🙅🏻♀️ How not reading can be a good thing, 🤖 another type of A.I. & 🌸 blossoming breasts.
Hi, my trend friend!
As y’all know I love to read. 📚 I’m assuming you do too, otherwise you wouldn’t have signed up to a newsletter. Currently I’m doing this 12-week ‘Artist Way’ creativity stimulation course and the assignment for a recent week was:
don’t read.
Yes, read that again: don’t read. I was like, really? 🙀 What’s wrong with reading? It’s good for creativity, right? To get other perspectives in by getting into someone else’s head. What, for heaven’s sake, can be the purpose of this exercise?
In the end I succumbed. For a week I did not read any books, magazines, newsletters, online in-depth articles, etceteraaaaargh. 😅 And I actually noticed a funny thing: that I use reading as an escape, like you can with binging series or going on a bender. I noticed I was reaching for a magazine or a book whenever I felt bored or wanted to evade a boring admin task. This seemed almost like an addiction. 🫣
It made me aware that reading, although often seen as much more wholesome than binging series, is still consumption and not creation. In this week of not reading I got much more (boring) house chores done and it also sped up my pet project of creating a trend expedition audio guide.
So, the moral of this story is that this month’s newsletter is a bit later than usual because I missed a week of reading and had to catch up to find topics. 😛
Hope you enjoy it anywayssss,
/ Els
Heard elsewhere
❝ Becoming better at asking questions requires you to listen better.❞
Thuli Madonsela, lawyer & human rights activist
Go elsewhere
🌟 trend sources recommendation
🛠️ tool - Objects from the Future - helps to imagine the tangible elements of potential futures. It generates creative prompts that can be used to imagine objects and artefacts from the everyday lives of the people who might be there in the future.
🖼️ expo - RE:FWD: A reply to the present, a forward to us all, brings together hopeful visions of 21 young artists via paintings, soundscapes and installations. Runs until July in Almere, then moves to Amsterdam till end of August.
🧰 method - I followed a short workshop in A.I. at DesignThinkers Academy. Not the A.I. that everybody talks about now, but Appreciative Inquiry! It takes an explorative and positive mindset to organisational change. You can find more info at this portal of AI Commons.
📝 article - ‘Technofossils’: how humanity’s eternal testament will be plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones. Two scientists explain which items from our technological civilisation are most likely to survive for many millions of years as fossils. Love the word ‘technofossils’!
👯 platform - Tired of traditional news stories? Check out Global Voices. It’s an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists. Together, they leverage the power of the internet to tell stories that build understanding across borders.
🏟 live events
🧑🎓 EPIC Learning Week. From May 12-16 the EPIC community of ethnographers hosts all kinds of online sessions with intriguing titles such as The New Truth Factory: When Insights Are Infinite, Who Decides What’s Real? or How to Make Networking Suck Less. 😂
🇵🇹 SoTecIn Factory Startup Day in Porto, Portugal on 19-20 May. showcase breakthrough solutions shaping a circular and low-carbon industry across Food, Water & Nutrients, Textiles, Plastics, and Packaging value chains.
🇨🇦 C2 in Montréal, Canada on May 20-22 brings together creative minds, leaders, and change-makers to spark collaboration and innovation across industries. The topic is Motion: the art of taking action.
💻 CRAFT Policy Summit: Advancing Social Innovation Across Europe on June 11 from 3-5 PM CEST. Join this free online session to connect, learn, and contribute to the social innovation movement in Europe.
Explore more
👀 Activate your senses and train your capability to explore more openly.
See your daily life as a sensory expedition 🗺️ and hone your observation skills.
/ Your prompt from last month » Spot someone go against the flow.
Were you able to observe a challenger of the status quo?? If not, no worries because here’s another month and another opportunity:
🌱 Your prompt » notice one natural element daily. 🌱
You don’t need to wait for your next vacation to connect with nature. Notice a natural element on a daily basis. This can also be done in an urban environment. Maybe it’s a flower, a tree, a puddle of water, a chirping bird or a woorden bench you’ve never noticed. Implement some systematic curiosity by taking note of something natural every day for the coming month.
👾 You have 1 month to complete this assignment: ready player 1?
This activity is inspired by an example from the Ness Labs newsletter.
🎥 video
Liked the art work in the intro? I recently saw work by the American artist Jenny Holzer in a magazine for the first time. And I was captivated! She makes text based art in all kinds of public spaces. Using words to challenge power structures. Her work touches upon topics such as consumerism, feminism and surveillance.
Watch this short intro to her work. 👇
Train more!
Want to get inspired and update your trends and exploration skills in 2025? Join me at the following events:
💻 Researching trends to navigate the future. Together with Service Design College and BIS Publishers I’m launching an online course on trend research. Join me for 4 online sessions running from May 8 - June 5. Introductory price now available!
🇳🇱 Immersive DesignThinkers Bootcamp for Professional Innovators. In this 5-day highly interactive in-person training you will experience the Design Thinking Process. On the first day I will give a masterclass on exploring. Runs from June 23-27 in Amsterdam at DesignThinkers Academy.
/ Interested in in-company trainings or on-the-job trend coaching? More info here
Work Elsewhere
💼 trend related jobs
⚡️ Kickstart your career in trends with the job postings below!
🔍 Even if you’re not looking to switch roles, the vacancy descriptions provide a glimpse into the ways companies work with trends.
// Senior roles
🇫🇷 Strategy & Foresight Consulting Manager at The Salmon Consulting in Puteaux, France.
// Junior/Medior roles
🇺🇸 Trends and Foresight Analyst at Nestlé in Arlington, USA.
🇦🇺 Strategy Analyst at DISNEY in Richmond, Australia
🇩🇪 Trends & Style Specialist at Paul Hewitt in Oldenburg, Germany
🇳🇱 Projectleader innovation GGZ at Reinier van Arkel in Den Bosch, The Netherlands
// Internships / residencies / fellowships
🇪🇸 Foresight, Strategy and Insights Trainee at Arup in Madrid, Spain
🇩🇪 Working student Innovation Management - Trend & Foresight at BSH in Munich, Germany.
/ Let me know when you are trend hiring or spot an interesting trend vacancy. Or when you landed a job because you saw it here.👇
Sticky statement
👁 straight from the streets into your inbox
Took this photo on a busy intersection in Amsterdam so couldn’t get a super good angle without risking my life. 😅 Lingerie brand Hunkemöller going artsy on this wall. For context: this is situated at the entrance of the Amsterdam Forest and it’s the period when a lot people visit the cherry blossom park in bloom.🌸 So this is a very timely and fitting message: nature doesn’t censor, why should we? Wondering what this free the choice is about, didn't they dare to put the word nipple there….?
/ Did you spot an interesting sticky statement and want to share it? 👇
I love the quote:
❝ Becoming better at asking questions requires you to listen better.❞
Thuli Madonsela, lawyer & human rights activist
Loved READing your latest report!