Design Fiction
Design Fiction: A Short Essay
Julian Bleecker
What id design: Design allows the imagination to be used and make new thing a possibility. When something is designed is means that someone has thought and imagination to do things better and come with with an improved solution for a problem. Whether this is in industrial design, graphic design, software, or finance, even the most seemingly "undesigny" fields have the potential for new solutions to be designed.
A lot of science fiction from the past has produced creative ideas that have been taken advantage of or sprouted ideas for use today. There are many accepted and academic ways for thinning and creating new ideas but using science fiction is not accepted yet can produce very creative solutions. Science fiction and science fact are actually very close in practice and are really both out to achieve the same thing. And especially since science fiction alleviates most constraints that science fact has, it leads to very creative solutions to problems, this may be why it is the more exciting of the two.
Science fiction could be viewed as a context for prototyping, just as the world is a prototype as such; many design prototypes are populating this new world, and all these are created by an art director or author. This is design fiction. And they do not need to show all the objects in this world, but just enough for an audience to be enlightened or excited enough to catalyze discussions.
Bleecker suggests that the sweet spot for design fiction is half was between science fact and science fiction. He says that both of these are unappealing in their pure states, science fact is too disciplined and boring, not inventive at all, were as pure science fiction is too unfathomable. A spot in between allows enough imagination and enough reality to make imagination feasible and exciting. This leads to serious and real discussions of what the future could be.
Many fields in science and technology rely although practice science fact rely strongly on imagining beyond fact to inform what will be done next and to provoke excitement. An idea that is in it's speculative stage is science fiction, but can be made viable in a disciplined environment by calling it a theoretical prototype. It is say that something is most likely not possible but trying it anyway because it is exciting and new.
Key points - Fact and fiction constantly interchange, in between fact and fiction is where design fiction thrives. Design fictions show potential and expansion on what is fact to show potential for tomorrow.
Both examples use ubiquitous computing
Fiction follows fact. The example that is presented is the gestural control presented to us at the start of the movie "Minority Report". The gestural ubiquitous computer is shown as a potential solution to changes that might happen in the future with crime investigation. Instead of explaining all of this the design fiction shows the diagesis for the audience. So it is a storytelling device to explain the context of the future. This idea was suggested by the films technical advisor who worked in the Tangible Media Group at M.I.T and already similar prototypes for gestural computing control but the film allowed the full potential to be shown and for the idea to be circulated in the mainstream which.
Fact follows fiction.
Bleecker describes the source of inspiration for ubicomp (ubiquitous computing) as being science fiction. The initial goals of ubicomp were of science fiction at the time. "The first is the way ubicomp imagines the future it aspires to and constructs through its projects. Second are some of the important themes and central concerns that exist in its shared imaginary, many of which also find expression in science fiction proper". Ubicomp started at Xeorx PARC in the 1980's to help move computing to a more accessible place, mainly based around the GUI, now we take the interfaces we have on mobile and computers for granted but back then what we have was of science fiction. But drawing precisely on science fiction the engineers at Xerox PARC were able to bring improvements and make computing better. It is suggested that Ubicomp makes sense to be compared side by side with science fiction.
The Future is Now:
Diegetic prototypes: these have a large advantage over standard prototypes as they can be tested out in a hypothetical situation and context. Although it is hypothetical thousands of people will often see the films that these diegetic prototypes star in so it helps adjust public perception and increase public excitement about a certain technology. This undoubtedly leads to real world development of new technology that once did not exist, because people accept it and believe it is possible.
A movie in 1981 detailing the first heart transplant allowed a smoother and more accepted lead up to the real first heart transplant in 1982, the scientific advisor who designed the heart in the movie actually designed the artificial heart that was used in the transplant. The movie helped change peoples acceptance of the technology.
Social forces are huge part of the transition of prototypes to inventions. As well as developing the necessary technology to make a prototype it also needs to be a "performative artifact" to convince people that it is possible will integrate into society. This is where diegetic prototypes are really effective as the are shown in a societal context in films so they fill that requirement a lot better than traditional prototypes which don't present themselves as being in society in anyway. Deigetic prototypes can be seen as social grooming to allow the real development to begin. In this was design fiction can be very helpful for changing the future and changing perspectives.
The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 science fiction film based on VR technology to tell a story. The director Brett Leonard had many contacts in the cutting edging computing sector so he could be advised on what was either non mainstream or things that were being developed to become a reality soon - in the void between science fiction and science fact; design fiction.
