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Speculative design: crafting the speculationJames Auger aa Royal College of Art - Design Interactions Department E-mail:Published online: 28 Apr 2013.

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Speculative design:crafting the speculationJames Auger

Royal College of Art - Design Interactions Department

info@augerment.com

Abstract

The article positions the author’s work as speculativedesign but—like the term design fictions—is open toseveral interpretations. How is the fictional characterof such work conceptualised and produced? Whatkinds of speculation are involved? The article considersthe value of one particular approach and argues thatspeculative design serves two distinct purposes: first,to enable us to think about the future; second, to critiquecurrent practice. Methods are described through casestudies, either of the author’s own projects or projectscompleted by graduates of the design interactionscourse at the Royal College of Art. A key concept isthe ‘perceptual bridge’—the means by which designsengage their audience. The article argues that a vitalfactor in the success of a Speculative Design proposalis the careful management of the speculation, specifi-cally what informs the use of technology, aesthetics, be-haviour, interaction and function of the designedartefact.

Keywords: speculative design, design fictions, criticaldesign, futures, evolution of technology

1 IntroductionIn this article I present methods and strategies usedin the practice of speculative design, describinghow a combination of informed extrapolations ofan emerging technology and the application oftechniques borrowed from film, literature,ecology, comedy and psychology can be used todevelop and present plausible futures. I willdescribe the methods through the presentation ofcase studies, either of my own projects (Auger–Loizeau) or projects completed by tutors andgraduates/students on the design interactionscourse at the Royal College of Art where I havebeen teaching and researching since 2005.

2 Historical and semantic issuesI begin with an attempt to address the complexissues surrounding the definition of speculativedesign, as it has much in common with otherdesign related activities such as critical design,1

discursive design,2 design probes3 and designfictions.4

There is much overlap between these practices,the differences are subtle and based primarily ongeographical or contextual usage: all remove theconstraints from the commercial sector thatdefine normative design processes; use modelsand prototypes at the heart of the enquiry; anduse fiction to present alternative products,systems or worlds.

My choice was informed mostly by semanticsand the subsequent loading of experience: thephysical object presented as a ‘design fiction’may be identical to a ‘speculative design’ object

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or a ‘design probe,’ and so on; however, the use ofthe modifier gives the cultural object a substan-tially different value. For example, the word‘fiction’ before design immediately informs theviewer that the object is not real; ‘probes’ inferthat the object is part of an investigation; andboth ‘discursive’ and ‘critical’ reveal the inten-tions of the object as an instigator of debate or phi-losophical analysis. These terms act to dislocatethe object from everyday life, exposing their fic-tional or academic status. For those within thedesign or research community these semanticdetails are less problematic as familiarity withthe discourse makes the terminology less impor-tant, but for those unfamiliar with these practices,semantics fundamentally affect how the work isexperienced and assessed. As one of the coremotivations of this practice is to shift the discus-sion on technology beyond the fields of expertsto a broad popular audience, the choice of ‘specu-lative’ is preferable as it suggests a direct corre-lation between ‘here and now’ and existence ofthe design concept.

3 Speculative futures and alternativepresents

Having settled on speculative design, it is nownecessary to explore some of the difficulties withthis term, as it is not ideal. With its etymologicalbaggage, the word has a strong leaning towardsconjecture; many of the classic ‘visions of thefuture’ such as jet packs and flying cars are wildspeculations, playing to spectacle and techno-centric dreams rather than being based on logicaltrajectories or contained by the rules of real life.5

Through acknowledging these rules, collaboratingwith scientists and by not straying too far into thefuture, it is possible to craft the speculation intosomething more poignant, based on logical iter-ations of an emerging technology and tailored tothe complex and subtle requirements of an ident-ified audience.

The second problematic with the word specu-lative is related to the close relationship betweenspeculation and the future. Here it is important tostate that speculative design is not only to encou-

rage contemplation on the technological futurebut can also provide a system for analysing, criti-quing and re-thinking contemporary technology.To ease confusion I separate the practice intotwo categories:

First, existing paradigms can inform futuredevelopments of technology: speculative futuresimagine, through the extrapolation of contempor-ary systems and product lineages, near future pro-ducts and services. These are intended to act as aform of cultural litmus paper, testing potential pro-ducts and services on both a mainstream audienceand within industry, before they exist.

Second, alternative presents are design pro-posals that utilise contemporary technologybut apply different ideologies or configurationsto those currently directing product develop-ment. This method is similar to the historiogra-phical practice of counterfactual histories6 andthe literary genre of alternate histories,7 butrather than focusing on asking ‘what if’ of his-torical events and imagining the effect on hereand now, it shifts the emphasis onto artefacts.Here, we break free of a lineage at a certain his-torical point to question why things are the waythey are.

4 Speculative design: a methodologyOne of the key factors responsible for the successof a speculative design project is the careful man-agement of the speculation; if it strays too far intothe future to present implausible concepts or alientechnological habitats, the audience will not relateto the proposal resulting in a lack of engagement orconnection. In effect, a design speculation requiresa bridge to exist between the audience’s perceptionof their world and the fictional element of theconcept. Inspiration and influence for this ‘percep-tual bridge’ can come from diverse fields such asobservational comedy, psychology, ecology,horror films and illusion for the insights theyoffer into the complex working of the humanmind and how it can be carefully manipulated toelicit reaction. Below I describe some of thesebridging techniques.8

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4.1 Design for context: the ecologicalapproach

The designer must consider the environment andcontext in which speculative future products orservices would exist; this could be a specificspace such as the home or office or a cultural orpolitical situation based on current developmentsor trends.9 This could be described as an ecologi-cal approach to speculative design10 and assists ingrounding the concept in a familiar or logicalreality.

