So the first official symposium kicked off this week. I thought it went very well.

 

A few things stood out for me.  When Brian deemed a lot of sci-fi to be representative of American Imperialism my ears pricked up.  I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the difference between Modernist Thinking versus Design Fiction.

 

What I took away from that discussion was that modernist thinking thinks BIG. It has a top-down assumption about the nature of societal constructions. It is impersonal and sees itself as a way of “improving”, “fixing”. It has an almost authoritative presence.

 

On the other hand, Design Fiction thinks smaller in the sense that it localizes its thoughts. It acknowledges and understands that people are various not singular.  Furthermore it embraces speculative practice and credits non-linear thinking.

 

Found some awesome examples of design fiction here =)