The Design Interactions programme explores new roles, contexts and approaches for interaction design in relation to the social, cultural and ethical impact of existing and emerging technologies.
Projects, which are often speculative and critical, aim to inspire debate about the human consequences of different technological futures — both positive and negative. Students work closely with people outside the College, designing for the complex, troubled people we are, rather than the easily satisfied consumers and users we are supposed to be. Project outcomes are expressed through a variety of media including prototypes, performance, video and photography.
Graduates go on to work for multinational corporations, design consultancies, academic and industrial research labs, and increasingly, to set up their own design studios.
Students in Design Interactions often base their research on subjects at the forefront of technology and scientific development. Nanotechnology, biotechnology and synthetic biology have been popular topics in the last few years. What new areas are students interested in and is there a thread running through this year’s projects?
Space travel, finance and what we are calling ‘big design’ are the emerging themes this year. As well as continuing to explore digital and science-related themes — especially their social and ethical implications — students are beginning to explore how designers can get involved with large systems and contexts such as global finance and geopolitics.
Some projects explore alternative financial and economic models such as investment funds driven by superstitious algorithms, and 24/7 banking ships staffed by genetically enhanced traders.
A few explore more existential themes such as what it would mean if we could choose to take a one-way trip into space. Who would benefit from it, what kind of person would be sent, what would they do on the journey and would it be voluntary?
Several students are reconsidering our relationship to nature, which is not what it used to be. They are looking at new uses for human reproductive capacity, new family structures arising from extended lifespans, insect colonies designed to carry out domestic chores, and new dating strategies for a world where you might fall in love with an unknown sibling due to increasing anonymous sperm donation.
Reading news about the current global economic crisis gives us a negative feeling of what the future might hold. Have projects this year reflected on these events?
Yes, definitely. We all know that current economic and political systems are broken, so there is no point in critiquing them. What we need now are alternatives, and increasingly students are exploring how designers can contribute to developing new possibilities for everyday life.
How are the students’ design methods affected when analysing global systems compared with smaller, highly specialised subject areas?
It’s not so much about methods as attitude. It takes confidence to deal with big issues. Everything is less tangible — it’s harder to choose what to focus on and more difficult to develop a uniquely design-based angle. But this is a tendency that has been growing for a few years now, and it is something we are very keen to support and encourage.
What effect does revisiting historical facts and inventions have on a design project compared with taking inspiration from very new and untested scientific and technological research?
People working in this area tend to be very future oriented and excited by the challenges arising from the meeting of new technologies and everyday life. But ultimately nothing is 100% new, and students do need to be aware of what has gone before.
A danger in our field is the ‘horseless carriage’ syndrome where the potential of new technology — both functionally and aesthetically — is held back by how things have been done historically, or the need to make the new familiar. The recent fuss over the use of skeuomorphs in graphic user interfaces is a good example of this.
One area where revisiting historical facts is interesting for us is counterfactuals. A historical fact is changed to see what might have happened, if… This approach can provide a fresh alternative to future-based thinking by presenting parallel worlds as thought experiments rather than predictions.
Has the term Critical Design changed since you first used it in the 1990s?
Yes, it is more accepted now, although it seems to be used more to describe provocative design than design as a form of critique. Most interestingly for us, it is tangled up with several other related terms — adversarial design, discursive design, conceptual design, speculative design and design fiction — that together are setting out a broader role for design firmly located in a cultural, social and political context, rather than a purely business one.
Where do students go after they graduate?
Each year a few go to work in research labs or experimental groups within large companies such as Sony, IDEO, Apple, Google and Microsoft, while others join smaller design studios and agencies. But increasingly graduates are setting up their own studios and companies to explore new roles and possibilities for design, by working with organisations and disciplines that may not usually work with designers, which is very exciting.
