Imagine giving a consumer electronics company executive a copy of VALIS or Ubik and saying, “Your design brief is between pages 16-48, but I recommend reading this cover to cover..I’d like to manufacture the artifact on page 24, eventually at scale..I’ll need 1,000 units in 9 months to do some...

In October of 2012, a multidisciplinary group of artists, engineers, designers, and speculators spent three days in Detroit to “do” science fiction: tangle up in fact and fiction and engage in curious crosstalk about the things that could be. The goal, then, was to Design Fiction and turn talk into...

An Inside Look at Creativity and Innovation with Julian Bleecker and Kyle Ng

Design Fiction mingles amongst science fiction, imagination, real-world technology, cultural practices, and audaciously influences popular culture and future technologies. This essay by Emmet Byrne and Susannah Schouweiler highlights the symbiotic relationship between design, science fiction, and the creative process, making the future more tangible and shaping it through rigorous design...

Communicating future scenarios is often very difficult, but Design Fiction offers an effective tool for meeting that challenge. In this episode of Gartner Futures Lab, we discuss how IT leaders should use design to create tangible and evocative prototypes that inspire conversations about plausible futures.

Beautiful visual notations inscribed by Shaun Au in The Manual of Design Fiction

Grounded Wisdom is a unique tarot card deck that bridges design, ecology, and mysticism. Inspired by 20th-century modernist farming posters, these cards serve as a creative toolkit for designers and eco-conscious individuals, exploring the symbiotic relationship between soil and life. Each card offers questions that spark holistic, regenerative design thinking...

Episode 089 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast is an in-depth conversation with guest Silvio Lorusso, a designer, artist, and writer based in Lisbon. Our discussion centers around the complex relationship between design, disillusionment, and the evolving role of design in society, as Silvio has articulated in his recent book...

Why is it a struggle for creatives to self-promote their hard work? I should say 'some' creatives. Perhaps I should say 'most'? Tyler the Creator's bewilderment at why creators shy away from promoting their work, was a poignant consideration of this challenge, and was shared in a post by Yancey...

the work kit of design fiction

A 24 hour Design Fiction Sprint to Imagine Possible AI Futures Artifacts

..There's no question in my mind that you could create a whole community just around collecting rocks that look like shoes. If you start putting your passion onto the Internet, you're going to attract other people who have similar interests. It's a wonderful machine for that. Or it's a ecology...

Design Meets is a Toronto-based and online event about people getting together and sharing their ideas. This presentation by Julian Bleecker will present Design Fiction, a design-led approach to augmenting analytic research by grounding the implications of research into tangible, relatable artifacts.

A short essay on the complexity of the relationship between creativity and commercialism in design, highlighting the need for a collaborative approach between creativity (design, as a catch-all) and structure ('the business') as a strategy for earthly survival.

creative vitality summit 2024

Causal Islands is about bringing together experts and enthusiasts from many different backgrounds and sharing and learning together. We are creative technologists, researchers, and builders, exploring what the future of computing can be. The LA community edition on Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 has themes of building and running networks together,...

artificial intelligence in the future as seen throgu

North of Patient aims to paint an inspired landscape of healthcare's future through dialogues with creative and unconventional thinkers globally.

Signs of change workshop at SxSW South by Southwest 2024 where we use Design Fiction to imagine the implications of change using the typical street sign as the grounding artifact, or as an archetype that helps with the hard work of imagining change.

Let's use Design Fiction to wonder what might be for breakfast in a future in which AI is as normal, ordinary, and everyday as 10 minute pizza delivery and wheels on luggage and the other benefits brought by technology innovation? Join us for General Seminar where we will be discussing...

Julian Bleecker combines OpenAI and ElevenLabs to generate an AI created daily poem, blending technology with creativity and design fiction sensibilities with a hint of psychogeography.

Julian Bleecker, BSEE, MSEng, Ph.D. visited Chapman University on February 28, 2024, to deliver the annual Bensussen Lecture in the Arts Series, invited by Professor Justin St. P. Walsh. The visit included engaging with students and faculty who have integrated Design Fiction into their curriculum, demonstrating the impact of Near...

Week 7 of 2024 at the Near Future Laboratory from the Discord. Highlights include advancements in artificial intelligence in healthcare, ethical AI licensing, speculative design fiction, innovative product design narratives, and the latest on critical and emerging technologies. It was a week filled with thought-provoking content on AI, design fiction,...

enhancing your product decision making abilities

arup abundance lil film

Near Future Laboratory Podcast Episode 084 Thrilling Wonder Stories is a podcast that delves into the intersection of science, technology, and the arts. It features discussions on a wide range of topics including consciousness, film special effects, artificial intelligence, and science fiction. The podcast aims to explore futuristic ideas and...

