Alternate endings: using fiction to explore design futures

Design research and practice within HCI is inherently oriented toward the future. However, the vision of the future described by HCI researchers and practitioners is typically utility-driven and focuses on the short term. It rarely acknowledges the potentially complex social and psychological long-term consequences of the technology artefacts produced. Thus, it has the potential to unintentionally cause real harm. Drawing on scholarship that investigates the link between fiction and design, this workshop will explore “alternate endings” to contemporary HCI papers. Attendees will use fictional narratives to envision long-term consequences of contemporary HCI projects, as a means for engaging the CHI community in a consideration of the values and implications of interactive technology

Fifty shades of CHI: the perverse and humiliating human-computer relationship

This paper presents a critical lens on the nature of the relationship between people and contemporary technology. Specifically, the form and language of erotic BDSM romance fiction, a genre that deals specifically with the nature of power in relationships, and which has proved extremely popular recently, are used as a means for provoking reflection on the nature of power in the human-computer relationship. Three sexually explicit scenarios are presented, in which technology is portrayed in a dominant and controlling role, highlighting the often subservient and apologetic nature of human interaction with technology. We suggest that readers offended by graphic and explicit descriptions of sexual behaviour do not read further than this abstract

Researching design fiction with design fiction

The term design fiction was first used in 2005 by Bruce Sterling [18:30] and in 2009 Julian Bleecker built on the idea by combining it with various other characterisations [cf. 1,2,10] and catalysed a step change in design fiction discourse. Since then design fiction has gained significant traction across academic contexts; at symposia and conference events; and through its practice within commercial design studios and industry. Despite becoming a popular way of framing speculative design, the characterisation of design fiction as research approach still remains “up for grabs” [19:22] as it is “enticing and provocative, yet […] remains elusive” [7:1]. In 2013 Bleecker remarked in terms of his studios own practice “I don’t think we’ve figured it out” and that “studying it, understanding it and trying to devise some of the principles - of what we’re calling design fiction - is what we’re trying to do” [1]. Adopting a research through design approach [5,6], this doctoral research intends to shed light on the questions raised by Bleecker by researching design fiction, with design fiction

Design fictions

This studio provides participants with an opportunity to engage in a hands-on exploration of the use of "design fictions" as a strategy for producing physical artifacts. The idea of design fictions blurs the boundaries between traditional design practices and narrative explorations of potential futures. If the goal of design is to devise courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones, then the goal of design fiction is to use speculations, metaphors, and explorations of desired futurities to explicate and inform material design practices. Participants will have a chance to discuss these ideas, as well as to design and build their own "diegetic prototypes" out of materials sourced from local antique shops, thrift stores, and other nearby sources of inspiration. Through this hands-on exploration of the constraints and affordances of fictional scenarios and scavenged materials, we hope to collectively explore a compelling new design space for tangibles

(Im)Paired Bodies: design as co-domestication. The case of wearables

International audienceThe emergence of " smart " devices close to bodies and fueled by personal data (smartwatches, smartphones, smartglasses, smart fabrics...), questions our definitions of agency, sociability and embodiment. How do you design objects acutely aware of what one's body is, with respect and care for one's agency, while enabling a continuous evolution of the self? What may design enable to contemporary embodiments? How could we design intimate sociable objects? And last but not least, why are we investigating these potentialities? We will first introduce the historic and philosophical roots of wearables, before presenting short case studies of a series of smartwatches and highlighting their common points: rhetorics of health, productivity and control. We will then propose a framework for their analysis, and present the major issues of their design process, building upon our current experiment. To conclude, we will discuss the definition of paired technologies

The Power of 8: Encouraging Collaborative DIY Futures

"The Power of 8" was an experimental futures project, collaboratively driven by an ad hoc team of eight people from different walks of life. The aim was to explore new pathways for creating democratic futures by building a public discourse around the aspirations of ordinary people. The team of eight comprised a Designer/Speculator, an Educator, an Interaction Designer, a Permaculturist, a Policy Researcher, an Urbanist, a retired Civil Servant, and a Biomedical Scientist. Through a series of three intensive workshops, and later a wider public engagement phase, we adopted a narrative approach to building a collective view, representing possible futures of Brentford in London, England. This paper describes the strategies we used – including maps, montage and storytelling – to develop concepts, visualise proposals and materialise ‘future artefacts’ during the project

The Trough Of Despair And The Slope Of Enlightenment: Gartner’s Hype Cycle And Science Fiction In The Analysis Of Technological Longings.

Futurology and computing technologies have a history of over-inflated claims and fast-changing meanings. That there is a time-lag between computing research and development, and the greater public awareness of those technologies that are actually used, is well understood in the scientific research community, but less so by those who come upon new technological delights as if they were a-historic productions. There are a variety of means to map these changes in order to explain how one might gauge the real possibilities of a particular new technology, rather than the visionary potentials. For example, science fiction in film and television give us a useful snapshot of contemporary ideas of technology research, but the lag between technological change and the production of science fiction artefacts is not fast enough to aid business in the here and now. In addition, SF as well as informing design in computing, also informs the more general utopian/dystopian aspects of technological longing, adding to general beliefs (or visions) of disruptive technologies and artificial intelligence. Timelines of technological development help us to understand the historical basis of a particular technology, such as Virtual Reality, and go some way to helping us make better predictions about the usefulness of new technologies. Gartner’s hype cycle is a diagram which maps emergent technologies, labels and trends against actual take-up and development via a number of lyrically named stages such as the peak of inflated expectations, the trough of despond and the plateau of productivity. Using the examples of virtual reality and cloud computing this paper explores a number of ways of making better predictions about the implications of technological change, and to what extent the new toy we are being offered is rather similar to the old