Jessica is a speculative designer with experience working for both public and private sector organisations to explore the future implications of their field. She explores ways of using design to unravel and provoke rich interactions between people, technology, products and services. Since graduating from the Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art, she has run her own practice conducting speculative design projects, often collaborating with scientists, futurists, designers and academics including think tanks Foresight (UK) and the Institute for the Future (US). With this interdisciplinary approach she explores alternative futures that new technologies and science may hold. Jessica has exhibited at the MAKVienna, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Ace Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
Jessica is currently exhibiting The MeMo Organization Cabinet installation at the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago until July as part of the Morbid curisoty : The Ricahd Harris Collection. The installation consists of a cabinet of curious objects and stories that explores a range of poetic practices and attitudes towards death and mourning in relation to developments in science, philosophy and technology. MeMo is a research-based initiative that recognizes the way cultural shifts have created new relations toward death and experiences. Such change opens the door to more personal, relevant and contemporary experiences of death.
In July 2011, in collaboration with Tim Parsons they installed Adhocism for the We Are Here residency series at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, an installation exploring the intersection between the design process, performance and reappropriation.
In 2010, Jessica collaborated with designer Marei Wollersberger to generate a range of alternative future scenarios entitled Citizen Evolution. Focusing on the implications for the city of Vienna if its key systems were to be shut down, they imagined how citizens might survive and adapt using open source biotechnologies. Citizen Evolution was exhibited at the Museum of Applied and Contemporary Art (MAK) in Vienna in June 2010. Subsequently, the exhibit was acquired into MAKVienna’s permanent collection
Other consulting work includes ‘The Future of Persuasion Conference’ by the Institute for the Future in San Francisco, the ‘Tackling Obesities’ project for Foresight UK government thintank , Appleyards Uncertainty Management Unit, FutureLab Education think tank and the Institute for Advanced Studies research unit in Lancaster University.
Jessica has run workshops and tutoring sessions at the Art Center in Pasadena, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Glasgow School of Art, the Royal College of Art, Lancaster University and the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest.
Jessica has previously conducted and taken part in numerous projects whilst working for leading design research and service design consultancies including SeymourPowellForesight, Sense Worldwide and Engine Service Design. Clients have included Habbo, Nokia, Design Council, Vodafone and T-Mobile.
Education
Royal College of Art
MA Design Interactions
10/2005 – 07/2007, London, UK.
Dissertation: “The Future of Knowing Our Future Self”
Manchester Metropolitan University
MA Industrial Design
09/2002 – 09/2003, Manchester
Dissertation: “Design & Social Interaction”
Manchester Metropolitan University
Three Dimensional Design, First Class
09/1999 – 06/2002, Manchester
Dissertation: “Eliciting Response”
Winchester Art School,
Art Foundation Course, Distinction
09/2001 – 06/2004 , Winchester, UK.
Employment
Freelance Designer, Researcher & Writer
London, July 2007 -
Engine Service Design, Service Designer
London, Feb- July 2010
Sense Worldwide, Designer, Researcher & Strategist
London, Feb 2008 – Feb 2010
SeymourPowell, Design Researcher
London, July 2007 – Feb 2008
Foresight Government Office of Science, Design Intern
Tackling Obesities Horizon Scanning for 2050
London, Jul – Sept 2006
Liverpool Hope University, Foundation Art & Design Course, Critical Studies Lecturer
Liverpool, Sept 2004 – June 2005
Lectures & Conferences
*Visiting Speaker, Media Design Program, Art Center, Pasadena, 9 December 2011
*Visiting Speaker, Realms of Speculation, University of Michigan, 28 October 2011
*Presenter, Pecha Kucha Chicago, 6 September 2011
