12.1 Sketching Futures: Cultural Dimensions, Pedagogies, and Digital Transitions

Corresponding Chairs

Jan Willem Hoftijzer & Bryan Howell

Co-Chairs

Mauricio Novoa Munoz

Amos Scully

Abstract

We invite scholars, educators, designers, and practitioners to submit papers and visual papers that explore the evolving cultural and pedagogical dimensions of sketching across analogue and digital domains.

Sketching is a powerful thinking tool, a means of storytelling, and a method of prototyping that bridges disciplines and cultures. Rooted in anthropological and cultural traditions, sketching enables the externalization of thought, the visualization of interactions, and the shaping of future scenarios—where the sketch, and the act of sketching, are central to thinking in practice. In educational settings, sketching supports critical and imaginative engagement, fostering both individual reflection and collaborative inquiry.

This conference track aims to explore the unique ability of sketching to render both the physical and the intangible—such as emotions, atmospheres, values, and speculative futures. We welcome contributions that examine how sketching can give form to both the seen and unseen, the concrete and the conceptual.

Our aim is to consider and interrogate the roles and transformations of sketching in an era of rapid technological change—particularly with the rise of AI and VR. Emerging questions concern pedagogy, self-sufficiency, authenticity, authorship, and creativity. What are the (dis)advantages of these shifts for learning, creativity, cultural expression, and professional practice?

Topics include: pedagogical strategies; sketching the intangible; sketching in anthropology and cultural assessment; sketching as a tool for prototyping, and storytelling; sketching as distributed design thinking through articulation of and reflection upon design intent;futures thinking and speculative design; ethics, authorship, and imagination; and the impact of AI and VR.