RADAR Member Spotlight .002 | Emmanuelle
Affective foresight, nanobots, and heart-led thinking with @mannee90
Welcome to the second edition of our new RADAR member spotlights series, highlighting some of the brilliant folks from inside our community. We’ll go deep on topics our members have been fascinated by, learning from their experiences and experiments as we dive down the rabbit hole.
People sometimes forget that our futures, *plural*, affect each and every one of us; your personal context may bias and inform what trends excite you as you explore the roads ahead in our little blue marble. It takes a special perspective to look at the future and think first of your neighbor and community, resisting the pull of excitement down the rabbit hole.
Emmanuelle (@mannee90 in the server) offers just that perspective. Always there to offer a warmer, softer side to our imagined futures (and bring forth some grade-A memes while we’re at it). In today’s spotlight, we’re exploring Emmanuelle’s lens on her foundational practice of affective foresight, and how her unexpected journey into futures has enriched her in ways many of us would only dream of – one of the perks of “Lucky Girl Syndrome”, as we’ve been told.
So let’s dive in, intersection between identity and empathy can lead us to much brighter futures when you lead with your heart.
Emmanuelle works for a nonprofit, furthering the economic empowerment of disenfranchised communities by offering DEI&BA training & workshops. After being introduced to the concept of a futures synthesist by Cecilia Tham, Emmanuelle has endeavored to bring foresight strategies to these communities as a powerful perspective and tool for empowerment.
Let’s start with a backgrounder. Tell us a little about you and how you wound up in the futures space.
I have a non-traditional journey with futures thinking and strategic foresight. I started my career as a personal stylist as I was obsessed with fashion, a passion that I still hold, though it has veered significantly from the times I’d watch hours of FashionTV and pour over every fashion magazine and digital resource. I actually remember when I got an invitation email to be an early user of LookBook.nu, I wish I had saved it.
I got burnt out by that work and was disillusioned by trying to make it big in L.A ... I was in this weird space regarding my “dream career”. However I do feel like my dreams of being part of an international avant-garde collective has materialized in some way through RADAR.
I don’t know if it was fate or luck (shoutout to the Lucky Girl Syndrome) but I found myself applying for a position as a freelance trend researcher for a New York based forecasting company via a LinkedIn post. I didn’t get the job at my first application, but I followed the tried and tested method of circling back, and as luck would have it, their Los Angeles trend research team had an opening. Long-story short I passed my test assignment and I was one of two researchers for the LA retail market.
Working there was a learning experience that I’m eternally thankful for because without it I wouldn't be where I am today. When the pandemic came around, I unfortunately found myself in some type of furlough limbo and then replaced by proprietary software.
Fast forward to the end of 2020, and I serendipitously found myself in a Clubhouse room about strategic foresight, and from that interaction I did my deep dive down the rabbit hole of futures thinking and foresight. I was even part of a “futures literacy lab” through UNESCO on Queer Futures in 2050, as well as being a co-facilitator for a session for Teach the Future’s “World Future Day”.
Besides contributing to RADAR’s first futures report, A Future In Sync, I’m also the lead for Navigating Scenarios on Twitter, which hosts Twitter spaces that showcase future scenarios that I’ve crafted, taking some inspiration from the signals that I’ve selected while engaging in horizon scanning. The primary mission of this venture is helping the general public connect with futures thinking and foresight in a more casual environment.
We know that affective foresight is a big part of your futures approach. Could you tell us more about it? What does it mean in theory and in practice, and how do you apply that thinking to your work?
I first learned of “affective foresight'' through an APF (Association of Professional Futurists) article by Seth T. Harrell.
Affective foresight, in theory, acknowledges that futures thinking benefits the human emotional state, seeks to understand the emotional nuances of the paths we could take, and promotes the benefits of foresight as a tool for improved mental health and decision making. It’s a type of strategic foresight that gives people the ability to create emotional connections between themselves and their Possible, Probable, Preferred, and Preventable futures.
Affective foresight, in practice, helps people experience futures through a lens of emotional sense-making, and it helps people understand how their emotional states can nurture better foresight and how it can then nurture better emotional states.
