is in permanent flux. So much so that we sometimes miss critical changes. And even when we do get our facts straight, we frequently draw the wrong conclusions.

Hans Rosling, a Swedish medical scientist who co-founded Doctors Without Borders, has pleaded in favour of what he called factfulness, a habit for critical thinking that helps us to maintain a fact-based worldview while avoiding misinterpreting that information. Using global data from UN sources, Rosling showed that almost all indicators of human development have evolved positively over the last decades, be it the education of women, decline of poverty, general life expectancy or number of deaths caused by natural disasters. All in all, the human race has made impressive progress.

Stop worrying about a world that no longer exists and don’t plan for futures that will never be.

If we don’t force ourselves to get a clear picture of reality and if we don’t have facts to support our opinions, Rosling argued, we cannot assess the true nature of the situations we’re in. Any attempt to build a future on such a basis would fail. But why is it so hard for us to see reality ‘as it is’? One argument is that we’re all suffering from information overload. Our brains are constantly bombarded by sensory inputs and neural stimuli, and we counter this with our built-in attention filters that protect us from being overwhelmed.

These filters sort through everything that happens around us and pass on only the most dramatic stuff. This innate dramatic bias is helpful if you’re dealing with problems that have simple causalities and clear solutions. But it also makes the world look much more dangerous than it actually is. And when confronted with complex systemic challenges, dramatic bias turns into a handicap.

‘In order for this planet to have financial stability, peace, and protected natural resources,’ Rosling said, ‘there’s one thing we can’t do without, and that’s international collaboration based on a shared and fact-based understanding of the world.’ In Rosling’s view, the most concerning threat we face is the rampant lack of knowledge of the world in which we live.

Even well-informed professionals like journalists, activists or politicians suffer from holding a dramatic worldview. And so do you. On the left you’ll find a guide to checking your own thinking. Base your media work on correct, up-to-date facts. And, if necessary, teach your audience how to interpret the available data correctly.

Reconnect with yourself and the world

Updating your worldview with facts and data is as important as sensing your emotional responses to the state of the planet. Joanna Macy proposes a wide range of practices to do this. She calls them ‘The Work That Reconnects’.

Alone or in turns with another person, complete the following series of open sentences. Take your time and, after each sequence, reflect on what you’ve felt and experienced.

Come from a place of gratitude

Gratitude is a strong position from which to face difficult questions. All religious and spiritual traditions invite us to feel gratitude for the gift of life—a gift we too easily take for granted. For all our woes and worries, it’s good to remind ourselves that our existence is an unearned benefaction.

Some things I love about being alive on earth are …

A place that was magical for me as a child was …

A person who helped me believe in myself is (or was) …

Some things I enjoy doing and making are …

Some things I appreciate about myself are …

Sense the great unravelling