Speculative Design Seminar

This two-part seminar explores speculative design as a method for developing new creative directions.

Creative work often faces a difficult paradox. Ideas must be new, but they must also become recognizable, meaningful, and useful within culture. Truly new ideas rarely emerge instantly. Many of the most influential creative directions take years to mature before they are widely understood or accepted. For this reason, many creators operate ahead of their time, exploring possibilities that do not yet fully exist. This position has historically been described as the avant-garde.

Speculative design offers tools for working in this space.

Rather than beginning with what already exists, speculative design begins with possible futures. By constructing scenarios that imagine how culture, technology, and society might evolve, designers can explore new directions before they fully emerge.

Methodological Context

The seminar draws on traditions of speculative and critical design, explored in design research by authors such as Anthony Dunne,…