Topic

The course will explore the emancipatory potential of design as a research tool for collective thinking and action. Responding to the urgency of developing new models for connecting design to struggles for social justice and ecological survival, we will explore how design research can be used to engage people as co-researchers in different stages of the research process. Covering a range of historical and current theoretical perspectives on design research as a generative practice, we will attend to a range of design-oriented methods that position design as a tool for co-creation and co-speculation. These methods will be drawn from practices of Speculative Design, Narrative Environments, Value Sensitive Design, and Design Justice, and will be presented through both readings and case studies. This review of prior work will act as a grounding for the main part of the course: a hands-on application of a research inquiry through tactics of Co-Creation and Co-Speculation.