Dunne & Raby address their concept, and their design intends to design for fictional circumstances, which aim to open up more possibilities other than the fixed “reality”. In other words, they propose another time and space in which the future is part. It is mentioned in the Speculative Everything about their project A/B (2009), which suggests a different dimension of the future within their design. This design theory and method enables designers and audiences to contextualise different ideas and open discussions between those incompatible opinions.
Many of Dunne & Raby’s projects indicate some level of science fiction genre and futurology. Their project, Technology Dreams Series: No.1, Robots (2007), suggests a possible future where robots will become a significant part of human society and discusses the relationship between robots and humans. Their video All the Robots (2007) presents four different robots with various levels of intelligence and ability, and each robot represents one kind of human-robot relationship.
As I adopted the speculative design theory and method in my project, The Perfect Female, Dunne & Raby’s projects revealed to me how speculative design exists through different media and platforms and provided me with ideas for delivering and presenting my project.
Furthermore, Black Mirror and Dunne & Raby’s works share similarities since Charlie Brooker sees his work as speculative fiction (Bojalad, 2016).
Cite:
Dunne & Raby (2019) Projects. Available at: https://dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects/946/0 (Accessed: 8 May 2024).
Anthony, D. and Fiona, R. (2013) Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Dunne & Raby (2007) TECHNOLOGICAL DREAMS SERIES: NO.1, ROBOTS, 2007. Available at: https://dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects/10/0 (Accessed: 8 May 2024).
Bojalad, A. (2016) Speculative Fiction: Charlie Brooker on the Return of Black Mirror. Available at: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/speculative-fiction-charlie-brooker-on-the-return-of-black-mirror/ (Accessed: 7 May 2024).