Props to Prototypes: Design Fiction Part 2 Design Connexity 2009

Props to Prototypes
Julian Bleecker
Design Connexity
Part 2 of a short slideshow
Aberdeen, Scotland
April 2, 2009
on design, science, fact and
ﬁction.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Part 1

http://cli.gs/DesignFictionEssay

Julian Bleecker
Design Connexity
Aberdeen, Scotland
April 2, 2009


4 Quotes About The Future


You never change things by ghting the existing model. To
change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete”
~ R. Buckminster Fuller


“As I’ve said many times, the future is here. It’s just not
evenly distributed”
~ William Gibson


“Fiction is evolutionarily valuable because it allows low-
cost experimentation compared to trying things for real”
~ Dennis Dutton OH on @kevinmarks’ Twitter


“The Future Is Always Over Sold And Under Imagined”
~ Chris Luebkeman


This Is My Context


I Play Here


And I Also Play Here


These Ideas Do Not Represent..


But In Some Near Future, They May..


Part I
Undisciplined Practice


Me?

An Engineer
+
Science Studies


Why Engineering & Science Studies?

To make new, more habitable near-future worlds


How?

Material practices that allow for the making of things
+
Knowledge practices that allow for the making of meaning


How Practically?

Technology Practices
Art Practices
Design Practices


John-Rhys Newman
http://rhysnewman.com

Things Have Been Otherwise


Swerving Systems of Meaning
Epistemological Wrenches


Part II
The Special Effect of Knowledge Making


Three “technologies” for epistemological
change management

1. A material technology embedded in the construction
and operation of the air-pump

2. A literary technology by means of which the
phenomena produced by the pump were made known
to those who were not direct witnesses

3. A social technology that incorporated the conventions
that experimental philosophers should use in dealing
with each other and considering knowledge-claims


Speci cations for Epistemological Wrenches

Latour Shapin & Shaffer
1. Instruments
1. Material
2. Colleagues
2. Literary
3. Allies
3. Social
4. Publics
5. Links & Knots


So...what?
How does this relate to making new kinds of near-
future worlds?


The Special Effect


http://cli.gs/p4X92W


http://cli.gs/s9NNgp


Realistic dinosaurs as a special-effect, produced to be
visually compelling as a “prop” to help tell a story more
compelling than a dowdy documentary.

http://cli.gs/ZX9R5t


Dark Knight
http://cli.gs/GzHJhW


Stories Matter More Than Features, Specs And Engineering


Diegetic Prototype

quot;..cinematic depictions of future technologies are actually “diegetic
prototypes” that demonstrate to large public audiences a technology’s need,
benevolence, and viability. I show how diegetic prototypes have a major
rhetorical advantage over true prototypes: in the diegesis these technologies
exist as “real” objects that function properly and which people actually use.quot;
David A. Kirby, “The Future Is Now: Diegetic Prototypes, and the
Cinematic Creation of the Future” (pre-pub)


Diegetic Prototype

quot;..cinematic depictions of future technologies are actually “diegetic
prototypes” that demonstrate to large public audiences a technology’s need,
benevolence, and viability. I show how diegetic prototypes have a major
rhetorical advantage over true prototypes: in the diegesis these technologies
exist as “real” objects that function properly and which people actually use.quot;
David A. Kirby, “The Future Is Now: Diegetic Prototypes, and the
Cinematic Creation of the Future” (pre-pub)

Wow. Stories matter when designing the future. Maybe
even more than the “real thing” in terms of their ability to
ﬂash-bang the imagination of real people. Ideas are more
powerful than a crappy product that aspires to the idea.

Science Fiction Can Do Things Science Fact Cannot.


How William Shatner Changed The World
http://cli.gs/tUJs1d


Star Fleet Technical Manual, by Franz Joseph
http://cli.gs/rduvjm


COMMUNICATOR
STANDARD FIELD EQUIPMENT ITEM


“Death Star Over San Francisco” by Michael Horn (2008)
http://cli.gs/mmBtgN

Thank You.

http://cli.gs/DesignFictionEssay

Julian Bleecker
http://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com
julian at nearfuturelaboratory dot com
julian.bleecker at nokia dot com


Props to Prototypes: Design Fiction Part 2 Design Connexity 2009

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