Design Fiction

In this paper we describe a process called Diegetic Innovation Templating (DiT) whereby science fiction and fantasy stories are used as a systematic source of ideas for design and product innovation. We also introduce a concept called the Diegetic Gap which acts a metric for assessing how compatible a particular piece of fiction is to a given innovation space. We illustrate the Diegetic Innovation Templating process using an example from a fashion house that specializes in creating leading-edge designs for women's clothing.

This review of the evidence about influences which science fiction may have on technology and innovation touches on a series of questions: does imagining technologies and societies in which they are used make innovation more or less likely? Easier or harder? Does it increase or decrease the chance it will take particular forms or that specific ideas will be realised in practice? Can it help forestall undesirable innovations? The later part of the paper concentrates on how the answers to these questions can be put to practical use. It builds on two observations. One is that, over time, our technological societies have become more conscious (and self-conscious) about the way we tell stories about technology yet to come. The second is that there are already scattered efforts to make more direct use of story-telling as an aid to thinking about new technological possibilities, or even direct inputs into development. This goes beyond conventional science fictional media - in print and on screen - and includes a range of ideas conveniently gathered under the heading of “design fiction”. The typical result of such efforts is a proposition, or a provocation, sometimes in the form of a designed object, sometimes not. Invariably, it is an invitation to ask, if the world contained things like this, how might life be like? That is a science fictional question, but there may be new ways of asking it which can usefully be taken further.

In response to the recent European Directive the UK government sanctioned the use of drones by commercial providers subject to pilots holding an approved Drone Pilot Proficiency Certificate (DPPC). As the government anticipated the main use has been in providing services to local authorities that aid in the enforcement of local by-laws. Whilst many commercial providers have followed the traditional path of employing dedicated enforcement officers to pilot the drones, in this paper we present on-going research that ‘gamifies’ the enforcment activities to allow members of the local community to act as enforcement officers. In particular we have worked with retired members of the police and armed services as drone pilots in relation to the enforcement of by-laws relating to parking offences and dog fouling in a small UK city. The initial results indicate that not only does this age group find the game-like activity enjoyable they feel that they are providing an important service to their community.

The current challenge in both design and foresight practices is to participate in the creation of open systems by challenging assumptions (Miller et al., 2013; Dunne, 2001) to allow people to better react to change and/or to initiate change. Feared and provoked at the same time, change is the motor of innovation processes. While change raises the feeling of uncertainty, it is this uncertainty with which both disciplines of Foresight and Design juggle when building future discourses. While it has been recognized that trends may limit and constrain the creation of the future (Miller, 2006; Colombi &Simonelli 2005) this paper will examine the potential of reframing tools as a way to produce resilient systems. Overlapping Prospective and Design activity has led to an array of derivative design disciplines such as Design Fiction (Bleecker, 2009), Critical and Speculative Design (Dunne & Raby, 1999) or Experiential Design (Candy, 2010). By converging advised methods and tools of Future studies with “Design's” experiential approach, Evans (2007) intended to free Designers from “mechanical solution or formatic reference”. This paper proposes to expand the correlation between the selected fields of anticipation and design by analyzing the reframing activities experienced within the Experiential Futures and Futures Literacy Knowledge Laboratories (Miller, 2011) participatory workshops. Both practices are discussed to set the foundations of an advanced design capable of embracing not material but social transformations (Zamenopoulos & Alexiou, 2007) to trigger adaptive systems for continuous innovation.

Based on the actor-network theory and post-anthropocentric design, Fixtions proposes an experimental methodological framework for transmedia collaborative fiction. Focusing more on the narrative than on the product design, it takes advantage of the narrative capacities to produce an imaginary universe that enables exploration of the design of speculative prototypes and their assemblages. The process is carried out using different expression languages, resulting in a transmedia narrative produced collectively.

Design fiction is a critical design approach which speculates on possible futures and forms technology-based visions on how future life might be and explains fictional worlds through the designed artefacts. Design fiction opens a free space to question current assumptions, operations, and systems. Design fiction is also used to create alternative worlds by moving away from various constraints, business expectations in particular, and to provide a convenient atmosphere for students to be able to think in a conceptual context, to develop new discourse, and to question their relation with reality. The present article argues that design fiction can be used as an instrument to question the position of design education in providing a labour force to the sector, and to move out of the structure of the design fiction that focuses on now and today. In this scope, the design fiction projects produced in the course of a Visual Communication Design Project will be examined, the methods used and the stages followed will be explained, and opinions will be presented on the possible angles of outcomes for students in design education.

