Speculative Design

SPECULATIVE DESIGN

Examining the potential of speculative design as a tool to uncover through artefacts pathways towards a sustainable society

Submitted for module LICA300 in part fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of BA Design Hons, Lancaster University, 9th May 2022.

LUCA D’ANGELO

Part one: Dissertation

To the Luca of the future, this is another representation of how by trusting the process and believing in yourself everything is achievable. And if you will ever struggle, just look at the people you have around you as well as within yourself.

This thesis aims to probe further the question, In what ways can speculative design, in relation to food waste, foster debate and raise awareness towards a more sustainable approach?

Acknowlegments

The ideas in this dissertation have taken shape over many months through conversations and exchanges with many people. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Carlos Lopez, who was essential in developing my dissertation, pushing me to pursue the ideas, making me critically reflect and expanding my thoughts in ways they could be more conceive and precise. In addition, I would like to thank my academic tutor, Prof. Christopher Boyko, for his support and guidance given throughout this year and for all the professors that have enriched my knowledge baggage.

When it came to this section, it did not take time to realise that none of this would exist if it weren’t for the people who guided me and followed me in my path. Among all, my mom, who silently gave me the strength and power to trust in myself. My sister, my lighthouse, none of this would have been possible; you inspired me to follow in your footsteps. Lastly, I want to thank Xavier, my friend, along with my friends, for transforming these years into adventure; you will always remain in my heart.

With love,

Abstract

This dissertation is an exploratory study of how Speculative design is a design method addressing big societal problems and looking towards the future via creating products and services for those scenarios. My thesis first examines the transition from the earliest prophecies to predictions that led speculations to be created. Following this, the focus is shifted towards analysing what Speculative Design is and how, in today’s world, where everything seems to be possible thanks to technological innovation, it can play a significant role in raising critical questions about sustainability. Later, the emphasis is on how speculations can turn into something useful that addresses the ongoing global challenges. To support this, there are two case studies that illustrate the role speculative design can play in response to the ongoing unsustainable practices that contribute to making climate change even a more significant threat. Lastly, with the use of design output, I am seeking to envisage ways in which we can encourage the emergence or the speculation with multiple paths or a plurality of paths.

Keywords: Speculative design, sustainability, speculation, prediction, future thinking, design thinking, climate change, food waste

Rationale

The rationale behind this choice lies in my interest in utilising Speculative design practice in a precise manner: by triggering, through a design output, an awakening in people in response to the ongoing unsustainable practices. Paradoxically, my dissertation, rather than revolving around the idea of wanting to solve the problem, concentrate the efforts on using speculative design to provoke and evoke a response that ideally raises awareness in people towards a specific matter. Thereafter, to me, what fundamentally matters is how much can I, as a designer, make this awakening from happening? This is because I believe that we cannot solve a problem without recognising it first? Nothing will change, and a provocation might help the person’s thoughts to be created.

CONTENTS

Acknowlegments

Abstract

C hapter I

Future Thinking

Design Thinking/Future Thinking

W ays of thinking

C hapter 2

Historical Picture

My interest

First Case Stud y

Second Case Study

C hapter 3

Food Waste

My artefact

Conclusion References

D esign Output

In this first chapter of my dissertation, I focus my attention on how ancient speculations and predictions led to new ways of thinking to emerge.

Introduction

12 -

Evolution of Design

As the world around us continuously evolves, so does design. The necessity for design to expand into more fields by shifting its focus on the future became increasingly vital for designers. In recent years, in the face of different existential crises, equally characterised by uncertainty, such as the COVID-19 emergency and the Climate change threatening humans and the planet, designers pushed even further the need to think about the future and what it might hold for design. This is because design has been unavoidably forced to address a question that many of us never expected to face:

“How do you design for the future when the future you’re designing for is uncertain?” (Saval, 2020). To respond to that dilemma, new approaches in design must be sought and adopted.

Figure 2: Image of Dr. Joseph Varon hugs a COVID-19 patient (Nakamura, 2020)

Figure 1: Image of Wildfire, island of Evia (Bloomerg, 2021)

Every year that passes, designers must reconsider their objectives and what to prioritise depending on the problem or question that faces them. This is the reason why I believe design’s meaning cannot be fixed under one category/ assumption, as it is constantly changing and modifying. The definition of design ought to be revisited and adjusted depending on the era we live in. George Nelson’s quote perfectly embodies this idea of fluidity of design, which is the following:

“Design is a response to a social change”.

Figure 3: Image of Geroge Nelson

Definition of Design

As a result, “design is evolving, and designers need to evolve with it” (Weinschenk, 2021). Indeed, the definition of design and design methodologies have evolved beyond just aesthetics, products and buildings. A result that shows this evolution is found in the way Design nowadays is used. While designers “have evolved over the last 25 years to be advocates for the audience/customer, we now need to be advocates for the rest of everyone else, democracy, society, and the planet itself” (Weinschenk, 2021). For the time being, the ‘new designers’

utilise design as a tool to focus on concepts and artefacts, rather than addressing problems, by asking questions and stimulating debate. According to Dunne and Raby (2013), designers should not just address issues of today but also expand the horizon of observation to investigate the future and speculate, “how can we address future challenges with design?”.

Figure 4: Image of Design as problem solving (Hambeukers, 2020)

Future thinking

“Thinking about our futures has always been part of the human condition” (Walker Art Center, 2021). The force that drove human beings to mitigate (López Galviz, Spiers, Büscher and Nordin, 2022) against uncertainty and wanting to explore the unknown is curiosity: characteristic ever-embedded in human nature. Indeed, we all have a natural curiosity to foresee the shape of things to come. This constant and redundant curiosity has always been around (Rescher, 1998); the latter persistently pushed people to find answers concerning our destiny, whether it was through magic, various rituals or prophecies. As young people, for instance, would welcome foresight about their career, their marriage, and their prospect for success, elderly people wish to know about the fate of their posterity. Hence, as people have always tried to find out more about the shape of things to come (Rees, 2021), it is not surprising that the history of foreseeing goes back to hundreds and hundreds of years ago. (Rescher, 1998). As a result, since the dawn of time of oracles and prophets, human beings have attempted to predict and speculate about the future (López Galviz, Spiers, Büscher and Nordin, 2022). While all of these efforts were aimed at the same goal, they differed in various ways over time and space, with the most prominent of which was methodology—that is, “how predictions were made and interpreted” (Rees, 2021).