Read about the creation of an iPhone app that points users towards the center of the galaxy, highlighting the ease of technology use and development with AI tools. The post also discusses the impact of AI on traditional programming skills, including perspectives on the future of coding craftsmanship and the...

The continuing journey to foster a community-driven creative renaissance through collaboration, coordination, and amplification. The new Token Ring Web Ring initiative leverages structured communication to promote cooperative work and envision more habitable future worlds.

Imagination is often dismissed as childish, or a frill. But it also lets us picture alternative futures, and technologies that haven't been invented yet. So how do we harness our imagination? And in an age where Big Tech promises to solve our problems for us, how do we use our...

Discover how Design Fiction can transform your strategic planning, enabling CEOs and business executives to anticipate market trends, innovate, and lead with confidence in a dynamic business environment.

In this episode, I chat with the fun, creative, thoughtful Ruth Guerra, a design researcher with a knack for amplifying the questions about design, creativity, research and futures through a wonderful social media presence. We dive into her journey from a theater undergrad to mastering future design, where she champions...

A design fiction magazine from a possible AI future and podcasting with Radha Mistry and Nora Young

What is Design Fiction? Design Fiction uses sci-fi and design to create prototypes, envisioning future possibilities and their impacts. It helps organizations think beyond current trends, fostering a deeper understanding of potential technological and societal changes through tangible artifacts.

This blog post examines the concept of the 'Future Mundane,' a design philosophy focusing on the practical, everyday aspects of future technologies rather than speculative, heroic, or overly idealized visions.

Week Notes from the Near Future Laboratory including The Work Kit of Design Fiction, work on a Magazine from a Possible AI Future, reflections on how not to imagine the future of artificial intelligence, and what exactly is Design Fiction

Metaverse Futures, Design Fiction, Tourism Futures, Center for Science and the Imagination, Workshop, AI Futures

Design Fiction translates signals into tangible, meaningful artifacts. Artifacts. Not storyboards.

AI, Design Fiction, Annual Reports.

Design fiction creates artifacts, not speculations.

Julian Bleecker explains the development of Design Fiction, a method he pioneered for imagining future scenarios through the creation of tangible artifacts. Julian discusses some of the ways the practice can help guide decision-making and its uses in strategy and communication. Julian invites listeners to explore this interdisciplinary approach through...

Julian Bleecker explains the development of Design Fiction, a method he pioneered for imagining future scenarios through the creation of tangible artifacts. Julian discusses some of the ways the practice can help guide decision-making and its uses in strategy and communication. Julian invites listeners to explore this interdisciplinary approach through...

Dad Band Futures Fest: Broadcast from Later 46

This podcast episode with Julian Bleecker discusses design fiction, emphasizing speculative design's role in projecting future possibilities and its influence on current design practices, highlighting the relevance of visual creativity and the intersection with technology.

the design fiction archetype

The relationship between Imagination in Structure can be antagonistic. How do we bring Imagination and Structure into collaboration rather than confrontation?

In this episode of 'The Futurists,' co-hosts Brett King and Rob Tercik discuss with Julian Bleecker, co-founder of Near Future Laboratory, his unique approach called 'Design Fiction.' They explore the imaginative process of depicting future scenarios through objects, advertisements, and everyday experiences, akin to archeological finds from the future. The...

design fiction ux cork

Uncover the essence of Design Fiction and its profound impact on imagining future possibilities through objects. Dive into a thought-provoking discussion on how design fiction transcends traditional prose, offering a fresh perspective on envisioning the future. Discover our new book, 'The Manual of Design Fiction,' for a comprehensive guide on...

Let's look at three questions about Design Fiction that often show up in my inbox.

where is design fiction

5 simple complicated things to be considered

Design Fiction

blue boat

a strange thing happened

design fiction as the epistemological monkey

future mundane, design fiction, everyday familiar, futures design, strategic design

when caleb gets a call

Design Fiction

unintended use cases the unknown knowns in design

whats breakfast cereal got to do with the future

why do future visions all look like future visions

stanford cs547 human computer interaction seminar series

While we're in the present, dribbling over our shiny new iWhatevers and being amazed that an espresso maker can shit out coffee just from seeing a picture of a bean, Julian Bleecker and his fellow technologists are busy fucking around in the near future. He’s co-founder of the Near Future...