http://speculativeedu.eu/approaches-methods-and-tools-for-speculative-design/
A look into Speculative Design approaches, methods and tools and introduction to the building of the online repository by Salvatore Iaconesi.
In the SpeculativeEdu project, we have tried to gather together a wider understanding of how designers and other practitioners use Speculative Design techniques in order to compose future scenarios. On top of that, we have reflected on how these techniques can be introduced in education processes and paths to trigger ethical, critical, innovative designs which are able to bring together different publics in participatory ways.To do this, we have used a series of different sources of information.
First of all, we used the interviews with Speculative Design practitioners that were collected during the project, in which we investigated how different subjects and organisations approach Speculative Design and related practices, how they integrate them in their work, what scenarios they envision for Speculative Design, and how they imagine it being integrated in education practices.
On top of that, we performed extensive research about the tools, materials, models and process architectures that different practitioners use in their practice, as well as in workshops, courses, corporate sessions, and more.
As part of the SpeculativeEdu project we are creating an online repository of materials, documentation, tools and references so that a series of resources can be made easily accessible to perform Speculative Design processes, and to be able to have these resources coming from multiple origins readily available for analysis, to better understand the wider picture of Speculative Design as it is intended from multiple parties and organisations.
The online repository is HERE, and it will be mentioned multiple times in this article, to have some practical examples available.AnalysisFrom both types of inspection, it appears clear how most subjects in the domain intend Speculative Design as an approach, more than as a formal methodology, with the intent of bringing together multiple disciplines, skills, competences, cultures and interests, and to have the flexibility which is necessary, first of all, to convey the results of the technical and technological investigations into narrative form and diegetic outputs which are able to engage all senses. And, then, to be able to have the irony, curiosity and spectacularity which is necessary in order to engage different kinds of people, from niche to mainstream, so that the information and knowledge coming from science and technology do not remain in the technical domain, but become an opportunity to bring communities together into a critical reflection around possible future scenarios of their cities, environment, schools, offices, homes, etc.
