Tag Archives: Design Fiction

Conceptual thinking and Alan Turing

Posted on by under Networked Media

Turing’s persona captured in stone. Photo: Duane Wessels

Alan Turing is someone that you might not know of directly, but chances are you’ve used a computer at some point. You’re more than likely using one to read this. One of the great conceptual thinkers of the 20th century, Turing was responsible for designing the concepts for some of the worlds first electronic stored-program computers, as well as being one of the world forerunners in concepts regarding artificial intelligence and emotional intelligence of computers. While he didn’t physically invent such devices and technologies, his thought processes and methods of thinking and design were what have brought a lot of the technology we utilise today into life. Mind you, this was all happening in the 1940’s. Someone was good at speculation and creative thinking.

Not only known internationally for his concepts and designs, Turing was also integral in the deciphering the German codes used in WWII and enabling the Allies to intercept messages and read them. Asa Briggs, a historian and wartime codebreaker has some nice things to say about him.

You needed exceptional talent, you needed genius at Bletchley and Turing’s was that genius.

His main three accomplishments were his input into the fields of codebreaking, computing and AI.

What makes this tragic is that he was lost at a relatively early age. Whether it be accidental or suicide, the case was never resolved. But Turing’s life was impeded by a number of social issues that still affect us in ways some 60 years down the track. Turing was a homosexual, at the time, this was considered illegal. When his relationship with another male became known he was officially charged. To escape going to prison, he elected to be chemically castrated. That pretty much means they pumped him with oestrogen to try and suppress his sexual tendencies.  While the effects of this were tragic on Turing’s life and self, the fields he worked in suffered even greater losses.

He was imprisoned at the height of his work, he worked for the government breaking codes and had access to government data that was confidential. Because homosexuals were considered a “security threat” – something to do with being subject to blackmail – he was forced to leave his position. Without access to such a high level of resources, there’s no doubt his work was hindered. He continued to work with the Universities he was attached to during his life, but his death marked a tragic end to his work. Perhaps if he had lived another 20 years we could have seen his concepts come to be much faster? Who knows what sort of unlimited knowledge was present in such a mind. His ability to think creatively, conceptually and utilise elements of what we know today as “design fiction” perhaps would have yielded some incredible technological advances much earlier in the 20th century.

The Cinema

Posted on by under Entertainment, Life

Beauty, atmosphere and experience. Photo: Andrew Tseng

After being a recluse (a cinema-recluse at least) for most of 2012, the last 10 months have seen more cinema action for me then I have experienced in a long time. Why? Well firstly, my girlfriend’s family bought a new TV with a bonus offer of free movie tickets each fortnight, so I don’t have to pay. But more so I think it is because of a reinvigorated love of cinema. The atmosphere in a cinema can’t be replicated, except for in the best home cinemas (I know of one in particular, which may be discussed in greater detail at a later date), there’s just something special about the gargantuan screen – I love a good dose of Vmax – and the engulfing wall of sound that exists in a movie theatre.

I can’t even remember all the films I’ve watched in the last 12 months, but I’ll do my best to recount some of the more memorable ones for you:

Don’t know about any others. Those were the ones that popped to mind. Interestingly enough, I’d be willing to go on record and say they were pretty much all outstanding films (with the exception of the start of The Wolverine being a little arduous). What’s great is the fact that I have been able to really resonate and think on a much deeper level with a lot of these films then I have previously, thanks to a little bit of enthusiasm and interest. I’ve always loved cinema, but recently I’ve really found its my passion – something that I can understand and relate to.

Red One. The future of cinema. Photo: Neilson Eney

I saw Elysium tonight, and while I agree to an extent that District 9 director Neill Blomkamp might be flogging a dead horse in terms of the conceptual thinking (well some critics seem to say so, personally I really like the thinking, you could call it design fiction), Elysium still stands as a film in its own right and shouldn’t be compared to the more creative and alternatively created District 9. The movie had the right level of emotional depth, politics and story to balance off against the high impact and fast paced violence. I didn’t feel like the fighting and action overshadowed the plot or values the movie projected – like a lot of films do tend to do in our highly fantastic and computer orientated industry.