The book is a work in exploration and discovery by reconfiguring the history and philosophy of knowledge through the lens of artscience. Science fiction, games, philosophy of physics, natural history, decolonial history of knowledge, performance arts, media archaeology, and the history of technology all come together through a concatenation of ideas welded with stories and philosophical arguments that poke into obscure cracks to find brilliance in the unexpected, regardless of the situation of the objects and the ideas attached to the objects. This book represents a collection of essays held together by a theorization of artscience practices within, around, and beyond identifiable disciplines. A preview chapter is included.

For online purchases:

If you are in Malaysia, you could buy the book at https://shopee.com.my/Artscience-A-Curious-Education-Gerakbudaya-Essentials-i.224888210.7284675010

If you are in Malaysia and outside, you can buy the book at https://www.gerakbudaya.com/Artscience-A-Curious-Education?search=artscience&description=true

Otherwise, you can also find the book at bookshops such as Popular, MPH, Kinokuniya, Lit Books and Silverfish.

Researchers within the field of Critical Design (CD) have argued for its adaptation as a mode of design practice and not just design research. However, the ambiguity of CD in practice is an unestablished conundrum that seeks to be excavated. Through studying research frameworks that focus on futures thinking that aligns with CD’s speculative and provocative nature, the paper considers such frameworks analytically to arrive at an optimised guided workflow. It hopes to be an easy reference for future researchers interested in the idea of Participatory Imagining that resides within CD; allowing them to have a better ground at approaching the field as a practice. Means of primary research were conducted in the form of interviews from CD scholars and practitioners in order to seek for a nuanced, balanced view on the issue and the necessity of such an intervention. From the research gathered, it is recognised that while such clarity is needed, such structures should not be relayed as strict adhesions; and instead be seen as malleable guides for further considerations for the designer to build his own processes of inquiries on.

This paper was presented as part of the Political Performances Working Group. It addresses issues related to the group's themes of (A) Citizenship and (B) Urbanism.

Billennium (After Ballard) is a guided tour, not of historic sites, but of a city’s futures, on which you walk through time to the locations of utopian and dystopian science fictions. Future architecture appears before your eyes and you hear what different worlds might sound like. Accompanied by archaeologists of the future, you carry mobile devices that will interpret and visualize traces of what’s to come. The tour concludes with an opportunity to design tomorrow’s city together and see the buildings you imagine layered onto the architecture of today using AR (augmented reality). Live-streamed, multichannel audio immerses you in sci-fi location sounds and speculative architecture is drawn in real-time over the existing buildings.

In line with Jaap Bakema’s ideal of an open society, Billennium stages a participatory and democratized approach to urban design and planning consultation. Citizens take the place of architects and planners, collaboratively imagining the future of their built environment. Despite our bottom up mode of design and idealized consultation being framed as science fiction, this AR performance could be applied as a model for engaging publics in participatory planning processes, to enable critical conversations between municipalities and local people. The use of emerging technologies and theatre as tools enables playful, improvisatory and collaborative approaches to generating proposals for remaking places, fictional versions that can feed into real urban design and public consultancy.

Billennium (After Ballard) tends to be staged in places that are undergoing rapid gentrification or urban renewal, where Uninvited Guests and Speakman collaborate with participants from the neighbourhood to imagine alternative futures. This paper will address whether, as Jose Muñoz proposes, visualising and speaking of utopian and dystopian futures might “fuel [the] critical and potentially transformative political imagination" of a community (p.3).

https://strp.nl/program/augmented-reality-tour-billennium
https://www.watershed.co.uk/studio/projects/billennium-square-after-ballard
https://bristolbathcreative.org/article/making-digital-space

The HCI community increasingly expands the borders of what topics are acceptable to explore, discuss and research. Recent workshops and papers on sexuality, intimate facets of the body and other sensitive topics show that intimacy in its widest sense and its impact on people's lives and well-being is relevant to the HCI community. In this paper, we draw on the results of an ongoing literature review on intimacy which shows that the concept is rarely defined, even though it has a variety of meanings. Nonetheless, as the parameters in which intimacy is explored are comparable in many instances, a predominant view prevails on what intimacy means. We share an imaginary abstract that breaks with these conventions and shows potential benefits of expanding the view on intimacy. This provocation therefore urges HCI researchers to rethink their idea of what intimacy is and offers directions of how to do so.