Figure 5: Image of The Delphic Oracle Predicts Democracy (n.d, 2022)

In this practice, there has always been an important distinction to be made between individuals and systems (Rees, 2021). Whilst, individuals, have an intrinsic gift or ability to predict the future, systems provide rules for calculating futures. For instance, oracles, shamans, and prophets’ capacity to access other planes of reality and gain divine inspiration was critical to their predictions. Rather, divination strategies such as astrology, palmistry, numerology, and Tarot rely on the practitioner’s mastery of a sophisticated theoretical rule-based system and also their ability to interpret and apply it to specific cases (Rees, 2021). Whether it is tarot cards or weather maps, the underlying belief is that life has a pattern that can be deduced from what we now know and translated into a vision of how things will be in the future (López et al., 2022, p. 190). By having anticipated these outcomes, we are significantly more prepared to respond than had we never explored the possibility before. The importance of future thinking stems from this state of informed preparedness. Because it anticipates changes because it considers the complexity of the vast web of factors that can influence the outcome of a decision (Beurle, 2021).

Figure 6: Image of Peruvian Shamans

Design thinking / Future Thinking

In order to fully understand what Future Thinking is all about is necessary to take a look at what precedes it: namely, Design Thinking. It is fundamental to do so, as Future Thinking can be considered as simply the continuum of what Design Thinking is; thus, examining only one of the two practices would be pointless.

What entered first the academic circle was design thinking because big companies lacked the ability to think creatively in difficult situations, and what Design thinking does is create “social innovation and gives companies a competitive advantage” (Song, 2017). This is why it has become a very popular creative problem-solving approach for designers to create new values that create a positive impact (Song, 2017). This practice was mainly used to understand users, generate insights about their needs, creating a wide range of solutions to satisfy those needs. It focuses on the problems that the audience is facing in the present in a user-centric way to then suggest solutions that can be used quickly in the present (Song, 2017).

DESIGN THINKIN G

FUTURES THINKING

Diverge But The

Because users are constantly evolving, and the future possibilities are infinite, not everyone was satisfied with the Design Thinking process (Song, 2017). The emergency of a practice that could look beyond the present was more than ever needed. In response to this, in the 1960s and early 1970s, future studies were finally emerging (Song, 2017), and with that, Future Thinking as it is associated with future studies. Future thinking has now entered both the academic, design and business worlds. It’s based on Dr Bush’s Memex concept and propels transformation through various future possibilities. It is a powerful tool because it offers ways to shape the world and societal evolution of the future (Song, 2017).

Design Thinking

Future Thinking

Ways of thinking

Even though, Design Thinking and Future Thinking are a mix of diverging and converging possibilities. If we go back in time and draw a line between them, they are mostly parallel, but some parts will crossover. Design Thinking develops answers based on the current state of affairs, whereas Future Thinking frames possibilities in ways that the present cannot (Song, 2017).

Design Thinking involves diverging and convergent concepts, whereas Future thinking involves bringing as many ideas together as feasible. When these two ‘ways of thinking’ collide, tangible or intangible prototypes are required to bring abstract ideas to life; in such a way, the chances emerge to iterate and see what the idea and solution will be (Song, 2017).

DESIGN THINKIN G

FUTURES THINKING

Design thinking and Future Thinking envision innovation based on different timelines (Song, 2017).

Design thinking: Investigates the present and the immediate past and future only

Future thinking: Begins with the future in mind

DO & MAKE

INVESTIGATE DESIGN

PAST TODAY

INSTIGATE &INSPIRE concerning long-term developments

FUTURE INVESTIGATE DESIGN

PAST TODAY

Figure 9: The Timeline

FUTURE

What Future Thinking does and that Design Thinking is not able to do is to pull people to new possibilities and opportunities in a way that brainstorming and visioning processes grounded in the present cannot achieve (Song, 2017). As Anna Roumiantseva (2016), a design strategist at CoLab IDEO, cited, “Design Thinking ultimately converges to a concrete concept that is tested, finalised, and brought to market”. Future Thinking, on the other hand, “yields a series of scenarios, which are meant to illustrate multiple options for what the future might be without defining an exact prediction” (Roumiantseva, 2016).

When approaching these future-oriented practices, sometimes we tend to forget their value. It is important to remember that thinking about the future is not regarded as pointless or dangerous. Instead, if done in a structured way, it is not just useful but essential (Bland and Westlake, 2013). When we investigate new plausible futures, we open ourselves to experiencing these future worlds — it’s part of our perception shift. When we do so, as cited by Beurle (2021), “we might experience discomfort because we are imagining something fearful, something we don’t want to happen”. However, Beurle urges us to embrace this fear because, as we have all experienced, a frightening, imagined future could very well become a reality (Beurle, 2021). This future thinking can help authentically inform our decision-making as well as allow us to prepare for the unimaginable or the unwanted.

SINGULARITY

On the other hand, there is always the possibility of welcoming breakthrough changes that we can’t envisage by looking at current realities — where completely new worlds become plausible (Beurle, 2021). Once the latter is acknowledged, often what occurs when people approach this practice is that they fail at utilising it in the best way possible. This happens when people are so strongly driven by the desire to aim at predicting the future that they limit themselves to envisaging one path rather than multiple paths. On the contrary, when the multiplicity over the singularity is achieved, it leads the future to be open, which can only be beneficial as new discussions and debates open up.

MULTIPLICITY

The importance of predicting

Although it is impossible to foresee the future, many of us nevertheless attempt to do so in one way or another. As José Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish philosopher, emphasised, this ostentation stem from the fact that our life is an “activity directed towards what is to come” (Rescher, 1998, p. 2). In connection to the latter, he underlines that the future plays a crucial role in human existence since it is not solely in the present nor in the past that we live (Rescher, 1998). He supports this idea by stating that only after expanding the horizon, the significance of the present or the past finally becomes clear (Rescher, 1998).

Neils Bohr, a Danish physicist, is attributed with the following quote: “It is very hard to predict - especially the future” (Rescher, 1998, p. 2). As a result, “prediction is a tricky business where even the most knowledgeable of experts can be wrong” (Rescher, 1998, p. 2). Nevertheless, we must push ourselves to imagine and forecast the fast-approaching future, both to help create a reaction in people (López et al., 2022) and to counteract the sense of uncertainty and look for opportunities to innovate. To support this idea, as suggested by the great computer pioneer Alan Kay:

The best way to predict the future is to invent it” (Kay, 1971).

Figure 10: Image of Alan Kay

In what ways are Speculations different from Predictions?

In the last chapters, the word speculation and prediction played an important role as I used them to discuss my argument. As my work revolves around the idea of the latter, it is fundamental to distinguish what speculations are and how by contrast are, different from predictions.

