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Title:

Design Fiction:Props, Prototypes, Predicaments Communicating New Ideas

Your vote:
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Organizer:
Julian Bleecker, Near Future Laboratory
Description:
Design fiction is an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling. The goal is to move away from the routine of lifeless scenarios-based thinking. We will share design fiction projects and discuss related techniques for design thinking, communication and exploration of near future concepts.
Questions
Answered:
  1. What is design fiction?
  2. What is the difference between design fiction, science fiction and traditional advanced design or R&D?
  3. What are examples of design fiction?
  4. How do you create designed fictions?
  5. How is design fiction related to critical design?
  6. In the context of typical concept development, in what ways does design fiction differ from traditional scenarios?
  7. What is the importance of "making things", craftwork, model-making, "props" to the creation of a design fiction story?
  8. How can this idea of design fiction bolster the communication of speculative concepts by emphasizing rich, people-focused storytelling rather than device or service-centered technology and functionality?
  9. How can design fiction become part of a process for exploring speculative near futures in the interests of design innovation?
  10. What part can be played in imagining alternative histories to explore what "today" may have become as a way to underscore that there are no inevitabilities — and that the future is made from will and imagination, not determined by an "up-and-to-the-righ
Level:
Intermediate
Category:
Design Thinking, History of Technology, New Technology / Next Generation, Other / Out There
Type:
Panel
Event:
Interactive 2010
Julian Bleecker
on 26/8/09
Panel participants would definitely include: Nicolas Nova (http://liftlab.com/think/nova/), Sascha Pohflepp (http://www.pohflepp.com/), Jake Dunagan (http://www.iftf.org/user/958). Bruce Sterling (http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/) will participate if circumstances of distance and timing allow.
Philip van Allen
on 27/8/09
Great topic for a session. A few ideas for topics:

* How does the level of sketchiness affect the outcome of the fiction? E.g. the Microsoft 2019 video is perhaps too polished and high-level to be really useful. Keeping it more rough seems to open up questions and possibilities.
* What are the advantages/affordances of the different approaches to Design Fiction: Video Prototypes, Functional Physical Prototypes, Models, Writing, Photos, etc.
* What are the goals of Design Fiction? Are they sometimes conflicting? It seems like there may be different outcomes depending on the intention.

As I mentioned in a tweet, you might check out the following project as an interesting example of Design Fiction, by my students Christiane Holzheid and Julia Tsao.

http://juliatsao.com/net/
and more projects listed here:
http://www.philvanallen.com/2009/04/new-ecology-of-things-class-anti-homogenous/

.phil
Jeannette Vidalia
on 27/8/09
Giving this an enthusiastic THUMBS UP.
Matt Ratto
on 27/8/09
Looks great - I'd love to participate in something like this. I do a version of 'design fiction' as part of my teaching and research - http://www.criticalmaking.com.
chris arkenberg
on 27/8/09
Awesome! I love Julian's work and he's an excellent presenter. Jake is great as well and is a seasoned futurist. Cheers! Hope I can attend...
Chris Finlay
on 28/8/09
New ways to heat up future finding are always welcome.
Julian Bleecker
on 28/8/09
Stuart Candy (http://futuryst.blogspot.com/) surfaced from an off-net expedition — he would be participating as well.
Julian Bleecker
on 28/8/09
@phil That's great stuff, thanks for the remarks. All these questions that are quite worthy of reflection and thinking about — and making!
@matt @chris-a, Wow - if nothing else, i'm glad to add you all to the feed reader! thanks for the encouragement
@chris-f - Thanks for the note, and thanks again for that chat at the overlap!
Steve Portigal
on 28/8/09
Found via your blog; thanks for letting me know. If our proposals get accepted this will be my first SXSW and knowing there are talks like this happening makes the idea so much more appealing. Good luck!
dennis crowley
on 28/8/09
This sound great, and if you know Julian, this is right in his wheelhouse. Looking forward to this.
Dave Gray
on 31/8/09
This will be a great panel. Design fiction has already proven the power to shape our world, viz. the influence of Star Trek on product design, Sterling, Gibson, Doctorow and many others. Great concept Julian!
Dominique Jaurola
on 1/9/09
This approach makes a big difference to the internalization process, i.e. making the future real now, owning it, seeing it clearly, enabling co-creation as many see it in the 'same' way... Great topic!
Matt Malpass
on 2/9/09
Great proposal, interesting questions that should make for a great discussion. How is design fiction related to critical design? What role does design fiction and narrative play in realising critical design? These are questions I’m toying with at the moment. Best of Luck from the UK.
Julian Bleecker
on 2/9/09
@matt Yes — this is a great question and one you inspired me to think strongly about after your presentation at the EAD conference. Thanks again for the great talk!
Rielm Miller
on 4/9/09
Literature, ballad or jingle, always has more mass appeal when done by a pro, but meaning, impact and poetry need not be more than what the context can generate. Having the confidence to articulate it, even if it is only articulate to you or a limited few, may be sufficient. Not that the two are mutually exclusive. It's just worth being cautious of the siren of scale and specialization.
Games Online
on 3/11/09
Impressive panel!
blu ray ripper
on 13/11/09
Sounds like it will be a very interactive panel... like the style.
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