Below are two descriptions of the Martiansfrom The War of the Worlds. The first is anexcerpt from H.G. Wells’s original novel of1898, the second from Steven Spielberg’s filmversion of 2005. If we take the Martian to be aspeculative object, it is possible to compare thetwo approaches to its design:

I think everyone expected to see a man emerge. . . But looking, I presently saw something stir-ring within the shadow: greyish billowy move-ments, one above another, and then twoluminous discs—like eyes . . . A big greyishrounded hulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear,was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylin-der . . . The incessant quivering of the mouth,the gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuousbreathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere,the evident heaviness and painfulness of move-ment due to the greater gravitational energy onearth . . .Suddenly the monster vanished. It hadtoppled over the brim of the cylinder and falleninto the pit, with a thud like the fall of a greatmass of leather. (Wells 2004, 19)

‘I tried a bunch of different heads, butSteven Spielberg wanted to pay tribute to the

Figure 1. Alternative presents and speculative futures. At the origin is here and now—everyday life and real products available on thehigh street. The lineage of these products can be traced back to when the technology became available to iterate them beyond theirexisting states. In Figure 1, the technology element on the left hand side represents research and development work, the higher the linethe more emergent the technology and the longer and less predictable its route to everyday life. As we move to the right of the diagramand into the future we see that speculative designs exist as projections of the lineage, developed using techniques that focus oncontemporary public understanding and desires, extrapolated through imagined developments of an emerging technology.Alternative presents step out of the lineage at some poignant time in the past to re-imagine our technological present. These designscan challenge and question existing cultural, political and manufacturing systems.

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shape of the spaceship in the original movie,’Sims said. ‘No matter what I did with thathead, we always went back to this shape. Forthe eyes, Spielberg kept saying they should beoverly dilated, refracting with light almostlike you’d see in a cat. Spielberg wanted oneleg in the back and two in the front. At StanWinston’s we did an animation of the aliencrawling on the ceiling, showing how his legswould function as arms as well and pick stuffup while using the other leg to balance.’(Hart 2008)

The question I pose here is not which interpret-ation is the most compelling, engaging, terrifyingor memorable but which is the most likely. Thecelluloid version has a certain familiarity, resem-bling many other filmic depictions of disconcert-ing aliens in recent years. It displays its physicalsuperiority to humans with a cat-like deftnessemploying its several arms to move three-dimen-sionally around a room. It is without question cap-tivating and terrifying and therefore perfect as aform of entertainment, which arguably was theprimary factor influencing its design. Wells’sMartian, on the other hand, is clearly suffering,ungainly, awkward and struggling to cope withEarth’s gravity. Wells trained as a biologist,11 sowould have a good understanding of the conceptof adaptation. Although this is pure supposition,logic suggests that Martians would be mal-adapted to life on Earth and his depiction appliesthis theory to inform the design of the creature.

A similar approach has been employed bydesigners, Dunne and Raby in their project ‘Tech-nological Dream Series: No. 1, Robots’ (2007)(see Figures 2 and 3). The stereotypical design ofmany robots could be compared to Spielberg’salien; Dunne and Raby dismantled this familiarimage by designing their robots to be harmoniouswith the contemporary domestic landscape. Theconcept of adaptation here informs the designprocess, delivering objects that display an existen-tial logic (or not, in Wells’s case) in their intendedenvironment. Any experience that challenges a pre-conception will at first appear odd, but here thedetail and finish of the artefacts, combined with

the short explanations describing their functionsand modes of interaction, entices the audienceinto exploring the concept further. The project suc-cessfully offers a new perspective on domesticrobots by designing for the complex sensibilitiesof people: robots become needy and subservientto overcome our fear of them; furniture is adaptedto accommodate new technologies—it appearsfamiliar but has advanced function; technologicalinteractions take place in odd but intimate ways.Even though their function is little described, wecould imagine living with these robots due totheir compatibility with the domestic habitat.

4.2 The uncanny: desirable discomfortIn order to elicit audience engagement and con-templation on a subject it is sometimes helpfulfor a speculation to provoke. If a design proposalis too familiar it is easily assimilated into the nor-mative progression of products and would passunnoticed. However, proposals dealing with sensi-tive subjects such as sex or death can quite easilystray too far into provocative territory, resultingin revulsion or outright shock. The design solutionis complex and contradictory: provocative whilstat the same time familiar. Sigmund Freud (1990)described this paradoxical reaction humans havethat invoke a sense of familiarity whilst at thesame time being foreign as ‘uncanny’ or the termused by social psychologists, cognitive disso-nance.12 This is a complex and difficult reactionto manage but when achieved responses to thedesign concept tend to be both meaningful andstrong. As Freud describes, the most powerfulexperiences of the uncanny come through death,such as dead bodies, spirits and ghosts (ibid.364); severed body parts and malfunctioningbodies such as epileptic fits and madness (ibid.366). Freud goes on to suggest that by using theuncanny, ‘the story-teller has a peculiarly directivepower over us; by means of the moods he can putus into, he is able to guide the current of ouremotions’ (ibid. 375. emphasis in original). Herehe refers specifically to literary works such asthe novels of gothic horror exemplified by EdgarAllan Poe’s, The Fall of the House of Usher(1839) and Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein (1818)

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His limbs were in proportion, and I hadselected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!Great God! His yellow skin scarcely coveredthe work of muscles and arteries beneath;his hair was of a lustrous black, andflowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; butthese luxuriances only formed a more horridcontrast with his watery eyes, that seemedalmost of the same colour as the dun-whitesockets in which they were set, his shrivelledcomplexion and straight black lips. (Shelley18181992, 58)

Shelley creates the uncanny through first describ-ing familiar signs of wellbeing and normality,then contrasting these with signs of disease anddeath. More recently, this deft juggling of signshas been practised by film directors such asStanley Kubrick (The Shining, 1980) andWilliam Friedkin (The Exorcist, 1973) to elicitpowerful cinematic effect.

Careful management of the uncanny is impera-tive when a project attempts to deal with subjectssuch as death or the invasion of the human body(for example, technological implants). In thegenre of horror it is preferable to exploit theuncanny to elicit maximum psychological effect;however, for a speculative design project a morecareful approach is required.

The ‘Afterlife’ project (Auger–Loizeau,2001–2009) directly touched on many of the sen-sitive issues surrounding the subject of humandeath. The core concept was the utilisation of amicrobial fuel cell13 in the post-death processingof a human being, charging a dry-cell batteryduring the decomposition process of the body(see Figures 4 and 5). The installation of theproject at the New York Museum of Modern Art(MoMA) exhibition, Design and the ElasticMind (2007), presented the piece as the core of ametaphysical dialogue examining the culturalshift from belief systems upheld by organised

Figure 2. Dunne and Raby, Technological Dream Series: No. 1, Robots—Robot 3 (2007). More and more of our data, even our mostpersonal and secret information, will be stored on digital databases. How do we ensure that only we can access it? This robot is asentinel, it uses retinal scanning technology to decide who accesses our data. In films, iris scanning is always based on a quick glance.This robot demands that you stare into its eyes for a long time, it needs to be sure it is you. On another level, it asks what new forms offurniture might evolve in response to future technological developments.

