Do you think that design has the power to shape new narratives and bring about a sustainable future? Why?
Impact lab 3. week 8 reflection
The dominant narrative has so much power because we see it playing out time and again. We see constant evidence and concrete examples that further support the telling of the dominant narrative.
In order to construct a new narrative that people believe in we need to somehow produce this same level of evidence and examples to convince people of the viability of an alternative. But often these examples and evidence don’t physically exist yet. Instead alternative narratives that are proposed are constructed from intangible ideas and abstract theories.
Making the intangible, tangible is a big part of design. Taking an abstract concept and turning it into something concrete and interactive. I believe design has the power to shape new narratives by translating abstract and sometimes complex concepts that seem impossible and out of reach into something tangible that can be experienced.
Mitigation of Shock (Singapore)
Speculative designers Superflux set a scene in a future apartment, not too distant from our own, and position the viewer as the protagonist in the new narrative.
In these early stages of new narrative construction I believe speculative design, also called critical design, has the power to start creating tangible and concrete examples that people will start to use as evidence for an alternative narrative.
Any good narrative is made up of a scene, characters and a conflict. Speculative design makes use of all these, often positioning the viewer either as the character or in such a way that the viewer is quickly able to develop empathy for the character. Speculative designs place the viewer into a setting that is often in the near future and is either so delightful that we’re eager to reach this tantalising future or so disturbing and uncomfortable that we want to avoid it at all costs. The conflict is often created when we realise that the design we are viewing is usually a result of our current action or inaction as a society.
Sustainability is often an issue explored in speculative design. Due to climate change being directly linked to human activity it is an area rich for creating tension and conflict. In presenting future scenes or worlds it also encourages viewers to reflect on what they want to sustain into the future. Would we give up the practices of extractivism that we currently sustain through consumerism if we could exchange it for a more idyllic future or to avoid a catastrophic one?
Mitigation of Shock. Superflux.
Some chilling details act as complications in the narrative to provoke us to think about how our current actions would get us here.