The joy of an RCA show
The joy of an RCA show may also be its curse: the quantity, diversity and depth of the work is impressive, but it can be overwhelming. In visiting countless shows over the years, I've refined my approach. Rather than trying to create an encyclopaedic understanding of every piece of work, I prefer to take a stroll through the exhibition space, letting it all wash over me and allowing things to catch my eye or attention. In this digital version, I've tried to do the same. There's no thematic strand connecting these projects, but each one stood out to me, piqued my interest or impressed me with it's thinking. Congratulations to the RCA and the students, this is an incredible body of work.
Nick Foster
Nick Foster is a designer, creative leader and futurist based in California. He works primarily in the emerging field of Futures Design, combining industrial, interaction and speculative design practices with strategy, communication and visualization techniques for some of the world’s leading organizations. He is currently the Head of Design at X (formerly known as Google X), where he leads a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and designers in developing world-changing, technology driven projects. Nick is also a founding partner at the Near Future Laboratory, working in the pioneering field of Design Fiction. These roles both focus on creating detailed depictions of the future to aid in present day reflection and decision making.
Nick was born in Derby, a British city most notable as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and home of the jet engine. As a young man he was twice named the ‘Young Engineer for Britain’ by the British Engineering Council, in 2001 he received his Masters from the Royal College of Art and in 2018 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He moved from the UK to California in 2012 where he lives with his wife, Jayne.