Both of these practices are future-oriented and thus sit within the Future Thinking field. However, even though it is challenging to distinguish them as they share similar notions, I believe that a tiny jump is made from predictions to speculation, making them different. Whilst speculation sits in a more extensive field, predictions are much more limited. This is because, when utilising predictions, the margin of answers might be limited. This is because when predicting, there is a specific purpose behind that prediction which seeks an answer to what the future could be. Speculations, on the other hand, offer more choices of answers because they do not pursue making predictions; instead, they look at expanding mental horizons within the constrained doom vision of the future (Dunne and Raby, 2013).

FUTURE THINKING

Speculations

Predictions

Purpose of Predictions

The word predictions “has been a perennial field of inquiry for designers and architects whose speculations on this subject— ranging from the concrete to the whimsical—can profoundly af fect how we imagine what is to come” (Walker Art Center, 2020).

Purpose of Speculations

“Speculations always occur from somewhere and someone” (Liveley et al., 2021, p. 7). Speculations can provide “new perspectives on how we set about dealing with the challenge of contextual bias when imagining possible futures” (Liveley et al., 2021, p. 7).

According to Dunne & Ruby (2013), the purpose of speculation is to unsettle the present rather then predicting the future. To fully exploit this potential, Design urges to decouple itself from industry, develop its social imagination more fully, embrace speculative culture (Dunne & Raby, 2013, p. 88). Only then, as Paola Antonelli (2010), MoMA curator, believes we might see the beginnings of a theoretical form of Design “dedicated to thinking, reflecting, inspiring, and providing new perspectives on some of the challenges facing us” (Dunne & Raby, 2013, p. 88).

Throughout the years, the term speculation has been the subject of several connotations given by different designers and architects that first approached this term. For instance, designers such as Tonkinwise have put emphasis on too optimistic or too pessimistic scenarios. Indeed according to him, speculations try to push beyond current expectations and trending futures; “they expand the sense of what is possible” (Tonkinwise, 2015). To this extent, speculations should risk exaggeration and offence, being too serious and too funny, too optimistic, and too pessimistic (Tonkinwise, 2015). However, I believe that speculative Design does not need to fulfil these criteria of seeking exaggeration, for instance, being “too optimistic or too pessimistic”. Depending on the designer’s perspective, it can be interpreted in many manners. In this context, an example that shows this is Naomi Klein, publicist and activist, whose suggestion is that “it should be kept in mind that the purpose of speculative design fiction should not be utopian or dystopian science fiction visions of the future but dialogue on what the future can be” (Mitrović, 2015).

With this being said, throughout the dissertation, it can be seen that I entirely dwell on the dialogue that Design has with the future, and indeed my speculations are built in a way that can reflect what I believe speculations should be.

Designers doing Speculations

Designers have the responsibility to speculate about the future. I believe that when it comes designers to investigating for the long term, they can be considered critical and creative experts in the futuristic field. Indeed, as Tonkinwise (2015) cited, “they have the best toolkit to identify how things could be otherwise”. The manner they approach speculation can be regarded as unique because they utilise their perverse ability to see what else could or should be there (Tonkinwise, 2015). This makes them considered and creative because, when speculating, they rethink alternative products, systems, and worlds, by reflectively examining the role and impact emergent themes are having on everyday life, such as sustainability, technology, Covid-19, to then speculate how they could play out in a couple of years (Mitrović, 2015).

In the first place, designers are considered optimistic as they often generate idealistically utopian futures (Tonkinwise, 2015). However, on the other hand, it can be said that designers ‘lack of imagination’ and the depiction of the future that prevails is mainly dystopian—the latter approach links to the fact that they have a pessimistic view of the world. However, regardless of this tendency that dominates how the world is being depicted, new alternatives that diversify from the existing ones need to be presented to counterattack this attitude. To do so, I believe we need more far-reaching future-oriented approaches that enable designers to do so.

In this chapter, the focus is shifted to understanding how speculative design can encourage us to think of alternative futures and explores directions in which we should go if we wish to live in a sustainable world (Iwabuchi, 2022).

Historical picture:

We live in a world with many challenges like climate change, destruction of natural resources and ageing population and many more (Wagner, 2017). Design addresses these challenges by thinking critically about the current and prospective implications of our actions and our speculations to envision the preferable futures we ought to aim for (Wagner, 2017).

In contrast, many new design methodologies emerge to deal with wicked problems in contemporary society through sustainable solutions. From a transformative perspective, the design industry changed its focus from an (individual) humancentred design approach to a society-centred approach (Jonas, Zerwas and Anshelm, 2015). This is because a human-centred design approach aims to design for the wants of consumers as a promotor of consumption (Twemlow, 2017).

The practices that embrace this concept of society-centred are: Speculative Design, Critical Design and Design fiction set the starting point for the future (Raven, 2021). Within the critical design field, disciplines such as Design Futures, Design Fiction, Speculative Design, Critical Design, Adversarial Design, and Ludic Design are redundant, and sometimes they overlap (Tonkinwise, 2015). The distinctions between these practices are minimal as they are primarily based on geographical or contextual usage. The aspect that links them together is that within each one of these practices, there is an effort in the removal of the constraints from the commercial sector that define normative design processes; use models and prototypes at the heart of the enquiry; and use fiction to present alternative products, systems, or worlds (Raven, 2021).

Figure 11: Image of An unresolved mapping of speculative design (Montgomery, 2018)

My interest

Among the many practices, I have discovered a hidden passion for Speculative Desing. I am very intrigued by the manner speculative research uses design as a catalyst for social imagining (Dunne and Raby, 2013). Speculative Design is useful in terms of “debate potential ethical, cultural, social and political implications” (Dunne and Raby, 2013, p. 47). Through its imagination and radical approach, this practice is unique becomes it gives designers a chance to stimulate thinking, raise awareness, question, provoke action, initiate dialogues, and offer alternatives that are necessary in today’s world (Mitrović, 2015). This reflects precisely what I want to achieve with my dissertation; hence, this is why I am convinced that this practice offers me the tools to further develop the dissertation in the direction I intend.

Figure 12: Image of Halos (Jhonson, 2020)

Why Speculative Design?

At first, design fiction also seemed an option worth exploring; however, its fictive nature presents the work in a manner that might undermine its intended effects. Meanwhile, due to its direct correlation between ‘here and now’, speculative Design makes “the choice of ‘speculative preferable over Design Fiction” (Auger, 2013, p. 12). Indeed, instead of addressing current and future consumer needs, Speculative Design reflects the complexity of today’s reality (Raven, 2021). It holds two purposes: first, it allows us to think about the future, and second, it permits us to critique current behaviour (Auger, 2013). This practice concentrates its efforts on releasing the mind from the constraints of our daily lives and exposing Design to alternative realities that challenge long-held ideas (Craswell, 2020).

What is Speculative Design?

