Call for Papers – Special Issue

Call for Papers under Special Issue on: “Gen-AI enabled Design Futures: next-gen education by/for automated foresight and strategic design”

Guest Editors:

Sanmitra Chitte (Dean, School of Business, World University of Design, IIM Kashipur, India)

Email: sanmitrachitte@gmail.com

Prof. Marco Bevolo Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; World University of Design, India)

Email: marco.bevolo@gmail.com

Dennis Draeger (MTech, Research Director, Shaping Tomorrow, UK / NZ)

Email: dddraeger@gmail.com

Prof. Anirban Chowdhury (Alliance School of Design and Creative Art, Alliance University, India)

Email: chowdhuryanirban14@gmail.com

Selected sub-themes:

– Design Futures and education

– Automated Foresight and education

– Strategic Design and education, in the future

Both themes and subthemes might be addressed from a global or regional perspective, with a key interest in the Indian viewpoints

Design Futures and Gen-AI: Next Unexpected Futures

Abstract:

Gen AI is a trending topic of major interest; however, most publications present it given its standard applications replacing human labor. The IJDAS Guest Editors propose this IJDAS Summer 2025 Special Issue to explore the convergence of Design, Foresight, and Gen-AI in any strategy, innovation, or creative industry-related fields.

Namely, Gen AI procedures already are and will increasingly be part of articulated, interdependent, and ultimately necessary future-forming processes, where human operators are to remain mission-critical. Humans will be key to Design Futures processes by contributing with their fundamental  “Trained Judgement”. Design Futures multidisciplinary specialists will manage automated output towards consolidating a hybrid outcome, which will be informed by LLM insights and images to be clustered, rationalized, and conceptualized by humans.

Within these Design Futures prospect processes, the editors advocate for the adoption of Gen AI hallucinations as a “hypercreative” opportunity, or the opportunity to adopt viewpoints that would normally be excluded from the creative development. Such an approach to hypercreativity will be elevated within Design Futures, as a seedbed where creative exceptions and anomalies might be integrated by Strategic Design and Foresight tools.

The primary objectives of this Special Issue are:

  1. Introduce Design Futures by selected elements of Strategic Design and Foresight
  2. Introduce Gen AI as based on earlier bibliography or business practice
  3. Introduce the notion of “hypercreativity” within notions of the creative process
  4. Introduce actionable processes to manage Gen AI within Design Futures
  5. Provide directions for future research in this multidisciplinary domain

Readers will primarily gain the following takeaways:

  1. Acquire a basic understanding of Design Futures and of Gen-AI, combined
  2. Acquire a specific understanding of the notion of “hypercreativity” in Creativity
  3. Acquire inspirational insights into the next steps in this multidisciplinary domain

In conclusion, readers might benefit from this Special Issue at different levels:

  • Informational, where relevant insights about Gen AI will be shared;
  • Instructional, where insights are made actionable within a given context;
  • Educational, where knowledge might be shared in the classroom.

References

Andrews, A. and Bevolo, M. (2004), Understanding Digital Futures. Design Management Review, 15: 50-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1948-7169.2004.tb00150.x

Bevolo, M. (2021). “Design Futures and Education for Life Essentials”. Academia Letters. https://doi.org/10.20935%2Fal3935

Bevolo, M. (2023). Design Futures in a Wider Context: Historical Reflections, Potential Directions, and Challenges Ahead. International Journal of Design and Allied Sciences (IJDAS), 2(2), 27–41. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10447306

Bevolo, M. (2023). Roots of Design Futures in art, architecture, and design, in: International Design of Arts Architecture & Design, Vol. 1 Issue 1, pp. 49-57 (ISSN: 2584 0282)

Bevolo, M. and Blaise, J.O. (2022), “Towards mobilizing educators as environmental ambassadors: a design research approach to inspire teachers to advocate sustainable futures”, On the Horizon, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 82-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-06-2021-0071

Bevolo, M., & Amati, F. (2020). The Potential Role of AI in Anticipating Futures from a Design Process Perspective: From the Reflexive Description of “Design” to a Discussion of Influences by the Inclusion of AI in the Futures Research Process. World Futures Review, 12(2), 198-218. https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756719897402

Bevolo, M., Draeger, D. (2024). The future of lighting design: a dialog with AI beyond lighting design. arc – lighting in architecture. Issue 41. 51-55. London

Dannemand Andersen, P., Bevolo, M., Ilevbare, I., Malliaraki, E., Popper, R. and Spaniol, M.J., Technology Foresight for Public Funding of Innovation: Methods and Best Practices, Vesnic Alujevic, L., Farinha, J. and Polvora, A. editor(s), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/759692, JRC134544.

Draeger, D., Bevolo, M. (2025). Automating Liminality in Foresight Practice. Journal of Future Studies. INPRESS Preview. https://jfsdigital.org/automating-liminality-in-foresight-practice/

All the potential authors are cordially invited to contribute articles for this special issue as per the following timelines –


· Submission of Abstract: March 15, 2025 


· Submission of Full Article: April 15, 2025 


· Results of Peer Review and Tentative Acceptance: June 15, 2025


· Publication of Accepted Article: By June 30, 2025

N.B., don’t forget to mention that your submission is subject to a special issue in the submission form.

Abstracts must be sent to the editors’ email id.

Full Article submission link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGXH6NZzrPMnN78BxMzSWI5b1kwrL0fOWs5DxSJ-CMv_Rrxw/viewform