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religion to the more factual basis of science andtechnology. Here, technology acts to provide con-clusive proof of life after death, life being con-tained as energy in the battery.

Unfortunately the viewers of the exhibitionchose mostly to ignore the intellectual aspect ofthe project to focus on the more unsavouryaspects, namely tampering with the process ofdeath, the passing of a loved one and the materialactivity of the human body during the operation ofthe fuel cell. This resulted in simple revulsion asthe benefits of the concept were overlooked: Theaudience experienced the proposal as too uncanny.

In 2009 we were invited to present ‘Afterlife’at Experimenta 09, the Design Biennale in

Lisbon, Portugal. This provided the opportunityto reflect on the problems of the MoMA installa-tion, specifically how the presentation could beadjusted to move beyond material factors andrevulsion to touch the deeper sensibilities of theaudience. In addressing this problem we shiftedthe emphasis from the fuel cell and coffin to theexistence and function of the battery; this effec-tively put the focus on the familiar aspect of theuncanny experience. To communicate the diver-sity and possibility of battery applications weinvited fifteen colleagues to propose what theywould do with either their own Afterlife batteryor that of a loved one. They were also asked towrite a short paragraph describing their choice:

Why an aeroplane? Why a Spitfire MK1? (SeeFigure 6.)

Figure 4. Auger–Loizeau (2008), Afterlife coffin withmicrobial fuel cell.

Figure 5. Auger–Loizeau (2001), engraved Afterlife battery.

Figure 3. Dunne and Raby, Technological Dream Series: No. 1,Robots—Robot 4 (2007). This one is very needy. Althoughextremely smart it is trapped in an underdeveloped body anddepends on its owner to move it about. Neediness is designedinto very smart products to maintain a feeling of control.Originally, manufacturers would have made robots speakhuman languages, but over time they will evolve their ownlanguage. You can still hear human traces in its voice.

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I don’t feel the need to be remembered as anobject. I’d like my energy to create an act.Since a child flying has fascinated me, notsure why, just does. I have always wanted tofly but have never completely felt at easeenough to think I could manage it withoutkilling myself. I still intend to fly myself inone way or another but just in case I don’tthis will ensure it.

Very rarely man creates an object that con-nects with the human soul; anyone who haswitnessed a Spitfire and especially the MK1in flight will have felt that connection. Itlooks, sounds, functions and is just ‘right,’ itis perfect. The curve of the wings, it’s pro-portions, it’s functionality, it was also fittedwith the Rolls Royce Merlin which withoutexception, before, after or at anytime in thefuture is the greatest four stroke engine everproduced. (Tom O’Brien, 2009)

We’d use our battery for a euthanasiamachine. (See Figure 7.)

As we are a couple, once one goes, we’re notsure how long the other one would be able to

hang on. So, if it’s all too much, we could usethe energy from the first one to go, to helpthe second one on their way. I’m not sure if itwould be a form of conceptual murder ornot, but definitely an ‘assisted’ suicide.

Ideally we’d like to propose an object basedon an existing machine, it would foregroundthe battery, which would be inscribed andsilver-plated. We would probably replace theusual questions the machine asks you tocheck your state-of-mind with somethingmore personal.

We imagine you would set it up on a smalltable by your bed or a chair, insert thebattery, put the mask on, then after a fewminutes, insert the tube into the device whichcauses a green light to come on letting youknow it is working and ready. Then, you canlie back on your bed, or armchair, close youreyes, and 30 seconds later the carbon dioxidewill begin to flow. (Anthony Dunne andFiona Raby, 2009)

A regular event in my family life is the argu-ment over the control of the TV remote and the

Figure 6. Tom O’Brien, Afterlife product—remote control Mk.1 Spitfire.

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programmes that we will collectively watch.There is a complex process of negotiationthat involves give and take, selfishness andselflessness. I would like to be memorializedin an evocation of this process, not leastbecause I want to be remembered in relationto mundane technology (one of my academicspecialisms), as a typically contradictoryhuman being, and as a loving partner andfather who was intent in bettering his family(my preferred genre was nature documen-taries) while being chronically silly.

I would like my Afterlife battery to power asmall speaker mechanism (much like the sortyou find in a singing birthday card) integratedinto a remote control. [See Figure 8.] When-ever the TV is switched on by the remote, arecording of my voice is played to say either:‘It’s my turn, so I’m going to decide whatwe watch’ or ‘I really don’t mind, it’s yourturn to choose.’ Given how fragile and conten-tious everyday familial memory is, these twophrases should appear at random. Alterna-tively, and slightly more subtly, I’d like myAfterlife battery to power a circuit that makesthe TV remote select very occasionally, auto-matically and unpredictably a channelshowing a nature documentary. The channelcannot be changed for the duration of the pro-gramme, and the television can only beswitched off at the mains. (Mike Michaels,2009)

My basic idea stems from the deceased(myself) being an attention seeking and needyindividual in life, so it follows that deathshould not pry his grip from the ones aroundhim. He must be remembered by providing auseful battery for his loved ones, but one

Figure 8. Mike Michaels, Afterlife product—television remotecontrol.

Figure 7. Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Afterlife product—euthanasia machine.

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battery isn’t enough. To be remembered onlytwice more—when the battery is installed andwhen the battery dies—simply will notsuffice. He wants to die many times so thathis loved ones will recall, each time, howmuch they miss him.

The deceased requests that a series of cellsare manufactured [see Figure 9], each with arandom volume of electrolyte, so that theuser of the cell never knows how long it willlast. One may last a month, another a year.The deceased then, in death, continues to getthe attention they so desired in life.

