Noah Raford, the designer of the future

“Our goal is to use creativity and inspiration to go beyond paralysis and complexity, to seek uncertainty and change with the same vigour and drive that we have traditionally applied to maintaining the status quo. If the transition is the goal, then design is the method, the future is the direction and the stimulating actions are the result”. These words by Noah Raford summarise his “manifesto” of innovation. Futurist in Chief of the Dubai Future Foundation and director of the Museum of the Future, Raford is the next guest of Meet the Media Guru. His lecture is scheduled on Friday, September 28 at 7.30 pm at the Sala delle Cariatidi in Palazzo Reale (Piazza Duomo 12 – Milan).

In line with the precious past speeches of Paola Antonelli, Nancy Proctor and Corey Timpson, the meeting with Raford will focus on what it means to be culturally innovative in a world where striking technologies and often nebulous transformation scenarios coexist and chase each other. Much of Raford’s work in the Emirate is to identify emerging opportunities, develop strategic partnerships and build prototypes of future initiatives for the Dubai government.

Although the museum will officially open in 2019, Raford has presented his view about some of these trends in several temporary exhibits dedicated respectively to Smart Cities; Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, as the video below clearly states.

Raford’s lecture will try to focus on the transition – inevitable for a future – oriented museum (!) – from a permanent collection to a “experiential package”. The visitor is offered views or, to stay in line with the metaphor, walks in a place to be discovered without fear, but rather with the fascination of novelty, through immersive and hyperreactive rooms, interactions with intelligent robots and super-computers. Unlike usual exhibits, the exhibition space no longer values ​​what has crystallised and solidified over time, but what is taking shape as we live and takes responsibility for conveying a possible idea of the future. Here comes a new, unexplored opportunity: the opportunity to shape the future that awaits us, to change its path, in a word to design it.