Near Future Laboratory
2024-08-10 Blog Archive
Fictions + Facts = Futures
Aug 10, 2024 (ref Jul 01, 2025)
Design Fiction is an approach and methodology that helps reveal and playfully represent possibilities in the form of pragmatic material artifacts. It does this so as to exercise the imagination, which is the existential capability we have to see/create/conjure the unexpected, unanticipated newness that we call 'inspiration' and 'innovation.' Design Fiction operates in the dynamic space between barely possible and pragmatic reality, playfully messing with the tension between the not true *yet and what could be(come). This approach ignites and inspires the kind of thinking that leads to farm-fresh ideas, while fostering the kind of engaged and thoughtful discussion that just makes one want to build something — to take action. The artifacts created through Design Fiction aren't just imagined scenarios; they function as probes and materialized experiments in the form of things like advertisements, product specifications, instructions for things yet to be manufactured. They guide us through the complexities of the grounded world and reveal how our ideals and realities...
design fictionmetamodernismmetamodernmethodology