The exact devices in which the cells are to beused are not specified by the deceased.Though, he does request they be used indevices that are used by his loved ones toperform banal but vital tasks in their lives.(e.g. hearing aid, pacemaker, bike lights,garage-door opener, etc.) (Matt Karau, 2009)

The installation in Lisbon focused on thefifteen proposed Afterlife battery applicationsand the short narratives supporting the objects.This introduced an emotional and personal

content that the project had previously lacked,encouraging the audience to reflect on how theythemselves might use the battery. This manage-ment of the uncanny allowed the project to genu-inely engage the audience whilst at the sametime limiting the negative emotions normallyassociated with such themes.14

4.3 Verisimilitude: design fiction or designfaction?

As mentioned above, the term speculation can takethe viewer too far away from the here and now,making the proposed design concept seem unrealor far-fetched. The problem lies in the range ofpossibility for a fiction—from simply impossibleto bordering on reality. The speculative tagmakes sense in the context of this article and thedesign research community where methods,motivations, values and audiences are a keyfactor. Here the fictional status of the designedconcepts is an aspect of discussion. But in thedomains where these fictions ply their wares andmeet their audiences, it is preferable for theconcept to pass as real, described better perhapsas design factions: a form of verisimilitude

Figure 9. Matt Karau, Afterlife product—batteries.

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where truths are blurred and disbelief is sus-pended. Thinking again about The War of theWorlds, I remembered Orson Welles’s famousradio play of 1938 that created widespread panicin certain US towns due to its realistic delivery.Looking more closely into why this particularbroadcast was so successful in bringing fiction tolife, it became apparent that it was not down toone single factor but several disparate timelyelements: the prevailing political and culturalatmosphere (coming war in Europe; MunichCrisis of September 12–30); the product usedfor the dissemination and its contemporary rel-evance (the radio); the language and style of thebroadcast (based on previous disaster broadcastssuch as the crash of the airship Hindenburg); andthe shift in setting from England to very specificreal places in the United States (where the playwas broadcast).

The techniques employed by Welles bear manysimilarities to those used in the creation of a con-vincing speculative design project: the craftingof complex narrative or artifice using the real lifeecology where the fictitious concept is to beapplied and taking advantage of contemporarymedia, familiar settings and complex humandesires or fears.

It is these real-life delivery methods that differ-entiate speculative designs from many of theircousins in science fiction. We predominantlyexperience science fiction through film, television,literature or comics, and as such consciously andwillingly enter into the fiction as soon as thecurtain rises or the book is opened. Reality is tem-porarily suspended until the end credits roll andnormal life clicks back into place. Speculativedesigns, however, are played out in real life. Thepresence of the designed artefact in popularculture allows for the viewer to project its presenceinto his or her own life. Then they effectivelybecome the protagonist in the story, playing outindividual and informative roles. Their reactionsbecome the true products of this form of designresearch.

This blending of truth and reality was used in ourfirst speculative design project, Audio ToothImplant (Auger–Loizeau, 2001). Our original

project brief was to examine the implications ofimplantable technology for human enhancementpurposes through proposing possible applicationsand access points for technology to enter the body.The resultant product was an implantable telephone.

The concept of implantable technology forenhancement purposes immediately conjuresimages from science fiction,15 it was importantfrom the outset that we steered the proposalaway from these more profound representationstowards the public audience’s understanding ofthree factors. First, the perceived lifestyle benefitof having an implant: by examining the techno-logical habitat to acknowledge the culturalphenomenon of the mobile telephone, which atthe time (2001) was revolutionising human com-munication, we aimed to deliver a concept thatwould play to contemporary aspirations.

Second, the psychological issues related to analien object entering the body (managing theuncanny); we consciously chose the tooth as anentry point for the implant as this is the least inva-sive surgery available, creating a tangible balancebetween cost and benefit.16

And third, for technological believability, theAudio Tooth Implant relies on a general publicawareness of hard and well-publicised facts suchas the miniaturisation of digital technology andurban myths such as dental fillings acting as radioantenna and picking up audio signals. Thesecombine to give the concept a familiarity. It wasalso necessary to provide a convincing description,in layman’s terms, of the technology involved. Withthe tooth implant we were assisted in this byapproaching research scientists at a large telecom-munications company, who offered the following:

The moisture in the cheeks effectively make theinside of the mouth a faraday cage: a radiofree space. Therefore the chip would have toreceive low-frequency radio in the order of150kHz. This signal would energize thedormant chip implanted in the tooth throughnear field magnetic effects. A transducer trans-forms this sound information into microvibrations which through the process of bonetransduction are transmitted along the

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jawbone and directly into the cochlea wherethey are experienced by the wearer as normalsound.

This description helped in convincing those with agood understanding of electronic technology. Tocommunicate the concept we created a clearepoxy resin model tooth with embedded computerchip (see Figure 10). This model was photo-graphed in a studio and used to accompany therelated text description of the concept.With this material we presented the project at theScience Museum in London in an exhibitioncalled Future Products. From here it quicklyentered the public domain through both thepopular press and specialist media. Our initialgoal was to disseminate the project as broadly aspossible, from the contemporary technologymagazine, Wired to The Sun newspaper with itsaverage daily readership of 7,733,000 people.17

By consciously avoiding the formal academiclanguage normally associated with technologicalresearch and critique to adopt a familiar productdesign language we aimed to appeal to a moregeneral audience. Using the press allowed theconcept to disseminate globally, working particu-

larly well with new media such as Internet newssites and blogs. A possible problem with thisapproach is that it allows for little control once aproject is in the public domain and concepts canquickly mutate as facts become embellished. Withprojects like the Audio Tooth Implant this is notproblematic, as the core proposal is simpleenough for the key message to not get lost in trans-lation. We assumed that due to the extremely largenumbers of individuals reached,18 a percentagewould be induced into contemplating a subjectthey had not consciously considered before. Oneof the key advantages of speculative design is thatthere is no intention to bring the product tomarket, this means that critical responses such asthe one below are of equal value to positive articles:Dear Mr’s Auger and Loizeau,As a physician I believe the technology you

describe in your press release, has the potentialfor producing immense social harm. This socialharm would include psychological trauma, andangry behaviour in both the workplace and thehome.

. . .

. . .

Figure 10. Auger–Loizeau (2001), Audio Tooth Implant.

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XXXXXXX X. XXXXXX, MDAssociate Professor of Medicine,(Cardiology)Stanford Medical School.19

Subject: Re: implant retained crown testDate: Sunday 16 February 2003 23:46From: XXXXXXXTo: James Auger ,jamesa@mle.media.mit.edu .Mr Auger,Thank you for your prompt reply. Since I am a dentist

and my husband’s crown is implant retained not ontooth structure, We would be happy to be includedin the test phase. I could make sure the crown wasplaced in a temporary mode and it could easily beremoved for further modification.

