Dan Lockton
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danlockton.com
Dan Lockton
@danlockton.com
2.1K followers 6.1K following 4.7K posts
Utrecht, Netherlands + Norwich, UK

Director of the new Institute for Sustainable Worlds, Norwich University of the Arts ⦿ Design—imagination—climate—futures ⦿ Imaginaries Lab http://imaginari.es ⦿ New Metaphors http://newmetaphors.com ⦿ he/him
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danlockton.com
Mar 23, 2021 tweet by court (@timshel_11) modified to read "I keep thinking about that post that's like personas is 90% just making up a guy and then basing decisions off our made-up stories about them because it's so real"
November 9, 2025 at 8:16 AM
danlockton.com
Join us online on Wed 22 Oct for 'Creative Futures in Education'. We have three amazing speakers: educator-researchers engaging with #futures:

↠ Grace Turtle (Monstrous Futurities, Sandberg Inst)
↠ Christian Petersen (Norwich University of the Arts)
↠ shobhan s (Purdue University & slowstudio)
A banner for the event with the same details as the post, plus photos of the speakers and their / their students' work
October 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
danlockton.com
A very niche post for the #petrocultures historians of East Anglia, but I thought it was interesting to see “carless” as an intentional typo on the Hiscox advert, as I headed on the train towards Harwich,where for 60 years the Carless name hasn’t been a typo at all
The interior of a Greater Anglia class 745 train with the destination “Next station: Manningtree” on the display. An advert for Hiscox insurance intentionally includes the typo “carless” instead of “careless” A photo of a Leyland Marathon fuel tanker in the livery of Carless plc (with Anglo Petroleum logo on the back) approaching the Carless Refinery at Harwich
October 8, 2025 at 7:12 PM
danlockton.com
Not convinced that this is really a safe crossing design. At this moment cars from the right have a green light, but because the wait is so long, and the cars on the left are visibly stopped by a red light, pedestrians decide it's probably? safe to cross. Just terrible design.
A large group of pedestrians and someone on a bike crossing the road when the "red man" figure is showing. Norwich.
October 6, 2025 at 8:33 AM
danlockton.com
boss: you get that new john cage record for me?
me: sure did boss, just like you asked
a blank (ungrooved) side of a record on a turntable
September 28, 2025 at 9:20 AM
danlockton.com
If you're in #Utrecht, come along on Friday 26 September for the launch of the Library for Transformative Play @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social

More info / register: unusualcollaborations.ewuu.nl/agenda/playi...

26/09/25, 12:00–14:00
The Playground, Vening Meinesz C Building
Utrecht University
Join us for an open jam with the newly launched… Library for Transformative Play 26th September 2025, 12:00–14:00 The Playground — Vening Meinesz C Building Utrecht University —Open to all, with free food and drinks —Chance to take home a Roles and Relics game! Come play with materials and methods designed to help you… Surface worldviews Facilitate collective imagination Stay with the trouble Unmake systems Embrace ambiguity … in settings ranging from classrooms to societal dialogues. The library is the result of a four-year project funded by the Centre for Unusual Collaborations: Playing with the Trouble,with Raimon Ripoll Bosch, Jet Vervoort, Maikel Waardenburg, Dan Lockton, Josie Chambers, Jessica Duncan, Joost Vervoort, Joyce Browne, and Danvy Vu. Contact: j.m.chambers@uu.nl
September 21, 2025 at 8:30 PM
danlockton.com
Newsletter for September 2025: Troubling Transitions, Transformative Play, and Between Worlds: imaginari.es/troubling-tr...
The open door of the studio in Utrecht, with the logos of the Imaginaries Lab and Norwich University of the Arts - Institute for Sustainable Worlds
September 21, 2025 at 8:18 PM
danlockton.com
Nearside pedestrian signal lights *only* on the right, as pedestrians face the crossing (introduced with puffin crossings in the 90s), presumably intended to cause pedestrians to turn to face "oncoming traffic" is dangerous here: there's also traffic coming around the corner from the left (4/n)
Another angle of the same crossing, showing that to pedestrians' left, there is no red/green figure signal on the box on the pole
September 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
danlockton.com
Been thinking (again) a bit about how different assumptions and priorities in systems become encoded in the design of everyday experiences, as I travel between the Netherlands and UK so often.

This puffin crossing outside #Norwich railway station provides an example every time I use it: (1/n)
A pedestrian crossing outside Norwich station. In the photo cars are on the crossing and the lights for pedestrians are red.
September 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
danlockton.com
Interesting days at the @tyndallcentre.bsky.social's Our Critical Decade for Climate Action conference tyndall.ac.uk/events/criti... including exhibiting—at the Sainsbury Centre!—a tiny glimpse of Sunsets & Sunrises, people's visions of futures lost & found imaginari.es/wp-content/u...
The Sunsets and Sunrises exhibit and poster, and an unrelated poster, on display in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. A group of people are talking to each other. One of them is looking at a set of illuminated discs.
September 9, 2025 at 11:54 AM
danlockton.com
What are the “growing pains” of designing for sustainability and transitions?

Our "Troubling Transitions" track for Design Research Society #DRS2026 in Edinburgh (8-12 June 2026) is open and we'd really welcome your perspectives drs2026.thedrs.org/10-2-troubli...

