Corazonar las Memorias : Memories as Seeds of the Future: A Decolonial Approach to Futuring

In this paper, I contribute to the field of design research by exploring the relationship between memories and imaginaries. By “feeling with the head and reasoning with the heart,” I used a sensory ethnographic method to listen to people’s life stories during my fieldwork in Bolivia. During my data analysis, I attempted to corazonar (reasoning from the heart) my research process by creating altars in the form of a ritual, and reconnect with the memories from the fieldwork through sketches and drawings. This paper invites designers to open up to a futuring approach that moves away from abstract or pre-designed images of the future, often colonized by temporalities of progress, and suggests working with future imaginaries that address people’s materialities, involving affections, territorial relations, memories, and their everyday lives. My work offers designers a more embodied multi-temporal futuring approach for cultivating transition imaginaries toward more plural and sustainable futures.