Please let me know if you are interested in this test.Sincerely,XXXX XXXXX

4.4 Observational comedy: rooting thespeculation in the familiarPresenting design proposals based on littleunderstood (by the popular audience) emerging

technologies is a complex challenge. Too muchup front technical information can alienate orsimply bore the viewer, but too little can leavethe concept intangible or whimsical. Theproblem lies in the amount or complexity ofknowledge that needs to be communicatedbefore a project can be understood. In their analy-sis on the evolutionary reasons for humour andlaughter, Hurley, Dennett, and Adams (2011,164) describe the comedian’s solution to asimilar issue suggesting that ‘shared stories areexcellent data-compression devices. . .The moreof a story you can tell with a few words, themore efficient your joke or witticism will be’.Watching a recent performance by Sean Lockon the television comedy programme ‘Live atthe Apollo’, I began contemplating the simi-larities between observational comedy and thetactics of speculative design. During the set hedescribed the filthy state of the back seat of hiscar, boxes of organic raisins and the raising ofsmall children. Here there are several relevantpoints. First, observations are of mundane but

Figure 11. The Sun newspaper (29 June 2002, 25); average daily readership 7,733,000 people. In the UK the Tooth Implant was alsofeatured in The Mirror, The Express and The Daily Star.

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Figure 12. Wired initially featured the concept in an article by Lakshmi Sandhana dated 21 June 2002. They followed up several yearslater (March 2006) with an article entitled: ‘Lying through their teeth’ by Rachel Metz.

Figure 13. Sky News (2002) featured the Audio Tooth Implant at the launch of the talking points exhibition at the Science Museum inLondon.

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familiar aspects of daily life. This type of comedyis popular because the audience can personallyrelate to the situations described.

Second, observations are often specific to aparticular time, place and person. Lock’s analysiswouldn’t have worked ten years ago, as these par-ticular boxes of raisins didn’t exist then. Also, tofully understand the observations and thereforethe humour, the audience needed to be a parentof children between the ages of two and eightfrom a certain social class and culture.

Third, the importance of attention to detail;Lock meticulously describes how his childrenopen the box of raisins and then shake the boxin a very particular way, scattering them allover the car and down the small cracks betweenthe seats. As he describes this, a picture formsin my mind of my own children doing theexact same thing. This is a very familiar scenebut one to which I hadn’t previously given con-scious thought to.

Fourth, once the familiar short story has beentold, the foundations are laid for wilder more

extreme anecdotes; these demonstrate thehumour in the situation. In Lock’s set he concludesby describing seagulls following his car as hedrove past landfill sites and foxes retching asthey walked past the open car door.

By utilising the mundane, the familiar andsmall, unnoticed details the designer can providespectacular, even preposterous, proposals with atangible link to our contemporary sensibilitiesand understanding. It roots them in known con-texts limiting the need for complex explanations.The spectacular narratives that stem from thecomedian’s initial observations effectively rep-resent the designer’s technological future, madepalatable through familiar elements.

In his project ‘Sensual Interfaces,’ ChrisWoebken applies hypothetical advances in nano-technology to explore new ways of interactingwith a computer. In his video scenario (seeFigure 16), we see a familiar office scene: anAnglepoise lamp; a desk; a nondescript computerscreen; a suited man; and a mug. The unusualelement is the form of interaction, the keyboard

Figure 14. CNN.com (2002) “My mouth is ringing: Inventors create ‘telephone tooth’.” No longer available online. CNN ran a pollasking the audience is they would want a telephone implanted in their tooth. Over fifty-four thousand votes were cast in a forty-eight-hour period.

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is no longer present, but in its place is a large pileof seeds. The businessman sits at the table, andthrough a series of choreographed and considered

movements sifts, moves and sorts the seeds. Thissounds bizarre and nonsensical when describedin words, but partially through the familiar

Figure 15. Time magazine, November 2002. The Audio Tooth Implant was listed on Time magazine’s list of the coolest inventions of2002, and was used as their cover image for this feature. The only dialogue we had with the magazine was their request to use thetooth image; there were no questions about the state or nature of the project.

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elements and partially the choreography, it worksin portraying a tangible and engaging new modeof interaction. Its power lies in the familiarity ofthe scene, making the film both compelling andthought-provoking.

Another technique based on observation is totake advantage of stereotypical or commonlyheld assumptions about a specific subject tobypass the complex underlying technologicalaspect; for example, if an observational come-dian chose to focus on the topic of nanotechnol-ogy he/she could start the set with the grey gooscenario,20 move on to cryonics and MichaelJackson,21 and finish off with golf balls.22 Inhis nanotech project, ‘The Minutine Space’(see Figure 17), Mikael Metthey follows thefamiliar promise of nanotechnology to poten-tially eradicate disease. In Metthey’s fictionalfuture, humans no longer suffer illness; in this

utopian world of wellness, the extreme experi-ence of being profoundly unwell becomes rec-reational.

Metthey’s project, like Woebken’s, requires abasic familiarity with the subject matter for theextrapolation to work. To those with an interestin emerging technology, the familiar promise ofa zero-disease society made possible throughdevelopments in nanotechnology is blended withthe contemporary popularity of extreme sports tocreate a proposal that, whilst extremely odd,makes sense.

By observing and taking advantage ofmundane, subtle, quirky but ultimately familiarbehaviours or perceptions, the speculativedesigner can take the viewer on a journey toa technological future or alternate presentthat, whilst potentially alien, makes perceptualsense.

Figure 16. Chris Woebken (2007), Sensual Interfaces (video). Available at http://www.woebken.net/nano_project.html (accessed 23August 2010). Using seeds to simulate smart dust, this video visualises new interactions such as breaking, sharing, throwing awayand mining data. These new interactions not only generate new behaviours but will also define new relationships with products.

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4.5 Alternative presents: counterfactualand alternate histories

Returning to the idea of the ecological approachdiscussed in Section 4.1, by conflicting withrather than embracing engrained systems andestablished modes of behaviour, ‘alternative pre-sents’ always display an inherent oddness thatcan be difficult to present.

