My work always touches on technology and digital solutions but these are never the core of the solution. I look at technology as an enabler and an amazing tool that I understand and know how to use. But it’s very important in my work to not put technology on a pedestal. In the domains where I’m active there is a constant and in my opinion unhealthy flirtation with so called Smart City solutions, the metaverse, data and AI. In most cases these technologies represent a fancy and expensive solution waiting for a problem. In the worst case they attempt to replace, instead of enhance, the power of community, human connectedness, emotion, experience, creativity and hope.
I think what sets me apart from other consultants, designers and innovators in the field is that I don’t focus on the technology but on the interactions and emotions that technology enables; I don’t focus on the objects but on how those objects can become props in meaningful journeys; I don’t focus on the infrastructure but on the human drivers and barriers that may make that infrastructure relevant or obsolete; I don’t focus on the data but on the stories and lives of real people behind that data.