This paper examines at close quarters the role of fictions in design, in order to push forward the scope and influence of critical discourses in design. It aims to raise a cross-disciplinary debate around the redefinition of the design profession and also around the practices of curating and reflecting on design. Main theoretical reference has been " The practice of Everyday Life " by French sociologist Michel de Certeau. Certeau's work has influenced the thinking of three authors that were relevant to further elaborate this study: the combination between material culture, design history and gender studies by Judy Attfield; the theory on relational aesthetics developed by Nicholas Bourriaud and the thinking of Jacques Rancière, specially his notion of dissent as form of political subjectivity that can create new modes of sensing. In order to test its arguments the paper establishes two scenarios, where negotiations between reality and fiction take place: the home and the museum. On the one hand, representative examples of critical design are examined and put in dialogue with the theoretical positions. On the other hand, the paper examines the transformations that happen in the museum's space, when displaying critical design becomes a kind of rehearsal for alternative ways of living. Two exhibitions were analysed: Wouldn't it be nice... Wishful Thinking in Art and Design (Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich, 2008) and Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft (V&A, London, 2008). The final part of the paper discusses how such positions in design play a critical role in society, by setting up micro-situations of dissent (disagreement), and in doing so they generate new forms of sensing and making sense in contemporary living. Conclusions will point at the potential of these design fictions (understood as projections) and frictions (considered as irritations) in order to re-fabulate the commonplace.

One of humankinds oldest quests has been to find the ‘elixir of life’, a mythical potion that, would grant the drinker immortality (and preferably, eternal youth!). One of the most famous tales of a search for this fabled tonic was that of the first emperor of a unified China, Qin Shi Huang (246 BC. to 210 BC), who, in the latter part of his life, is said to have become preoccupied with finding this illusive concoction. This article is presented at a workshop that is taking place in the heartland of what was Qin Shi Huang’s empire (China), and touches on a modern day search for an elixir of life, this time a high-tech approach based on computers and artificial intelligence technology, that goes by the name of ‘The Technological Singularity’. However, as fascinating as a search for an elixir of life may be, the real motivation of this paper is to introduce micro-fiction as a methodology for capturing and communicating visions for scientific, business and societal innovations. To those ends, The Technological Singularity is described and used as a means to illustrate the workings of micro science fiction prototyping (micro- SFPs).

This paper is intended to be read alongside the design fiction film Heating Britain’s Homes. It uses the film to explore questions relating to the methods employed when creating a design fiction. Design fictions are “deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change” [1] by employing a “conflation of design, science fact, and science fiction” [2]. Design fictions do not aim to present or develop ‘finished’ designs, but rather they use design methods to “create a discursive space within which new forms of cultural artefact might emerge” [3]. As a design fiction piece, the ‘discursive space’ that this film addresses relates to disruptive possibilities associated with cryptographic currencies such as Bitcoin [4][5]. However, for the purposes of this paper the film and its concern with cryptographic currency are secondary and subservient to a discussion of design fiction practice itself. A three- layered model of design fiction is proposed as a communication device to help contextualise the various ideas used in the film, and as a tool to be applied in the creation, and analysis, of design fiction more generically. The paper concludes by positing questions with a view to taking steps towards formal design fiction methods.

Ante una práctica del diseño especulativo que generalmente se centra en miedos eurocéntricos y que tienen una consideración del ser humano blanca y atlética, este texto propone una serie de alternativas que parten de enfoques como la teoría del actor-red o los feminismos.

The HotKarot & OpenSauce project explores the possibilities of speculative food design in encouraging social inclusion and interaction among citizens of different socioeconomic backgrounds. The project employs the associative power of taste embodied in edible storytelling prototypes that consist of a carrot hot dog served with 'narrative' sauces created in the online OpenSauce cookbook. The cookbook enables users to input various text narratives and, using the network text analysis technique, convert them into personalized sauce recipes to be served in a mobile street food bistro. As part of a collaboration with the Homelike NGO providing social support to homeless women, we designed a series of "StreetSauces" made of the life stories of nine Homelike's clients. Here we report findings from an ongoing series of design probes conducted at the StreetSauce bistro, with an aim to identify the challenges and opportunities of edible speculations used in the design-oriented research.