One of Germany's early rocket scientists Herman Oberth was invited to advise on a famous directors movie (Frtiz Lang) on space travel called Woman on the Moon. Oberth had been trying to gain funding to take his ideas to reality. Lang's new film allowed the idea of space travel to seem very real and viable. There was also a planned 2m long liquid fuel rocket to launch for the premiere but Oberth could not get it to launch successfully. But the rocket in films take off scene did such a good job as a diegetic prototype that people were utterly convinced. This changed the opinion of many investors and government officials who raved about the the possibilities. Although space flight didn't occur for another 40 years another slur of space exploration films in the 1940's ramped up excitements about space travel, such as Destination Moon in the US which was at time leading into the Cold War.
Science fiction can be authentic and
Back to the Future: 10 Years of Design Fiction
Joseph Lindley
Paul Coulton
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a2a2/0834d8debb32acf50b5f2c24fc6b020f013b.pdf
Design Fiction is a term from 2005, created by the Science Fiction author Bruce Steerling. Design fiction is a creative generative practice that organically used by Bruce Steerling to help him think about how design thinking influenced his writing. Although starting out quite ambiguous it has developed over the years, the most recent description by Sterling is "the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change". It is a concept that is slowly being given more depth this paper tries to develop the understand to capture some of it's power for HCI (Human computer interaction".
Due to its flexibility there is a level of ambiguity surrounding design fiction. In Sterlings latest definition of design fiction he refers to diagesis (diagetic prototypes) which means a plot or story. So the prototype is one that exists in a particular story. "Suspemding disbelief" from Sterling's definition means to develop understanding and thinking rather than show solutions. So it is not to show exactly how things will be, but to help raise topics of discussion.
Design fiction becomes complex when considering the vast number of worlds and stories that it could be applied to, and the strong influence of Hollywood on one of the main mediums we view design fiction through - films.
Design fictions are able to experiment with limitless options for protoyping and provide good concept and context comparison to influence future design for future scenarios. The reason there is so much fragmentation in design fiction is because of number of different diegesis and the different things that are being created in that world shows why this theory is difficult to pin point.
Julian Bleecker
What id design: Design allows the imagination to be used and make new thing a possibility. When something is designed is means that someone has thought and imagination to do things better and come with with an improved solution for a problem. Whether this is in industrial design, graphic design, software, or finance, even the most seemingly "undesigny" fields have the potential for new solutions to be designed.
A lot of science fiction from the past has produced creative ideas that have been taken advantage of or sprouted ideas for use today. There are many accepted and academic ways for thinning and creating new ideas but using science fiction is not accepted yet can produce very creative solutions. Science fiction and science fact are actually very close in practice and are really both out to achieve the same thing. And especially since science fiction alleviates most constraints that science fact has, it leads to very creative solutions to problems, this may be why it is the more exciting of the two.
Science fiction could be viewed as a context for prototyping, just as the world is a prototype as such; many design prototypes are populating this new world, and all these are created by an art director or author. This is design fiction. And they do not need to show all the objects in this world, but just enough for an audience to be enlightened or excited enough to catalyze discussions.
Bleecker suggests that the sweet spot for design fiction is half was between science fact and science fiction. He says that both of these are unappealing in their pure states, science fact is too disciplined and boring, not inventive at all, were as pure science fiction is too unfathomable. A spot in between allows enough imagination and enough reality to make imagination feasible and exciting. This leads to serious and real discussions of what the future could be.
Many fields in science and technology rely although practice science fact rely strongly on imagining beyond fact to inform what will be done next and to provoke excitement. An idea that is in it's speculative stage is science fiction, but can be made viable in a disciplined environment by calling it a theoretical prototype. It is say that something is most likely not possible but trying it anyway because it is exciting and new.
Key points - Fact and fiction constantly interchange, in between fact and fiction is where design fiction thrives. Design fictions show potential and expansion on what is fact to show potential for tomorrow.
Both examples use ubiquitous computing
Fiction follows fact. The example that is presented is the gestural control presented to us at the start of the movie "Minority Report". The gestural ubiquitous computer is shown as a potential solution to changes that might happen in the future with crime investigation. Instead of explaining all of this the design fiction shows the diagesis for the audience. So it is a storytelling device to explain the context of the future. This idea was suggested by the films technical advisor who worked in the Tangible Media Group at M.I.T and already similar prototypes for gestural computing control but the film allowed the full potential to be shown and for the idea to be circulated in the mainstream which.
