Speculation in Design and beyond

For the last session of this season’s research colloquium we want to look into speculative approaches in design and the critical discourses around them as well as exploring links to our own research disciplines.

As a conversation starter we will go into the article Pure Spekulation / Narrative World Constructions by IXDM’s Ludwig Zeller, published in FORM magazine, which distinguishes a range of speculative approaches illustrated by example projects around the topic of energy. Of interest here are the diverse narrative forms, aesthetic strategies and notions of speculation (and with it often future) incorporated.

Additionally, the article Design at the Earview: Decolonizing Speculative Design through Sonic Fiction by Pedro Oliveira serves as an example of the increasing critical voices towards the notion of speculation and Speculative Design as a field.

The session also forms a thematic bridge for two Speculative Design Workshops we are hosting at the Critical Media Lab in mid-June.