Speculative Design, Design Fiction, & Design Futures

In class, we have been discussing the futures of our projects and how they can go beyond our research/finding stage to a final project. This project is one of a few projects that I have done throughout my time at IE where futures and speculation is of key importance to the project. The other projects being Design Studio III with Igor Bragado and a month long (roughly) Critical/Speculative Design Project in Design Studio II taught by Hector Serrano, Eli Gutierrez, and Miguel Leiro.

I am way more of a tangible person. I understand how products are created, how materials work, and the development from concept/drawing to a final piece. But I can’t say the same thing for speculative design, design fiction, & design futures. I understand what they mean and how they can be used as a tool. But to me, I feel like, in certain cases, something is missing. I feel that it is important that when someone speculates or projects the future, there needs to be a mathematical or scientifical research to back up these projections. Because if not, it seems to be just fiction (a fictional story). I can see design fiction and design futures as a fun thing to interact with as a viewer if it is all fiction. But I disagree with these “tools” to be used as a proper design tool if there is no mathematical or scientific backup to support the narrative or final outcome.

I am not an expert on these fields. So clearly I do not know every little detail about each of them. But based from what I have learnt so far, my interpretation of these fields is that they can be useful when they have the necessary back-up from other fields. If they don’t, I view them are fiction and something to not take 100% serious.

Will I use futures in my future work

I can see myself projecting rational futures with my work if I have mathematics or science to prove that the future is an actual possibility. In the case of using design fiction, I think it is a useless tool. So no, I will not use it if not told to use it.

What I have learnt from futures I will not use many different futures projections. And that’s ok. Not everyone needs to use everything.