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

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.

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 practices.

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

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 deliberate actions and artifacts; to swerve the present by telling the story of a near future we imagine can be possible.

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 test marketing and consumer studies..how much?” Man, I’d love to live in that world where you could write a story as a design brief.

In Episode 091 of the Near Future Laboratory Podcast, I talk with Tobias Revell and we explore the fascinating intersection of speculative fiction and technological innovation, looking into the imaginative worlds of Philip K. Dick and the film Minority Report. Our dialogue reveals not only the creative visions of PKD, but also the broader implications for how we perceive and shape our future through imaginative storytelling and intelligent design.