Imaginative Technology, Technological Imagination

Rung-Huei Liang 梁容輝 臺灣科技大學 工商業設計系

jazzliang

talk @ OpenHCI 2013

Basic belief?HCI & Interaction Design

What is the World for designers?

世界是什麼 ?

Functional World

功能世界

Design is to solve problems.

設計就是解決問題

We live in a functional world where we problematize everything.

我們生活的世界是一個問題重重的功能世界

Notion of Functional World could be helpful but restricted.

功能世界的概念可能是受限的

What if the world is a mythical world as Vico sees?

維科所謂的奧祕世界是什麼 ?

functional world - world as an instrument - problematized - rationality

功能世界 - 理性

mythical world - world as meaning-emerging itself - poetized - imagination

奧祕世界 - 想像力

How do we relate HCI to the notion of World?

HCI 如何關聯到世界的概念 ?

Manifestos

• Interaction Design as

• Lucid Design (Gaver)

• Ambiguity Design (Gaver)

• Reflective Design (Sengers)

DRIFT TABleWilliam Gaver et al.

What if imagination matters in HCI? What if we see HCI as an imaginative practice?

如果想像力在 HCI 很重要，如果 HCI 是想像力的實踐，會發生什麼事 ?

Imaginative Technology v.s. Technological Imagination

想像的科技 v.s. 科技的想像

DynabookAlan Kay, 1970

Marble answer machineDurrell Bishop, 1992

Science fictionsWhat if these conceptual designs are not

implemented?

How does imaginative technology become technological imagination

想像的科技如何變成科技的想像 ?

Steampunk typewriter

Steampunk Xbox 360

Steampunk xbox 360

DatamancerRichard Nagy

Steampunk prosthesisThomas Willeford

CyberpunkWhat can we learn from steampunk?

The Matrix

Minority reportminority report interface, 2002, v.s. Kinect 2010

電腦線圈2007 Japanese animation v.s. 2012 google glasses

Resistance is Futile: Reading Science Fiction Alongside Ubiquitous Computing (Dourish &

Bell, unpublished)

抗拒無效 : 一邊學 UB Comp 一邊讀科幻小說

Science fiction & Science factHow about science fiction becoming science fact?(imaginative technology becomes real technology)

Imagined or desired future engagement

如何說服研究者 ?

Diegetic prototype (props)Kirby 2009

a means to provide suspension of disbelief

related & emerging work

• Critical Design

• Speculative Design

• Discursive Design

• Science Fictions (imaginative technology)

• Design Fictions (technological imagination)

Critical design

• “Critical Design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life.”

• “Its opposite is affirmative design: design that reinforces the status quo.”

• Designers as Critics

Robot 3Dunne and Raby, Technological Dream Series No.

1, Robots -Robot 3, 2007

Afterlife coffinAuger-Loizeau 2008

Speculative Design

• To think about the future

• To critique current practice

Audio Tooth implantAuger-Loizeau, 2001

Gesundheit radioJames Chambers, 2010, sneezing to protect dust

Floppy legsJames Chambers, 2010, stand up if it detects liquid

Speculative futureas cultural litmus paper

Speculative design provides perceptual bridge between perception and fiction

沈思設計提供感知橋接 ( 連結感知與虛構 )

light painting WifiTechnological imagination & Discursive design by

Timo Arnall et al.

ghost in the filedTechnological imagination & Discursive Design by

Timo Arnall et al.

Discursive design bridges between technical and the cultural domains...focuses on the “reflexive and iterative interplay between

materials, experimentation, and use” Arnall et al.

論述設計 : 技術與文化，反身性與重複性的交互影響

critical design v.s. discursive design

批判設計 : 現存價值的質疑與批判反思論述設計 : 通常使用視覺傳達、影片手法表達新素材的

潛在可能性，意圖引發科技想像與論述。

DEphone projectcritical reflection

Dephone projectVideo prototype for discursive design

intouchfunctional prototype for future social experience

Underground librarycritical and then discursive

“...cultivating and shaping the technological imagination is a cultural imperative of the

highest order” Balsamo, 2011.

培育和形塑技術的想像是最高等級的文化需要

Design Fictions: a speculative turn

設計小說 : 一個沈思的轉向

Design Fictions: to discuss a specific format of everyday scenarios about the future, where

technology plays a crucial role.

設計小說 : 科技扮演關鍵性的角色

Design fiction: Ekkomatenimaginative space with a narrative space of 18th

century soundscapes

Eardarpre-radar listening devices for aeroplane location

(War War II)

Steampunkit built around physical artefacts that evoke an

imagined alternate past, present and future

punk & fictions

•Steampunk: imagination of a past technology

• Cyberpunk: imagination of a current and future technology

• Science fictions: imaginative technology

• Design fictions: technological imagination

What is DESIGN?

設計是什麼 ?

design beyond usability

• reflective design: a means of better understanding ourselves

• critical design: a means of questioning

• design fictions: immerse an audience in a world not existing

• design as cultural research: survey the bounds of the possible

What is your belief of DESIGN?

你的設計信仰為何 ?

What is you culture? Critical theory is the reflective practice of the Western. How about

the Oriental?

你的文化為何 ? 批判理論是西方的反思實踐。東方的反思傳統呢 ?

Tao, mindfulness, Zen, wabisabi...道、正念、禪、侘寂

“It’s a sky-blue sky.Satellites are out tonight.

Let X = X.”Laurie Anderson, 1982

天空藍的天空今晚衛星都出去了讓 X 等於 X 吧

Science Poem 宣言 by OK-DO

“The most sublime labor of poetry is to give sense and passion to insensate things”

Vico, 1744

“ 詩的最崇高的功夫就是對本無感覺的事物賦予感受和激情”

Poetic future design is to give sense and passion to insensate future, through

imaginative technology and technological imagination.

詩意未來設計就是對本無感覺的未來賦予感受和激情， 透過想像的科技與科技的想像。

Thank you.

謝謝聆聽