Master in Design for Emergent Futures

This master has a high component of hands-on learning and project-based learning. Students will be requested to transform big ideas into design strategies, prototypes, and interventions to be tested in the real world focused on Barcelona but connected globally with other cities.

• We will delve into:

Instrumentation. Learn a modular set of maker skills and tools and how these can be used in the design process of translating ideas into prototypes and prototypes into products. Skills include coding, digital fabrication, hardware design, synthetic biology, and computational thinking.Exploration. Be exposed to a set of technologies and socio-cultural phenomena that can disrupt our present understanding of society, industry and the economy.Reflection. Participate in individual and group reflection sessions to develop one’s own identity and skill set, knowledge and attitude as a designer.Application. Create design responses to explore curiosity through innovation. Be encouraged to be creative and follow a culture of making where prototyping is a generator of knowledge, and experimentation is crucial for problem-solving.The Master in Design for Emergent Futures is organised into three terms: Oct-Dec, Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun. Each term includes design studios, seminars and expert masterclasses. The master also offers a research trip. Previous trips have been to Shenzhen (China) and Cuba.

• In the first year, we will be exposed to:

Design Studio sessions focus on real-world experimentation and socio-technical development. Students develop technical, aesthetic and conceptual skills during the year by working on real-life scenarios.Seminars. International experts from design and emergent technologies, including speculative futures, futurology and speculative design, contribute to the programme as guest lecturers throughout the academic year.Fab Academy provides advanced, hands-on digital fabrication instruction and access to technological tools and resources. It is directed by Neil Gershenfeld of MIT’s Center For Bits and Atoms and is based on MIT’s rapid prototyping course, MAS 863: How to Make (Almost) Anything.The second academic year is devoted to going deeper into our previous training and developing the final Thesis Project. We will continue research and innovation agendas using a multi-scalar, experimental and realistic approach and turning the final projects into living platforms for academic research, business development or direct impact on open source communities.

• We have three types of Thesis projects, related to each quarter of the programme, and each with its specific objectives:

Implementation: tutorials carried out with the directors of the master, directors of the study workshop, and guest experts to reinforce the ability to articulate innovation projects in the real world incorporating the acquired knowledge.Validation: developing a series of strategies during the implementation of the final Masters project for its economic, environmental, social, and communicative assessment.Dissemination: developing the communication strategies (in traditional and innovative media: digital field, print or performative) and dissemination actions in the academic area.The programme also offers a 9-month residency program working on a first-rate research project at Fab Lab Barcelona, IAAC and Elisava. You will become a full-fledged junior researcher at the host institution, working hand in hand with the project teams and with the guide of a research mentor.