Michael Stead
Paul Coulton
ABSTRACT
In this critique, we problematize the framing of technological futures in design and computing discourse through rhetorical devices such as the Futures Cone which we contend promotes a one-world-world perspective, in that it assumes a collective (western) acceptance of a particular historicity and notions of time and progress. This perspective currently dominates the practical design and implementation of many new technological devices and systems. To counter such orthodoxies, we instead adopt an alternate perspective which primarily draws from the work of Brazilian philosopher Alvaro Vieira Pinto who considered the past and the future as shaped by the present – a present that is open and creative due to constant change. Our perspective also draws upon Object-Oriented Ontology, Alien Phenomenology and Defuturing to reconsider the privileging of ‘human’ as part of complex assemblages of human and non-human actants which have interdependent relationships but operate within independent perspectives. Our novel framing enables us to develop and promote design practices for More-than-Human sustainable technological futures that go beyond purely human considerations and begin to accommodate futures for non-human entities, both technological and ecological (flora, fauna and climate). To concretise our argument, we present a series of Internet of Things related examples that apply Speculative Design techniques to illustrate how More-than-Human sustainable technological futures may be put into actionable design practice.
- Paul Dourish, and Genevieve Bell. 2011. Divining A Digital Future: Mess and Mythology In Ubiquitous Computing. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Joseph Lindley, Paul Coulton, and Miriam Sturdee. 2017. Implications for Adoption. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, New York, (CHI 2017). May 6-11, Denver, Colorado, USA. 265-277.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jeffrey Bardzell and Shaowen Bardzell. 2013. What is "critical" about critical design? In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '13). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 3297–3306. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466451Google ScholarDigital Library
- Richmond Y Wong, and Vera Khovanskaya. Speculative Design in HCI: From Corporate Imaginations to Critical Orientations. In: Filimowicz, M., Tzankova, V. (eds) New Directions in Third Wave Human-Computer Interaction: Volume 2 - Methodologies . Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73374-6_10Google Scholar
- Carl DiSalvo. 2015. Adversarial design. MIT Press.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Paul Coulton; Joseph Galen Lindley, Miriam Sturdee, and Michael Stead. 2017. Design Fiction as World Building. In Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Research Through Design Conference. Edinburgh, UK, pp. 1–16. doi: 10.6084/m9.figshare.4746964.Google Scholar
- Joseph Voros. 2003. A Generic Foresight Process Framework. Foresight, 5(3), 10-21.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Trevor Hancock and Clement Bezold. 1994. Possible futures, Preferable Futures. The Healthcare Forum Journal. Vol. 37. No. 2.Google Scholar
- John Law. 2015. What's Wrong With A One-World World?. Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 16, no. 1): 126-139.Google Scholar
- Paul Coulton, and Joseph Galen Lindley. More-than Human Centred Design: Considering Other Things. The Design Journal, 22(4), 463-481.Google Scholar
- Tony Fry. 2009. Defuturing: A New Design Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
- Arturo Escobar. 2018. Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
- Marisol De la Cadena, and Mario Blaser, eds. 2018. A World of Many Worlds. Duke University Press.Google Scholar
- Luiza Prado de O. Martins and Pedro Oliveira. 2014. Questioning the “Critical” in Speculative & Critical Design. https://medium.com/a-parede/questioning-the-critical-in-speculative- critical-design-5a355cac2ca4, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Ivica Mitrović. 2018. Western Melancholy / How to Imagine Different Futures in the ‘Real World’? http://interakcije.net/en/2018/08/27/western-melancholy-how-to- imagine-different-futures-in-the-real-world/ last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Paul Coulton and Joseph Galen Lindley. 2017. Vapourworlds & Design Fiction: The Role of Intentionality. The Design Journal, 20(sup1), S4632-S4642.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. 2013. Speculative Everything. MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Paul Coulton, Daniel Burnett and Adrian Gradinar. 2016. Games as Speculative Design: Allowing Players to Consider Alternate Presents and Plausible Features, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/ drs.2016.15.Google Scholar
- Rodrigo Freese Gonzatto, Frederick MC van Amstel, Luiz Ernesto Merkle, and Timo Hartmann. 2013. The Ideology of the Future in Design Fictions. Digital creativity 24, no. 1: 36-45.Google Scholar
- Frederick MC van Amstel and Rodrigo Freese Gonzatto. 2021. Existential Time and Historicity in Interaction Design. Human–Computer Interaction: 1-40.Google Scholar
- Carl DiSalvo and Jonathan Lukens. 2011. Nonanthropocentrism and the nonhuman in design: possibilities for designing new forms of engagement with and through technology. In From social butterfly to engaged citizen: urban informatics, social media, ubiquitous computing, and mobile technology to support citizen engagement, Marcus Foth, Laura Forlano, Christine Satchell and Martin Gibbs (eds.), MIT Press, 421–437.Google Scholar
- Laura Forlano. 2017. Posthumanism and design. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 3(1), 16-29.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Anne Galloway, A. 2017. More-than-Human Lab: Creative Ethnography After Human Exceptionalism. In The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography (pp. 496-503).Google Scholar
