[READING] Design Fiction

On the first article:

• “An approach to design that speculates about new ideas through prototyping and storytelling”
• I love and hate the concept of a robot readable world. I love and hate the idea that a computer is able to articulate all that information on its own. Imagine if there was a highly secure building with these robot turrets, and someone hacked into them and coded them to target any person in its sights. No matter how secure a firewall, there are always people trying to hack it. I imagine that in the next 30 years, we will get into a new cold war based on cyber warfare, and it’s already happening. Anyhow, I like the simple oldschool computer aesthetics of the video. Interesting concept.
• So much glass. In the future, stones will be the weapon of choice.
• I love watching old movies set in the future and seeing how close they were in predicting technology. “Blade Runner” was a bit off with the giant pyramids.

Conclusion: Design fiction is something I really enjoy seeing in film. You watch a film like “Minority Report” and just observe all the technology that they throw at you every five seconds. Thought has gone into every little detail. One film coming out is the sophomore effort from director Neill Blomkamp, “Elysium” with Matt Damon. There are a lot of technologies in the trailer that look really interesting. I also like seeing stuff lying around on the net, like potential prototypes of a new iPhone. This one is a bit farfetched with the hologram, but I love the concept of the keyboard projection, and that could be extended to gaming as well, with the buttons projected onto your desk so you dont have to cover the screen to interact with the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsBwnv_dAg

Onto number 2:

• Pedagogic Practice
• Focusing on fictional design is important because when the time comes when we have the technology to make some of these fictitious designs, we can say “hey, we thought of this concept 20 years ago, we can finally make it, here are all the logistics and research we have for it.”
• And design fiction is also important for the young minds of today to theorize about to prepare for the future. Design fiction produces unfiltered genius. You are given a sandbox to play in with no restrictions.
• Haha, I love the idea that we should tell stories with these designs before we can make them just to make sure nothing bad happens. We won’t be making androids any time soon.

Conclusion: Keep thinking up new designs for the future, because not only will it shape the future, but it is also entertaining to people to fascinate over what may come. And also sci-fi movies are cool.