What got me thinking today however was the relation between how we think of cinema and how we think of the essay. Adrian obviously chose to provide Graham’s article on the essay as one of the week 4 readings for a reason. To me after my deep thinking and speculation for the evening, I really feel that effectively this sort of ideology stands true for the film as well. You’d be hard pressed to find a cinema class at a university that focuses on the future of film – or even current film. We’re stuck in this trend of studying the classics. Learning how the classics work, when really, the cinema is heading in a completely different direction. Sure, the classics are the foundations of cinema and they let you understand how the Classic Hollywood, the French New Wave or the  Soviet Realist works (etc, etc). But what about learning how to understand cinema as it stands today, or how its progressing? The technologies behind it, a greater understanding of effects and digital effects. Are we afraid to admit how great an influence special effects has had on the cinema?

Our good friend Peter Jackson once again has a great idea on this. 48fps is the future. Advancing and progressing the art of cinema through contemporary and future technologies is high on Jackson’s important things to do list. Embrace new technology, respect the past – understand its workings – but most of all keep an open mind and embrace the future. It is obvious that cinema studies is intended to be what it is, to understand the classics and film history. But my question is, why isn’t there ever a course on offer that studies cinema as it is today and into the future?

 

Science Vs. Creativity

Posted on by under Networked Media, Theories

Albert Einstein liked creativity. Photo: Sofi

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the entire world. – Albert Einstein

Two age old arch-nemesis’ who have spent centuries being pitted against each other head on the in public secondary education system. Until you leave high-school you’re either an academic (primarily science or maths inclined) or you’re a creative (arts student), then when you get out of school you realise that these qualities can co-exist and that you’ve been living a lie and just wasted twelve years of your life. Well, at least that’s how the school system makes you feel. Most of the time.

So now it’s the next big thing, integrating science and creativity on a pedagogical level and in the industry. This is huge, alarming, revolutionary stuff. It isn’t really, the concept has been around for ages. Lots of scientists were also big “creative” thinkers outside of their crafts. Aside from that, science does require a level of creativity, at least when it comes to scientific advancements and inventions. But this Design Fiction stuff, this is something that’s new and innovative. Even if it’s just the scale that the ideas are considered on.

Science fiction, disgusting, isn’t that what nerds watch? How can that stuff be good for the world, it’s just a way for freaky teenage boys to get off over beautiful blue women and intergalactic princesses (Wiki’s are a wonderful thing, aren’t they). Well Not anymore (if it even was in the past). Design Fiction is the new Science Fiction. It’s professional, has integrity and isn’t based around alien species with voluptuous figures. Thanks to Bruce Sterling, the concept of sci-fi (that is speculation and creativity in regards to possible futures) is now a viable method of design and creativity, one that is increasing our human capacity for creative freedom. I talk about the basics of this here: Design Fiction.

As Simon Grand and Martin Wiedmer discuss in, Design Fiction: A Method Toolbox for Design Research in a Complex World, the manner in which science is treated and utilised is changing and adapting, with a interests invested in how scientific research could be used for creativity and constructive processes. Design processes are being incorporated with this idea to construct what we now know as Design Fiction, and use it to develop and research in our “complex world”.

They argue that Design fiction is a “toolbox” of methods that should be utilised in design research in order to accommodate the future needs of our world. In relation to design research and it’s relation to scientific practice and research, they identify six criteria that are considered important for the functionality of this “toolbox”:

  • (1) design fiction requires methods, practices and tools which allow for the creation and construction of possible future worlds, in relation to the actual world;
  • (2) furthermore, these  methods, practices and tools must allow for materializing those possible future worlds, in terms of images, artifacts and interactions realized in diverse media;
  • (3) in addition, it is important to develop a method toolbox which is characterized by a plurality of different perspectives and approaches, which get beyond ideological premises and allow to map and assemble the pluralities and the multitude of potentially relevant perspectives;
  • (4) furthermore, these methods and tools must be able to represent, visualize and document the experimentation processes;
  • (5) then, we emphasized the importance of understanding experimentation as being generated through an experimental system, which implies a focus on asking a series of questions, allowing for a series of experiments, or the exploration of a series of related hypotheses. Finally,
  • (6) it is important to understand that these multiple methods and tools, visualizations and representations, experiments and questions, will change the design research practices themselves over time.
These six criteria highlight the underlying principles that Design Fiction is based upon and also provides a basis off which future research and creativity should rely. These ideas also form my “take-away” idea from this article.
In order to possess the most power in constructing and creating ideas, technologies and texts, possible futures and future outcomes must be established and explored. It is essential in understanding ideologies and their relations to society and its contents and to explore them until it is possible to deconstruct them and work outside their boundaries. Questions must be asked, speculations must be made in order to attempt to cover all possible futures and outcomes. It is through these questions and speculations that we can address the issues and perspectives that are important and relevant to our work in the future. Most importantly, as highlighted in the sixth criterion, is that through the experimentation, speculation and questioning that is present in design research, the actual processes themselves will change.
Adapting is an important aspect. A system established to encourage speculation and adaption must itself adapt when it’s limits and boundaries are reached.
That was heavy, dense and somewhat challenging to interpret. I think I’ve nutted out what’s truly important in context to networked media, my education, career and future.

 

Design Fiction

Posted on by under Networked Media, Theories, Theories and Philosophy

Startling Stories from the land of fiction. Photo: G. Crombrugg

Design Fiction has an important role to play in learning and enhancing our mind’s ability to adapt and create in the present and future. It can best be described, as Bruce Sterling said in this interview with Slate.com, as: “the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change”.

While this idea has been around for a while and has played a major role in the Sci-Fi genre over the years (Think 2001: A Space Oddyssey), the idea of incorporating design fiction in a pedagogical (educational) sense is something that is relatively new. There seems to be many arguments for utilising this sort of design in education. It teaches students the fundamentals concepts behind design, rather than teaching them the skills required to design. With these concepts, students are capable of designing and constructing medias and ideas well into the future. This is a perfect example of equipping individuals with the ability to adapt to change and any skills or disciplines they wish to partake in, rather than simply teaching them a skill-set that must be advanced when it expires, or is replaced by new technology.

Networked media at RMIT seems to allign very closely to the goals and reasoning behind design fiction. It’s obviously something that Adrian has looked into and watched closely.

After reading Matthew Ward’s, “Design Fiction as a Pedagogic Practice“, there was one point I took away that really stuck with me. I think it’s something that is important in all aspects of life if one is to be creatively free and possess freedom:

“1. All design is ideological

The social, cultural and political basis of those ideologies need to be exposed, interpreted and explored. In DF the ideological drive is laid bare for all to see. Deconstructing the economic and political underpinning of design is an essential skill to develop.”

The deconstruction and analysis of ideologies allows a proper understanding of why people act the way they do and why the world operates in the way it does. Understanding this allows you to break free of these boundaries and the shackles that are chained to your wrists and feet as a prisoner of society, and with this comes extraordinary creative freedom and possibility. That is not to say that ideologies are not important parts of society. They are. It is impossible to live without ideology. But it is important to understand and explore the possibilities that ideology presents.

Adrian Miles and Networked media aren’t the only things heading in this direction though. In my second semester (1st Year) at RMIT I have already been exposed to this idea of exploring and interpreting ideologies through the class Communication Histories and Technologies.

Aside from this idea, the other message that I am absorbing is to freely experiment and speculate. There’s no way to be innovative and creative without the freedom to speculate or explore new and untested ideas. There is a certain element of risk that needs to be accepted if one is to be creative.

The future of media and communication professionals seems to be pointing in a direction based around this sort of education and schools of thought. The people of the media will have a greater mental capacity for creativity and design that has never been experienced in such force. I’m excited to be part of this movement.

 

 

 

Disclaimer | Background image: Emma Gawen
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