Speculative Project Research Articles

Фабио Джирони. Что для нас сделал Кант? Спекулятивный реализм и динамическое кантианство (перевод О. А. Лунева-Коробского)

This publication is a Russian translation of F. Gironi’s paper devoted to a panoramic survey of attempts to relativize Kantian ideas about a priori knowledge. Gironi reconstructs various approaches and interpretations, focusing on the ideas of C. I. Lewis, H. Reichenbach, W. Sellars, and M. Friedman within the context of scientific realism, and relates such forms of dynamic Kantianism to recent speculative projects based on a critique or rejection of Kant’s legacy. In doing so, the author argues that Kant’s ideas on a priori conceptual structures form the core of debates about the role of philosophy vis-a-vis science, as opposed to variants of metaphysics and philosophy of science, which replace the so-called correlationist paradigm of transcendental critique with unconstrained speculation that falls out of step with the realities of modern science. The naturalized Kantianism of W. Sellars appears to be the most promising starting point for subsequent speculative – and transcendental – endeavours in the field of conceptualizing meta-conceptual frameworks that would meet the need to regulate and systematize the reality of scientific discourse. This is precisely what speculative realism, consistent with what we owe to Kant’s philosophy, is supposed to be.

Speculative Capture: Literacy after Platformization

ABSTRACTThis conceptual article examines the role of speculation in driving responses to generative AI platforms in literacy education and the implications for research, pedagogy, and practice. Our focus on “speculation” encompasses two meanings of the term – each of which has inspired lively lines of inquiry in literacy studies and transdisciplinary research on artificial intelligence, respectively. In the first sense, literacy scholars have recognized literacy education as a speculative project – one characterized by the cultivation of particular reading and writing practices in order to prefigure different imagined social futures. In the second sense, scholars of media and computational cultural studies have theorized a different kind of speculative logic that underwrites the design and functioning of AI platforms – one characterized by extrapolative prediction and algorithmic reasoning. Investigating the evolving relationship between these modes of speculation, we argue that the former has allowed literacy education to be uniquely susceptible to the influence of the latter; and likewise, that the latter exerts its influence in ways that remake the former in its image. We theorize this relation as a process of speculative capture, and we highlight its stakes for equitable literacy education. We then conclude by providing provocations for researchers and teachers that may be of use in preempting the collapse of these speculative formations into one another; and perhaps, in mobilizing a conception of the speculative that works productively toward alternative ethico‐political ends.

Unravelling the Nexus of Future Viruses and Human Health: A Comprehensive Review

As humanity strides into an era marked by unprecedented technological advancements and global connectivity, the specter of emerging viral threats looms large. This review endeavours to explore the intricate interplay between future viruses and human health, shedding light on potential scenarios, preventive strategies, and implications for public health. Drawing upon a synthesis of current research, historical precedents, and speculative projections, this paper aims to offer insights into the evolving landscape of viral infections and their ramifications for the well-being of individuals and communities worldwide.

“Stalk Me to the End of Love”: Mutual Watching and Intimate Affections through the Use of Smartphones

“Stalk me to the end of love” is a speculative project of artistic investigation and social experimentation in the digital sphere that questions the way in which affective relationships occur when technological devices mediate them. The project proposes a hyper-surveillance space between equals (peer-to-peer watching) by creating a smartphone app. The app creates a random connection between two users who don’t know each other, allowing an unusual bond of communication and surveillance. In that sense, the main interest in this project is to question the construction of intimacy through the performative use of personal technological devices, as well as the way we are affected in our daily lives by constant and ubiquitous surveillance.

Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Medical Field

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in the medical sciences, revolutionizing various facets of healthcare. Its applications span patient diagnosis, drug discovery, doctor-patient communication enhancement, prescription management, and remote patient care. In recent times, modern AI algorithms have showcased accuracies on par with human expertise, often surpassing human efficiency in specific medical tasks. This research critically examines the impact of AI on the medical field, navigating between the speculative projections and real-world applications. It aims to explore the evolving role of AI in medicine, prompting discussions regarding the potential integration of machine learning in medical fields.

