SPECULATIVE DESIGN
Image credit: Martin Jordan / LinkedIn / Germany
In October 2024, Ania Karzek from the City of Holdfast Bay was invited to speak at a Design in Government Conference in Helsinki, Finland. One of the conference sessions was from a Swedish designer, who shared their experiences about speculative design. Here’s all you need to know about this special, and very exciting, branch of design.
Speculative design explores possible futures and "what if" scenarios. It blends design, art, technology and critical thinking to create objects, systems, or experiences that expand the boundaries of our current understanding. The goal is not to predict future trends with precision but to explore possible futures in ways that provoke thought, inspire discussion, and offer fresh perspectives on the world we live in.
If you could take a pill and become good at maths, would you want one? How often would you be willing to take it? How much would you pay? What side effects would you be willing to endure? What information would you be willing to hand over to get it, or enable it to work? Would you give it to your children? What might change in our world if a pill enabled anyone to be good at maths? What do your answers potentially tell us about our society, technology, environment, economy, and politics?
Other than some interesting thought experiments and the potential fun of designing something unheard of, what’s the point? Firstly, refer to the quote attributed to Albert Einstein above – we’re not going to solve problems by the same thinking that created them. Secondly, while we can’t predict the future, we are creating it. The decisions we make today (or those we don’t make) ripple into the future.
If we speculate forward, we might be better able to design backwards to achieve what we desire, rather than just have to accept unintentional outcomes based on what is true today. Speculative design challenges us to think beyond the here and now. Instead of being constrained by current capabilities and norms, we can explore new possibilities, consider complex matters that can’t be solved today, and explore ethical issues we don’t have clarity, safe spaces or answers for right now. For example, the implications of AI, privacy in a digital world, and social sustainability in a divided world.
Explore more about speculative design as a discipline and examples of where it is being used, here:
Thinking - School of Critical Design
Extrapolation Factory
SpeculativeEduAn overview of contemporary speculative practice - SpeculativeEdu
Vinnova is Sweden's innovation agency | Vinnova
8 Spectacular Speculative Designs That Will Blow Your Mind | by Giorgia Lombardo | DeMagSign | Medium
And, because this content was inspired by Finland, here’s a bonus link for information about Finland’s extraordinary approach to public policy-making: Front page - Sitra.
If you’d like any information about the contents of presentations at the Design in Government Conference, contact Ania at akarzek@holdfast.sa.gov.au or pose a question on the BPIN Viva Engage site.
