Future Design Reader

_work-in-progress

// created for my CYENS Art Residency 2024

Reading "Imaginary Futures" by Barbrook

_intro

The references and inspirations that inform this research are connected to the worldwide topics of history, society, culture, technology, the contemporary world, current global and local challenges, and the future. With this exploration, I am interested in the friction between different reads, movies, games, and any artworks that give a take on how we imagine our future(s) and how much we realise our role in its(their) shaping.

This reader was created during my CYENS Art Residency 2024 in Lefkosia, Cyprus (September-December 2024).

_references

★ Achilleos, A. (2023-2024). AI Colonialism Board Game. A collaborative artist game (a board game with an artistic intent), that aims to raise awareness of AI’s societal impact and power dynamics on a local, Cypriot level and thus contribute to AI literacy amongst the inhabitants of Cyprus.
★ Barbrook, R. (2007). Imaginary futures : from thinking machines to the global village. London: Pluto. ‌
★ Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong: Queerying Homophily. In: Clemens Apprich, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Florian Cramer u.a. (Hg.): Pattern Discrimination. Lüneburg: meson press 2018, S. 59–97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/12350.
★ Commonspoly (2020). (https://commonspoly.cc/) Commonspoly is a non-profit, open source board game that encourages a culture of cooperation and questions the violent model of neoliberal privatisation.
‌★ Conversations with Edouard Glissant (2010). Documentary
★ Descant, S. (2024). Power-Hungry Data Centers Pose a Challenge to Government. [online] GovTech. Available at: https://www.govtech.com/infrastructure/power-hungry-data-centers-pose-a-challenge-to-government [Accessed 30 Oct. 2024].
‌★ Dunne, A. and Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything : Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Erscheinungsort Nicht Ermittelbar: Mit Press. ‌
★ Extrapolations. (2023). Apple TV+. ‌ ‌
★ Flanagan, M. (2009). Critical play : radical game design. Cambridge Ma: Mit Press. ‌
★ Господинов, Г. (2024). Градинарят и смъртта. Пловдив. Жанет-45
★ Graeber, D. and Wengrow, D. (2021). The dawn of everything : a new history of humanity. London: Penguin Books.
★ ItinerAnts (2024). (https://www.urbex4youth.org/toolkit) A modular adventure game that encourages you to explore, imagine and propose transformations for the city you live in. Developed as part of UrbEx project.
★ Lewis, D. (1973). Counterfactuals. Harvard University Press.
★ Moreno Ger, Pablo & Torrente, Javier & Hsieh, Yichuan & Lester, William. (2012). Usability Testing for Serious Games: Making Informed Design Decisions with User Data. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction. 2012. 10.1155/2012/369637.
★ Nate Silver (2012). The Signal and the Noise : Why So Many Predictions Fail-- But Some Don’t. New York: Penguin Books.
★ Nobody Wants This. (2024). [TV Series] Netflix.
★ O’Brien R. and Forbes A. Speculative Futuring: Learners as Experts on Their Own Futures. In: Journal of Futures Studies, December 2021,Vol. 26(2) 19–36. DOI: 10.6531/JFS.202112_26(2).0002
★ Pasek, Anne. “Getting Into Fights With Data Centers: Or, a Modest Proposal for Reframing the Climate Politics of ICT.” White Paper. Experimental Methods and Media Lab, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. July 2023. https://emmlab.info/Resources_page/Data%20Center%20Fights- _digital.pdf.
★ Pierson, P. (2004). Politics in time : history, institutions, and social analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ‌// path dependency, how historical decisions influence and constrain future outcomes
★ Sohie, C. (2023). Speculative Futures: Design for Change. In: Hilal, S., Bedir, M., Ramsgaard Thomsen, M., Tamke, M. (eds) Design for Partnerships for Change. UIA 2023. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36993-3_19

_notes

☁ _reflections

_For Glissant, "we are in the same family when we share the same reactions and intuitions of the world (...) when we have the same manners". The roots can be found through poetry or knowledge. It is the common knowledge we accept from our parents and teachers (of any form) when we grow up. From the people we know and the events we experience. Thus, our predictions are "educated guesses" with the support of what we know, have seen, have read, have heard and experienced. When we look at the future, "we see the horizon through our imagination". The future we can create is the one we can imagine.