Alternative presents are intended to questionand critique contemporary use of technology indomestic and everyday habitats, so some conflictis helpful in capturing attention. However, forthe proposal to have a less visceral impact, itis necessary for the audience to see beyond itsconceptual oddness and understand the logicbehind it. In literature, imaginaries based on apoignant counterfactual history can offer

thought-provoking insights and perspectives oncontemporary life:

It’s America in 1962. Slavery is legal onceagain. The few Jews who still survive hideunder assumed names. In San Francisco the IChing is as common as the Yellow Pages. Allbecause some 20 years earlier the UnitedStates lost a war and is now occupied jointlyby Nazi Germany and Japan. (Dick 1992)

The Man in the High Castle describes the conse-quences of one of the popular starting points forcounterfactual histories, Germany winning WorldWar II. From the writer’s perspective, this themeoffers a rich source of potential for re-imagininghow the world might have evolved under thesealternative circumstances. The speculative

Figure 17. Mikael Metthey (2006), The Minutine Space. Available at http://www.mikaelmetthey.net/ (accessed 19 September 2011).People can visit a space where they get infected by engineered organisms designed to provoke the physical and psychologicalreactions associated with sicknesses. The space is designed to emphasise the social aspect of sicknesses. It is composed of a viral areawhere the viruses can be chosen, facilities to rest and suffer relatively comfortably and a ‘central sick pit’ where people who need tobe sick can vomit. The visitor, once they have had enough, can leave through the ‘minutine’ zone where all harming organisms areremoved by the nano-antidotes.

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designer can borrow directly from the historiogra-phical method: by choosing specific events thatshaped the course of today’s technological pro-ducts and re-imagining them, it is possible tocreate a very poignant alternative present. Oneexample of this approach is Sascha Pohflepp’sproject, ‘The Golden Institute’, based on an ima-gined different outcome to the 1980 UnitedStates general election that would have enabledthe perpetuation of energy-friendly initiativesundertaken during the term of Jimmy Carter (seeFigures 18 and 19). As Pohflepp points out, ‘Posi-tioned at the right spot in the past, such counterfac-tual histories might offer an understanding of theforces at work as well as a fresh perspective onour present challenges.’The strength of such a project comes from choos-ing a poignant historical moment on which toinitiate the fiction: by choosing a topical andwell-understood issue or theme in contemporaryeveryday life and finding a relevant or connectedhistorical moment that could have a perceptibleconnection, the designer can develop a series ofimaginary outcomes that instigate reflection onour current situation. In Pohflepp’s case, the poten-

tial peak oil crisis and related energy issues that weface today make the 1980 election and its conse-quential closing down of energy-friendly initiat-ives a particularly poignant choice.

Taking a more aesthetic approach to an alternatepresent is James Chambers’s project, ‘Attenbor-ough Design Group’ (ADG). Here he postulatesthe existence of a research group within the elec-tronics company Texas Instruments, led by thefamous natural historian, cultural icon and film-maker, David Attenborough. The objects devel-oped by the group, whilst based on orthodox andexisting products, were given new behaviouralrules, exhibiting an underlying survival instinctinspired by complex evolved techniques in theanimal kingdom. These new product behavioursact to enhance the chances of both physical survivalthrough the inbuilt defence mechanisms andemotive survival through eliciting a deeper relation-ship with the owner. This latter element wasachieved through an iterative behavioural prototyp-ing, specifically an anthropomorphising of thevarious movements to elicit either sympathy (theGesundheit Radio and Floppy Legs, see Figures20 and 21) or wariness (Anti-Touch Lamp).

Figure 18. Sascha Pohflepp (2010), The Golden Institute Model (1:19) of a Nevada desert Lightning Harvester based on a ChevroletEl Camino. Available at http://pohflepp.com/?q=goldeninstitute (accessed 10 March 2011).

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Chambers’s project shifts the subject of thealternate history from socio/political events to asubject more relevant to the design industry, exam-ining notions of object obsolescence, value andmeaning.

This specific technique offers the designer arich narrative potential for re-imagining and criti-quing technological developments and contem-porary products. As the two examples aboveshow, the themes of the fiction can be extremelybroad, from large-scale political events to theexistence of a small imaginative research studio.As with all of the methods described above, thesuccess of the project in engaging an audiencelies in the small details: James Chambers’schoice of David Attenborough as head of hisresearch studio, for example, not only capturesthe attention of several generations of UK televi-sion watchers due to his unique social standing,but also presents a captivating logic to the behav-iour of the prototypes, in turn justifying thebenefits of the fictitious studio’s approach.Sascha Pohflepp’s project takes as its startingpoint a subject close to the heart of any relativelypolitical individual living in a democratic

society: an election and the potential consequencesof a poor decision.

4.6 Domesticating technology: literallyIn his book, The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollandescribes the power of the tulip in seventeenth-century Holland; in his words the tulip‘unleashed a brief, collective madness thatshook a whole nation and nearly brought itseconomy to ruin’ (Pollan 2002, 69). He describesDutch growers borrowing techniques from alche-mists, sprinkling pigeon droppings, plaster dustand paint powders onto flowerbeds in the hopeof growing the perfect specimen. Later, theinvention of the microscope unlocked secretsand growers learnt that the ‘perfect specimen’was in fact the result of a virus, and as a conse-quence tulip development took a new direction.Today, advances in genetic engineering are prom-ising to deliver flowers that do not wilt and frost-resistant geraniums.23

In his speculative future project, ‘AcousticBotany’, David Benque builds on thisongoing human endeavour, specifically thefascination with the flower, to take us on a

Figure 19. Sascha Pohflepp (2010), The Golden Institute Model (1:500) of an induction loop-equipped Chuck’s Cafe, Interstate 5 nearBakersfield, CA. Available at http://pohflepp.com/?q=goldeninstitute (accessed 10 March 2011).

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spectacular voyage to a garden of the future(see Figures 22–24).

To advance the process of domesticationbeyond contemporary techniques he applies the

emerging science of synthetic biology to proposea genetically engineered sound garden. This effec-tively represents a coming together of two artforms that have captivated human minds for

Figure 21. James Chambers (2010), Attenborough Design Group—Floppy Legs. Available at http://objects.jameschambers.co.uk/(accessed 10 March 2011). The portable floppy disk drive which stands up if it detects liquid nearby, and the Anti-Touch Lamp, whichsways away if you get too close to its halogen bulb.

Figure 20. James Chambers (2010), Attenborough Design Group—Gesundheit Radio. Available at http://objects.jameschambers.co.uk/ (accessed 10 March 2011). An internal mechanism triggers a sporadic anthropomorphised sneezing behaviour, developed toprotect early fragile microprocessors from dust.