A B S T R A C T Both scenario development and design practices incorporate elements of storytelling, but this use remains undertheorised. This paper will draw upon literary theory, film theory and science fiction criticism to develop an analytical model of narrative structure and rhetorics which speaks to the concerns of scenario developers and designers when engaged in shaping the final outputs or deliverables of a futures project. After highlighting the differing role of telos in art and futures and defining the metacategory of " narratives of futurity " , this paper then defines the terms " story " , " narrative " , " narrator " and " world " in the literary context. It then shows how those concepts map onto futures practice, before going into detail regarding the variety of narrative strategies available across a range of different forms and media, and the qualitative effects that they can reproduce in audiences. There follows the construction of a 2 Â 2 matrix based on the critical concepts of narrative mode and narrative logic, within which narratives of futurity might be usefully catalogued and compared, and from which certain broad conclusions may be reached as regards the relation between choice of medium and rhetorical effect. The implications of this analysis are explored in detail.

Since its inception the term 'design fiction' has generated considerable interest as a future-focused method of research through design whose aim is to suspend disbelief about change by depicting prototypes inside diegeses, or 'story worlds'. Plausibility is one of the key qualities often associated with suspension of disbelief, a quality encoded within the artefacts created as design fictions. In this paper we consider whether by crafting this plausibility, works of design fiction are inherently, or can become, deceptive. The notion of deception is potentially problematic for academic researchers who are bound by the research code of ethics at their particular institution and thus it is important to understand how plausibility and deception interact so as to understand any problems associated with using design fiction as a research method. We consider the plausibility of design fictions, looking at examples that are (1) obviously design fiction, (2) identified as design fiction, and (3) whose status is either ambiguous or concealed. We then explore the challenges involved in crafting plausibility by describing our experience of world-building for a design fiction that explores the notion of empathic communications in a digital world. Our conclusions indicate that the form a design fiction takes, and pre-existing familiarity with that form, is a key determinant for whether an audience mistake it for reality and are deceived. Furthermore we suggest that designers may become minded to deliberately employ deceitful strategies in order help their design fiction reach a larger audience.

Design fiction, is often defined as the “deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change” (Sterling 2012). Practically speaking design fictions can be seen as “a conflation of design, science fact, and science fiction” (Bleecker 2009, p. 6) where fiction is employed as a medium “not to show how things will be but to open up a space for discussion” (Dunne & Raby 2013, p.51). The concept has gained traction in recent years, with a marked increase in published research on both the meta-theory of the practice itself and also studies of using it in a variety of contexts.

However, the field is in a formative period. Hales talks about the term 'design fiction as being “enticing and provocative, yet it still remains elusive” (2013, p.1) whereas Markussen & Knutz sum up this epoch in the history of design fiction by saying “It is obvious from the growing literature that design fiction is open to several different interpretations, ideologies and aims.” (2013, p.231) It seems, therefore, that design fiction currently occupies a liminal space between the excitement of possibility and the challenges of divergence.

In this paper I will highlight sites of ambiguity and describe the disparate nature of design fiction theory and practice in order to illuminate the inherent complexities. Alongside I suggest elements of a ‘pragmatics framework’ for design fiction in order to strengthen foundations by facilitating a reduction in ambiguity, whilst being careful not to over specify and therefore constrain the ability to grow and adapt.

This paper suggests a new application of design fiction in media education to engage pupils in critical reflection and evaluation of digital media and technologies. Design fiction refers to a design practice that uses narrative structures to explore possible futures for technologies and questions people about the impact of new technologies on everyday life. The purpose of design fiction is to materialize possible scenarios by creating diegetic prototypes and then debate them. Diegetic prototypes refer to objects and services that only exist in a story world, the world of the diegesis. As a result of recent technological changes, media education is looking for new methods for understanding the media environment. In this context, design fiction offers a new way to rethink our relationship with technologies through the production of diegetic prototypes. I propose considering design fiction as a critical inquiry method which enables pupils to ask relevant questions about digital media and technology with the objective of developing their critical thinking. Based on the findings of a scientific observation of two pilot projects in primary and secondary schools, this paper presents a preliminary version of a critical inquiry method using design fiction at school as well as a method to assess pupils' critical inquiry competence. The critical inquiry method takes the form of an educational program divided into several sessions in which pupils are invited, among other things, to create a diegetic prototype, contextualise it in a near future and discuss the consequences of its implementation in the imagined future society.

