This weeks lecture was very interesting to me which was about ‘Speculative Design’ which is looking into the future of design.
Something I found interesting was a video at the start of the lecture from kids predicting what the year 2000/2020 would be like which there was a lot of ‘nuclear’ talk as well as robots taking over jobs etc. Which is pretty accurate with AI growing which can take some jobs, but also creates new ones. But this is what my second project is like, it is almost like predicting the future.
I found this diagram great to help visualize the future with the four different topics including possible (Which links between today's world and the suggested one), Plausible (Exploring alternative economic and political futures - future what makes sense with current knowledge), Preferable (Not trying to predict the future but using design to open up all sorts of possibilities that can be discussed) and Probable (what is likely to happen unless there is some extreme upheaval such as a financial crash, eco disaster, or war.)
Speculative design is important to encourage imagination, to think beyond the current. If no one thinks of future design how would we move on from current to future technology if no one is thinking about it. It also allows us to challenge the norms, questioning the social, political and ethical implications of emerging tech.
It also allows designers to shape innovation, many real world innovations start as speculative concepts. It also prepares us for challenge, enabling us to anticipate and adapt to possible futures.
All this has already help me think more on my second project as I was thinking ‘how advanced can it be’ which this has reassured me that it is very open and imagination is encouraged to ‘break the norm’.