Artifacts as a means to investigate alternate and future realities

Abstract: As design evolves and moves from the creation of physical objects to the creation of services, the methods and approach to prototyping have undergone a radical transformation, fundamentally altering the design process. Where once conceptual objects signaled the designer's view of the future, and sparked conversations about potential future realities; today, wireframes and frameworks are often used for targeted the refinement of specific interventions. As designers seek to shift the design process towards more participatory methods (Srikanth 2023), methods that involve all stakeholders in the design process, perhaps there is a new space for artifacts to be reintegrated into the design process, in a way that would facilitate new kinds of interactions, interventions, and discourse. From the use of actual and situated artifacts for critical inquiry, to speculative objects that allow for descriptions of, and interactions with, possible future worlds, physical objects can be a valuable tool in participatory design. Such artifacts can serve as boundary objects between communities and between disciplines as the design process becomes increasingly interdisciplinary. Furthermore, they can facilitate a deeper understanding of the value systems of different communities, as studying their interactions with objects allows us to decenter the human user in the design process and better understand how non-human objects fit into the larger systems they inhabit.This paper compares and contrasts speculative objects with material speculation. It examines the evolution of these two concepts, the key differences between them, and their potential applications in the context of participatory design. It also compares them to boundary objects and to the conceptual prototyping methods of the past, and examines how these types of objects and prototyping techniques have been used in different eras and their wide-ranging influence on different industries.

Keywords: Speculative Design, Participatory Design, Prototypes, Prototyping, Material Speculation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005615

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