Reading:

Speculative everything: design, fiction, and social dreaming, chapter 3: Design as Critique

Individual Response:

Choose one artwork from the book Bio-Design: Chapter 3, Speculative Objects, Teaching Tools, and Provocations to discuss in the context of speculative design and your project 2. Briefly explain why you chose this project, followed by an analysis of the project. Contextualize it by connecting it to the class readings from this week or previous weeks. Following this, examine how the project aligns or deviates from your understanding of speculative design. Finally, share any new or unexpected insights you gained from this project that you found particularly inspiring for your project 2.

• I chose Natsai Audrey Chieza’s "Parasitic Prosthesis" because it aligns with Project 2’s exploration of hybrids between humans, nature, and electronics. The project reimagines prosthetics as symbiotic, parasitic systems that draw sustenance from the human body while offering unique functionalities. This challenges traditional views of technology as purely utilitarian and shifts the focus to mutual dependency. It connects to Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, which embraces hybridity and rejects binaries, and Morton’s The Ecological Thought, which highlights interconnectedness and ecological balance.
• "Parasitic Prosthesis" exemplifies speculative design by questioning assumptions about prosthetics and imagining a future where humans and living technologies coexist symbiotically. It aligns with speculative design principles by encouraging critical reflection and proposing alternative futures, though it deviates from dystopian narratives by presenting a more optimistic vision of collaboration between humans and non-human systems.
• This project offered unexpected insights into dependency as a design principle. It shifted my perspective for Project 2, inspiring me to consider hybrids as systems of collaboration rather than tools of control. I’m now exploring how to design hybrids that incorporate natural processes, such as photosynthesis or microbial energy, to emphasize mutual reliance and coexistence.

Blog Assignment:

Project 2: Possible Futures Prototypes

This week, your assignment is creating a minimum of three distinct prototypes for your Project 2. These prototypes should showcase your ideas and approach, allowing you to explore different possibilities. In our upcoming class, you will have the opportunity to present these prototypes along with a detailed plan outlining the steps you will take over the next few weeks to ensure you meet the deadline for Project 2 successfully. Additionally, you will also present a contingency plan (Plan B) to address any potential challenges or unforeseen issues that may arise during the project development.

Post to your blog the prototypes, as well as recipes, documentation of the making process, and techniques you followed to produce the prototypes. Additionally, all the information requested above for the presentation (next steps and plan B). Finally propose your plan for displaying this project during the IMA show, upload sketches, space requirement, and equipment you will need(walls, pedestals, etc).

We worked on our concept of the cyborg, trying to create a work about the hybrid of human beings, nature and technology (electronics).

Prototype 1 - Crystals on electronics & on fabric

Recipe: 160g borax powder, 400ml hot water

We try to grow crystal over the electronics (pcb board and a few electronic parts)