I’m always scanning for signals in the spaces of futures of work, futures of education, futures of DEI&BA, and the futures of nonprofits. I try to bring futures synthesis to the non-profit space by helping my employer realize the importance of futures thinking, strategic foresight, and long-term thinking specifically because disenfranchised communities historically have not been involved in conversations about futures especially the “futures we don’t want'' manifested into reality.
I applied this way of thinking in my work with Navigating Scenarios. The founder Victor, our other member Mathes, and myself decided to use the emotions of Disgust, Joy, Anger, Sadness, and Fear as the framework for my sense-making, the anchor for my horizon scanning, and the foundational direction of how I craft the scenarios we use in our Twitter spaces.
After going through this experience, I definitely learned a lot about myself when looking at futures thinking through emotions, as I self identify as a heart-led person. I try to actively take an intersectional viewpoint regarding empathy as I’ve seen examples of when people are selective with their empathy. I give all credit to my parents for instilling in me the mindset of being respectful and kind to others regardless of their identities. I think that is why I gravitated to DEI&BA work at my primary job and why I am intentionally conscious of the need to be intersectional when using futures thinking and foresight.
“Leading with your heart” is a good one. How does that manifest in your day-to-day? It’s certainly not easy to maintain this disposition in a challenging world. Can this lens on the world be used as a way to find self motivation and encouragement?
I lead with my heart in my day to day by thinking about how I can empower my personal network: my co-workers, my friends, and my family through futures thinking and foresight. I feel like the past few years have made it quite easy for us to get disheartened and burnt out, and falling into a pit of nihilism, especially those of us who are part of disenfranchised communities.
I try to remind people and quite often that we are able to materialize preferable Futures that bring us joy and happiness. I like to believe that whenever I share Signals with my co-workers, especially those that are relevant to the type of work that we do, this inspires them to engage in Participatory Futures and share them with their personal networks.
I believe that when people feel they have a personal stake in how Futures are formulated they often contribute their energy, time, and skills to materialize these Speculative Futures especially when they feel like it deserves to be more than just fiction.
It’s clear that there’s so much thoughtfulness in how you approach your work and who you are as a person. What are some lessons you’ve learned along the way as you evolve, change, work towards who you want to be?
I know I may sound like a stereotypical millennial when I admit this aloud but a major life lesson that I have learned, and hold close to my heart, is that I still have the rest of my life to materialize my career aspirations. I never would have thought I would have gone from a personal stylist to a future synthesist & affective foresight practitioner.
Another lesson that I have learned is that out in the vast world both physical and digital exist people who have similar if not the same niche, esoteric, and obscure interests as your own. If there isn’t an already established community then create your own, which is easier said than done but honestly it will be worth it in the end when you’re reminiscing about all the inside jokes, memes, and emotes that you all are privy to as members of the community.
Something I’ve been ruminating on lately and I partially credit it to our next Futures report topic: Play is the importance of keeping that unbounded wonderment with the World.
I used to be so embarrassed that I was a bookworm but now as an adult I’m glad I would give myself the freedom to just immerse myself in other worlds and universes. I honestly think I would have never found myself in the futures & foresight space, let alone RADAR, if I wasn’t so curious about the “what if” and “why can’t we” aspects of innovation, the unlimited possible combinations of futures, and the holistic experience that can come about from engaging in participatory futures that can be a catharsis of communal and intergenerational healing especially when multigenerational viewpoints are heard in the process of creating these speculative futures.
This interview wouldn’t be complete without talking about “Lucky Girl Syndrome”. It’s something you’ve mentioned a few times throughout our conversation. How do you define it, and what’s one of the stories that make you feel the luckiest in recent times?
(Editor’s note: A recent TikTok phenomenon with longstanding roots, Lucky Girl Syndrome is believing that a good outlook on life and an optimistic lens on the world will bring that same positivity back towards you).
One of the luckiest stories in recent times was refinding RADAR. I remember originally coming across RADAR on Instagram. I thought the concept was mind blowing so I applied to join, but I didn’t hear back. I wasn’t disheartened though because I remembered my situation with my trend research gig.