Speculative Design is an approach that has gained momentum in recent years (Xiao, 2020). It was originally coined by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby – British academics that pioneered their work through the ‘Speculative Everything’ book. The authors gave an overview of how Design can be used as a tool to imagine possible futures and question the status quo. They present speculative Design, which exploits the concept of possible future scenarios as a tool for better understanding the present and discussing the types of futures people desire and those they can’t control (Dunne & Raby, 2013). Moreover, it is a methodology and a tool that gives us the scope to imagine alternative realities and futures of objects, products, and systems around us. Basically, anything in our current reality. It requires us to explore topics, dive into the world of imagination, open up new possibilities, and bring new perspectives (Xiao, 2020).

Figure 13: Image of Alternative presents and speculative futures (Auger, 2013)

Future cones

Travelling forward in time is the most common strategy used in Speculative Design in order to then settle in a space free of the constraints of our current world and Design for what is conceivable rather than what it is ”. Hence it explains why futures are central to speculative design” (Xiao, 2020). Within this context, the future is seen as a range of possibilities. Positioning the Design, different from the world as we know it, in a probable, plausible, possible, and impossible lets the designers confront how another world may look like and “consider what we may do in the present to move towards or away from it” (Colosi, 2017).

wild card scenario scenario

possible

today time probable preferable

37 CHAPTER 2 Figure 14: Image of Future Cones (Auger, 2013)

What if question

The preferred tool of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s practice of speculative design is not the counterfactual, which casts its gaze back to the past to ask how things might have been different, but the forward-facing what-if scenario. Within speculative design, everything starts with a “what-if“ question to open up spaces for discussion and debate. With the power of design, it is possible to question, provoke and inspire (Wagner, 2017).

Dunne and Raby explain that what-if scenarios grew out of the texts of science fiction, film, and television and can play a role in the design of physical objects. Speculative design expands on what-if scenarios beyond the empirically-based scenarios of traditional HCI design, allowing designers more creative freedom (Nardi, 2016). What makes speculative design fiction powerful and profoundly intriguing is the every day’s extension into the future (Mitrović, 2015).

Double Diamond

The Speculative Designer seeks traces of the future in the two speculative diamonds (figure 15), imagining its evolution, creating and experiencing parts of it. This is accomplished from the standpoint of a present-day person. Engaging in fictitious time travel to alternate realities advances our understanding of how the future is, after all, a consequence of the present (Colosi, 2017).

Barely a Brief

SignalScanning

Figure 15: Image of The Double Diamond Of Speculative Design (Colosi, 2017)

Speculative Desing in practice

Exploring the theories surrounding speculative Design is essential to comprehend how this practice is contextualised in the academic world and what are the key concepts that build the latter. However, it is equally important to dwell on how speculative Desing is used practically to target the nowadays issues. It is interesting to explore how the power that speculative design approach holds, can be used on a practical level, depending on the topics explored, to raise awareness. Therefore, I include two case studies that confirm and provide evidence of the latter

Figure 16: Image of Climate Change (Kirwan, 2021)

First case study:

This is one of the two speculative projects that confirmed the hidden power of Speculative Design, which is the ability to leave the viewer with questions. Hence, this proves how speculating through Design generates questions instead of answers (Ho Tran, 2019). In this particular case, I found inspiring the way this project, named Nium, with a conceptual design, paints a picture of a not too distant future. It addresses the problem of food waste and lack of resources while questioning “how desirable the future scenario for 2050 might be” (Garrido, Cavazos and Martínez, 2020). This project tackles sustainability in a very intriguing manner. I believe the artefact is highly powerful as the main characteristics that transpired are simplicity and effectiveness. In addition, with the use of visualisations, the designer managed to showcase the interaction between the artefact and the user perfectly.

Figure 17: Images of Nium- specualtive design project Speculative Design (Martinez, 2020)

Second case study:

This second example, Bigger than the Plate, is an exhibition that is divided into four themes — composting, farming, trading, and eating, each explored from both a personal and a societal perspective. Bigger than the Plate transforms the museum into a meditative space for existing and emerging ways of life on the planet, encouraging you to reconsider your consumer habits. This show’s not only full of interesting artworks and initiatives, but it’s also really well-curated, and self-reflection and future conjecture are unavoidable (Bruinhorst, 2019). Designers and artists all come together to “shine a light on the possibilities to reintegrate the waste one would normally throw away and make it visible again” (Bruinhorst, 2019).

Figure 18: Image of The Double Diamond Of Speculative Design

Speculative Design in both of the examples previously shown places its emphasis on addressing wicked problems, particularly food waste. As the pioneers of Speculative Desing, Dunne and Raby, introduced, utilising this practice to imagine, and open up new perspectives on wicked problems, foster debate and discussion about other ways of being and inspire and support the free flow of imagination can become a powerful tool (Dunne and Raby, 2013).

Speculative design compared to other practices, in my opinion, has a considerably bigger impact. Its approcah is what slightly diffeentilate Specualtive Design from the others. Rather than attempting to solve a larger problem, it focuses on one particular issue. This is because, as Dunne and Ruby (2013) cited, people don’t necessarily engage; it is hard to see how you (the viewer) can make a difference. Consequently, when a specific problem is addressed, it is more effective because more people lived experiences rather than this abstract (climate change) thing. Rather than seeing the whole and thinking that this is too big, ‘I can’t do anything’, people actually think that can make a difference when the ‘little things’ are addressed.

Figure 19: Bioplastics made from organic waste (Alice Potts, 2016)

Figure 20: Personalised canapé made at LOCI Food Lab (Agapakis, 2014)

This final chapter answers the following question: How did the case studies inspire me to start generating ideas on designing my design artefact about food waste?

The case studies previously introduced allowed my thinking to evolve. Having an interest in understating how speculative Desing is used in connection to climate change was not enough to create an artefact on my own. Collecting as much inspiration was a needed step that established the ground for my design artefact that I am yet to design. The research allowed to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about how speculative Desing is used in connection to an unsustainable practice. As I realised that it is more effective and easier to communicate and address one problem (unsustainable practice) rather than the whole issue (climate change), I am leaving the wider concept, issue aside. However, before specifying which unsustainable practice my artefact will address, to comprehend what an unsustainable approach means, first, the sustainability term needs to be analysed:

Sustainability “is the ability to meet our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Anon, 2009)

Unsustainable: “Something that is unsustainable cannot continue at the same rate | Causing damage to the environment by using more of something than can be replaced naturally” (Dictionary, n.d.).

Hence, if something is unsustainable, it cannot be continued at the same pace, level, rate, etc. In other words, it is anything that cannot be prolonged or continued.

