Week 2 – Design Fiction

Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling explains that Design Fiction relies heavily on a diegetic approach to creating future objects and services that strive to tell worlds rather than stories.

The emphasis is on the design and not the fiction component. These are technologies that through serious design consideration will enrich future lives and activities in a practical manner and that’s what separates DF from potentially fraudulent Science-fiction properties. DF is not an excuse for poorly conceived, weakly thought through design work. Although the idea of DF live in a fictional realm it doesn’t mean that important design decisions are obsolete. Mathew Ward says “All DF operates in the world – it does something to somebody: be clear and articulate about its intension, create a framework to test its success.”

The diegetic nature of Design Fiction is of primary importance. Design is ever changing and evolving as our world around us develops:

Whether a week, month, year or decade away, designers produce propositions for a world that is yet to exist. Every decision we make is for a world and set of conditions that are yet to be, we are a contingent practice that operates at the boundaries of reality. What’s different is the temporality, possibility and practicality of the fictions that we write.

This passage here reminded me of Adrian’s tutorial discussion about future media professions. That we as students in 2013 are learning skills to take into a professional role that is perhaps not established yet due to the rapid progression of media and technology. We must look forward to future possibilities “in a world that sits, sometimes just slightly, out of sight.”

In 2001: A Space Odyssey we see what resembles Apple iPads. I found the idea of Sci-fi films predetermining or predicting future design fascinating and found an online post that compares the hits and misses of The 10 Most Prophetic Sci-fi Movies.