S2E11: The Microphone

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you a recent conversation between TFA host Lee Moreau, Design Observer founder Jessica Helfand, Cindy Chastain leader of customer experience and design at Mastercard, and Ellen McGirt from Fortune.For three days in March, Design Observer and Mastercard leaders gathered with some sixty people—designers and scholars, social entrepreneurs and independent consultants, creative leaders and senior practitioners from across a range of industries—to discuss the current state of everything from collaboration and craft to cultural transformation, technological innovation, and the social and systemic changes impacting the ways we live and work.  The Futures Archive will be back soon with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show — Sketch Model from Olin College of Engineering and previous cohost Sara Hendren.Sketch Model is a limited series that delves into the engineering classroom and looks at how perspectives from the arts, humanities, and social sciences shape the why and should questions about the technologies we build. On this episode, Sara  talks to creative technologist Mimi Onuoha about teaching young designers—and artists, and engineers, and creative people whose work lies somewhere in that mix—how to learn. How to learn not just skills for designing the built world, but how to contend with the ideas behind the things we make. To hear more from Sara on TFA check out her episodes on the insulin pump, the refrigerator, and the defibrillator (AED).A transcript for the episode an be found here.The Futures Archive will be back soon with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show, Design Future Now from AIGA.Design Future Now is podcast that asks: How is design changing as a discipline and profession, and how do we face these opportunities as a community? Host Lee-Sean Hung explores these questions and more with creative practitioners and leaders.On this episode is Sloan Leo, the Founder & CEO of FLOX Studio Inc.  You can hear more from Sloan Leo on co-hosting on The Futures Archive talking about the blender, the bug zapper, and the automatic door.The Futures Archive will be back with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show, Scratching the Surface.Scratching the Surface is podcast about design, theory, and creative practice. Hosted by Jarrett Fuller, each episode features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with designers, architects, writers, academics, artists, and theorists about how design shapes culture. New episodes every other Wednesday. You can subscribe at https://scratchingthesurface.fm/index or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can support the show on Patreon and get bonus content each month at https://www.patreon.com/surfacepodcast.On this episode is Daniel Barber, Associate Professor of Architecture and Chair of the Graduate Group in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design and prolific climate and architect author. You can hear Daniel on The Futures Archive S02E05, all about the air conditioner.The Futures Archive will be back with season three! In the meantime check out our back catalogue here, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you listen, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

While The Futures Archive is between seasons, we wanted to share with you another show from Design Observer's library, The Design of Business | The Business of Design.On this episode — Perrin Drumm is a writer, editor, and head of publishing at A24.

On the final episode of season 2 of The Futures Archive, Rachel Lehrer and Lee Moreau explore pleasure with a conversation about the vibrator and women's control over their bodies.With additional insights from Lynn Comella, Ti Chang, Jenny Winfield, and Mireille Miller-Young.

How many microphones are in the room you are in? Did you count the ones in your earbuds? On your phone? Your smart device? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Liz Danzico discuss the microphone as an embedded technology, and the power it commands from center stage to tucked away in a drawer. With additional insights from Susan Schmidt Horning, Jonathan Sterne, and Meryl Alper.

The automatic door is a part of most peoples everyday lives, and certainly considered a convenience. But when you walk up to one does it feel magical? Futuristic? Frustrating? On this episode of The Futures Archive, Lee Moreau and Sloan Leo discuss the automatic door, and how we can design thresholds of all kinds to be inviting to all people.  With additional insights from Laurent Stalder, Bess Williamson, Wendy Ju, and David Gissen. 

How does the act of care get designed into our everyday lives—beyond medical procedures and technology, into our relationships, our schedules, our lives? On this episode of The Futures Archive, Lee Moreau and Sara Hendren consider the insulin pump, and discuss what it might look like to think about a medical device in the context of all that’s actually human.  With additional insights from Jeff Bennett, Gianna Marzilli Ericson, Aaron Oppenheimer, and Christina Harrington. 

What do you listen to when you are in your car? Or when you are traveling? On this episode of The Futures Archive Lee Moreau and Liz Danzico discuss the car radio and what sounds you are conditioned to hear. With additional insights from Ian Punnett, Phylis Johnson, Karin Bijsterveld, Yuri Suzuki, and Olga Touloumi.