Figure 21: Image of Farmers at the Willowsford community farm in Aldie, Virginia (Dramby, 2019)

Figure 22, Image of Enviromental Problems (Zeljkosatrac, 2014)

Food waste

We are environmentally unsustainable because we consume more resources than the planet can handle and replenish. Most of the practices such as overconsumption, overexploitation and deforestation are unsustainable because they have proven not to have an ecological balance in terms of depletion of natural resources. Among the many challenges of climate change, the way we utilise food and waste food is “one of the most obvious ways that we are environmentally unsustainable” (Kamprad, n.d.). When referring to something ‘that cannot be prolonged or continued’ in my mind, I immediately think of the usage we have with food.

Figure 23: Image of Food Waste

Food and water are the most essential things on this planet earth; every living thing needs food; it provides energy to fuel even the most basic functions of respiration and circulation; nothing can survive interminably without food. Nevertheless, groups within societies never got to learn how to deal with things without wasting food (Berners-Lee, 2019). Indeed, we live in a world in which one billion people go hungry, yet one in which we throw out 1.6 billion tons of food each year and where a third (White, 2018) produced for human consumption gets wasted (Berners-Lee, 2019). Food waste is essential because it is an ethical issue and an environmental issue. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food waste is responsible for roughly eight per cent of global emissions.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations seek to reduce food waste by half by 2030, but according to a recent Boston Consulting Group (BCG) analysis, the global response to food waste is fragmented and inadequate. There is little prospect of meeting that goal unless things drastically change (White, 2018). Our throw-away society, in my opinion, is responsible for the way we constantly dispose of food without eating it.

Figure 24: Food Waste: A Big Opportunity Towards SDGs (United Nations, 2012)

My artefact

Therefore, we are currently on an unsustainable path because our consumption rate exceeds the planet’s capacity limit. To guarantee that future generations have access to the same resources as we do now, we must make an effort to live “sustainably in terms of the planet, the economy, and the people who live here” (Kamprad, n.d.). After exploring the importance and urgency of the food waste challenge and getting inspired by two speculative cases whose focus is on the following topic.

For my design output, I decided to create an artefact that addresses the food waste challenge, which will be illustarted in the upcoming portoflio.

CLIMATE CHANGE

FOOD WASTE

Design Output

Conclusion:

This thesis began with the question, “In what ways can speculative design foster debate and raise awareness towards a more sustainable food approach? To effectively respond, first, the future-oriented practices that are used as a tool for systems change needed to be defined. Following this, within these practices, speculative Desing, my area of interest, was explored. It was understood as, rather than a process, a practice that educates the mind to envisage alternative future realities through the experience of fictional design artefacts. Via theories, speculative design has shown how, without boundaries and even revolutionary, anything is possible, even magic. Even when the world is in crisis, this same magic makes us optimistic about the future.

The world expects companies to pioneer the way for a better future, one that is sustainable, equitable, and just for all (Quinn, 2021). To accomplish the latter, the first crucial step, after having envisioned plausible alternative ways of being, is to build the belief that many different futures are possible. There is a need to accept the agency we have over our present choices in shaping our future evolution and use this agency to intentionally work towards the future we hope to see realised. (Colosi, 2017). As John C. Lily, a speculative scientist, cited:

“In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits. These limits are to be found experientially and experimentally. When the limits are determined, it is found that they are further beliefs to be transcended. In the province of the mind, there are no limits”.

Figure 25: Image of the Physician and psychoanalyst John C. Lilly (Getty Images, n.d.)

The research question was then further probed in tangency to bigger scope of climate change at first, to then analyse its relationship with an unsustainable practice, food waste in specific.

To analyse the current challenges, why is it happening now? It is the question we need to ask ourselves constantly; only then, the vision of the present become a lot clearer. The truth is that today’s world is extremely complex; our social relationships, desires, dreams, hopes, and fears are vastly different from those at the beginning of the century (Dunne & Raby, 2013).

Nevertheless, thanks to the evolution of many sectors and the tools they have developed, these issues can be counterattacked. Designers have gained the title of the “new inventors” as a result of the evolution of design. When they collaborate with entrepreneurs, business strategists, scientists and entire communities, “the collective power is immense, allowing us to imagine the futures we need and desire” (Quinn, 2021).

Overall, this dissertation did not aim to find solutions; instead, it showed how the responses need to be not just technological but social and political, and require innovations in how we imagine futures, organise just societies, value things and relate to others, all of this needs to be learnt again, at an appropriate pace and scale (Tyszczuk, 2021). Further, the lack of boundaries granted by the speculative context let us realise that the future may be radically different from today - the extent will depend on our collective choices and actions today. As designers, we can play a leading role in shaping the flavour of our future. Engaging in speculative moments of reflection on the numerous possible futures can assist us in becoming thoughtful in how we design the evolution of our change and shed new light on what design can and should do (Colosi, 2017).

References

Anon, 2009. United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) Our Common Future Report (1987). Environmental Science: In Context, 2, pp.813–815.

Antonelli, P., 2010. The World in 2036: Design Takes Over, Says Paola Antonelli. [online] The Economist. Available at: <https://www.economist.com/news/2010/11/22/design-takes-oversays-paola-antonelli> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Auger, J. (2013). Speculative design: crafting the speculation. Digital Creativity, 24(1), 11-35.

Berners-Lee, M., 2019. There Is No Planet B : A Handbook for the Make or Break Years., New York: Cambridge University Press.

Beurle, D., 2021. The Importance of Future Thinking. [online] Linkedin.com. Available at: <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-future-thinking-david-beurle/> [Accessed 22 April 2022].

Bland, J. and Westlake, S., 2013. Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: A modest defence of futurology. [online] nesta. Available at: <https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/dont-stop-thinkingabout-tomorrow-a-modest-defence-of-futurology/> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Berners-Lee, M., 2019. There Is No Planet B : A Handbook for the Make or Break Years., New York: Cambridge University Press.

Bruinhorst, C., 2019. The exhibition FOOD: Bigger than the Plate. [online] Available at: <https://www.unbore.org/stories/imagining-different-food-futures-with-speculativegastrono> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Colosi, C., 2017. The Double Diamond of Speculative Design. [online] The Fountain Institute. Available at: <https://www.thefountaininstitute.com/blog/the-double-diamond-of-speculativedesign> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

Craswell, P., 2020. What is Speculative Design? - The Design Writer. [online] The Design Writer. Available at: <https://thedesignwriter.com.au/what-is-speculative-design/> [Accessed 7 May 2022].

Dictionary.cambridge.org. n.d. unsustainable. [online] Available at: <https://dictionary. cambridge.org/dictionary/english/unsustainable> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Dunne, A. & Raby, Fiona, 2013. Speculative everything : design, fiction, and social dreaming, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Garrido, A., Cavazos, S. and Martínez, L., 2020. Nium — Speculative Design. [online] Behance. net. Available at: <https://www.behance.net/gallery/100885759/Nium-Speculative-Design> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

References

Iwabuchi, M., 2022. Speculative Design and Designed Realities. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://uxplanet.org/speculative-design-and-designed-realities-ade514cc3426> [Accessed 7 May 2022].