The object of this paper is to discuss the concept(s) of Design Fiction(s), and to elaborate a critical re-definition of the terms from Literary Theory and Narratology's standpoints. By so doing, it aims to propose a clarification of the types of objects frameable by Design Fiction (DF), and shorten the gap between the latter and Interactive Fiction (IF), IoT (Internet of Things) fictions and AR (Augmented Reality) whenever these practices are being used to tell stories. Smart-houses will be used as an example of successful DF narratives.

Mesele " Kullandığımız şeyler bütünü " ile ilgili. Böyle baktığımızda ürün tasarımı kadar gündelik hayatın siyasetine dair bir alan düşünmekte zorlanıyoruz. Kullandığımız şeyler bütünü, gerçekten bizi biz yapacak güce kadir. Öte yandan kullanım nesnelerini sadece biçim ve işe yararlık üzerinden tartmak artık imkansız; nerede, nasıl, kim tarafından üretildiği, nasıl pazarlandığı ve tabii bize (yani kullanıcılara) nasıl yeni alışkanlıklar kazandırdığı, hayatımızı nasıl dönüştürdüğü en az form ve fonksiyon kadar, belki daha da önemli. Benim üzerinde durmak istediğim meseleler, tasarımcıların (ve bazı kullanıcıların) değişen konjonktürde kendilerine yaratmakta oldukları alternatiflerle, yani beklenmedik gelişmelerle ilgili. Bilişim teknolojilerindeki sıçrama, küresel adaletsizlik, tükenen kaynaklar, kaygan yerellikler, kitlesel hareketlilik gibi koşulların tasarımdaki yansımalarını arıyorum.

The term design fiction was first used in 2005 by Bruce
Sterling [18:30] and in 2009 Julian Bleecker built on the
idea by combining it with various other characterisations
[cf. 1,2,10] and catalysed a step change in design fiction
discourse. Since then design fiction has gained significant
traction across academic contexts; at symposia and
conference events; and through its practice within
commercial design studios and industry. Despite
becoming a popular way of framing speculative design,
the characterisation of design fiction as research approach
still remains “up for grabs” [19:22] as it is “enticing and
provocative, yet […] remains elusive” [7:1]. In 2013
Bleecker remarked in terms of his studios own practice “I
don’t think we’ve figured it out” and that “studying it,
understanding it and trying to devise some of the
principles - of what we’re calling design fiction - is what
we’re trying to do” [1]. Adopting a research through
design approach [5,6], this doctoral research intends to
shed light on the questions raised by Bleecker by
researching design fiction, with design fiction.

Partiendo de la teoría del actor-red y el diseño post-antropocéntrico, Fixtions propone un marco metodológico experimental de ficción colaborativa transmedia. Centrándose más en lo narrativo que en el diseño de producto, aprovecha
las capacidades del relato para producir un universo imaginario que permite explorar el diseñoo de prototipos especulativos y sus ensamblajes. El proceso se lleva a cabo utilizando distintos lenguajes de expresión, dando como resultado una narrativa transmedia producida colectivamente.

Considering that all kinds of simulations are based on verisimilitude and take their referents from the real world, this presentation will focus on the tools – exosuit, helmet – holographic prototypes, and «design fiction» elements in the film " Iron Man 3 ". Some Sci-fi works can become prophetic a-posteriori, or more humbly show what is presently called " design fiction " objects, scenarios, or human behaviour in its context. Presented items and interfaces deserve to be explored, mainly because they have, and are, impelling the creation of real life objects and procedures.

This article argues that examples of literary fiction and research from literary theory can complement futuring research that makes use of narrative archetypes. Specifically, such examples can offer distinctive insight into the longer timescale, multi-layered complexities and ambiguity that characterises socio-technological change. This article briefly outlines the limitations of futuring research that derives narrative archetypes from science fiction and of archetypes more generally as units of narrative meaning. It then closely analyses Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child (2011) and draws on research from literary theory to highlight the subtleties of construction evident in this work that go beyond narrative structures based on archetypes and offer a number of complicating perspectives on sociotechnological change. Hollinghurst's narrative is then used to inform a series of impressionistic scenarios involving smart home technology in order to indicate more specifically how a deeper understanding of literary craft might aid in envisioning alterative futures. To conclude, the article suggests finding the right balance between schematization, on the one hand, and accounting for complexity and ambiguity, on the other hand, is a key challenge when developing resources from literary narratives.

