The age of climate breakdown brings with it an uncertain future, even within our collective imagination we are presented with increasingly dystopian visions of the future. This tendency towards dystopian futures can also be seen in Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) process which emerged as a disciplinary response to challenge commercial design by envisioning radical futures scenarios and artefacts that so far has been limited to museum exhibits. This paper suggests a solution-driven SCD method exploring a ‘designerly' reimagining of existing solar technology as a “back-casted” design solution into the present—a 3D printed optical solar cell. The solar cell is proposed as a possible, speculative alternative for existing solar cells exploring the “what if” possibilities of technological forecasting in a futures-oriented practise, ways in which product design can contribute to climate action today while still looking towards visions of better, more thriving paradigms of futures beyond ‘business as usual’.
Authors: Jomy Joseph
Question and Answer
I think the shift from utopia and dystopia has been looked into within Critical Design in the works of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby as explored in their book Speculative Everything that in a way uses this move of dystopian futures to build radical provocations through design. This shift towards a dystopian thinking has also been studied in the field of Future Studies by Richard Slaughter in his book Futures Beyond Dystopia and by Tony Fry in his book Design Futuring . Within design praxis as it stands, a lot of the dystopian tropes are used as a premise for creative provocations to perhaps even justify the way things are.