What Is Design Fiction? Diagram 1

5th International Conference on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis (FTA) Engage today to shape tomorrow Brussels, 27-28 November 2014 Exploring design fiction for FTA

What is design fiction? Diagram 1. Digital fabrication triad & futures

Design fiction is an emerging area of design research that develops speculative design projects (objects, visuals & narratives) to question the implications of existing and emerging technologies. Situated between science fact and science fiction, design fictions aim to suspend disbelief about technological change. Depending on the viewer, design fictions can be read as anything from cautionary tales to utopian ideals (see www.unitedmicrokingdoms.org for a recent example). Diagram 2. Paths to digital fabrication What is digital fabrication?

Digital fabrication (also known as 3D printing or additive manufacturing) refers to a set of emerging technologies that directly generate physical objects from graphical computer data. Initially used to make prototypes, digital fabrication is based on a technology triad currently under investigation for a range of applications (diagrams 1 & 2).

Organizing a design fiction workshop

To explore the possible futures of digital fabrication, we organized a design fiction workshop with 20 design Diagram 3. Workshop work process students from Ensci-les ateliers, Parsons Paris and ENS Cachan. We first sensitized workshop participants to the current state-of-the-art in digital fabrication based on our PhD fieldwork on additive manufacturing (Axel Lagnau) and FabLabs (Camille Bosqué). This was meant to provide flexible guidelines for controlled speculation. We then provided participants with four scenarios (see diagram 2). Scenarios were based on different configurations of social values (sustainability or economic growth and liberal or conservative attitudes to scientific experimentation) and technical requirements (distributed manufacturing or personal fabrication with finite or synthetic materials). Participants were divided into four groups and asked to develop filmic portrayals of a product or service enabled by digital fabrication for each scenario. Participant’s work process and outputs were documented using Hotglue (diagram 3).

Design fiction for FTA

Bringing into sharp relief our FTA scenarios for the years 2024-2029, design fictions helped us reflect on the conditions and consequences of digital fabrication. These filmic portrayals work as performative artifacts to interrogate the possibilities and indeed the viability of digital fabrication (see output links). As self-contained artifacts, they can now be probed by other stakeholders.

Contact Axel Lagnau Université Paris-Est, LATTS, ESIEE [email protected] www.jrc.ec.europa.eu