Critical and Speculative Design
“It’s not an end point, but a counterpoint” — Fiona Raby on what critical design means for the future
Critical and speculative design is seen, in a way, as a counter design. It is used to provoke questions around social, political or cultural ideas. To do this, designers must toe the line of black, deadpan humour and seriousness in order to get the message across.
Unlike some shocking art shows, critical design is firmly rooted in reality, just twisted a bit. This field of design takes the everyday and can turn it into a disturbing alternate future. It is the area of design that we think of typically as ‘off limits’ since designers tend to stick to making things look nice. Speculative design leaves you thinking and can both amuse and disturb.
“Enabling designers to move away from strict notions of the “form follows function” model, and instead to examine new questions and new problems that equally reflect society’s current moment and provoke movement beyond that status quo.” — Kristina Parsons for artsy.net
The Republic of Salvation is by Michael Burton & Michiko Nitta. This image conjures up nightmares and is meant to represent what might happen to us as a society if there was a mass food shortage that left us all on the same government rations. The work consists not only of these images but a whole immersive look at what this ‘dystopian society’ might look like with bunks, rations, posters etc. By designing an entire immersive show like this, critical designers can really get into people’s heads and get them thinking all the questions they didn’t want to ask before.
It’s certainly not for everyone, and requires a lot of thought to create. But when critical design works, it really works.
Gidest (2016). Tony Dunne & Fiona Raby — Critical Design. [video] Available at: https://vimeo.com/169936495 [Accessed 22 Nov. 2018].
