How might we prepare for the pressing, multidimensional challenges of climate change? In this workshop, we will use speculative design to explore both the possible present and near futures our world will experience with climate change, focusing on the issue of climate migration. Participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of climate migration and learn about how to find signals of change. We will explore different scenarios of the impacts of climate migration and envision future needs and products within those scenarios, getting hands-on with mapping consequences and evaluating their ethical ramifications.

This workshop shares futurescaping methods, focusing especially on speculative design. We will guide participants through the many approaches, sharing specific methods and tools that they can apply to their own projects.

As hands-on learning is always better than sitting back and listening, we will work with climate migration as our anchoring topic and lead our participants through the different phases of the speculative design process as applied to this difficult and relevant subject. By focusing on this one specific topic, we seek to bring the present-future to life in its full complexity and attempt to design for them in a farsighted, ethical way.

This course is for designers, researchers and curious minds who would like to understand the power and potential of working with speculative design.

• Speculative design process
• How to research and create powerful futurescaping scenarios
• When and why to use speculative design tools and methods in the “real world”

Part 1: Overview of speculative design - what it is & why it is relevant to designers

Part 2: Introduction to topic of the day and sharing our research

Part 3: Group work: get hands-on and explore possibilities through scenarios and provocatypes

Part 4: Reflection and discussion

What is speculative design at all? Here are a few definitions and resources from some of the key experts in the field:

“Speculative design can lend particular kinds of futures plausibility by fleshing out their designed socio-technical material practices” (Cameron Tonkinwise, 2019).

"Speculative design serves two distinct purposes: first, to enable us to think about the future; second, to critique current practice” (James Auger, 2013).

"… there are other possibilities for design: one is to use design as a means of speculating how things could be—speculative design. This form of design thrives on imagination and aims to open up new perspectives on what are sometimes called wicked problems, to create spaces for discussion and debate about alternative ways of being, and to inspire and encourage people’s imaginations to flow freely. Design speculations can act as a catalyst for collectively redefining our relationship to reality” (Dunne & Raby, 2013 )

Filippo Cuttica is a designer, artist and futurist whose work sits between critical speculation and responsible innovation. His practice focuses on the ethical, political, environmental and economical implications of emerging tech, and has been featured on Wired, Vice, The Guardian, Designboom, Neural and El Pais.

Annelie Berner is an independent interaction designer and researcher based in Copenhagen. In her work, she bridges science, academia and the public, creating experiences of research topics that range from futures to ethics to climate science. She has won multiple honours in the Core77 Design Awards and has exhibited projects at the Smithsonian Museum, World Health Organisation, Ars Electronica among others.