Design Interactions Q&A
Professor Anthony Dunne,
Eva Kellenberger and Sebastian White (Kellenberger-White)
Professor Anthony Dunne
Head of Programme
Noam Toran
Senior Tutor
Fiona Raby
Reader
James Auger
Tutor
Nina Pope
Tutor
David Muth
Software Tutor
Tom Hulbert
Electronics Tutor
David Benqué Visiting Tutor
Ian Ferguson Visiting Tutor
Austin Houldsworth Visiting Tutor
Charlotte Jarvis Visiting Tutor
Matt Jones Visiting Tutor
Onkar Kular Visiting Tutor
Zoe Papadopoulou Visiting Tutor
Regina Peldszus Visiting Tutor
Justin Pickard Visiting Tutor
Sascha Pohflepp Visiting Tutor
Martin Postler Visiting Tutor
Dot Samsen Visiting Tutor
Sarah Teasley CHS Tutor
Tim Olden Network Manager
Diana Tanase Network Assistant
Brigitte Lelievre Administrator
Oron Catts Visiting Professor
Jamer Hunt External Examiner
Research
Laurel Swan Research Fellow (Microsoft Research Cambridge)
David Benqué Research Associate (Studiolab)
Steffen Fiedler (Studiolab)
Jonas Loh (Studiolab)
Jon Arden, Superflux (Studiolab)
Anab Jain, Superflux (Studiolab)
Microsoft Future of Writing Project
Koby (Yaacov) Barhad
David Benqué
Demitrios Kargotis
Dash Macdonald
Nicolas Myers
Sascha Pohflepp
Chris Woebken
Partners and collaborators
Intel Corporation
Microsoft Research Cambridge
Further
Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation, Imperial College
Visiting Guests, Critics, Lecturers 11/12
Tim Balaam
Hyperkit
Richard Banks
Microsoft Research Cambridge
Anna Bates
Design Critic
Dr Geoff Baldwin
Reader in Biochemistry,
Division of Molecular Biosciences,
Imperial College
Dr Genevieve Bell
Director of User Interaction and Experience,
Intel Labs
Christina Burnett
Vauxhall Community Interest Company
Arturo Casini
Centre for Synthetic Biology
and Innovation Imperial College London
Luis Campos
Historian of Science,
Drew University,
USA
James Chappell
Centre for Synthetic Biology
and Innovation Imperial College London
David Clarke
Stockwell Community Resource Centre
Dr Caitlin Cockerton
BIOS Centre,
Kings College
Tom Cordell
Director,
Utopia London
Prof David Crowley
Regine Debatty
WMMNA
Tim Etchells
Jeremy Ettinghausen
Creative Director BBH
Andrew Friend
Dr Anne Galloway
University of Wellington,
New Zealand
Daisy Ginsberg
Synthetic Aesthetics
Oliver Goodhall
Paul Granjon
Dee Halligan
Nav Haq
Curator Arnolfini,
Bristol
Edith Holtham and all the Friends
of Tate South Lambeth Library
Ben Hooker
Art Center,
LA
Vlatka Horvat
Jeffe Jeffers
Lady Margaret Hall Settlement
Matt Jones
Berg
Kirsten Jensen
Research Associate,
Department of Life Sciences,
Imperial College
Rita Keegan
Chair of the Bonnington Centre
Eva Kellenberger
Kellenberger-White
Lucy Kimbell
Young Foundation
Dr Kirsten Jensen
Imperial College
Elaine Kramer
Green Champion & Hyde Residents Forum
Dr Aleks Krotoski
Andreas Lang
Public Works
Holly Lewis
Dr Claire Marris
Senior Research Fellow,
BIOS Centre,
Kings College London
Jeremy Millar
Tom McCarthy
Writer
Justin McGuirk
Guardian
Zoe Papadopoulou
Lauren Preston
Dirty Laundry
Tim Regan
Microsoft Research Cambridge
Gavin Rothery
VFX Director
Eva Rucki
Troika
Dr Alex Taylor
Microsoft Research Cambridge
Per Tingleff
Cinematographer
Michael Towsey
Principal Librarian Tate South Lambeth Library
Dr Elspheth Van Veeren
School of Global Studies,
University of Sussex
Liam Young
Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today
Matt Webb
Berg
Prof Cynthia Weber
School of Global Studies,
University of Sussex
Sebastian White
Kellenberger-White
Nick Williamson
Stuart Wood
Random International
Design Interactions 2012
Design Interactions
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore
London W7 2EU
United Kingdom
020 7590 4293
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© 2012 Royal College of Art
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