_Wendy Hui Kyong Chun's collected data and grouped subjects with the help of similarity. Similarity breeds connection. She argues, "Homophily is the mechanism by which individuals “stick” together, and “wes” emerge". Predictions can be made thanks to the trained programmes which work with the collected data. However, "predictions can be “self-canceling” as well as self-fulfilling", she quotes Nate Silver. Thus, there are multiple possible futures. Everyone's imagination brings one future and we collectively shape our collective future.

_Similarity and homophily are a strong core of the way people live, interact, and therefore - shape the future.

❞ _quotes

❞ In the prophecies of artificial intelligence and the information society, ideology is used to warp time. The importance of a new technology is not for what it can do in the here and now, but for what more advanced models might be able to do one day. The present is understood as the future in embryo – and the future illuminates the potential of the present. (…) The present already contains the future and this future explains the present. (...) Contemporary reality is the beta version of a science fiction dream: the imaginary future. [p.6] (...) The present is continually changing, but the imaginary future is always the same. [p.7] Barbrook, R. (2007)

_glossary

◼️ connectedness // Connectedness in the context of network science refers to the degree to which nodes within a network are linked to each other, either directly or indirectly. A network is considered connected if there is a path between any two nodes, meaning that no node is isolated and each can be reached from another through a sequence of edges. In contrast, a network is disconnected if there are groups of nodes (called components) that are not linked to the rest of the network. Connectedness helps determine how information, influence, or contagion can spread across a network. A highly connected network allows for rapid communication between nodes, while less connected networks may have isolated clusters or components that hinder this spread.

◼️ futuring // Futuring as a verb has emerged as a mainstream concept, with a rapidly expanding body of work to support it in scientific, social and more popularist research (Amer, Daim, & Jetter, 2013; Damm, 2019; Inayatullah, 2012; Puglisi, 2001). The themes of exponential growth, artificial intelligence, universal basic income, extended life expectancy, climate change, indigeneity, equity and increasing anxiety about the future in general are all being explored through various forms of futuring or future studies approaches (Guthrie, 2019; Inayatullah, 2017; Kurzweil, 2004; Makridakis, 2017; Van Der Well, 2018). // O’Brien R. and Forbes A. (2021)

◼️ homophily // “the axiom that similarity breeds connection”, “love as love of the same” (Chun, 2018, p.60). Homophily (from Ancient Greek ὁμός (homós) 'same, common' and φιλία (philía) 'friendship, love') is a concept in sociology describing the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others, as in the proverb "birds of a feather flock together” (wikipedia).

◼️ permacomputing // is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in computer and network technology.

◼️ possible worlds // comprehensive ways things could have been. They are not physical locations or actual places but rather abstract representations of different states of affairs. Each possible world includes a complete set of facts, describing how things are in that world. // David Lewis’ “Counterfactuals”

◼️ social capital // Social capital refers to the benefits and resources that individuals or groups derive from their social networks, including trust, cooperation, and access to information and opportunities. It emphasizes the value of relationships and how these connections can facilitate actions and outcomes that would be difficult to achieve individually.

◼️ speculative design // a design practice concerned with future design proposals of a critical nature. The term was popularised by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby as a subsidiary of critical design. The aim is not to present commercially-driven design proposals but to design proposals that identify and debate crucial issues that might happen in the future. Speculative design is concerned with future consequences and implications of the relationship between science, technology, and humans. It problematizes this relation by proposing provocative future design scenarios where technology and design implications are accentuated. These design proposals are meant to trigger debates about the future rather than marketing products. // wikipedia

◼️ speculative fiction // an umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or other imaginative realms. This catch-all genre includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream, magical realism, superhero fiction, alternate history, utopia and dystopia, fairy tales, steampunk, cyberpunk, weird fiction, and some apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. The term has been used for works of literature, film, television, drama, video games, radio, and their hybrids.// wikipedia