International Journal of Art & Design Education, 2024
As one of the most literary and transdisciplinary cultural practices, speculative design has beco... more As one of the most literary and transdisciplinary cultural practices, speculative design has become one of the best mediums for discussing emerging technologies, the Anthropocene and the ecological crisis. When design history is merely perceived as established knowledge about the past and fails to engage in dialogue with reality or individual interaction, it often struggles to inspire students' agency in learning and willingness to deep involvement in research. Alternative design history, however, serves as a type and method of historiography that actively constructs history and alternatively imagines the past. It aims to situate historical knowledge as the context for design problem exploration rather than an end goal of education. This approach guides educators and learners to co-speculate on historical design knowledge. By 'reversing' specific elements of historical experience, such as gender mentioned in this article, and employing alternative imagination to form what-if scenarios and pose inquiries about existing historical facts, a distinct form of 'counterfactual history' emerges that diverges notably from traditional design history. Throughout speculation within 'counterfactual history', students can distinguish between historical facts and realities, which enables students to comprehend the construction of historical knowledge, the individuality of historical narratives, and the standpoint of historical discourse. In this way, it helps students cultivate a historical interest that 'starts from the self', guiding them to foster resilient historical thinking and a critical awareness of reality.
Sheji:The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 2023
Ignited by the transformative impact of technoscience, diverse alternative design practices have ... more Ignited by the transformative impact of technoscience, diverse alternative design practices have emerged, each distinct from prevailing norms. Within this heterogeneous landscape, a common theme emerges: an inclination toward ethical considerations, closely tied to or stemming from these novel approaches and practices, warranting thorough investigation. This article adopts a dual strategy. First, it introduces technoscience as the catalyst behind this transition, framing the contextual backdrop. Second, based on Jürgen Habermas's knowledge-interest theory and its tripartite structure, this article focuses on those emerging design practices which deal with ethical and social design, a category that has become especially significant since 2000. The subsequent analysis explores the significant ethical turn within diverse disciplines and these emerging design practices, illustrated across domains. This transformation unfolds in ontological, epistemological, and methodological dimensions, signifying a renewal of design ethics. The article establishes a fundamental framework to comprehend a field without rigid boundaries, facilitating future critique and ongoing design research progress.
The Design Journal An International Journal for All Aspects of Design, 2022
To effectively examine the underlying premises of emerg- ing technology has become a major challe... more To effectively examine the underlying premises of emerg- ing technology has become a major challenge to today’s design ethics. An adequate and prefigurative response to these situations requires a shift towards a fictional aesthet- ics that calls for co-imagination. Speculative design that sharing a similar ethical mechanism with Jacques Ranciere’s aesthetic politics is worthy of attention since the affinity between the literature and emerging designs is becoming manifest. Speculative design embodies its ethical advantage by asking ‘what-if’ questions and providing no answer to keep its prerequisite of equality of intelligence. It devises fictional props and unreal scenarios to distribute the sens- ible to make audiences notice the possible latent negative social consequences of future technologies. The absurdity in speculative design is what Ranciere termed ‘dissensus’, which is the result of fictional aesthetics that aims to inspire reflection and debate on the current state of reality and open the possibility for preferable transformation.
International Journal of Art & Design Education, 2024
As one of the most literary and transdisciplinary cultural practices, speculative design has beco... more As one of the most literary and transdisciplinary cultural practices, speculative design has become one of the best mediums for discussing emerging technologies, the Anthropocene and the ecological crisis. When design history is merely perceived as established knowledge about the past and fails to engage in dialogue with reality or individual interaction, it often struggles to inspire students' agency in learning and willingness to deep involvement in research. Alternative design history, however, serves as a type and method of historiography that actively constructs history and alternatively imagines the past. It aims to situate historical knowledge as the context for design problem exploration rather than an end goal of education. This approach guides educators and learners to co-speculate on historical design knowledge. By 'reversing' specific elements of historical experience, such as gender mentioned in this article, and employing alternative imagination to form what-if scenarios and pose inquiries about existing historical facts, a distinct form of 'counterfactual history' emerges that diverges notably from traditional design history. Throughout speculation within 'counterfactual history', students can distinguish between historical facts and realities, which enables students to comprehend the construction of historical knowledge, the individuality of historical narratives, and the standpoint of historical discourse. In this way, it helps students cultivate a historical interest that 'starts from the self', guiding them to foster resilient historical thinking and a critical awareness of reality.
Sheji:The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 2023
Ignited by the transformative impact of technoscience, diverse alternative design practices have ... more Ignited by the transformative impact of technoscience, diverse alternative design practices have emerged, each distinct from prevailing norms. Within this heterogeneous landscape, a common theme emerges: an inclination toward ethical considerations, closely tied to or stemming from these novel approaches and practices, warranting thorough investigation. This article adopts a dual strategy. First, it introduces technoscience as the catalyst behind this transition, framing the contextual backdrop. Second, based on Jürgen Habermas's knowledge-interest theory and its tripartite structure, this article focuses on those emerging design practices which deal with ethical and social design, a category that has become especially significant since 2000. The subsequent analysis explores the significant ethical turn within diverse disciplines and these emerging design practices, illustrated across domains. This transformation unfolds in ontological, epistemological, and methodological dimensions, signifying a renewal of design ethics. The article establishes a fundamental framework to comprehend a field without rigid boundaries, facilitating future critique and ongoing design research progress.
The Design Journal An International Journal for All Aspects of Design, 2022
To effectively examine the underlying premises of emerg- ing technology has become a major challe... more To effectively examine the underlying premises of emerg- ing technology has become a major challenge to today’s design ethics. An adequate and prefigurative response to these situations requires a shift towards a fictional aesthet- ics that calls for co-imagination. Speculative design that sharing a similar ethical mechanism with Jacques Ranciere’s aesthetic politics is worthy of attention since the affinity between the literature and emerging designs is becoming manifest. Speculative design embodies its ethical advantage by asking ‘what-if’ questions and providing no answer to keep its prerequisite of equality of intelligence. It devises fictional props and unreal scenarios to distribute the sens- ible to make audiences notice the possible latent negative social consequences of future technologies. The absurdity in speculative design is what Ranciere termed ‘dissensus’, which is the result of fictional aesthetics that aims to inspire reflection and debate on the current state of reality and open the possibility for preferable transformation.
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