Advertise on podcast: Future Form with Lauren Franco

In this episode of Future Form with Lauren Franco, I speak with designer, creative coder, and educator Gabriel Drozdov about the web and typography as creative mediums, and how digital spaces shape the way we see and imagine the world. Through his studio No Replica and projects including Too Much Type, GD with GD, and Barco Loudly, Gabriel works across web design, typography, code, motion, sound, and performance. We discuss his path from computer science and theater into design, and how these influences have shaped his approach to websites as spaces for interaction, storytelling, and experimentation. Our conversation explores typography as performance, growing up on the early internet, and what becomes possible when designers understand and take ownership of the tools they use. We also talk about Gabriel's commitment to open-source design and education, and making creative knowledge and tools more accessible. Finally, we consider what has been lost as the internet has become increasingly platform-driven, and what a more independent and human internet might look like in the future. Theme song by Yuzeren.

In this episode of Future Form with Lauren Franco, I speak with fashion designer and educator Edgar Aguilera about craft, historical references, fashion education, and what clothing can communicate beyond trends. Through his label, EDGAR*AGLRA, Edgar creates one-of-one garments that merge artisanal menswear, sculptural pattern making, and historical silhouettes with contemporary visual culture. We discuss his fascination with Renaissance painting, uniforms, and architecture, and how these influences become tools for imagining new identities rather than simply recreating the past. Our conversation explores the role of fashion in a culture driven by constant consumption, the relationship between craft and technology, and how Edgar is rethinking what a garment can be and the role it can play in our lives. We also talk about teaching the next generation of designers, finding inspiration beyond fashion, and how creativity can help us reconnect with a sense of wonder in an increasingly overstimulated world. Theme song by Yuzeren.

In this episode of Future Form with Lauren Franco, I speak with artist and environmental engineer Tega Brain about ecology, automation, artificial intelligence, carbon accounting, and the infrastructures shaping contemporary life. Tega's work explores how technologies organize agency, distribute power, and shape our relationship to the environment. Through projects ranging from Solar Protocol, a solar-powered web hosting system, to Slop Evader, a tool for navigating the pre-ChatGPT internet, to Offset, an alternative carbon registry, she uses artistic practice to question the assumptions embedded within technical systems. We also discuss her long-running collaborative practice with artist Sam Lavigne and how humor, participation, and intervention can be used to expose the logics of contemporary technological systems. We discuss engineering and its claims to neutrality, the politics of optimization, AI and climate change, and the growing tendency to frame environmental crises as technological problems. The conversation also explores participation as a form of intervention, and what it means to design systems that work with environmental limits rather than constantly attempting to overcome them. Theme song by Yuzeren.

In this episode of Future Form with Lauren Franco, I speak with architect, researcher, and curator Marina Otero Verzier about the hidden infrastructures shaping our digital world. Marina’s work reveals the material, environmental, and political costs behind technologies we often think of as immaterial, from data centers and cables to mineral extraction, and how these systems reshape landscapes, labor, and ecology. We discuss the myth of “the cloud,” and how its smooth, frictionless experience conceals systems that are, in reality, “noisy, heavy, and polluting,” as well as how labor is redistributed and often made invisible. The conversation expands into questions of extraction and so-called green energy, and reflects on memory, data, and why we store so much, asking what it might mean to rethink these systems more collectively. Theme song by Yuzeren.

In the first episode of Future Form with Lauren Franco, I speak with regenerative ecology sculptor and activist Jordan Weber about art as a tool for environmental justice and collective repair. Weber shares how his work transforms polluted land in historically redlined neighborhoods into spaces for healing and resilience. Focusing his energy in East Detroit currently, he explains how ecological restoration, community design, and scientific research come together to address both environmental harm and toxic stress. The conversation also traces the personal and political roots of his practice, from Ferguson in 2014 to his ongoing commitment to building landscapes that counter violence in the built environment. Together, we reflected on sustainability, power in the art world, and the role imagination plays in creating more just futures. Theme song by Yuzeren.

Curious what Future Form with Lauren Franco is about? Start with the trailer! Theme song by Yuzeren.