Evaluating Social Impact of Smart City Technologies and Services: Methods, Challenges, Future Directions

This study examines motivations, definitions, methods and challenges of evaluating the social impacts of smart city technologies and services. It outlines concepts of social impact assessment and discusses how social impact has been included in smart city evaluation frameworks. Thematic analysis is used to investigate how social impact is addressed in eight smart city projects that prioritise human-centred design across a variety of contexts and development phases, from design research and prototyping to completed and speculative projects. These projects are notable for their emphasis on human, organisational and natural stakeholders; inclusion, participation and empowerment; new methods of citizen engagement; and relationships between sustainability and social impact. At the same time, there are gaps in the evaluation of social impact in both the smart city indexes and the eight projects. Based on our analysis, we contend that more coherent, consistent and analytical approaches are needed to build narratives of change and to comprehend impacts before, during and after smart city projects. We propose criteria for social impact evaluation in smart cities and identify new directions for research. This is of interest for smart city developers, researchers, funders and policymakers establishing protocols and frameworks for evaluation, particularly as smart city concepts and complex technologies evolve in the context of equitable and sustainable development.

O genetski izazvanim bolestima u romanu „Kralj Bola i skakavac” (Król Bólu i pasikonik) Jaceka Dukaja

The author discusses the historical changes in attitudes towards infectious diseases in the mythological, Christian-religious and scientific worldview before and after the discovery of the causes of these diseases in the context of the types of futuristic fiction. One narrative line of the novel by contemporary Polish writer Jacek Dukaj King of Pain and the Grasshopper (Król Bólu i pasikonik, 2010) is centred on to the production of retroviruses and carcinogenic agents by genetic engineering companies that cause epidemics and destroy wildlife in the southern hemisphere. The text points out the specifics of the author’s descriptions of the cause of the plague and discusses Dukaj’s speculative projections of futuristic fiction.

Data centres on the Moon and other tales: a volumetric and elemental analysis of the coloniality of digital infrastructures

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen the expansion of data centres in mountains, deep oceans and outer space. These infrastructures claim, adapt and interrupt environments for data needs – at times prioritizing these over human and ecological needs, and often to the benefit of only a limited number of stakeholders. From this departure point, this paper explores how volumetric and elementally attuned analytical frameworks can make explicit some of the ways that colonial relations extend to digital infrastructures. The paper explores two vignettes of data centre infrastructures – in the Atacama Desert and in outer space – looking at a range of pre-existing, in-progress and speculative projects. Through this examination, it considers how these frameworks, which stem from Indigenous epistemologies, help to foreground certain processes. First, the obvious and non-obvious ways that colonial logics continue in these infrastructures. Second, understandings of how the volumetric and elemental are differently embodied – such as how thin air mediates labour – which helps to counter flattening discourses that serve to benefit certain actors. Third, the colonial futurities that are embedded in data projects such as those related to radio astronomy, the distribution of orbital flight paths and the demarcation of oceanic graveyards as well as the plans for data centres on the Moon. Finally, this paper also attends to alternative worldviews that can help to unsettle colonialist trajectories.

Ruinous Speculation, Tunnel Environments, and the Sustainable Infrastructures of the Border

AbstractThe US-Mexico borderlands used to host a wide range of natural and social environments, many of which have become irreversibly altered by the structures built to reinforce geopolitical boundaries. To rethink the form and purpose of these borderlands is a political objective of utmost importance, yet most future thinking about the border has remained restricted to imagining new versions of border walls euphemistically rebranded as “sustainable” alternatives. This essay analyzes the limitations of popular design projects that effectively greenwash the securitization imperative of the nation-state. It then turns to a lesser-known speculative project that reimagines the borderlands from the perspective of underground tunnels through a multimedia model. The essay draws on the insights of critical environmental media studies to illustrate the affordances of specific media forms for articulating future worlds with a greater focus on care. This analysis proposes ruinous speculation as an affirmative form of future thinking that orients toward infrastructures that enable human and nonhuman worlds to thrive and away from infrastructures that reinforce the violent hierarchies of the geopolitical divide.