Fact follows fiction.
Bleecker describes the source of inspiration for ubicomp (ubiquitous computing) as being science fiction. The initial goals of ubicomp were of science fiction at the time. "The first is the way ubicomp imagines the future it aspires to and constructs through its projects. Second are some of the important themes and central concerns that exist in its shared imaginary, many of which also find expression in science fiction proper". Ubicomp started at Xeorx PARC in the 1980's to help move computing to a more accessible place, mainly based around the GUI, now we take the interfaces we have on mobile and computers for granted but back then what we have was of science fiction. But drawing precisely on science fiction the engineers at Xerox PARC were able to bring improvements and make computing better. It is suggested that Ubicomp makes sense to be compared side by side with science fiction.
The Future is Now:
Diegetic Prototypes and the Role of Popular Films in Generating Real-world Technological Development.
David Kirby
Diegetic prototypes: these have a large advantage over standard prototypes as they can be tested out in a hypothetical situation and context. Although it is hypothetical thousands of people will often see the films that these diegetic prototypes star in so it helps adjust public perception and increase public excitement about a certain technology. This undoubtedly leads to real world development of new technology that once did not exist, because people accept it and believe it is possible.
A movie in 1981 detailing the first heart transplant allowed a smoother and more accepted lead up to the real first heart transplant in 1982, the scientific advisor who designed the heart in the movie actually designed the artificial heart that was used in the transplant. The movie helped change peoples acceptance of the technology.
Social forces are huge part of the transition of prototypes to inventions. As well as developing the necessary technology to make a prototype it also needs to be a "performative artifact" to convince people that it is possible will integrate into society. This is where diegetic prototypes are really effective as the are shown in a societal context in films so they fill that requirement a lot better than traditional prototypes which don't present themselves as being in society in anyway. Deigetic prototypes can be seen as social grooming to allow the real development to begin. In this was design fiction can be very helpful for changing the future and changing perspectives.
The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 science fiction film based on VR technology to tell a story. The director Brett Leonard had many contacts in the cutting edging computing sector so he could be advised on what was either non mainstream or things that were being developed to become a reality soon - in the void between science fiction and science fact; design fiction.
One of Germany's early rocket scientists Herman Oberth was invited to advise on a famous directors movie (Frtiz Lang) on space travel called Woman on the Moon. Oberth had been trying to gain funding to take his ideas to reality. Lang's new film allowed the idea of space travel to seem very real and viable. There was also a planned 2m long liquid fuel rocket to launch for the premiere but Oberth could not get it to launch successfully. But the rocket in films take off scene did such a good job as a diegetic prototype that people were utterly convinced. This changed the opinion of many investors and government officials who raved about the the possibilities. Although space flight didn't occur for another 40 years another slur of space exploration films in the 1940's ramped up excitements about space travel, such as Destination Moon in the US which was at time leading into the Cold War.
Science fiction can be authentic and
Back to the Future: 10 Years of Design Fiction
Joseph Lindley
Paul Coulton
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a2a2/0834d8debb32acf50b5f2c24fc6b020f013b.pdf
Design Fiction is a term from 2005, created by the Science Fiction author Bruce Steerling. Design fiction is a creative generative practice that organically used by Bruce Steerling to help him think about how design thinking influenced his writing. Although starting out quite ambiguous it has developed over the years, the most recent description by Sterling is "the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change". It is a concept that is slowly being given more depth this paper tries to develop the understand to capture some of it's power for HCI (Human computer interaction".
Due to its flexibility there is a level of ambiguity surrounding design fiction. In Sterlings latest definition of design fiction he refers to diagesis (diagetic prototypes) which means a plot or story. So the prototype is one that exists in a particular story. "Suspemding disbelief" from Sterling's definition means to develop understanding and thinking rather than show solutions. So it is not to show exactly how things will be, but to help raise topics of discussion.
Design fiction becomes complex when considering the vast number of worlds and stories that it could be applied to, and the strong influence of Hollywood on one of the main mediums we view design fiction through - films.
Design fictions are able to experiment with limitless options for protoyping and provide good concept and context comparison to influence future design for future scenarios. The reason there is so much fragmentation in design fiction is because of number of different diegesis and the different things that are being created in that world shows why this theory is difficult to pin point.
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