Design fiction

– a new way to think about the future (‘an approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling’)

– Bruce Sterling: the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change; its more design than fiction; it tells worlds rather than stories

– new set of tools that gives futurism a ‘second wind’ in certain ways

– vapourware: software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available to buy, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed.

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Futurism is an interesting subject. I think all types of fiction have probably had an influence on the way technology has developed, both influencing and preventing developments.

A film called The Stepford Wives which I studied last year highlights this. It was a warning against technology:

– the women of Stepford are archetypal 1950’s housewives

– they obey the male patriarch of the family in terms of cleaning, sex and representation

– the protagonist Joanna is a symbol of Feminism, as she decries this ideology through her behaviour and unconventional views

– she finds that the wives of Stepford were all killed and replaced by robot replicas who accept themselves as inferior to the men; the men on the other hand thrive in the new technology

– Joanna becomes a symbol of humanity’s possible demise to technology, as she is eventually captured and killed by the Men’s Club before being replaced by a subservient robot; The Men’s Club are the dangerous and powerful institution of Stepford with a misogynistic enterprise; they become symbolic of the way in which industrialisation in America can haunt humanity if technology is exploited

– in the 1970s, the new wave of technology was complimented by the acceptance of women as equal

– the film’s primary purpose was to defend women’s rights and characterise institutions and certain male groups as patriarcal extremists; it however created a wave of technophobia across America and thus influenced the production of certain technological designs

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The Iron Giant is an incredible fiction film that highlights the positives of technology – even if it is goofy imagination…