Alija Blackwell

Alija is the founder of Oneiric Lab, a strategic foresight and multimedia design consultancy. Their creative practice grew from their dreamscapes to shape their work across storytelling, technology, and social justice. As a lucid dreamer and worldbuilder, each night they explore the long-term consequences of our current systems, pathways to preferred futures, and alternative origin stories. Their art is an intuitive healing journey from legacies of displacement due to natural disasters, political upheaval, and historical catastrophes through stream of consciousness doodles, augmented reality, and speculative prototyping. Dreaming has become their ritual to traverse the public imagination, unpack emerging trends, and remember ancestral patterns for intergenerational healing.

Most recently, Alija has listened for signals of how climate migrations will shape the futures of civic engagement and belonging with directly impacted communities. They use speculative design and immersive storytelling to advance more resilient futures through scenario planning. Alija has a background in community environmental planning, data science, and digital media. For their efforts, they have been honored with multiple awards, fellowships, and exhibitions from institutions like the Carnegie Hall, Smithsonian American Art Museum Arcade, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Aspen Institute, 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics, and Natural Resources Defense Council. Their ongoing projects explore transition design, data sovereignty, and solarpunk fiction.