"A World Without Caesars"
Imagining a More Mindful Future for Design and Tech
Assistant Design Professor Heather Snyder Quinn will discuss the origins of research in the academy, avenues for dissemination of design research, and how pushing boundaries and challenging norms can pave the way for transformative changes in various sectors, from technology to policy making.
Can design be truly ethical in a world that moves so fast? How do we slow down and invite mindfulness into our decision-making as designers in a culture that values speed? How do we create products, systems, and experiences that have never existed before while considering their societal implications or even re-wild(1) and remove technologies from the world altogether? How can we connect the dots between seemingly disparate ideas to imagine the future? Most importantly, how can we design with care, intent, and civic values—creating a new ethos away from big tech's "move fast and break things" towards move slow and fix things?(2)
Inspired by Bluesky founder Jay Graber's t-shirt that says "A World without Caesars," this talk explores ways we can work to build a design and tech space that decentralizes power and supports open source platforms as we prioritize a mindful approach towards citizen control and the common good over corporate interests. These new pathways for design go beyond traditional approaches, including design for policy-making, speculative design, and design fiction, allowing designers to create narratives that challenge the status quo and play a key role in shaping products, policies, and futures that guide our digital and social landscapes.
1 Project co-created with Jay Margulus
2 Inspired by Lee Zelenak's fictional book cover, "How to Break Broken Things," and conversations with Marty Maxwell Lane and Nate Matteson about slow design
Biography
Heather Snyder Quinn is an Assistant Professor of Design and Civics Fellow at DePaul University and a Visiting Faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was named a 2024 “Researcher to Know” by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and serves on the board of directors for DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. Her work explores the intersection of design fiction, technology, and civic engagement—helping communities imagine possible futures and critically engage with emerging technologies. The World Economic Forum, MIT Press, Yale Law School, The Washington Post, Letterform Archive, Draw Down Books, and Hyperallergic have recognized her work. Heather lives in Chicago with her husband, Joe, and their two daughters.