Jonas, W., Zerwas, S. and Anshelm, K., 2015. Transformation design. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Kamprad, D., n.d. Sustainable vs Unsustainable: What’s the Difference? - Impactful Ninja. [online] Impactful Ninja. Available at: <https://impactful.ninja/sustainable-vs-unsustainabledifferences/> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

Kay, A., 1971. Alan Kay on predicting the future « Entersection. [online] Entersection. com. Available at: <http://entersection.com/posts/639-alan-kay-on-predicting-the-future> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Mitrović, I., 2015. Introduction to Speculative Design Practice – Speculative. [online] Speculative.hr. Available at: <http://speculative.hr/en/introduction-to-speculative-designpractice/> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Nardi, B., 2016. DESIGNING FOR THE FUTURE—BUT WHICH ONE?. [online] INTERACTIONS. Available at: <https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/januaryfebruary-2016/designing-for-the-future> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Liveley, G., Slocombe, W. and Spiers, E., 2021. Futures literacy through narrative. Futures, [online] 125, p.7. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0016328720301531> [Accessed 6 March 2022].

López Galviz, C., Spiers, E., Büscher, M. and Nordin, A., 2022. Routledge handbook of social futures. Routledge, p.6.

Quinn, H., 2021. This is how design fiction could shape a sustainable (real) future. [online] World Economic Forum. Available at: <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/11/what-isdesign-fiction-and-how-can-it-shape-the-real-future/> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

Quinn, H., 2021. Using design fiction to imagine a preferable future. [online] Neste. Available at: <https://journeytozerostories.neste.com/innovation/using-design-fiction-imagine-preferablefuture#f2d55df6> [Accessed 25 April 2022].

Raven, P., 2021. contract/bridge: Auger (2013), Speculative design: crafting the speculation. [online] Velcro City Tourist Board. Available at: <https://www.velcro-city.co.uk/contract-bridgeauger-2013-speculative-design-crafting-the-speculation/> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

Rees, A., 2021. The History of Predicting the Future. [online] Wired. Available at: <https://www. wired.com/story/history-predicting-future/> [Accessed 22 April 2022].

References

Rescher, N., 1998. Predicting the future. Albany: State University of New York Press, p.19. Roumiantseva, A., 2016. The Fourth Way: Design Thinking Meets Futures Thinking. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://medium.com/@anna.roumiantseva/the-fourth-way-designthinking-meets-futures-thinking-85793ae3aa1e> [Accessed 20 April 2022].

Saval, N., 2020. Design for the Future When the Future Is Bleak (Published 2020). [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/t-magazine/designfuture-pandemic-climate.html> [Accessed 24 April 2022].

Song, X., 2017. Ways of thinking — Design thinking vs. Future thinking. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://xuansong.medium.com/ways-of-thinking-design-thinking-vs-futurethinking-357ea9c50f88> [Accessed 20 April 2022].

Tonkinwise, C., 2015. Just Design. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://medium.com/@ camerontw/just-design-b1f97cb3996f> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

Twemlow, A., 2017. “A Throw-Away Esthetic”: New Measures and Metaphors in Product Design Criticism, 1955–1961, Part 3 – Alice Twemlow. [online] Alicetwemlow.com. Available at: <https://alicetwemlow.com/a-throw-away-esthetic-new-measures-and-metaphors-in-pro duct-design-criticism-1955-1961-part-3/> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Tyszczuk, R. (2021). Collective scenarios: Speculative improvisations for the Anthropocene. Futures : The Journal of Policy, Planning and Futures Studies, 134, 102854.

Wagner, T., 2017. Just Design. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://medium.com/@/ just-design-b1f97cb3996f> [Accessed 23 April 2022].

Walker Art Center, 2021. Designs for Different Futures - Announcements - e-flux. [online] E-flux.com. Available at: <https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/280569/designs-for-dif ferent-futures/#:~:text=Thinking%20about%20our%20futures%20has,imagine%20what%20 is%20to%20come.> [Accessed 21 April 2022].

Weinschenk, S., 2021. Design is evolving—and designers need to evolve with it.. [online] THE TEAM W BLOG. Available at: <https://www.blog.theteamw.com/2021/08/25/design-is-evol ving-and-designers-need-to-evolve-with-it/> [Accessed 2 December 2021].

White, M., 2018. Food wastage is a global problem that we need to address – Fit Planet. [online] Les Mills. Available at: <https://www.lesmills.com/fit-planet/green-living/foodwaste/#:~:text=We%20live%20in%20a%20world,farm%20or%20factory%20to%20fork.> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Wieckowski, A., 2018. Why It’s So Hard to Plan for the Future. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2018/11/predicting-the-future> [Accessed 23 April 2022].

Images

First Chapter

Figure 1: the Guardian. 2021. Burning villages, orange skies: Greece fires – in pictures. [onli ne] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2021/aug/09/greece-fires-wil dfires-attica-greek-islands-evia-fire-in-pictures> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Figure 2: 2020. [image] Available at: <https://d279m997dpfwgl.cloudfront.net/wp/2020/12/ Varon-1000x667.jpg> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Figure 3: Cuberious. n.d. Designs by George Nelson | Handmade Furniture | Cuberious. [onli ne] Available at: <https://www.cuberious.com/en/designers/george-nelson.html> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 4: Hambeukers, D., 2020. Design as a problem solving. [image] Available at: <ht tps://medium.com/design-leadership-notebook/design-is-more-than-problem-solving7e290535927c> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Figure 5: 2022. The Delphic Oracle Predicts Democracy. [image] Available at: <https://www. grunge.com/88733/ancient-prophecies-come-true/> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 6: Euronews, 2021. [image] Available at: <https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/30/ peruvian-shamans-make-predictions-for-the-new-year> [Accessed 4 May 2022].