- Sarah Whatmore. 2006. Materialist Returns: Practising Cultural Geography In & For A More-than-Human World. Cultural Geographies, 13(4), 600-609.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Martin Heidegger. 2010. Being & Time. Suny Press.Google Scholar
- Donald A Norman. 1998. The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, The Personal Computer Is So Complex, & Information Appliances Are The Solution. MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Graham Harman. 2018. Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. Penguin UK.Google Scholar
- Timothy Morton. 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy & Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
- Ian Bogost. 2012. Alien Phenomenology, Or, What It's Like To Be A Thing. University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
- Joseph Galen Lindley, Haider Ali Akmal, and Paul Coulton. 2020. Design Research and Object-Oriented Ontology. Open Philosophy, 3(1), 11-41.Google ScholarCross Ref
- James Pierce and Carl DiSalvo. 2017. Dark Clouds, Io& #!+, and [Crystal Ball Emoji] Projecting Network Anxieties with Alternative Design Metaphors. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 1383-1393).Google Scholar
- Sabrina Hauser, Johan Redström and Heather Wiltse. 2021. The Widening Rift Between Aesthetics & Ethics In The Design of Computational Things. In Journal of AI and Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01279-wGoogle ScholarDigital Library
- Michael Stead. 2020. Spimes: A Multidimensional Lens for Designing Future Sustainable Internet Connected Devices. PhD Thesis. Lancaster University. https://doi.org/10.17635/lancaster/thesis/997Google Scholar
- Bruce Sterling. 2004. Subject: Viridian Note 00422: The Spime – ‘When Blobjects Rule The Earth. http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/401-450/00422_the_spime.html, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Bruce Sterling. 2005. Shaping Things. MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Julian Bleecker. 2009. Design Fiction: A Short Essay on Design, Science, Fact and Fiction. http://drbfw5wfjlx on.cloudfront.net/writing/DesignFiction_WebEdition.pdf, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- James Auger. 2013. Speculative Design: Crafting The Speculation, Digital Creativity, 24;1, 11–35. DOI:10.1080/14626268.2013.767276Google ScholarCross Ref
- Zhibo Pang, Lirong Zheng, Junzhe Tian, Sharon Kao-Walter, Elena Dubrova & Qiang Chen. 2015. Design of A Terminal Solution for Integration of In-home Health Care Devices and Services Towards The Internet-of-Things. Enterprise Information Systems, 9(1), 86-116. DOI:10.1080/17517575.2013.776118Google ScholarDigital Library
- Adrian Smith and Anne Light. 2017. Cultivating Sustainable Developments With Makerspaces. Liinc EmRevista, 13;1, 162-174. DOI: 10.18617/liinc.v13i1.3900Google Scholar
- Cindy Kohtala and Sampsa Hyysalo. 2015. Anticipated Environmental Sustainability of Personal Fabrication. Journal of Cleaner Production, 99, 333–344.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Chris Anderson. 2012. Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. Random House Business Books.Google Scholar
- Eric Von Hippel. 2005. Democratizing Innovation. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
- Erin Buehler, Stacy Branham, Abdullah Ali, Jeremy J. Chang, Megan Kelly Hofmann, Amy Hurst, Shaun K. Kane. 2015. ‘Sharing Is Caring: Assistive Technology Designs On Thingiverse,’ in Proceedings of the 2015 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI’ 15. (pp. 525-534). ACM. DOI:10.1145/2702123.2702525Google ScholarDigital Library
- Joyce M. Lee, Emily Hirschfeld and James Wedding. 2016. A Patient-Designed Do-It-Yourself Mobile Technology System For Diabetes: Promise and Challenges For A New Era In Medicine, JAMA, 315(14), 1447-1448. DOI:10.1001/jama.2016.1903Google ScholarCross Ref
- Michael Stead. 2016. A Toaster for Life: Using Design Fiction To Facilitate Discussion On The Creation Of A Sustainable Internet Of Things. Proceedings of Design Research Society Conference 2016. ed. / Peter Lloyd; Erik Bohemia. Vol. 8 Design Research Society, 2016. p. 3049-3068 (Proceedings of DRS 2016; Vol. 8).Google ScholarCross Ref
- Blocks. 2022. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2106691934/blocks-the-worlds-first-modular-smartwatch, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Alzheimers.org.uk. 2019. Key Publications About Dementia. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/publications-factsheets/publications-dementia, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Justin McCurry. 2016. Japan Running Low on Workers as Proportion of Over-65s Hits Record Levels. Guardian Online. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/30/japan-census-over-65s-record-27-population-immigration, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Jonathan Soble. 2017. Japan's Falling Birth Rate Posing Serious Problems for Economy. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japans-falling-birth-rate-posingserious-problems-for-economy-a7770596.html, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Wareable.com. 2019. The death of the Blocks modular smartwatch – burned backers have their say. https://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/blosk-backers-have-their-say-7770, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Bran Knowles, Oliver Bates, and Maria Håkansson. 2018. This Changes Sustainable HCI. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Paper 471, 1–12.Google ScholarDigital Library
- Eli Blevis. 2007. Sustainable Interaction Design: Invention & Disposal, Renewal & Reuse. CHI '07. ACM Press, New York, NY, 503-512.Google Scholar
