Conversation with Iain

How could strategic design help create better public spaces?

The connection between strategic design and practices such as architecture, and urban planning is becoming increasingly clear. As the needs of communities, workers and even nature itself are rapidly changing, so do our requirements for public spaces, housing and buildings.

There’s a clear belief that human-centred, and even life-centred design, practices could support better strategic decision-making within the sector - but the key question we want to explore is how these different practices could come together effectively and to what end.

→ Register here for this online lunch-time session

Generations of change

Since the early 1990s, Australia has had a sustained and successful focus on reducing the harms of cigarette smoking. A range of policies like taxation increases, advertising bans, and the prohibition of smoking in many locations has driven this.

Recently there have been growing rates of nicotine vape use by young people in Australia, despite it being illegal to sell or use these vapes (unless prescribed). While long-term effects are still unknown, there are a range of dangerous health impacts including, of course, nicotine addiction.

The 2023/24 federal budget has allocated over $730 million to fund some initiatives aimed at reducing vaping by young people. These include new controls on their importation, contents and packaging and partnering with state governments to stop the growing black market.

Given our previous success in reducing the harmful impacts of smoking, what changes might we see coming from efforts to reduce the rates of vaping in young people? 

Takes on solving the ethics of facial recognition AI

1.
CHOICE outlines the case for a prominent high-level discussion of facial recognition technology usage in Australia.

2.
The EU Parliament has, only very recently, passed the world’s first AI Act. It will regulate the use of AI and marks facial recognition as a technology that poses unacceptable risks.

3.
The Australian Human Rights Commissioner explains why the use of facial recognition technology needs to be an evergreen conversation to reflect how it benefits and also protects people’s rights.

→ Here is some work we did with UTS Human Technology Institute

Things I’ve learnt while co-creating an art recovery program post-pandemic

1.
Bringing together a talented group of arts practitioners requires careful process design but once together, a scaffold for co-creation allows magic to happen.

2.
Discover what creative resilience means to different people in their artistic practice. Creating safe spaces to experiment, and fail, is important.

3.
Metrics of success do not tell the full story of creative fulfilment. Create a vision by defining a future of artistic practice that energises people and then find the principles that will take them there.

4.
Consider the types of personal stories that can help artists understand their own journey. This supports artists to convey their public identity and eases the concern of building a personal brand.

● A POEM FROM OUR TEAM

Ready to #hustle
Wait there is a dog in here
Zero work was done

● A MOMENT FOR REFLECTION

What are some ways we can learn from each other when we aren’t working in the same physical space?