Post Human Design Case Study: a Speculative Approach to Flourish Critical Mindsets
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DISEGNARECON volume 12/ n. 23 - December 2019 EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN FOR HERITAGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPRESENTATION ISSN 1828-5961 Stefania Palmieri Architect, PhD in Industrial De- sign at the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano, where she is a professor and a permanent researcher. She is the Head of Business Relations and Professions-for the degree course of Integrated Product Design.. Her activities aims to create a network with the world of production, aimed at strengthening and stabilizing synergies between University and Enterprises. Mario Bisson Architect, he is Associate Pro- fessor at the Design Depart- ment of Politecnico di Milano, Scientific Director of the In- terdepartmental Laboratory E.D.M.E. of Politecnico di Mi- lano, Scientific Director of the Color Laboratory of Politecnico di Milano, Founder and Scien- tific Director of M.D.A., Mem- ber of the Board of Directors of PoliDesign scrl. Post Human Design case study: a speculative approach to flourish critical mindsets. Alessandro Ianniello Product Designer for Innova- In a context of disruptive innovation Design takes the human genre, influenced by technologies tion, he is an assistant profes- on new roles, which place it in a different position which are becoming pervasive and efficient, sor at Politecnico di Milano. In compared to the practices of the last decade. and with mega-trends that are significantly 2019 he co-founded The Bench changing lifestyles and the relationships with Collective, which activities aim Speculative Design underlines the importance to nurture critical mindsets of designing futuristic scenarios, users and ar- the rest of living beings and ecosystems. through the use of critical and tefacts, starting from the phenomena and in- Through the prototyping and the creation of an speculative Design. novations taking place in the present, with the app, it was possible to accompany the spectators aim of nurturing critical thinking and shared on a trans-media journey supported by augment- knowledge about these. ed reality technology, used to involve viewers in Digital innovations related to augmented, vir- the designed path and to make different contents tual and mixed reality technologies are becom- of the exhibition usable, turning the users into ac- ing one of the ideal tool which involves viewers tors who actively take part in the exhibition. in the process of maturation. The aim of the paper is to sum up a model The aim of this paper is to investigate new re- useful to address both the practical and the di- lationships between innovation, Design and us- dactic fields of application, through the use of ers, through the analysis of a case study. digital and physical tool, following the concepts The aims and objectives of the aforementioned and the mindsets which lie behind speculative Keywords: case study fully follow the methodology of Design approach. Speculative Design; Augmented Reality; Future speculative Design, addressing the theme of Studies; Collective Driven; Environment Centred. the Post Human, of the possible evolutions of http://disegnarecon.univaq.it DISEGNARECON volume 12/ n. 23 - December 2019 EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN FOR HERITAGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPRESENTATION PALMIERI - BISSON - IANNIELLO 13.2 ISSN 1828-5961 Post Human Design case study: a speculative approach to flourish critical mindsets. INTRODUCTION c. there must be something I don’t come a source of knowledge, of themes and topics understand. The designer must be able to support critical Design work: speculative Speculative Design deals with the transposition very clever. I have to focus on what Design must become a regular source of visions of ideas and themes from the scientific and tech- I don’t understand. focused not only on Science Fiction, but, expand- nological area into artefacts and communication 3. the main objective of speculative Design is to ing the perspective, on Environmental and Social means. It founds its own methodology in the pro- be provocative. The artefact must therefore Science Fiction, conceiving and trying to provide jection of socio-cultural trends over time, studies be able to be traced back to a near future; images on the repercussions that certain innova- about the future (Kelliher, 2015) and techno-sci- if it is too futuristic it will result in a simple tions can have in the daily life not only of human entific researches, with the aim of favouring the speculation, but if too close to the present beings, but of all living beings (Ashley, 2011). development of critical thinking in the user, in- the spectators will expect scientific evidences viting him/her to reconsider the present, deeply about the innovation presented. In the tempo- METHODOLOGY understanding how scientific and technological, ral dimension that exists between these two, social, economic and cultural innovations can in- the artefact will generate questions which the The practice of speculative Design is part of the fluence daily life, even if they seem to be far away designer has not found an answer to. methodology of critical Design (Dunne & Raby, from personal routine. (M. Malpass, 2017). 4. while aiming to activate a critical thought, 2013) and therefore presents itself as a form of Speculative Design works in two ways: on one the intention of speculative Design is not to problem setting methodology rather than prob- hand as a practice, looking for progress in the participate in the discussions generated by its lem solving. As Galloway (2007) states, high- world of innovation and transposing it into do- para-functional provocations. Neither the de- lighting that Design has the role to give life to mestic life. Through the creation of tangible signer nor the produced artefact should be at debates, and noting that the best chance for a prototypes it is possible to project scientific and the centre of these discussions. critical intervention lies in taking an active part technological developments in futuristic con- When asked to define the role that speculative in dealing with shared issues, even if this may texts. Secondly, it is a methodology that serves to Design must assume, Tonkinwise replied that it mean to not solve the problems. imagine a new present, proposing a wide range of must act as a translator of strong visions of al- Like any Design practice, even speculative De- visions and scenarios that are reflections of the ternative futures in everyday life. The adjective sign has useful tool for the development of the time in which we live (M. Malpass, 2017). speculative indicates its contextual and temporal different phases of the process [3]. They can be Interviewed during the conference “21st Cen- function, which must favour debates around what divided into various categories, depending on tury: Design after Design” at the XXI Triennale may be preferable, in addition to what is already the purpose they assume in the Design process: di Milano, Cameron Tonkinwise [1] provides its considered plausible, if not probable. There are there are research and analysis tools, such as own interpretation of speculative Design, stat- four temporal dimensions within which specula- online platforms that collect and describe global ing that it is a practice obsessed with ambiguity. tive projects can be grouped: probable futures, trends in the present and projected consistently He stated four characteristics that a speculative preferable futures, possible futures and plausible in the future [4], used for the construction of sce- artefact should possess: futures (Dunne & Raby, 2013). narios; other research tools can be platforms 1. the excellent realization, finishing and tech- In 2008 the “Design and elastic mind” [2] exhibi- for sharing scientific knowledge, such as Google nological implementation must be imme- tion contributed to change the concept of making Scholar [5], which makes information about re- diately recognizable, not excessive and not Design: it was shown how the ability of Design to search, in progress or completed, available to very elegant; see beyond things could be the starting point of the public, useful in providing truth to what de- 2. it must distinguish itself from mainstream scientific research, influencing and being influ- signers want to design, and finally interviews and Design production and appear highly func- enced, generating a fertile fusion of these disci- focus groups with participants belonging to to the tional, but with regard to an aim that seems plines (Johnson, 2011; Wilson, 2010). This ambiv- areas of knowledge involved in the project. to be unreachable. In this way the viewer will alent relationship can be demonstrated in the use Meta-design tool, used for the construction of find himself following this reasoning: of speculative Design as a communication tool for scenarios (Schultz et alii, 2012), contexts, users, a. the designer cannot be serious. The Science, as a tool for spreading scientific knowl- needs and future problems, such as polar graphs product looks like a joke. No one edge -fundamental action, which must be demo- and 4 or 6 axis matrices, able to define and deep- would want it. cratic- in a safe, protected and proactive manner en all the elements necessary to generate a b. in any case it is high quality made. towards those who do not belong to this area of plausible contextualization. The designer did a great job. knowledge. On the other hand, Science can be- Speculative Design, because of the themes it deals http://disegnarecon.univaq.it DISEGNARECON volume 12/ n. 23 - December 2019 EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN FOR HERITAGE