*Visiting Speaker, ‘Experimental Design Research’, MFA Designed Objects, SAIC, Chicago, 2010
*Conference Speaker, ‘Personal Futures’, Future of Persuasion Conference, IFTF, 2010
*Speaker, ‘Crowdsourcing the Future’, AlterFutures , London, 24 July 2009
*Speaker, ‘Future of Self Knowledge’, Adaptive Path, San Francisco, 2009
*Speaker, ‘Future of Self Knowledge’, Institute For The Future, Sept 2009
*Visiting Lecturer, ‘Post RCA’, Design Interactions, Royal College of Art, 2009
*Visiting Speaker, ‘Tackling Obesities’, Futurelab: Innovation in Education, 2008
*Visiting Lecturer, ‘Superfictions’, BA Fine Art, Lancaster University, 2008
*Visiting Speaker, New Sciences of Protection Research Programme, Lancaster University, 2008
Workshops & Tutoring
*Guest Critic, Media Design Program, Art Center, Pasadena, 9 December 2011
*Guest Critic, BFA Designed Objects, SAIC, Chicago, November 2011
*Guest Critic, BFA Designed Objects, SAIC, Chicago, May 2011
*Visiting Tutor/Coordinator, The Cloud & The Protagonist, BA Product Design, Glasgow School of Art, 2010
*Coordinator, Local Intelligence Budaors project, Moholy Nagy School of Art and Design, Budapest, 2010
*Visiting Tutor, Tribal Futures/Vodafone Project, MA Design Interactions, Royal College of Art, 2009
*Visiting Tutor, BA Fine Art, Lancaster University, 2008
*Participant, Active Welfare Service Design Workshop, Torino, World Design Capital, 2008
Exhibitions
2011
Adhocism: We Are Here
July 19th - 24th 2011
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2010
Future of Persuasion Conference
May 2010
Institute for The Future
Quadrus Center, Menlo Park, CA
Citizen Evolution: Project Vienna
June 28th – September 12th, 2010
MAKVienna, Austria
2008
The Delphi Party: EPIC Artifacts Exhibition
April 2008
Copenhagen, Denmark
2007
The FATE Institute: Great Exhibition RCA Graduate Show
June 2007
Royal College of Art + Hyde Park, London
2006
Design Interactions Work-in-Progress show
January 2006
Royal College of Art, London
2005
Wearables as Relationship Tools: Wearable Futures Conference
September 2005
University of Wales
2002
New Designers
Islington Business Design Centre, London
Collaborations & Residencies
Co-Founder ‘AlterFutures’
Design collective and monthly meet-up for Design Futurists
2009 – ongoing
Local Intelligence Budaors Project
Service Design/Social Innovation Collaboration with Bas Kools
2008 – ongoing
Three month residency at Blaker Design School,
Norway, 2001
Expedition to Zimbabwe & residency at an orphanage
1996
Writing
Klat Magazine
Contributor
December 2010 – present
http://www.klatmagazine.com/charlesworth/
Core77
Contributor
September 2010 – January 2011
core77.com
Tribal Futures: Vodafone Project
Design Interactions
Royal College of Art
November 2008 – January 2009
http://beta.interaction.rca.ac.uk/futuretribes/
New Sciences of Protection : Designing Safe Living Research Programme
Lancaster University
October 2008 – July 2009
http://www.safeliving.wordpress.com
Publications
*Project Vienna: How to React to a City, Exhibition Catalogue, German/English MAK Vienna / freytag & berndt, Wien, 2010
*Co-ordinated the publication of the Design Interactions yearbook, Royal College of Art, 2007
*Published article in AI & Society Springer Journal entitled Wearables as “relationship tools”, 2005
*Researcher/Writer, Co-Creation White Paper, Sense Worldwide, 201
Awards
Winner of ‘Project Vienna – A Design Strategy’
MAKVienna & departure Design Competition, 2010
Nominated Science & Technology Civil Service Awards,
Tackling Obesities
UK Civil Service, 2007
Shortlisted ‘Design For Our Futureselves’
RCA Helen Hamlyn Award, 2007
Key Skills
Design Research:
Creating experimental research approaches, designing future forecasting methodologies,
film ethnography, co-ordinating online networks, workshops, cultural probes, visual prototyping,
experimental ethno-fiction methodologies, synthesis, analysis, scenario building.
Technical:
Excellent design & prototyping skills.
Excellent knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Microsoft Office
Proficiency in HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver, After Effects, iMovie, FinalCutPro, 3dstudio max
Proficiency in photography, film making, sketching, storytelling and scenario creation.
Basic electronic prototyping and programming skills.
Interests
Futurology, genealogy, design, science, psychology, culture and the human being.
