Monika Bielskyte 'Challenging the binaries of dystopia vs utopia and society vs technology'

Series Four 

This episode of The New Abnormal podcast features the renowned futurist and speculative designer, Monika Bielskyte. 

She's also the founder of Protopia Futures, a life-centric design and collaborative foresight platform that centres previously marginalised perspectives. The project's mission is to inspire a new wave of future visions showcasing how a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach, alongside disability and neurodivergence inclusion, can foster regenerative economies for the decades to come and chart an actionable path towards a positively interdependent and compassionate future world.

Her work is firmly anchored in contextual, complex realities on the ground, rather than one-size-fits-all techno-solutionism, prone to short-term hype cycles and rapid obsolescence. As a speculative designer, Monika prototypes culturally expansive, socially and environmentally engaged future world designs that take lessons from visually and narratively captivating Science Fiction entertainment and apply them to make real-world future literacy more compelling. 

She's a deeply interesting individual, so I found it fascinating listening to her viewpoints and hope you do too!