Distributed Futures: Mixed-Reality Systems at the Nexus of Governance, Experience, and Preferred Futures

Abstract

This dissertation asserts that crises in governance arise from a disproportionate influence of some social actors on the images of the future from which governing systems emerge. A review of numerous projects in participatory, alternative futures research and the multiple media and technics they deploy, exposes challenges and limitations of method. By digitally mediating the ʻexperiential scenarioʼ method, this dissertation proposes that mixed-reality systems be at the center of participatory, futures-oriented, socio-cybernetic, governing systems. By distributing the opportunity to interact with and configure elements of alternative futures, these systems address the junction of futures studies and political design.