Design Transforms is a lecture series from the Product, Ceramic and Industrial Design programme at Central Saint Martins, where expert practitioners are invited to share their thoughts on the idea of transformation examined through the lens of their work.

Dr Betti Marenko is Reader in Design and Techno-Digital Futures at Central Saint Martins, UAL, where she leads the Hybrid Futures Lab and the Technologies in Question community of practice. She’s also Contextual Studies Leader on BA (Hons) Product and Industrial Design.

Her work brings together philosophy, design, technology and ideas about the future, exploring how uncertainty can open up new ways of living in a world shaped by machines. As such, her new book, The Power of Maybes: Machines, Uncertainty and Design Futures (Bloomsbury, 2025), challenges dystopian fears and utopian hopes about technology, presenting a bold approach to living and thinking alongside machines.

Betti also collaborates internationally with the Institute of Science Tokyo as a core member of STADHI, a transdisciplinary platform for Science/Technology and Art/Design Hybrid Innovation. Her current research reimagines translation, design and transdisciplinarity as forms of planetary diplomacy.

Please note that this event will be documented. Images and videos of the event could be used by Central Saint Martins for marketing and publicity in publications or online.

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Recording available for UAL students and staff.

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See the full Design Transforms 2025–26 series.

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