Figure 7: Roumiantseva, 2016. Design Thinking Vs Futures Thinking. [image] Available at: <ht tps://medium.com/@anna.roumiantseva/the-fourth-way-design-thinking-meets-futures-thin king-85793ae3aa1e> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 8: Roumiantseva, 2016. The system. [image] Available at: <https://medium.com/@ anna.roumiantseva/the-fourth-way-design-thinking-meets-futures-thinking-85793ae3aa1e> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 9: n.d. The timeline. [image] Available at: <https:https://www.hubraum.com/desi gn-for-the-future/> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 10: n.d. Alan Kay. [image] Available at: <https://fixquotes.com/authors/alan-kay.htm> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Second chapter

Figure 11: Montgomery, E., 2018. An unresolved mapping of speculative design. [image] Available at: <https://medium.com/the-shape-of-things-to-come/design-x-futures-design-fu tures-26e47b43775d> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Images

Figure 12: Johnson, E., 2020. Halos. [image] Available at: <https://www.behance.net/ gallery/105428497/Halos?tracking_source=search_projects%7Chalos> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 13: Auger, J., 2013. Alternative presents and speculative futures. [image] Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263596818_Speculative_Design_Crafting_the_ Speculation> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 14: Auger, J., 2013. Future Cones. [image] Available at: <https://www.researchgate. net/publication/263596818_Speculative_Design_Crafting_the_Speculation> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 15: Colosi, C., 2017. The Double Diamond of Speculative Design. [image] Available at: <https://www.thefountaininstitute.com/blog/the-double-diamond-of-speculative-design> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 16: Kirwan, 2021. Climate Change. [image] Available at: <https://behavioralscientist. org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Climate-Change_Kirwan_v2-1430x794.jpg> [Accessed 7 May 2022].

Figure 17: Martínez, L., 2020. Nium — Speculative Design. [image] Available at: <https:// www.behance.net/gallery/100885759/Nium-Speculative-Design> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 18: Bruinhorst, C., 2019. The exhibition FOOD: Bigger than the Plate. [image] Avai lable at: <https://www.unbore.org/stories/imagining-different-food-futures-with-speculati ve-gastrono> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Figure 19: Potts, A., 2016. Sustainable bioplastics made from organic waste,. [image] Available at: <http://www.projects.alicepotts.com/landing.html> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Figure 20: Agapakis, C., 2014. A personalised canapé made at LOCI Food Lab. [image] Available at: <https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f2ee0bfe5d0a1463b047a 8d/1596981786184-6YDGVIYJA0MMT9R7SI8Z/Untitled.png?format=1500w> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Third Chapter

Figure 21: Dramby, D., 2019. Farmers at the Willowsford community farm in Aldie, Virginia. [image] Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/alyyale/2019/09/12/meet-the-farm-ba sed-neighborhoods-changing-the-face-of-master-planned-communities/?sh=61b d5c403baa> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Images

Figure 22: Zeljkosantrac, 2014. Environmental problems. [image] Available at: <https://www. istockphoto.com/photo/environmental-problems-gm523382423-51503030> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 23: n.d. Food Waste. [image] Available at: <https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/fo od-waste-america/> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 24: United Nations, 2012. Food Waste: A Big Opportunity Towards SDGs. [image] Available at: <https://www.lifefoster.eu/food-waste-reduction-sustainable-development-go als/> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

Figure 25: Getty Images, n.d. Physician and psychoanalyst John C. Lilly. [image] Available at: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/03/07/ketamine-new-anti-depres sant-has-been-blowing-minds-decades/> [Accessed 6 May 2022].

.,

Part two: Design Output

Scenario

We live in a world in which one billion people go hungry, yet one in which we throw out 1.6 billion tons of food each year and where a third (White, 2018) produced for human consumption gets wasted (Berners-Lee). People, however, are not able to see the damage that they are doing to the earth; the urge to make this relisation happen is more than ever crucial.

Idea: Prototyping a game to encourage thinking kids aged 6 to 9 around sustainable practices.

Artefact:

Inspired by both of the case studies, I have designed an artefact that revolves around the idea of “Making the invisible visible” this explains its name. My primary goal is to speculate about how a prototype, while being provocative and realistic, can provoke and raise awareness among kids. The latter is achieved by designing an artefact that enables kids, in this case, to see the invisible (how much food they waste) visible Raising awareness among the youngest regarding food waste will lead to comprehending why this sustainable transition needs to occur.

What do we need?

Designing the game

What?

This project utilises speculative design to create a Desing output which allows kids to learn how to have a more sustainable approach towards food in a fun and interactive way, which facilitates the learning.

Who?

To effectively raise awareness of food waste, I decided to have young kids whose age ranges from six to nine as the target of my artefact; in such a way, they can incorporate this sustainable behaviour from an early age.

Why?

The reason why this game that specific age group is because, according to research, they learn faster and are ‘mature’ enough to comprehend what an unsustainable practice is. The kids nowadays are the ones who can determine our present for a better future. However, tools are needed to do so, and this game gives them this possibility.

BoxThe game is presented in a box. The latter contains the three items I have designed that make up the game, designed to inform and teach in a playful way the user to pursue a more sustainable approach concerning food. Each one of them follow a specific purpose.

What is inside the box?

1Smart Bin

It detects the food that is not fully eaten.

2 Puzzle

The puzzle depicts an image that encourages the kid to have a sustainable approach. It can both ‘punish’ or reward the kid depending on the behaviour.

Timer

The timer resets the puzzle’s image every month. In this way, the kid is motivated to follow this approach not for a short time but in the long term.

SMART BIN

The order in which I present the items follows a chronological sense based on their interaction they have with each other; even though all three could be presented randomly, they would still make sense within the box. However, the first item that this portfolio explores is the smart bin.

Purpose

All three items play an important role; the purpose of the bin is to detect and recognise when the kid throws something that is not fully eaten. Depending on how much food he/she regularly throws, storing all the latter’s information records if the kid is following a sustainable or unsustainable usage of food. Following this, I wanted the bin to be as simple as possible; hence, I started sketching out some of my ideas of how I wanted to look.

In practice

To better comprehend how the bin would function, this example might help contextualise what it means to detect. The parameter is straightforward: the food required to activate the detection occurs when whichever food is thrown, the food is either half-eaten or even not eaten at all. The more food waste there is more the bar changes its colour towards red

Digital Puzzle

As the purpose of the bin is to detect and send information of the latter, what receives is the digital puzzle, which is the second item of the three of the box.

Digital Puzzle

The bins and the puzzle are interconnected; this connection is what makes both of them worthwhile. On the one hand, the bin is essential for the puzzle to turn the data received into something concrete. In turn, the puzzle is what makes the data of the bins captured into something useful. In this manner, it is the only way the kid’s actions are shown immediately on the puzzles. Since my goal with this artefact is to raise awareness, the puzzle, based on the kid’s actions, can alert the kid that he/she needs to adjust his /her approach towards food or award him/her.

Why word puzzle?

As the word puzzle recalls, I intend to utilise the puzzle to metaphorically visualise the fact that as the kid progresses and better understands how to have a sustainable approach toward food waste, the puzzle also gets ‘completed’, which shows the well-defined idea that the kid has.

Where?