Introduction to “Queer Healing and Transformative Justice”: A Special Issue of QED

Introduction to “Queer Healing and Transformative Justice”: A Special Issue of <i>QED</i>

Cinemanhatta

Both as a concept and a practice, remix has become enshrined in media theory and production. Using an existing creative expression as materials to produce a new creative expression, remix highlights how culture operates through a continual circulation of shared elements. Remix reincorporates this practice into the present culture as an alternative to the dominant logic of the culture industries. &#x0D; However, as a useful principle applied in a general way, the specific cultural and historical conditions of remix’s origins become obscured and mythologized, obscuring how emergence and creativity function as part of culture in specific conditions. Moreover, although we frame remix as an alternative or oppositional practice, it remains compatible with the logic of creativity as the work of the genius or auteurs. It reinforces the idea of art as an expressive object that can be commodified for the consumption of an audience.&#x0D; The time is right to rethink what the term ‘remix’ does and what it accomplishes. Remix presents an alternative to the dominant mode of production, but can it offer a transformative opposition that not only remakes culture, but remakes the ways we make culture? If not, what can? &#x0D; This presentation offers a complementary concept I call “recreative practice”, meant in the sense of re-creative (re-new-ing through creativity) as well as in the sense of recreational (“to refresh oneself by some amusement”). It emerges from a synthesis of Dewey’s writing on the aesthetic experience (1934/2005), Williams’ theory of the residual, dominant and emergent (1977), and Barad’s call responsive/responsible theory (2012). &#x0D; The production of something that has never been is influenced by what has come before, and reception is framed by understanding of what is familiar to us. Recreative practice recognizes that the production of aesthetic experience does not belong to a class apart – culture is ordinary, everyone is creative, and we are constantly generating and circulating culture. Nor are theorists and artists exempt – we are inextricably entangled in the world we seek to transform, and our work, too, is part of a process of the everyday and the ordinary.&#x0D; To further demonstrate recreative practice, I draw from my forthcoming dissertation, An Effective Dream is a Reality, as well as several years’ experimentation with algorithmic cinema. I give this a focus through presentation of speculative project: Cinemanhatta. &#x0D; Cinemanhatta is a speculative proposal building on Manhatta (1921) as a foundation. An antecedent of recreative practice, Manhatta drew on existing creative traditions in a way that created new possibilities for meaning-making and influenced the conditions for meaning-making itself. Cinemanhatta honors that tradition and exemplifies recreative practice by proposing three interrelated projects, each inspired by a significant creative effort: Heidi Rae Cooley’s Finding Augusta and the accompanying Augusta App (2014), Perry Bard’s Man With A Movie Camera: Global Remake (2007-present), and Barbara Lattanzi’s HF Critical Mass (2002). These projects work together to produce a material-semiotic performance of exchange and collaboration, using a set of recreative practices to construct a community of inquiry.

I Don’t Exist: Aesthetics of Virtual Expropriation

Existing in virtual global networks poses questions on how subjects can main- tain agency within them. The shift of digital networks into compartmentalized locked-in platforms facilitates the metamorphosis of subjects into the category of users. The ever-growing absence of a buffer zone between online and offline representation means that online highjacks become increasingly problematic. Currently, there is a rise in emerging efforts to transition bureaucratic citizenship into new modes of digital identity, such as the ID2020 project and other govern- mental projects seeking to implement digital ID in countries like Australia and Canada, or the digital ID proposed by the World Economic Forum. This shift, in some cases from a centralized state as guarantor to a decentralized allocation of identity allows easy verifiability and access to a multiplicity of services and personal data but also poses questions concerning these systems. This research aims to look at the different models of digital identity that are being developed, thinking about their implications. Researching in an art context, the goal is to develop a speculative project related with digital ID and expropriation, reflecting upon the assetisation of identity. The goal is to think through different theories to explore agency within virtual global networks distributed in planetary-scale assemblages of subjects and technological infrastructures.

