Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

This paper is based on the Global Futures Lab case study and an investigation on “non-western” futures (www.globalfutureslab.com). “Design Fiction is the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change” (Bruce Sterling). This way of looking at product design is part of the broader discourse that identifies critical and speculative design as a new methodological framework in which objects are seen as facilitators of conversations rather than goods to be bought or used. In the last decade, an impressive creative effort has been dedicated to this field producing an infinite variety of scenarios and fostering rich debates about ethics, technology, and society. However, the great majority of those future visions were and still are, a mere representation of the fears and the dreams of a restricted part of the global community. Also, the general aesthetic of that body of work has been strongly connected with a recognizable taste, often coming from the Holliwoodesque imaginary or from the dominating design establishment’s style. Global Futures Lab consists of a series of international workshops (Iran, Ethiopia, Cuba, Peru, India) where students have been invited to reflect on their own environments, traditions, and believes, and to envision futures respectful of their cultures. In opposition to a diffuse technological determinism, where society seems shaped by new technologies, the Global Futures Lab endorsed a sort of “cultural determinism” in which any idea of future should be built on localized visions and with the main intention to open a debate about a pluralistic perspective.