Writer Bruce Sterling and computer scientist Dan Reed will offer their takes on what lies ahead for technology, culture, and more during a special event that kicks off a yearlong look into possible futures.

“Imagining and Being Imagined by Technologies: A Conversation with Two Futurists” will be held Monday, Sept. 16, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at The Englert Theatre in downtown Iowa City. It’s free and open to the public.

The exchange opens Designing the Future, a series sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Iowa. Additional events during 2013-14 will feature speakers from the arts, humanities, social sciences, technology, and other fields.

The series aims to expand the conversation about where we may be headed and how we might shape our future.

“In part, we’d like to re-envision STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—as STEAM, adding perspectives from the arts and humanities,” says Teresa Mangum, Obermann Center director.

“Taking the broad view will help us understand the forces driving change and the opportunities to design the future through imaginative forms of education, collaboration, intervention, and invention.”

Sterling and Reed will begin the conversation with a wide-ranging exchange informed by technology, art, and other cultural currents.

An artist, writer, theorist, and technologist, Sterling helped launch the cyberpunk genre in the early 1990s. His most recent novel, Love is Strange: A Paranormal Romance, concerns “futurists in love,” and his Wired magazine blog takes a tech-infused look at tomorrow.

As part of his Iowa City visit, Sterling also will present a reading a Prairie Lights Books, Tuesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m.

Reed, UI vice president for research and economic development, previously led scalable and multicore computing programs, global technology policy, and extreme computing initiatives for Microsoft. He’s also served as a science policy leader on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, and the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee.

Other Designing the Future events will include:

• Sara Guyer from the University of Wisconsin and Matthew Countryman from the University of Michigan on “Designing the Future for Publicly Engaged Research and Teaching in the Humanities” in March
• An April 4-5 Health Humanities Working Symposium organized by Andrea Charise, an Obermann Center Fellow-in-Residence
• An April 28 visit from Christopher Newfield from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a prominent voice on higher education funding and policy

Many of these events are supported by the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the Digital Studio for Public Arts and Humanities, and the Public Policy Center.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to attend this event, contact Jennifer New in advance at 319-335-4034 or at jennifer-new@uiowa.edu.

For additional information about the Obermann Center, including info on future programs in this series and others, visit obermann.uiowa.edu.