The puzzle would then be implemented directly into the kid’s room and the other two items in such a way that utilising the game would hold power as it is delivered into his/her environment. Rather than utilising this game in a bigger house environment, such as the kitchen or living room, having it directly into the kid’s room, the game would acquire more importance as the game has a a closer contact compared if it would have been done otherwise. The interesting aspect of this is that from the little room, where the is constantly reminded to follow that specific behaviour, then the kid could bring this concept that he/ she has learned within the little rooms outside of their world.

Thinking of what the puzzle might represent

When thinking of what the puzzle might have depicted, I needed to make sure that the image shown would encourage the kid to pursue a sustainable approach. At first, I thought that illustrating an image that is related to sustainability might have pushed the kid to embark on that approach. However, due to the young age of my young target audience, I decided that it would have been more efficient if the poster illustrated something that the kid had an interest in, such as an image of their favourite cartoon characters.

The digital puzzle allows the kid to choose a picture, but how does it happen?

The actual preferences that the kid has are what determine what the puzzle depicts. At first, I imagined the process of picking the picture through a QR; however, it would have been harder for the target audience to have access to technological devices that they could have used to scan the QR code. What worked better was simply using a platform such as a tv programme characters as a way to choose what picture would be illustrated in the framework.

Depending on what the kid watches in his/her leisure time, the program’s main character would be shown in the puzzle.

Understand what the puzzle show when some pieces are turned off: By now is clear that the puzzle pieces modify according to the kid’s actions. When the kid assumes an unsustainable behaviour, instead of turning off the pieces (which was the initial idea) to push the kid back on track successfully the turned off pieces needed to depict something that could convince them. Since data would not have such a significant impact, having something that triggers the kid more without showing the number side could have a more significant impact. Hence, as speculative Desing allows us to be provocative, I decided to utilise the pieces that turn off to implement images that showcase images of people suffering from food shortages in poorer countries. This, in turn, creates a bigger trigger that provoke and emotions the kid to adjust his/ her actions.

Contexualisaing it

Every kid that receives this game starts with the puzzle that depicts the image in its entirety. However, the approach from kid to kid might differentiate. Hence, speculating about how the image could turn out to be, is an interesting way to see how this puzzle might be different from a kid to the kid next door.

SOFIA

INTERESTS

“This is not a game! It is very boring, and the image is very scary”

BIO

New York, USA

Living with her older brother

Attending the 2th year of primary school

She loves playing with her friends after school at her house. In her leisure time, she loves swimming, and she loves to eat snacks.

Swimming Tennis

Photography Watching TV

7 Playing with toys Apples Crisps

Most trown food waste

Sandwich with ham

WHY SOFIA?

Sofia is an example of how other kids might utilize this game in a way they are not supposed to use.

FAVORITE PROGRAMMES

JUSTIN

INTERESTS

9 “This game is revolutionary; it has a genius way of raising awareness about food waste”

London, United Kingdom

Living with my parents

Attending the 4th year of primary school

BIO

Justin lives in London, UK. Despite his young age, he is interested in becoming an activist; he wants to know everything about ways we can be sustainable.

WHY JUSTIN?

Justin is the perfect example that showcases through his behaviour how kids how young kids sometimes have a more sustainable approach than their parents.

Tennis Watching TV

Football Sustainability Video Games

MOST THROWN FOOD WASTE

Banana

PROGRAMMES

Outcome

Overall, the more pieces the puzzles have, the more is the sustainable approach of the kid toward food. On the contrary, when the puzzles start to illustrate provocative images of children suffering from hunger implies that the kid is losing the behaviour he/she is supposed to have.

Its power

The power of this game is that it quickly transfers the data (an action) to the puzzle (response). This is done in a very effective way, that kids reconsigne when they are doing something they are not supposed to do. This game enables us to see and make the invisible visible, which is fundamental when talking about global challenges such as food waste. If people were only able to see the consequences of their actions, almost the whole population would be triggered to change immediately. However, with this challenge in question, the consequences cannot be seen right away; they can only be seen when comparing years of distance; this is why I believe this prototype holds such great power.

First case:

The parents also play an important part in this process. They are key, especially when the kid is not having a sustainable approach.

There are two cases that might occur; either the picture has some pieces that are turned off, which in turn means that he is using the game but is not putting enough effort into being sustainable.

Second case:

The other case is that on which I speculate, what if the kid does not even use the game? In this case, the framework would remind them to do so, and in addition, the parents, by seeing this ‘reminder’ would stimulate the kid to use it for its own benefits (reward) and for the benefit of the planet. By simply entering the kid’s room, the parents would see the puzzle that it is not completed they know he/she is doing something wrong. Thus, with the help of the puzzle, the parents could encourage him/her to come back on track.

Timer 03/03

The timer is the last of the three items of the box.

REMAINING

The timer is equally essential as the rest of the items. It serves the purpose of making sure that the kid does not follow solely for a month, but it is a thing that renews long-term behaviour.

Indeed, the timer is built in a way that every moth constantly rests, and with that also the image of the puzzle. By doing so, the user is motivated every month to see the following picture. This connects to the fact that the kid’s interest changes very quickly; thus, by having something that renews with the old with something that he/she likes more, instead of making the kid less motivated because it might be boring, solely encourages him/her to have that sustainable attitude in the way they can see their new favourite cartoon character in their rooms.

To help make this transition of time seem easier, the timer shows how many days are remaning in the month. In this way, it is easier to stick to that routine, as every day he/she wakes ups can see what their progress is. This is purely beneficial for them, especially during that age when their conditions of the time are not yet well defined, might having that setting will facilitate the waiting.

Conclusion

Overall, this design output is an outcome of what was previously explored. Understanding speculative design enabled me to craft my own idea of what I believe speculative design could be used. As shown through the development of my design output, I was interested in designing something that could speculate ways in which the design output could, by triggering an emotion, and visualising the user’s behaviour onto the puzzle, raise awareness towards having a more sustainable approach with food. As Speculative Design is a dialogue of what the future can be, in this case, my artefact envisioned a world in which kids utilise this game to limit food waste. Rather than solving the problem, I have created something that could address food waste while being also provocative. With the prototype created, I could speculate and inform about potential scenarios and what that world, in which my diegetic prototype is inserted, might entail. To conclude, it was interesting to see how Speculative Design allowed me to be the narrator of the designed reality in which the artefact is built.

References

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White, M., 2018. Food wastage is a global problem that we need to address – Fit Planet. [online] Les Mills. Available at: <https://www.lesmills.com/fit-planet/green-living/foodwaste/#:~:text=We%20live%20in%20a%20world,farm%20or%20factory%20to%20fork.> [Accessed 8 May 2022].

Mockup:

Mckups. n.d. Small Cardboard Box Mockup - Mckups. [online] Available at: <https://mckups. com/small-cardboard-box-mockup/> [Accessed 4 May 2022].