ABSTRACT. Through the example of the infantryman, this article proposes methodological tools to exploit imaginaries from science fiction (film, manga, novel, comics, etc.) in a design approach. Based on a corpus of nearly 300 references, it shows that the imaginaries should be used in a differentiated way according to the medium that is considered and that it is possible to distinguish complementary context issues and use issues. The article discusses the different forms of strategic issues and compares the solutions proposed in these imaginaries with those taking place in the fields of the military industry. In conclusion, the article discusses issues concerning the circulation of imaginaries between cultural and military industries.

RESUMER. A travers l'exemple du fantassin, l'article propose des outils méthodologiques pour exploiter des imaginaires de la science-fiction (film, manga, roman, bédé, …) dans une démarche de conception. Sur base d'un corpus de près de 300 références, il montre que le recours aux imaginaires doit faire l'objet d'un traitement différentié selon le support dont il est question, et qu'il est possible de distinguer des enjeux de contexte et des enjeux d'usage qui sont complémentaires. L'article expose différentes formes d'enjeux stratégiques et compare les solutions proposées dans ces imaginaires avec celles ayant cours dans les champs de l'industrie militaire. En conclusions, l'article discute des enjeux de circulation des imaginaires entre industries culturelles et militaires.

MOTS-CLÉS. Science-fiction, culture populaire, design fiction, militaire, méthodologie.

Aux confins de l'imaginaire et des technologies, on élabore pour nous le « design fiction » : une nouvelle façon de produire des récits qui nous laisse entrevoir des possibilités de futur en rapport avec les mutations du monde. En septembre 2011, l'éditeur DC Comics, propriétaire de Superman, Batman... refond entièrement son univers dans une démarche intitulée « The New 52 ». L'idée sous-jacente est que les « anciens » méchants ne sont plus assez représentatifs des peurs et des angoisses de l'époque, car le monde est devenu de plus en plus imprédictible au cours de la décennie précédente. Il fallait donc que les vilains de DC soient plus représentatifs de cet état de fait. Cela s'est notamment traduit par un passage symbolique du « bon super-héros versus le gentil super-héros » au « chaos versus l'ordre ». Loin d'être anodine, cette refonte majeure détaille dans quelle mesure les fictions sont des représentations des enjeux sociétaux et de nos imaginaires. Lesdits imaginaires ont par ailleurs un impact fort en termes d'innovation car ils proposent des formalisations sous diverses formes (bandes dessinées, films, mangas, jeux vidéo…) de ce que pourraient être des technologies ou des usages en cours de

This paper examines the role of corporate vision videos as a possible setting for participation when exploring the future potentials (and pitfalls) of new technological concepts. We propose that through the recent decade’s rise web 2.0 platforms, and the viral effects of user sharing, the corporate vision video of today might take on a significantly different role than before, and act as a participatory design approach. This address the changing landscaping for participatory and user-involved design processes, in the wake of new digital forms of participation, communication and collaboration, which have radically changed the possible power dynamics of the production life cycle of new product developments. Through a case study, we pose the question of whether the online engagements around corporate vision videos can be viewed as a form of participation in a design process, and thus revitalize the relevance of vision videos as a design resource?

This Case Study paper presents the first exploration of Speculative Design as a participatory democracy method for navigating the future of ageing in Malaysia. Speculative Design in the context of Global South is emerging, but without much data on how it is applied within different socioeconomic conditions from the Global North countries. This Case Study considers the challenges and opportunities of employing Speculative Design as policy identification and development method from the context of Malaysia, a Global South country with its own unique characteristics. The paper concludes by suggesting that the novelty of Speculative Design as a policy-design approach in Global South countries, such as in Malaysia, requires the right selection of provocations and culturally familiar content to ease introduction of the methodology. Also, the efficacy of this approach as a participatory design application would require further enculturation within targeted communities, as well as sustained engagement through Champions.