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centuries. The simple logic behind this methodmeans that the complex language and sciencebehind synthetic biology are translated into theresults of its hypothetical practice: spectaculargardens, plants and creatures that combine tooffer delightful new aesthetic experiences.

The method of using domestication to informspeculative futures limits the potential subjects tothose organisms capable of being domesticatedand to the sciences capable of manipulating theirgenetic development; however, the potential tocater to complex human desires and sensibilitiesis extremely powerful due to our long history ofartificial selection to shape nature, as MichaelPollan describes in his introduction to ‘Botany ofDesire’:

The big thing the dog knows about—thesubject it has mastered in the ten thousandyears it has been evolving at our side—is us:our needs and desires, our emotions and

values, all of which it has folded into itsgenes as part of a sophisticated strategy forsurvival. If you could read the genome of thedog like a book, you would learn a great dealof who we are and what makes us tick.(Pollan 2002, xv)

I have described above some of the methods andtechniques currently being used for practisingspeculative design. Every speculative designproject is unique and the diversity of possible sub-jects, contexts, technologies, perspectives andaudiences make a definitive ‘how to’ guideimpossible. Complicating the situation further isthe fact that new techniques are continuallybeing developed and old methods are becomingmore sophisticated as the practice matures. Theexamples described are therefore intended topresent a more general attitude or approachtowards the subject of speculation, specificallyhow it must be managed and crafted to connect

Figure 22. David Benque (2010), Acoustic Botany: Genetically Engineered Sound Garden. Available at http://www.davidbenque.com/projects/acoustic-botany (accessed 10 March 2011).

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to a specific audience’s perception of the temporalworld around them. Once established these per-ceptions can be stretched or manipulated inprecise and informed ways. These exist as plaus-ible, tangible and accessible demonstrations, ormore specifically hypothetical translations of dis-ruptive technological innovations into the futureproducts they could become. The key benefit ofthis approach is the removal of the commercialconstraints that normally direct the creativeprocess.24 This decoupling allows for the goalsto be based on questions and discourse ratherthan market-led agendas; hypothetical possibili-ties not real products; utopian concepts and dysto-pian counter-products. They can inspire anaudience to think not only about what they dowant for their future selves but also what they donot want.

Notes

1 Critical design uses designed artefacts as anembodied critique or commentary on consumerculture. Both the designed artefact (and subsequentuse) and the process of designing such an artefactcause reflection on existing values, mores andpractices in a culture.Critical Design uses speculative design proposals tochallenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions andgivens about the role products play in everydaylife. It is more of an attitude than anything else, aposition rather than a method. There are manypeople doing this who have never heard of theterm critical design and who have their own wayof describing what they do. Naming it CriticalDesign is simply a useful way of making thisactivity more visible and subject to discussion anddebate. Its opposite is affirmative design: designthat reinforces the status quo. (Dunne and Raby,2007)

Figure 23. David Benque (2010), Acoustic Botany: SingingFlower. Available at http://www.davidbenque.com/projects/acoustic-botany (accessed 10 March 2011). Because the para-site diverts the plant’s energy for its own purposes, only smallflowers manage to grow.

Figure 24. David Benque (2010), Acoustic Botany: String nutand Bugs. Available at http://www.davidbenque.com/projects/acoustic-botany (accessed 10 March 2011). String-nut and bugsengineered to chew in rhythm.

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2 Discursive Design refers to the creation of utilitarianobjects whose primary purpose is to communicateideas—they encourage discourse. These are toolsfor thinking; they raise awareness and perhapsunderstanding of substantive and often debatableissues of psychological, sociological, andideological consequence. (Tharp and Tharp 2009)

3 ‘Philips Design Probes is a dedicated ‘far-future’research initiative to track trends and developmentsthat may ultimately evolve into mainstream issuesthat have a significant impact on business.The probes generate insights from research in fivemain areas; politics; economic; culture;environments; and technology futures.With the aim of understanding ‘lifestyle’ post-2020,the programme aims to identify probable systemicshifts in the social and economic domains likely toaffect our business and create intellectual propertyin new areas. It challenges conventional ways ofthinking to come up with concepts to stimulatedebate. Deliverables range from scenarios andnarratives to the creation of experience prototypesand IP fortressing.’ (Philips n.d)

4 ‘The deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspenddisbelief about change. That’s the best definitionwe’ve come up with. The important word thereis diegetic. It means you’re thinking very seriouslyabout potential objects and services and trying toget people to concentrate on those rather thanentire worlds or political trends or geopoliticalstrategies. It’s not a kind of fiction. It’s a kind ofdesign. It tells worlds rather than stories.’ (Bosch2012)

5 Whilst these speculations might become feasible inthe technological sense, they ignore the moreintangible but nevertheless crucial reality ofeveryday life, such as insurance, licensing, legalliability, traffic control, resource issues, effect onurban planning, etc.

6 For an excellent essay on the practice ofcounterfactual histories, see Bunzl (2004).

7 For a thorough description of Alternate history, seeSchmunk (n.d.).

8 Some of the techniques are specific to eitherspeculative futures or alternative presents, somework for both practices.

9 A comparison could be drawn here with approachesin literature; for example, in Mary Shelley’sFrankenstein (1818/1992) the scientific research ofLuigi Galvani was used to inform the methods ofDr Frankenstein in giving life to the monster. Thisgave the novel a contemporary validity andbelievability.

10 This notion borrows heavily from James J. Gibson’sinfluential book The Ecological Approach to VisualPerception. Here Gibson stresses the value ofmoving out of the laboratory with regard to thestudy of natural vision and into the environment—the surroundings of those organisms that perceiveand behave (Gibson 1986, 7).

11 Wells had a first-class honours degree in biologyfrom the Normal School of Science in London.

12 Leon Festinger coined the term in his 1957 book, ATheory of Cognitive Dissonance. He described theexperience as ‘the feeling of psychologicaldiscomfort produced by the combined presence oftwo thoughts that do not follow from one another.Festinger proposed that the greater the discomfort,the greater the desire to reduce the dissonance ofthe two cognitive elements (Harmon-Jones andMills 1999).

13 A device that uses an electrochemical reaction togenerate electricity from organic matter.

14 One visitor was lingering for some time at one of theproposals. I walked over to speak to her; she turnedto me with tears running down a red face. She toldme that in life, her father behaved in exactly thesame way as the father described in one of the textsand related perfectly to the proposed function ofhis specific afterlife battery.

