Pre - Post - Hyper
Creating a speculative world
About the project
We turned our attention to design’s relationship with society and how systems (political, cultural, social, environmental) constitute the essential landscape in which design functions. Systems thinking is most powerful when it explains and illuminates the broad contexts in which thoughtful, long-lasting design activity has its deepest effect. We explore how systems are interdependent and dynamic.
We used the techniques of speculative design and world-building to investigate, critique and hypothesize ‘possible futures’ for society and for ourselves. The work will include research and analysis of existing social systems (collecting texts, images, and media) and the creation of new or alternative forms and systems of organization that pose (explicitly or by inference) alternative ways of thinking and being.
We used the ideas of PRE- / POST- / HYPER- to consider one or more related/interrelated socio-cultural systems, focusing on questions of ‘what is’, ‘where is it going? and ‘how might things radically be rethought.’
We are considering the explorations of this project -the broadside and the diagram- to be investigations of ‘what was’ with respect to your subject. We are considering this as a ‘pre-’ viewpoint. We are taking the terms, ‘-post’ and ‘-hyper’ as alternatives to Dunne and Raby’s delineation of the concepts of ‘probable,’ and ‘plausible,’ and the use of design thinking and speculation to openly consider ‘preferable’ futures, either by imagining them outright, or by taking current social assumptions to dystopian extremes. The latter being a form of what Dunne and Raby refer to as “design as critique.’ Do we see elements from our pre- research as a critique or support of a system? Can we tease out the main elements you are most excited about exploring and digging deeper with?
Pre - Broadsheets
Post - Artifacts