As part of the discipline and practice of design (understood in its broadest sense of «strategic problem-solving process that drives innovation, builds business success, and leads to a better quality of life through innovative products, systems, services, and experiences» ICSID, 2015), the conflict has always had a fundamental role as evolutionary impulse of genuine cultural regeneration that is expressed through the visions of artifacts, whether physical or cognitive, their meanings, their roles, practices and relationships, the imaginaries that they create or are associated with. Artifacts give voice, in their forms and in their behavior, to social and collective conflicts between worlds and between representations – Internal / external, past / present, tradition / innovation, individuality / standardization – and their pervasiveness, narrative force and creation of experiences, present themselves as messengers and interpreters at the same time, of dissensions and conflicts of contemporaneity. The speculative attitude of critical design, in example «uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life» (Dunne, Raby, 2013, p. 34): with their projects Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby challenge the power of consumerism, the brands and the use of pre-established objects; similarly fiction design (Sterling, 2005; Bleecker, 2009) represents and investigates dystopian worlds «in order to create a discursive space, where 'something' may mean 'anything'» (Lindley, Coulton, 2015, pp. 210-211). This translates concretely into “provocative” design forms, such as that of the Near Future Laboratory which offers a catalog of fictional objects, ie extra-ordinary prototypes that could be part of the normal daily life of the near future. The same visionary attitude, combined with the envisioning capacity of design, is rather typical of the DesignArt (Coles, 2005; Lupo, 2011) where technological, symbolic and relational aesthetic straddling art and design combine to generate artifacts according to a logic of disruptive innovation and a critical-conceptual attitude exemplified also by the exhibition “disobedient objects” (by designer Giulio Iachetti, held in Milan Triennale, 2008) «who rebel against the logic of consumption, sow doubts and who aspire to be something else». (Iacchetti, 2009). The essay aims to define, explore, critically and phenomenologically, the phenomenon of dissenting design as an act not simply oriented towards solutions and needs, but establishing conversation devices for an ongoing social, political and cultural commitment.

This paper presents a design fiction created by the author – the Toaster For Life. The design is an initial prototype that seeks to embody Sterling's concept of spimes which when viewed simply, are a class of near future, sustainable, manufactured objects designed to make the implicit impacts of a technological product's entire lifecycle more explicit to its potential users. This paper argues that when properly understood, spimes act as a rhetorical device that can be used as a lens through which designers can speculate and reflect upon sustainable technological product futures whilst also critiquing the unsustainable production and consumption practices that define our current lifestyles. To make this case, the paper contextualises the Toaster For Life in relation to the spimes concept, the unsustainability of Internet of Things products and sustainable design praxis; and reflects upon the design fiction methodology used to highlight the potential benefits of such an approach.

This paper addresses the complexity of designing interactions in hybrid digital/physical spaces, in which notions of public and private are becoming increasingly blurred, by using a philosophical lens to characterise such spaces. In particular it references the ideas presented by Michel Foucault in his essay " Of Other Spaces ". It proposes the presence of a spatial division within physical and virtual, in terms of private and public, and juxtaposes them through a Heterotopical Model for Inter-Spatial Interaction through which designers can examine the coexistence of physical and digital interactions. The purpose of modelling this juxtaposition is to help designers understand the nature of connections that happen between physical and digital objects in these spaces and consider how meaningful interactions can respond to this complexity. spaces; phenomenology; heterotopia; philosophy for design

[ https://www.facebook.com/groups/designfictionclub/ ]
Video S#03: https://youtu.be/U2-JmwIWwG4
Facebook event #03: https://www.facebook.com/events/134839653929435/
Venue Page: https://gaite-lyrique.net/design-fiction-club-1
2017.11.28 Session #03 — Design fiction’s self-critique, towards our own blind-spots
2017.11.28 Session #03 — Auto-critique du design fiction, dénicher ses propres angles morts.

