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Design Fiction Terminology

Design Fiction​

  1. Design fiction is a way of exploring different approaches to making things, probing the material conclusions of your imagination, removing the usual constraints when designing for massive market commercialization — the ones that people in blue shirts and yellow ties call “realistic.” This is a dif- ferent genre of design. Not realism, but a genre that is forward looking, beyond incremental and makes an effort to explore new kinds of social in- teraction rituals. As much as science fact tells you what is and is not pos- sible, design fiction understands constraints differently. Design fiction is about creative provocation, raising questions, innovation, and exploration. Bleecker, J. (2009). Design Fiction A Short Essay on Design, Science, Fact and Fiction.

  2. In design practice and design research, “design fiction” can be interpreted as a new strategy for design research, trying to benefit from the qualities of a “designerly way of knowing” and the current discussion of design research frameworks, by systematically questioning and deconstructing the self-evident, transcending it towards new, possible futures; concretely materializing, visualizing and embodying relevant controversies and perspectives in the form of artifacts, interfaces, installations and performances; asking “how the world could be” instead of discussing how the world is; thus taking the inherent contingency of the world seriously and thereby exploring insights from different disciplines. Thereby, it is important for any initiative and intervention in design research to find the right focus “in between” the simply utopian, which is too far away from our current concerns and issues to have an impact on the current controversies and approaches, and the too realistic, which is so close to what we already know and experience that no real provocation, relevant challenge, new perspective can emerge. Grand, S. & Wiedmer, M. (2010). Design Fiction: A Method Toolbox for Design Research in a Complex World.

Speculative Design​

  1. Speculative design proposals are essentially tools for questioning. Their aim is therefore not to propose implementable product solutions, nor to offer answers to the questions they pose; they are intended to act like a mirror reflecting the role a specific technology plays or may play in each of our lives, instigating contemplation and discussion. Here I outline two approaches:

    First, through informed extrapolations of existing product lineages, ‘speculative futures’ imagine and present near-future products, systems and services. These are intended to act like a cultural litmus paper, testing and examining the implications of an emerging technology before we commit to specific applications or research directions.

    Second, ‘alternative presents’ are speculative design proposals that question existing paradigms through the design of products and services that utilise contemporary technology but crucially apply different ideologies to those currently directing product development. These are speculations on how things could be, had different choices been made in previous times, and are used to examine the values of contemporary products. Auger, J. (2012). Why Robot? Speculative design, the domestication of technology and the considered future. Dissertation. The Royal College of Art.

  2. The aim is not to present commercially-driven design proposals but to design proposals that identify and debate crucial issues that might happen in the future.

    ...Like Margaret Atwood's preference for the term speculative literature over science fiction, we prefer the term speculative design over design fiction. Although, strictly speaking, we produce fictional designs, they have a broader purpose than the design fiction genre allows. Another difference that separates design fictions from the kind of fictional design we are interested in that they are rarely critical of technological progress and border on celebration rather than questioning. Dunne, A. & Raby, F. (2013). Speculative everything : design, fiction, and social dreaming.

Critical Design​

Critical design, for example, is used to challenge social expectations and generate a debate focusing on current concerns by using a designed artifact in the same way as “a critique, like a political essay or satirical sketch” (Blythe & Encinas 2018, 12). It uses design outcomes, specifically product and industrial design artefacts, as a way to probe and interrogate social practices and values with a focus on consumer culture (Tharp and Tharp 2009). The driving question for critical design is: we can do this, but should we? As such, critical design is focused on the present and uses satire and the uncanny as major design tactics. Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.

Forecast Design​

Forecast design is intended to engage preferable futures rather than the plausible futures that is the focus of design fiction (Buhring and Koskinen 2017). While both forecast design and design fiction are concerned with the near future, the purpose of forecast design is to predict what might happen considering current trends. Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.

Diegetic Prototypes​

Diegetic is a term imported into design theory from film studies and refers to something that exists within the world of a narrative rather than external to that world. A simple example is the difference between music playing on a radio in a film versus the overlaid score that builds an emotional tone. The former is diegetic as it is heard by the characters and embedded in the narrative – it exists in the narrative world. The latter is not diegetic as it is heard only by the audience is not part of the narrative world. For designers, then, a diegetic prototype is a “kind of techno-scientific prototyping activity” embedded in “a story into which the prototype can play its part in a way different from a plain old demonstration.” (Bleeker 2009a, 39) The prototype, the designed artifact, is explored by its presence in the narrative through subtle interactions with narrative elements rather than presented as a discrete and independent to its surroundings.

The purpose of the diegetic prototype is the suspension of disbelief for a plausible future as an extension of reality rather than the production of fantasy. Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.

Science Fiction Prototyping​

Protopia Futures​

Technocentrism​

Technocentric​

Discursive Design​

The primary purpose of discursive design practices is “to communicate ideas [and] encourage discourse. These are tools for thinking; they raise awareness and perhaps understanding of substantive and often debatable issues of psychological, sociological, and ideological consequence” (Tharp and Tharp 2009). Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.

Architectural Fiction​

According to Sterling, architectural fiction as a form of speculative design does not have the structure or intentions to critically engage this architectural content as it lacks epistemological and research focus aligned with socio-technological environments. In contrast, Varnelis uses the term architectural fiction in alignment with the theoretical framework of design fiction rather than the form-based speculative worldbuilding of Sterling. Varnelis wonders if there is a possibility for architectural fiction to be a critical design tool that, “Instead of being Utopian or imaginative, might it be possible for architecture to shape our experiences in such ways as to approximate the effects of films or fiction? […] could architecture fiction be something that re-shapes our subjectivity?” (Varnelis 2009a). Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.

Extrapolation​

Extrapolation is based on the question: this is what we have, where does it go? It is the action of determining a future or end state based on assuming that the existing trends will continue without deviation. While the common use of extrapolation is predictive (i.e. logical future conclusions or outcomes), in design fiction extrapolation is used to explore possible alternatives (Girardin 2015). Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.

Pastiche Scenarios​

Pastiche “is a form of writing that imitates and borrows from other works and styles” (Blythe 2004, 52). When applied in a design fiction context, the designer uses previously existing characters, locations and events to develop persona and scenarios for the project. As the persona was not created for this particular design context, it introduces more richness and complexity to motivation as well as disconnects the persona traits from the expected or desired functionality of the designed artifact (Markussen and Knutz 2013). Examples of pastiche scenarios is using favorite characters of a novel as the clients of an architectural project or using an author’s literary style to produce a design context. The pastiche tactic allows a designer to “very quickly evoke resonant contexts in which to place a new design or consider user needs” (Blythe 2004, 52). Plowright, P. D. (2020). Design fiction and architecture. EAAE – ARCC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. EAAE-ARCC CONFERENCE.