Towards a new sublime? Designers exploring the state of indeterminacy and facing the unpredictable with participatory creativity and through common research-actions.

The contribution proposes the hypothesis that the visions of art- ists are, as has happened in the past, a communicative and per- suasive tool to feed new imaginaries and that the design scenarios of designers can draw inspiration from the more radical visions expressed by artists. Limiting the scope of reference to the anal- ysis of the exhibition events that have investigated the theme of the Anthropocene and its representations in recent years, through this paper we try to respond to a series of open questions: whether the ability to represent the relationship between man and territory depends on the technologies available; whether the ability to rep- resent future scenarios can be separated from non-anthropogenic visualisations; how the designed visions of the future are able to transform into practice and whether they have the communicative power to activate unprecedented relationships between di erent targets and people. The attempt is to verify how the design tools and methodologies, speci cally speculative design, advanced design and scenarios, can help to elevate empathy and public engagement on the great themes of humanity, helping to settle new cultural paradigms in the collective imagination.