Sharpening anticipatory design senses for sustainable ‘scentory’ futures

This article investigates speculative design and the olfactory concerning potential future life forms and styles for more long term sustainable and survivable futures. Referring to Anticipatory Design, the article links anticipatory speculative inquiry literature from design, culture and posthumanism. Included is mention of cultural historical and contemporary material on the olfactory and sensory related design. The article reaches beyond current consumerist market practices is cosmetics and perfume. It poses and projects alternative relations between the environment and bio-materials, the olfactory, embodiment, the sensory, and the perceptual.These perspectives are related to leading olfactory projects and emerging trends and are embedded in a speculative olfactory project called XIANGVEI. Through a suite of speculative project artifacts, future life forms and life styles are seen having potential to contribute to wider systemic and collective systems of shaping futures knowledge by ‘scentory’ design. These life forms and styles are discussed in terms of in an eco-cultural-techno anticipatory design futures frame.

See(k)ing pleasure in the contaminated zone: contestations of Muslim-fem visuality

This paper presents a conceptual undertaking into the sexuating logics of post-9/11 surveillance that are deployed to racialize Muslim-fem bodies. From the aesthetic imaginary that artist Zuhra Hilal constructs across her two artworks – An Exploration of the Nameless Anatomy (2015) and Surface (2018-ongoing) – I ask how the veil, as a kind of surrogate and sometimes erotogenic skin, gets read as a racial object not by its color but by the mutability and abstraction of its contiguous surfaces, and by the supplementarity between (imagined) essence and (projected) covering. Through Hilal’s artistic compositions, I demonstrate how the veil might capture a different sight of, and relation to, Muslim-fem bodies, one that participates in a larger speculative project on pleasure, visuality and desire.

The Once and Future Fed – and Treasury

I argue that central banks cannot perform their familiar function of modulating credit-money aggregates without engaging in at least some degree of credit-allocation - specifically, to productive rather than speculative projects - on their own or in collaboration with finance ministries. I show further that the “spread Fed” in the U.S., operative from 1913 to 1935 and working in closecollaboration with Treasury, did just that, and that it was error to end rather than supplement this practice. That error in turn stemmed from a misdiagnosis of where the Fed had gone wrong during the early 1930s. The Fed had gone wrong not in thinking “real bills” discounting necessary to good allocation and modulation of credit, but in thinking it sufficient. For while much of the money supply is endogenous as Wicksell taught, some of it is not - as Wicksell also taught. In future, the Fed will have to return to its allocative pre-1935 focus on productive investment facilitated by regional Fed discounting on the one hand, while retaining its modulatory post-1935 apparatus (FOMC, FRBNY Trading Desk, etc.) for counteracting exogenous shocks to the money supply on the other hand. It will have to attend, in other words, both to Wicksellian “bank money” and to Wicksellian “cumulative processes.” I call the upshot a “Spread,” “Wicksellian,” or “Two-Bladed Scissors” Fed.

Some reasons for talking about Peter Wilson

Alluding to Peter Wilson’s book Some Reasons for Travelling to Italy (2016) and adopting its narrative device, this article invites a journey of discovery into Wilson’s own architectural universe. Listing idiosyncrasies of Wilson’s work and reasons for delving into its multi-layered nature, the article decodes conceptual, figurative, and tectonic references from which Wilson derived his architectural vocabulary. Scanning Wilson’s oeuvre requires traversing distant territories and intimate thresholds, looking simultaneously backwards and forwards, and moving through spatial practices of writing, drawing, and building, which together define its productive complexity. Accordingly, defying a chronological narrative, the article explores a series of built and speculative projects, drawings and installations, offering a transversal reading into accumulations of tropes and relations that underpin Wilson’s work. His categories ‘Appropriations’, ‘Juxtapositions’, ‘Narratives’, ‘Choreographies’, ‘Adjacencies’, ‘Artefacts’, ‘Objects’, ‘Fields’, ‘Material Assemblages’, and ‘Atmospheres’ offer a particular projective taxonomy. The article presents them as a collection of plays, each with a set of rules and its own micro-narrative; each with its own mask. Masks recur in Wilson’s work as both figurative and procedural frameworks embodying his concern with finding a role for the architectural object in the performance of everyday life. Uncovering these masks, the article argues that even though Wilson’s work has distinct evolutionary stages, they cannot be seen as a diachronic succession. They rather fold into each other in a process of constant deviation from their own rules, rejection of fashions, or revalorisation. Such a process of internal folding mirrors Wilson’s consistently provocative and experimental nature. It is one of the reasons why Wilson’s work retains a particular allure, calling for an exploration of its conceptual complexity as well as spatial sensibility, and awakening our imagination.

