Speculative Design Workshop — Artificial Intelligence as a Socially Owned Public Utility: What Would Branko Pešić Do If He Had Access to AI Technologies?
Saturday, June 7
10 AM – 6 PM
Playstudios, Belgrade Palace, 6th Floor
Workshop author and facilitator: Uroš Krčadinac, digital artist, software engineer, author, and academic worker.
Project Partners: Kriva, Center for Digital Curiosity
About the Workshop:
Speculative design means imagining the future through drawings, models, stories, and prototypes. It doesn’t predict what will happen — it asks: what if…?
Instead of solving problems like traditional design, speculative design poses them. It plays with possible worlds, explores the boundaries of science, technology, and society, and invites the public to reflect — not just on what we desire, but on what we should be wary of. It is a philosophical game, an artistic provocation, and an exercise in political imagination.
During this workshop, participants will imagine what Belgrade might look like in the future if artificial intelligence systems were socially owned and democratically governed.
Inspired by the vision of Branko Pešić, the legendary socialist urban planner and mayor of Belgrade, participants will develop creative scenarios in which AI serves the public good — such as algorithmic housing systems that organize construction based on citizens’ needs; self-managed food distribution platforms for local communities; digital assemblies that negotiate urban planning and transportation solutions; municipal chatbots that learn from citizens and become their allies in building a fairer Belgrade; and self-governed newsrooms that co-edit local news with residents to fight disinformation and tabloid culture.
The goal of the workshop is to imagine how Branko Pešić — known for his grand yet humane vision of Belgrade — might have used AI to improve the city in the 21st century. Participants will create speculative interventions in Belgrade that merge technology, art, and social planning.
By combining art, technology, and political imagination, the workshop will encourage us to envision new forms of digital common life.
Who is this workshop for?
If you’re interested in speculative design, socio-technological imagination, art and urbanism, and digital tools as means of collective emancipation — and if you wonder what a human-centered city might look like in the age of algorithms — this workshop is for you.
Ideally, among the participants we’ll have designers and programmers, philosophers and practitioners, artists and political scientists, architects and builders, poets and workers.
