About Thing Lab
Thing Lab is your brain’s favorite playground.
Through energizing sessions, collaborative workshops, and fast-paced prototyping lab, we turn ambiguity into momentum, and transform uncertainty into fresh possibilities.
Our sessions are both practical and transformative: we extract insights, clarify next steps, and leave participants with the tools, energy, and confidence to move forward. Just as importantly, we strengthen the relationships between people to imagine worlds, strategies, and systems that can only emerge from your shared process.
Thing Lab is for people creating things for the future. We empower individuals and teams to become architects of what’s next, not victims of it. We pursue creative connections in an active, playful way, building spaces where experimental thinking thrives.
We envision a future where:
Imagination is a capability, not a luxury
AI is a tool for empowerment, not replacement
Experimental thinking is accessible beyond the walls of elite institutions
Thing Lab was founded in 2025 by Shar Simpson
Shar Simpson is an educator and experience designer who works at the intersection of storytelling, technology, and play. Shar is dedicated to transparent, non-jargon research into artificial intelligence and its role in education, storytelling, and collective imagination.
Shar teaches interactive storytelling and worldbuilding at Columbia University’s School of the Arts’ Digital Storytelling Lab and interactive writing at the Narrative Design Department at the School of Visual Arts. They have also led workshops at institutions including the Yale Drama School, Meow Wolf, and The Shed, introducing participants of all ages to creative frameworks that blend design, improvisation, and emerging technology.
At Thing Lab, Shar continues to build spaces where teams and communities can imagine futures, prototype ideas, and play with the unknown, and turn ambiguity into momentum and collective vision.