Archival Futures. Born Digital Architecture Media: Annet Dekker Interviewed by Federica Goffi

The interview by Federica Goffi with curator and researcher Annet Dekker focused on the archival futures of born digital media. Dekker discussed her 2014–2016 collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI), through the speculative project: New Archive Interpretations, which probed into the digital archive as a system of how processes and individuals influence what can and cannot be seen, accessed, distributed, and re-used. Dekker discussed topics such as the dynamic and stable nature of physical and digital archives; the interdependence between born digital media and software and its impact on conservation; the relation between co-production and authorship; and the vital curatorial questions regarding inclusion/exclusion, omission/promotion of materials. Dekker warns about dark archives and the complexity of technical infrastructures and metadata reflecting ideological constructs and socio-cultural views. The interview questioned whether living digital archives can blur the line between the projective dimension of materials and retrospective conservation.

Re-Entangling Design and Science Fiction: The Case of Daleko

The present article discusses how speculative design relates to technoscientific extrapolation, an important science fiction feature, to plan for potential scenarios and prototype viable models of futurity. Through it, the paper outlines some important nuances between different approaches concerning speculative design’s role, considering their particular epistemological assumptions. A specific case is presented and discussed: Daleko (2020), a project developed for the Strelka Institute’s Terraforming program. This project consists of nine science fiction pieces that entangle issues of waste management, technical infrastructure, and climate politics, discussing the problematic conception of waste as a form of externality and imagining future scenarios for managing it through a more holistic perspective. By analysing Daleko’s approach to speculative design, in its final section the article suggests further developing speculative projects in contexts of design education. This would serve towards stimulating designers to ponder how their craft relates to anthropogenic impact and how it can play a decisive role in prospecting more viable future scenarios.

Future waterscapes of the Swiss Jura: using speculative photo-response fabulation techniques with farmers

Abstract. In response to global change and biodiversity loss caused, inter alia, by agricultural practices, our speculative photo-response fabulation project with farmers and beekeepers in the Jura region co-develops perceptions of the future of Switzerland's waterscapes. Research participants imagine and narrate the most probable and most desired futures of waterscapes in 2222. The technique of speculative photo-response fabulation uses photographs to elicit participants' concerns over probable ecosystem degradation and drought in the Jura contrasted with their desired futures of sustainability. In their responses, participants envision actions that support systemic changes in opposition to a frontier spirit of economic profit that causes biodiversity loss.

Bonaventure’s I Sentence Argument for the Trinity from Beatitude

Bonaventure’s Sentence Commentary provides the most comprehensive set of trinitarian arguments to date. This article focuses on just one of them, the one from beatitude. Roughly, beatitude can be thought of as God’s enjoyment of his own, supreme goodness. After a brief rationale of Bonaventure’s speculative project, I assay the concept of beatitude and exposit his four-stage argument. Bonaventure reasons: (i) for a single supreme substance; (ii) for at least two divine persons; (iii) against the possibility for an infinite number of divine persons; (iv) for at least three, and against the possibility of four (or more) divine persons. I show how this line of reasoning is significantly more complex than Bonaventure’s terse summaries initially indicate. My main goal is to explicate the four steps and unpack their main support. Along the way I attend to the argument’s sources, logical progression, and I respond to several concerns.