- EC.Europa.EU. (2021). Recycling Rate of E-waste. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/T2020_RT130/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=a69be825-957e-473c-a81f-f02866dc9141, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- IPCC. (2021). AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis: Sixth Assessment Report. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Statista. (2021). Number of Internet of Things (IoT) Connected Devices Worldwide from 2019 to 2030, By Use Case. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1194701/iot-connected-devices-use-case/, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Michael Stead and Paul Coulton. 2022, A More-than-Human Right-to-Repair. in DRS2022 Bilbao: Design Research Society Conference 2022., 29, Design Research Society, DRS 2022 Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain, 25/06/22. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.718Google Scholar
- Michael Standaert. 2019. China Wrestles with the Toxic Aftermath of Rare Earth Mining. https://e360.yale.edu/features/china-wrestles-with-the-toxic-aftermath-of-rare-earth-mining, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Hongqiao Liu. 2017. As China Adjusts for “True Cost” of Rare Earths, What Does It Mean for Decarbonization? https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2017/03/china-begins-adjusting-true-cost-rare-earths-decarbonization/, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Nicolas Nova and Anaïs Boch. 2021. Dr. Smartphone: an ethnography of mobile phone repair shops. IDP Publishing.Google Scholar
- Sucharita Beniwal, 2020. New Worlds With Some Tinkering. In R.M. Leitao, L.A. Noel, & L. Murphy (Eds.), Proceedings of PIVOT 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers (246-251), 4 June.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kevin McElvaney. 2014. Agbogbloshie: the world's largest e-waste dump – in pictures. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2014/feb/27/agbogbloshie-worlds-largest-e-waste-dump-in-pictures, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Elisabeth Kolbert. 2021. Under A White Sky: The Future of Nature. Bodley Head.Google Scholar
- Paul Coulton. 2016. Design Futures through Design Fiction. Talk for EINA Barcelona. https://www.slideshare.net/MysticMonkey/design-futures-through-design-fiction, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Stuart Walker. 2014. Designing Sustainability: Making Radical Changes In A Material World. Oxon: Routledge.Google ScholarCross Ref
- John Thackara. 2005. In The Bubble: Designing In A Complex World. London: MIT.Google Scholar
- Bruno Latour. 2011. Love Your Monsters: Why We Must Care For Our Technologies As We Do Our Children. In M. Shellenberger, & T. Nordhaus (Eds.). Love Your Monsters: Post-environmentalism and the Anthropocene (pp. 19-26).Google Scholar
- John Asafu-Adjaye, Linus Blomqvist, Stewart Brand, Barry Brook, Ruth DeFries, Erle Ellis, Chris Foreman, David Keith, Martin W. Lewis, Mark Lynas, Ted Nordhaus, Roger Pielke, Jr., Rachel Pritzker, Joyashree Roy, Mark Sagoff, Michael Shellenberger, Robert Stone, Peter Teague. (2015). ‘An Ecomodernist Manifesto.’ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5515d9f9e4b04d5c3198b7bb/t/552d37bbe4b07a7dd69fcdbb/1429026747046/An+Ecomodernist+Manifesto.pdf, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Bill Gates, B. 2021. How to Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need. Penguin Books.Google Scholar
- William Gibson. 2020. William Gibson Interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, Mon 20 Jan 2020, 06:00-09:00. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dj9gGoogle Scholar
- Jan De Vries, J. 1994. The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution. The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 54, No. 2, Papers presented at the Fifty-Third Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association (Jun, 1994), pp. 249-270.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Horst. W.J. Rittel and Melvin. M. Webber. 1973. Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Policy Sciences, 4:155, 155–169, DOI: 10.1007/BF01405730Google ScholarCross Ref
- World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). ‘Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future.’ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-common-future.pdf, last accessed 01/04/2022.Google Scholar
- Alex Steffen. 2016. Cited in Rinde, M. 2016. Imagining a Postcarbon Future. Distillations, 2:3, 24-33.Google Scholar
- John. M. Culkin. 1967. A Schoolman's Guide to Marshall McLuhan. Saturday Review, pp. 51-53, 71-72.Google Scholar
Recommendations
HCI for Climate Change: Imagining Sustainable Futures
CHI EA '23: Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsAs the climate crisis is turning into one of the most critical issues of our time, HCI researchers keep reflecting on the role their work can play in reducing the impact of adverse environmental changes. Suggestions have been made to expand Sustainable ...
Towards an integrated methodological framework for understanding embodiment in HCI
CHI EA '14: CHI '14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsThe third wave in HCI reveals how embodiment matters in post-WIMP computing systems. Yet it is still unclear what methods provide effective insight into the nature of embodiment in HCI in relation to both design and use. This paper presents work in ...
Feminist Care in the Anthropocene: Packing and Unpacking Tensions in Posthumanist HCI
DIS '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems ConferenceAs posthumanist or post-anthropocentric research in HCI and design proliferates and further commits to working with more-than-humans, design research practitioners are left with many open questions and uncertainties with how to productively engage with ...
Comments