Speculative Everything by Tony Dunne, Resonate 2013
In his presentation Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne introduced various student projects of a speculative nature that explored design fictions. One student analyzed the future of dance while another student created a superstitious trading fund that reacted to the outside elements like the moon. My favorite part of these projects and the mentality that Dunne encourages of all his students, is this end goal of large scale thinking that still fits within reality. The Superstitious Fund is real – the student worked with a programmer, created a live artifact, funded it with real money, and it lives in the economic system. Yet, parts of it remain tied to the imagination. The speculative part was around how do algorithms get their morals? As imaginatively critical as these student projects are, they are still student projects and (one could argue) forms of art. The bio-hacker Heather Dewey bases part of her projects in real-life, part in fantastical imagination, and displays her work in art galleries.
Can we, as designers, take the same methodologies and implement speculative values into everyday, usable products? Does the impact of these speculative, border-line fantastical projects diminish once it leaves the realm of the art world?
Heather Dewey – Interview clips with Design Nonfiction
In her discussion regarding the political implications of biotechnology research, the bio-hacker Heather Dewey brings up the ethical dilemmas behind DNA surveillance and highlights the explosion of direct-to-consumer genetic services. Companies like 23andMe advertise the possibilities of gaining insights on health predispositions, carrier status, traits, and ancestry. Dewey’s argument is that by opting-in and willingly providing your DNA to this database, you are also opting-in for future generations. These future generations did not consent to be involved in this database forever and while I agree with her outrage – how do we get consent from future generations? I think of families who are genetic dispositions for potentially debilitating diseases, and an analysis of their DNA could open up new pathways in research to aid in the prevention of these diseases down the line. What if the so-called positives of the research like disease prevention outweigh the negatives like a police state? What of the idea of “what I’m doing right now is for the greater good down the line”? Can a morality clause like this be considered consent?