I read Matthew Ward’s writing about design fiction and his ideas about using it more widely in education. I took it in.

What stood out to me most were a few points in his ‘manifesto’ that deal not only with design fiction, but design itself and speculation in general.

1. All design is ideological.

In my last post I started wondering about the implications of having glass technology become three thousand percent more pervasive (or invasive) in our everyday lives. The video that was shown in the first reading depicted possible tech that, though extremely cool and useful, did make me feel a little uneasy and uncomfortable.

I cut my wondering off though because I felt I was digressing and, even though it’s been hammered in that our blogs are our own and we can write whatever we want on them, I did want to focus more on the reading and not let the post become overly long.

I’m digressing.

Anyway, after seeing the first point on Ward’s manifesto, it’s made me come to reexamine the Corning video. Is this really the “near future” that designers and corporations see us moving into? Is this the world which we are expected to embrace?

The video presents a capitalist, almost utopian society in which everything is fluid and connected. The family members are in perfect harmony with each other, the technology, themselves and life in general. Come on, look at those smiles.

Look daddy, we’re smiling at these stupid shoes like the director told us to!

Now, I’ve just finished my readings in Communications Histories and Technologies about ideologies, cultural codes and signs, so bear with me if I seem to be digging too deep here.

What I’m seeing is a depiction of a “perfect world”, thanks to the help of this new glass technology. In this perfect world, there is no trouble or conflict, as the technology has made everything smooth and seamless. So, what else can we see inside this utopia?

-A nuclear middle/upper class family (the ‘perfect’ family) with a husband, wife and two kids. A symbol of harmony that every citizen should aspire to achieve (‘when I grow up I want to have a family like this’). The implied notion that this is the ideal to live up to is reinforced by how easy and happy their life seems thanks to the technology.
-The wife is a consumer who spends her day shopping. This is perhaps another stereotype of the nuclear family: The man is the breadwinner and does all the work. Wait, maybe it’s just the weekend or a public holiday? Nope, because the…
-Kids are going to school. Private school. I’m not saying this as a knock on private schools or anything, but I’m just pointing out that the world seems to hold this type of education in higher regard, since it is the choice of the ‘perfect’ family.
-The husband has a job paying him enough to be able to afford all this fancy glassware, and is therefore probably educated. Also, he’s reading H.G. Wells.
-Advertising seems to be much more pervasive. Aside from the massive glass screens in the shopping complex, the wife seems to be getting fed personalized alerts from retailers straight to her phone. Brands in this world have much more reach and influence in this consumerist culture.

In summary, what I’m getting from this video is that the world Corning’s designers are designing for is one privileging the higher classes, stereotypical families and consumerism. As a result, what is designed and ultimately produced will shape this society into one that may privilege the higher classes, stereotypical families and consumerism. It becomes a cycle, where designers’ foresee a world in the possible future and adjust their craft to cater to it. In doing so, the designers can end up creating this world, which may not have existed if they didn’t think it would exist in the first place. The factors that influence what worlds these designers will think of stem from ideology and cultural expectation.

In finishing my reflection on this point, it also brings me to one more:

4. The decisions you make have consequences. Prototype them in the stories you tell.

As I just discovered, speculation is not completely harmless. We have to be careful and aware of the ideas we create. Throwing them out into the world in full form, without paying attention to possible effects (that could’ve been found through ways such as design fiction) or discussing and speculating amongst peers, could have negative repercussions.

Adrian called our generation a “vanguard”, and while I feel somewhat honoured to think like that, those words do carry some weight. We are responsible for the future, and we can’t go headfirst without some measure of awareness and deftness.