Collaborative speculation: Anticipation, inclusion and designing counterfactual futures for appropriation

Ann Light

doi:10.1016/j.futures.2021.102855

Abstract

How do people become conversant with futures-in-the-making? This paper explores speculative design from the position that futures have agency in the present and therefore forms of speculation – as well as futures - need to be inclusive. Regarding this as a democratic right throws attention on engagement processes, noting that speculation is often centred on the designer’s interests rather than seeding appropriation by publics. I argue that situating speculation in a way that is accessible for negotiation requires careful attention to the hybrid process + objectartifacts that result from designing both a provocation and a process for encountering it. My central case study describes one such hybrid artifact, a counterfactual workshop for considering futures by exploring different imagined pasts and making a journey towards alternative presents. This play of temporalities – and the accompanying methods for opening and narrowing the creative work of taking these journeys – suggest a means that speculative design might be situated with participants, thereby simultaneously reflecting on and mitigating the anticipatory nature of the materials. I deconstruct this instance of curating speculative artifacts to reveal not only its mechanisms, but the many points where engagement processes reflect political choices.

Highlights

In much speculative design work, objects made to inspire thought about alternative futures are the product of a designer’s specific concerns and reflect them strongly
As I have come to understand the power relations implicit in anticipation, my design practice – which began in participatory design of socio-technical systems and, longer ago, experiential learning to inspire young people’s potential – has attended to the political potential in opening up decision-making by, first, making ‘the future’ more approachable in everyday life (Light 2011); exploring democratic power to impact futures (e.g. Light 2015; Light 2020)
I have argued that ‘there are politics to futures in the present, and ethics to one’s methodology for impacting them, neither of which are often articulated in mainstream design discourse’ (2015)

Summary

Introduction

In much speculative design work, objects made to inspire thought about alternative futures are the product of a designer’s specific concerns and reflect them strongly. The strength of this commitment necessarily narrows the space of alternatives and/or interpretation by others. I have argued that ‘there are politics to futures in the present, and ethics to one’s methodology for impacting them, neither of which are often articulated in mainstream design discourse’ (2015). This is my starting point here too. The paper aligns with work seeking to make anticipation more accessible and does so in the context of a need to rethink how humans live with each other and others species in the face of 21st century urgencies

Anticipation as a form of Present Future

From Scenario to Seed

Case Study

Discussion and Critique

CONCLUSION