Design Fiction Club is the monthly rendez-vous of Gaîté-Lyrique (Paris) dedicated to gather, discover, think, and practice Design Fiction. It is an initiative by Max Mollon, invited by Marie Lechner and Clémence Seurat of Gaîté-Lyrique, in Paris.
Open to all kinds of public, it proposes different sessions formats:
Between the cine-club and the fight-club, sessions will feature a series of projects, of which one will serve as a start for a collective debate. Not far from the pony-club and the club-sandwich, some sessions will propose hands-on workshops and every session ends with a meetup. — https://www.designfictionclub.com

_____
28/11 Séance #03 | Auto-critique du design fiction, dénicher ses propres angles morts.
Plutôt que confronter autrui à d’autres réalités, les designers ne devraient-ils pas questionner leur propre point de vue ?
Le Design Fiction permet de contrebalancer avec brio les visions dominantes du monde, portées par l’industrie ou les lieux de pouvoir. En représentant des alternatives à l’état du monde, il nous confronte à d’autres angles de vue. Cependant, en restant cantonné à des thèmes technologiques et futuristes, une grande part des designers ne questionnent pas leur propre point de vue, et ne traitent que des problèmes de riches occidentaux (“1st world problems”) – ce qui est paradoxal pour une pratique autocritique, et dommage quant à l’urgence de certains enjeux sociétaux. Quid d’un activisme réflexif par le Design Fiction ?

_____
Mardi 28 @La Gaîté Lyrique
18:45-20:45 Séance #01 du Design Fiction Club
20:45-21:45 Bière-Fiction (meetup)

_____
Le Design Fiction Club est le rendez-vous (tous publics) mensuel de la Gaîté Lyrique pour se rassembler, découvrir, penser et pratiquer le Design Fiction — Séminaires-débats | Workshops-formation | Meetup
Mené par Max Mollon sur une invitation de Marie Lechner et Clémence Seurat. Contenu des séminaires partagé sous licence ©©Max Mollon 2017 (CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0). | Invitée S#01 : Léa Lippera (séminaire) | Vidéo ©Gaîté-Lyrique, Cycle des rencontres "Sur un plateau".
#designfictionclub #designfiction #criticaldesign #speculativedesign
http://designfictionclub.com/

Mollon, M. (2016), Dissensus : pour un design critique situé, en dehors du musée (“Dissensus: for a situated critical design, out of museums”). Presented at ARD#11 (Ateliers de la Recherche en Design), ALBA (Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts), Beyrouth (Nov. 09-12th).
-
http://bit.ly/talk-ARD11 – PDF presentation
http://bit.ly/ARD-11 – Event page
-
RÉSUMÉ
Plutôt que de se concentrer sur l'esthétique ou la fonction d'un objet, nombre sont les pratiques contemporaines du design qui s'intéressent aux conséquences sociales qu'impliquent leur production et leur usage. Ce tournant social du design s'accompagne de labels comme design “social”, “activiste”, “critique”, “humanitaire” ou “participatif”. Parmi eux, le Design Spéculatif et Critique utilise des objets dérangeants pour mobiliser un public sur des débats de société. Or, ces artefacts non-destinés à être vendus, finissent souvent exposés dans des musées, où ils rencontrent des difficultés à atteindre leurs ambitions.
Cet article présente une tentative empirique de résoudre ce problème, loin des musées (dans une commission éthique), et rapporte comment le processus de conception en a été altéré. Je fais l’hypothèse qu’un autre contexte de conception et de diffusion, dans une situation et aux mains d'un public précis, puisse ouvrir un temps et un espace propre à la discussion. Les premiers résultats empiriques font ainsi émerger (1) le “contexte” et (2) “la juste mesure” de la provocation, comme deux qualités intimement liées et essentielles au déclenchement d’une discussion profonde.
Une discussion en deux temps propose : (1) d'un point de vue pragmatiste, l’appel à une considération plus forte du “public” comme “utilisateur” à part entière du SCD, et ainsi au design de son expérience de réception du projet ; (2) et le dissensus comme déclencheur de discussions collectives. Enfin, le design participatif est suggéré comme domaine de prédilection pour l’usage de tels artefacts.

In this paper we describe conducting an ‘anticipatory ethnography’ inquiry, using Spike Jonze’s 2013 sci-fi film Her as the source material. Anticipatory ethnography strives to apply the methods, theories and ideologies of design ethnography, to works of design fiction, in order to produce actionable insights. Thus far the practice has been explored only in theory, this is the first ever application of it in practice, as such the work has been contingent and exploratory. The paper begins by introducing the relevant constructs in general terms; next we describe our method; we conclude by discussing the analysis, pursuit of actionable insights, and reflect on the process and findings.