Abstracts: 31/10; papers: 14/11
A coot on a floating platform made from grass and reeds in the middle of a canal in Utrecht
September 8, 2025 at 1:07 PM
danlockton.com
The amazing @jochamb.bsky.social and I got married last week! Thanks to all our family and friends for making it such a special day for us ❤️
Two people walking in a garden, very much in love Two people being showered with confetti, very much in love Two people getting marries, very much in love
July 14, 2025 at 7:41 AM
danlockton.com
I can't believe that "Emperor's New Vibes" has only this one Tumblr using the phrase. That's a bestselling book title right there!
Screenshot of a Google search for the phrase "emperor's new vibes" showing one result, a tumblr https://danisaywhat1.tumblr.com/
June 28, 2025 at 7:31 AM
danlockton.com
I've long thought that confusion between power (W) and energy (kWh) in popular media feeds a general misunderstanding. We've all heard "kilowatts per hour" and things like that. Most everyday units don't work in that way (rate being the base unit, and then multiplying by time).
A visualisation of "Real time energy use" phrased in terms of 323 kWh per hour
June 24, 2025 at 5:06 AM
danlockton.com
When was the last time you saw the (beautiful, in retrospect) photocopier paper jam icon? I feel like it passed without our noticing.

If @unicode.org included this, it would be such a useful metaphor for so many things.
The cover of Whale's "Hobo humpin slobo babe" (1993) with a white paper jam icon (a zig-zag adjoining an 8 shape symbolising rollers) on a red and black indistinct background. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo_Humpin%27_Slobo_Babe
June 15, 2025 at 8:07 AM
danlockton.com
What matters to those who live in these futures, human or otherwise? What can we learn from how we imagine these futures, that might give us insight into our current contexts?
A close-up of part of the model: a house-boat Two people building their model A close-up of part of the model: a house on stilts, with a group of people in the background A close-up of part of the model: a Cetacean Communication Device
June 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
danlockton.com
In our workshop, we built speculative future North Sea land/waterscapes, and explored what moments of everyday life might be like through stories. We had Wetropolis with buildings on stilts, new seashore hermits' cabins, giant saline frogs, and a salt-based community travelling using Zorb balls.
A close-up of part of the model. A fence reads: "Warning: Saline Frogs" A close-up of part of the model. In the background a sign reads "Shape our World" A close-up of part of the model showing elevated walkways between structures A group of people building their model
June 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
danlockton.com
This has been an excellent programme of speakers & workshops bringing together artists, curators, designers, scientists, activists, researchers, policymakers, & community leaders to explore how art and culture can shape global climate action. Tomorrow we're visiting Gt Yarmouth with Originalprojects
A top-down view of a group of people building a model landscape/waterscape People building their model A group of people telling a story about their model. A close-up of part of the model. Large water-tower-like structures and elevated walkways are in the foreground
June 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
danlockton.com
Thanks to everyone who took part today in New Waterscapes: Tales from Imagined Coastal Futures, a workshop as part of the Sainsbury Centre & Norwich University of the Arts' symposium 'Shared Seas: Coastal Encounters' organised by Candice Allison & John Kenneth Paranada.
Slide with the text "New Waterscapes: Tales from Imagined Coastal Futures" and the logos of the Institute for Sustainable Worlds and Norwich University of the Arts. The background shows a seagull flying over a stretch of water with dock cranes visible in the distance. A group of people are talking about / demonstrating part of a model landscape/waterscape made from colourful card pieces. A close-up of some of the model, with structures held up on stilts A group of people talking and smiling with part of the model landscape/waterscape in the foreground
June 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
danlockton.com
I found the exit, everyone!
View through a window of a ramp leading up to Stena Britannica (out of view) at Harwich, Essex. In the evening sky there is a reflection of a square white light and a green emergency exit sign
May 28, 2025 at 8:42 PM
danlockton.com
Thanks, that makes sense! (I think)
The kombucha girl meme with the captions "I really can't recommend it...", "highly enough...", and "actually to choose it"
May 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
danlockton.com
Still, for the one on the station building it’s forever 7.55
An old analogue clock with Roman numerals on the red brick tower of Harwich International railway station building, showing the time 7.55
April 15, 2025 at 5:54 AM
danlockton.com
Something charming but also a bit sad about how no-one’s remembered to put the platform clock at Harwich International forward for BST.

I mean I can understand it being too much hassle to do it on a VCR, but maybe for an ‘international’ railway station it might be worth doing?
A photo of platform 1 at Harwich International railway station (HPQ) including a 1980s British Rail era digital clock, showing the time 05.43 11s
April 15, 2025 at 5:51 AM
danlockton.com
Some examples to re-live the memories 😅🐔
A BWOC (Bob Wayne's Oil Company) sign, 1987, Hewish near Weston-Super-Mare A BWOC (Bob Wayne's Oil Company) sign, late 1990s, near South Molton, Devon A BWOC (Bob Wayne's Oil Company) sign, c2010, near Weymouth A BWOC (Bob Wayne's Oil Company) sign, 1990s, Bampton, N Devon
April 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
danlockton.com
What should an 'Institute for Sustainable Worlds' do?

I wrote some initial thoughts about what we're trying at Norwich University of the Arts: architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2025/03/26/c...
A view towards Agricultural Hall Plain, Norwich, from the top floor of 20 Bank Plain. It is a misty morning with the sun visible through the mist. Cars are queuing to cross a junction with a Boer War memorial of a bronze angel on it.
March 27, 2025 at 8:21 AM