I think the second time I came across RADAR was via Twitter? I’m a little hazy but this time the LGS was on my side. I’ve been part of the RADAR familia since last July. I finally found that avant-garde collective that I had been dreaming and manifesting for myself since my early 20s.
I’m thankful for the opportunity to contribute to our first Futures report “A Future in Sync”, getting to see the magic created during our Futurethon, participate in a few of our Twitter spaces, and contribute to our “RADAR Resolutions: 10 Visions of 2023” article.
I’m looking forward to more adventures with my RADAR familia and reminiscing to my descendants when I’m in my 80s, "Ya see children, Abuela was part of an amazing collective called RADAR" and then proceed to show them all our frog memes and the infamous thinking crystal ball emoji that we brought to life. I’m definitely looking forward to when I can have it screen printed on a crop top and a tote.
We often focus on one narrow slice or topic of futures for research and investigation, overlooking the intersectionality of these spaces and topics. You’ve mentioned food, identity, and fashion as futures you’re interested in - how do you see them interweaving in a more inclusive future?
Last year I spoke about the Futures of Food Technology, the Futures of Vacationing, and the Futures of Personal Hygiene where I shared some speculative futures – let me take you down a few of these rabbit holes.
I envisioned a future where food waste became the most popular material for fashion designers to use and banana peels in particular became the most in-demand source for leatherwork. I was inspired by the Munich based ice cream shop Keep Banana which “rescues bananas from local supermarkets and turns them into soft-serve ice cream.”
I look forward to a future where supermarkets and restaurants in partnership with fashion designers are able to host classes on creating clothing from food waste at local community centers empowering disenfranchised communities.
The next rabbit hole I wanted to take people down is one of my favorite speculative futures involving fashion, nanobots, and vacationing. I imagined a future where people’s wardrobes have shrunk to 8 base pieces: headwear, eyewear, tops, bottoms, undergarments, hosiery, shoes, and accessories. Humans wear a “HumaSuit”, made out of biodegradable and self-cleaning nanobots, that fits like a second skin.
When people go on vacation, they just download the appropriate visual packet into their HumaSuit. Resort wear designers have even designed limited edition visual packets that activate at specific vacation spots. I was inspired by this article on the Zoe Report which talked about the future of vacation style and highlighted how many resort-wear designers were producing lines that were multifunctional: from the boardroom to the beach to the hottest club. I always felt fashion was such a fun way to express the spectrum of one’s identity, I know I had so many different sartorial phases. I also found it to be a great way to find community as certain styles and aesthetics cultivate communities and fandoms. I’m looking forward to a Future where one’s constantly changing personal style doesn’t affect the environment and planet.
My final rabbit hole is a future where climate change has completely transformed the laundry industry. The global water crisis led to the mandatory implementation of waterless washing machines and air drying of laundry. These washing machines utilize charged air particles that clean clothing through electrostatics. All clothing is made with fabrics that activate self-drying throughout the entire garment when exposed to a minimal amount of sunlight. Laundromats now have roof-top drying sections where patrons can line dry their loads of laundry. An entire household of 4 people can wash and dry a week’s worth of laundry in 2 hours.
I was inspired by this article on the future of laundry. I’m looking forward to a future where doing laundry is more of a communal and joyous event instead of stressing out about your clothes not being dry before the laundromat closes.
Both of my grandmothers instilled in me a love and appreciation of line drying my clothes. I know it might sound odd but I find a sense of inner peace almost like a state of zen when I am able to line dry my clothes. I can’t help but reminisce of my younger self enjoying the scent of what I would affectionately refer to as grandmotherly love and sunlight.
I hope these rabbit holes and speculative futures help inspire and motivate our readers to engage in their own horizon scanning for signals and crafting their own speculative futures.
This conversation with Emmanuelle was nothing short of delightful. Her thoughtful, considered, interconnected approach somehow always manages to calm our nerves and clear our thoughts as we seek insight and paths forward (which is saying something for an organization run on a Discord server). She mentioned a few times feeling lucky to have found RADAR, and all we can say is, feeling’s mutual – we’re blessed to have her in the community. Readers, you can keep up with Emmanuelle’s thinking and work by following her on Twitter @mannee90.
Our Member Spotlight series is curated and written by @Kairon, contributor at RADAR.