Speculative what?

Unfortunately I missed this weeks contemporary design culture class and workshop. I decided to talk to my classmates and find out what I missed, the topic that was covered this week was "Speculative Design" . I am still trying to get my head around what it actually is and what purpose it proves, I researched it and I wanted to get my head around it before writing this blog but I fear if I was to wait for that, then this blog may never be produced!

I began by reading the material posted on the class blog however this wasnt much help so I went and researched it myself. To the best of my understanding, Speculative Design is basically fiction, it is the idea of putting all you stand for and believe in aside and going at a problem with a clean slate, even if the solution cannot be necessarily materialised in the real world, I have to admit this is an exciting thought really. It is 100% completely thinking outside the box and it is fun to imagine. It reminds me of a sci-fi movie where the things happening are not really possible in the real world.

My classmates said that they carried out a workshop based around this idea where they were all split into groups of 4-5 people and each group was given a big, blank sheet of paper where they basically each had to discuss speculative ideas, one of the ideas was if there was no more room to have any buldings in the world, they would have to build under water and the class had to come up with ideas on how to make this possible. I would have liked this workshop as it seems fun yet interesting! Its like going back to being kids where anything could be possible and I believe there is most certainly a place for this in the design world, however functional design with ideas that actually work are more important this is definitely a handy way of thinking to have every now and again when there is a lack of imagination and creativity as you can literally think of anything.