Currency Futures
January 17, 2021
The 2020 Strategy + Foresight class explored the what, how, and why of personal and societal values. In particular, what symbolic systems do we use for signaling and promoting our values, and how might we design better ones? We call these value-signaling systems: currencies.
The class of six Collaborative Design MFA / Design Systems MA students, led by faculty member Howard Silverman, worked from August to December 2020 to learn foresight techniques, explore currency design, and consider how we might use these techniques to engage in the currency space. The students were: Humaira Tasneem, Jono Melamed, Betsy Lance, Jake Crahan, Samantha Caruthers-Knight, SJ Bowden.
The class concluded with a publication and a panel discussion with currency design experts: Jean Russell, Michael Linton, and Siddharth Sthalekar.
Link to the publication: “What Counts: Signaling Our Values Through Creative Currencies" [pdf]
Link to the video: “Why Currency Design Matters”