15 See for example, Bruce Sterling’s, Schismatrix Plusand William Gibson’s, Neuromancer.

16 Around the same period Kevin Warwick of ReadingUniversity was generating publicity for his Cyborg1.0 project. Exploring similar issues, Warwick hadan RFID tag implanted in his arm enabling him toautomatically unlock his office door and turn onlights. The question we ask is would one be willingto experience invasive surgery on a body part forsuch basic added functionality. See http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick_pr.html.

17 Source: http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/factsAndFigures?newspaperID=17.

18 It is impossible to state exactly how manyindividuals have been exposed to the concept;however, it has been featured in news reports andmagazines in Australia, Canada and Brazil. Wehave been interviewed on radio shows in theUnited States, the UK and New Zealand, and havereceived emails and letters from global locations.Slashdot, the technology-related new website,featured the concept, and at last viewing there were437 comments (see http://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=tooth+implant, accessed 16 November2011).

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19 The whole correspondence ran to two pages ofwriting offering a detailed description of exactlyhow and why the Tooth Implant would causeimmense social harm.

20 See Prince Charles’s article in the Independent onSunday newspaper, 10 July 2004, describing thehistory of the ‘grey goo’ myth.

21 Cryonics is the process of deep-freezing the humanbody after death in the hope that futuretechnological developments will enable the repairof damaged cells and revival of the deceased. Thetechnology usually prescribed for this future use isnanotechnology. Michael Jackson famouslysubscribed to cryogenics but missed the deadlinedue to the need for an autopsy.

22 Contrary to all of the spectacular future speculationsfor nanotechnology, one of the most commoncontemporary applications is in the manufacture ofgolf balls.

23 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/feb/28/antonybarnett.theobserver2.

24 Constraints still exist, of course; without them thedesign speculations could drift off into neverlandsand dreamscapes; they then entertain but theirengagement potential is nullified.

ReferencesBenque, David. Personal website. http://www.

davidbenque.com/ (accessed 20 May 2012).

Bosch, Torie. 2012. “Sci-Fi Writer Bruce SterlingExplains the Intriguing New Concept of DesignFiction”. Slate. http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/03/02/bruce_sterling_on_design_fictions_.html.

Bunzl, Martin. 2004. “Counterfactual History: A User’sGuide”. http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/109.3/bunzl.html.

Chambers, James. Personal website. http://www.jameschambers.co.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2012).

Charles, Prince. 2004. “Nanotechnology.” Independenton Sunday. http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/speechesandarticles/an_article_by_hrh_the_prince_of_wales_on_nanotechnology_the__59.html.

Dick, P.K. 2011. The Man in the High Castle. NewYork: First Mariner Books. Also available at http://philipkdick.com/works_novels_mancastle.html.

Dunne, T. and F. Raby. 2007. Critical Design FAQ. Per-sonal website. Available at http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/bydandr/13/0 (accessed 12 May 2012).

Festinger, Leon. 1957. A Theory of Cognitive Disso-nance. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

Freud, Sigmund. 1990. Volume 14. Art and Literature.London: Penguin.

Gibson, James J. 1986. The Ecological Approach toVisual Perception. Hove: Psychology Press.

Gibson, William. 1995. Neuromancer. London: HarperVoyager.

Harmon-Jones, E and J. Mills. 1999. Cognitive Disso-nance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psy-chology. Washington D.C: American PsychologicalAssociation.

Hart, Hugo. 2008. “From Hulk to Gort, Monster ManGets Creative With Creatures.” Wired. http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/12/monster-man-beh/.

Hurley, Matthew M, Daniel C. Dennett, and ReginaldAdams Jr. 2011. Inside Jokes: Using Humor toReverse-Engineer the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MITPress.

Metthey, Mikael. Personal website. http://www.mikaelmetthey.net/ (accessed 4 April 2012).

Metz, Rachel. 2006. “Lying Through Their Teeth.”Wired Magazine (online) Available at: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2006/04/70601?currentPage=all (accessed 9 July 2009).

Philips. n.d. “Design Probes.” Accessed 27 February2009. http://www.design.philips.com/about/design/designportfolio/design_futures/design_probes/index.page.

Poe, E.A. 2003. The Fall of the House of Usher andOther Writings. London: Penguin Classics.

Pohflepp, Sascha. Personal website. http://pohflepp.com/ (accessed 10 April 2012).

Pollan, Michael. 2002. The Botany of Desire. London:Bloomsbury.

Sandhana, Lakshmi. 2002. “Excuse Me, is your ToothRinging?.” Wired. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2002/06/53302.

Schmunk, Robert. “Uchronia.” http://www.uchronia.net/intro.html (accessed 10 April 2012).

Shelley, Mary. 1818/1992. Frankenstein. London:Penguin.

Sterling, Bruce. 1996. Schismatrix Plus. New York: AceBooks.

Tharp, B.M. and Stephanie M. Tharp. 2009. “The 4Fields of Industrial Design: (No, not furniture,trans, consumer electronics and toys).” Core 77(online). Available at http://www.core77.com/blog/

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featured_items/the_4_fields_of_industrial_design_no_not_furniture_trans_consumer_electronics_toys_by_bruce_m_tharp_and_stephanie_m_tharp__12232.asp (accessed 12 May 2012).

The Exorcist, 1973. Film. Directed by William Friedkin.USA: Warner Bros.

The Shining, 1980. Film. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.USA: Warner Bros.

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Woebken, Chris. Personal website. http://www.woebken.net/ (accessed 30 March 2012).

Zeuner, E. Frederick 1963. A History of DomesticatedAnimals. London: Hutchinson.

James Auger has a BA(Hons) in Product Designfrom Glasgow School of Art and an MA in Design

Products from the Royal College of Art (RCA) inLondon. Between 2002 and 2005 he wasemployed as a Research Associate at Media LabEurope, where the main focus of his researchwas a design-based investigation into technology-mediated human interaction. Since 2005, Jameshas been teaching in Design Interactions at theRCA and recently completed his PhD in the pro-gramme. He is a partner in the speculativedesign practice Auger–Loizeau (http://www.auger-loizeau.com), whose projects have beenpublished and exhibited internationally, including:MoMA, New York; 21_21, Tokyo; The ScienceMuseum, London; and the Ars Electronica festi-val, Linz; and is in the permanent collection atMoMA.

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