Futurespaces

“We’re not designing for people—we’re designing with them.” In our latest Futurespaces conversation (hosted by Brad MacDonald), Daily tous les jours shared how they use design, music, and collective movement to transform public spaces into stages for togetherness. From orchestral pavements to crosswalk choirs, their work shows how interaction can be both poetic and political. 🎧 The full talk and editorial recap are now live. https://lnkd.in/gYuRNSjs Find inspiration for your own practice in the moments where art meets civic life, and where joy becomes a design strategy. Thank you mouna andraos and Melissa Mongiat for sharing your insights with us!

Michael Schneider is joining Futurespaces this Thursdays, and he’s bringing a topic we’re excited to dig into. The talk? The Rhythm of Our Spaces: Augment. Enhance. Tune. In Michael’s words, “Technology is our contemporary cultural medium.” But for the most part, it’s been locked behind screens—flattened into scrolls, swipes, and clicks. Meanwhile, across smaller but vibrant sectors—experience design, live entertainment, theater, themed spaces, exhibitions, and new media art—creators have been working with technology to enrich the world around us, not pull us out of it. With the rise of physical AI and more expressive, embodied interfaces, a new question is on the table: How can we bring our cultural medium back into the physical world—and tune it more precisely to the spaces we share? Join us August 7 via Zoom, as Michael—CEO and Director of Media Architecture at Volvox Labs—explores how technology can enhance our environments, attune to human rhythms, and move beyond the screen. https://lnkd.in/gTfHvk97 11 AM PST | 2 PM EST Q&A to follow

We were honored to have Marcus Wendt (Founder and CEO of FIELD.IO) who Zoomed in from remote Iceland to join us at Futurespaces last Thursday. He shared a captivating look at how he and the team at FIELD.IO are shaping some of today’s most expressive and adaptive brand systems. Through a series of vivid case studies, Marcus guided us into the evolving world of spatial AI experiences. Each project underscored what becomes possible when intelligence is fused with imagination: brand ecosystems that are not only technical feats but emotional invitations—alive, responsive, and grounded in generative systems, narrative, and user-centered design. From immersive environments to storytelling frameworks that adapt in real-time, Marcus made a compelling case for a future where brands don’t just speak—they breathe. The full recap of this conversation is available below, and the recorded talk is now live on the Futurespaces website. https://lnkd.in/gUrqMJte

We crave living in environments that support us, nourish us, and inspire us. We dream of places to go through our lives together, inclusively and tolerantly. Can we re-enchant the raw material of our collective daily experiences? mouna andraos and Melissa Mongiat are the duo behind Daily tous les jours an award-winning studio whose interactive art and narrative experiences in public spaces around the world have been described as “infrastructure for the human spirit.” Using music, dance, and other mediums to emphasize the joyful, whimsical, and unexpected, their work creates moments of connection and care between strangers. Join us this Thursday as we welcome Mouna and Melissa to Futurespaces for a live conversation and Q&A. 🗓️ Thursday 7/31: https://lu.ma/daily-tlj 📚 Featuring insights from their upcoming book and most transformative urban works This one’s for anyone working at the intersection of design, art, city-making, and human connection. #publicspace #artanddesign #urbanism #dailypractice #socialdesign #creativity #event

In tomorrow's Futurespaces session, Marcus Wendt (Founder, FIELD.IO) will explore how creativity must evolve in an age where anyone can generate content—but not everyone can generate meaning. Where is this value shift heading? What will still matter in the future? What new opportunities are emerging for creatives and brands? And what could beauty look like in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence? Marcus has spent his life seeking spaces where old rules no longer apply and new possibilities emerge—a philosophy he now brings to helping global brands discover their own uncharted territories. Join us tomorrow for a peek into Marcus and his team's process and practice, followed by an intimate Q&A. https://lnkd.in/gZHMpxAt

Before designing for Meta Horizon as Content Design Lead, Matt Earp helped name underground music movements, staged shows in unconventional spaces, and built DJ sets as emotional arcs. Now he applies that same mindset to immersive platforms—where words aren’t just labels, they’re spells. He shared this insight during last week's Futurespaces talk, unpacking how names shape systems, influence behavior, and create emotional coherence in virtual space. Drawing on experience across theater, music, journalism, and UX, Matt shows how emerging technologies become legible and lived through the right words. Read our full recap below, our visit the recording on our website: https://lnkd.in/gPXCMK_r

“Good design doesn’t shout. It hums in the background of your experience.” —Emily Webster Bagdatli, Executive Creative Director, ESI Design Last week, Emily Bagdatli led a Futurespaces session that asked us to reconsider what it means to design an experience—not as something showy or screen-filled, but as something felt. Drawing on her background in architecture and dance, and projects like the White House Visitor Center and LaGuardia’s Terminal C, Emily spoke about the quiet power of spatial storytelling. For the Futurespaces community, where many of us work at the intersection of design, storytelling, and technology, her perspective offers a timely reminder: innovation isn’t always about adding more—it’s often about noticing what’s already there. 📝 We’ve recapped the full talk—quotes, insights, and all. Read it below or watch the recording online: https://lnkd.in/gb5btM5m #ExperienceDesign #DesignLeadership #ESIDesign #Futurespaces #SpatialStorytelling #InvisibleCraft

To design the metaverse, we need more than just code—we need culture, storytelling, and a deep imagination. In this talk, Matt Earp, Lead Content Designer for Meta Horizon, invites us behind the scenes of Meta’s immersive social platform to explore how language, design, and multidisciplinary thinking shape virtual worlds. Drawing from his background in music, event production, writing, science fiction, and mindfulness, Matt reveals how the words we choose don’t just describe these new realities—they create them. From VR to mobile, Horizon is more than a product; it's a social, spatial operating system built on the edges of technology and human creativity. Join us for a conversation on how fiction meets function, and how design becomes worldbuilding—even when the world doesn’t fully exist yet. Join us Thursday: https://lu.ma/fs-matt-earp

“We don’t just push buttons—we use the whole body to experience a story.” - Lemke Meijer Last week at Futurespaces, Lemke joined us from Gagarín's studio in Iceland to talk about how they design exhibitions that don’t just inform—you feel them. Whether it’s the rumble of a volcano or the quiet weight of a glacier, Gagarin’s work turns data into something you can touch, move through, and remember. We loved this quote because it sums up their approach: grounded, emotional, and full of craft. Watch the full talk here: https://lnkd.in/gGpVXVrm Or explore our editorial recap below.

Most conversations about experience design focus on what’s visible—screens, stories, systems. But what about the decisions so well-crafted, they vanish into the experience itself? Join us for a conversation with Emily Bagdatli, Executive Creative Director at NBBJ | ESI Design, as she unpacks "the invisible craft" of experience design—those intangible, often unseen decisions that transform how we move through and interact with the world. Emily has shaped some of the most iconic public spaces of the last decade—from the Statue of Liberty Museum and Delta’s Terminal C at LaGuardia to the White House Tour—fusing architecture, media, and emotion into dynamic environments that tell a story. Date: Thursday, July 10 11 AM PST | 2 PM EST Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/eX7U7n55