Fiona Raby, Anthony Dunne

Somehow designers automatically think that what they design is neutral and implicitly good. Its as if designers have all sworn an oath never to think a bad thought. We seem to have this blind optimism about the future and especially about technology. The role of design officially is ‘to make the world a better place’. Yet we are surrounded by a world of human fragility and complexity. Things don’t always turn out as we imagine. We need a broader view of the future, many different futures should be explored not only the good ones and with this we see a new potential role for design – Design as a medium for debate. Design that asks questions could be just as important as design that solves problems.

Hypothetical products as a medium

Why products? They are very different from other reflective media, such as film or literature, philosophy or art. They are a very special category of object; they sit right at the heart of consumer choice. As consumers we have a wonderful ability to expand our imaginations when we shop. If we buy this thing or that thing, then we could do this or that… we can really project and imagine how our lives might be different. This imaginative extension from and into our everyday ordinary lives is very powerful. It’s a very direct and tangible medium.

The Energy Gallery

A new gallery opened at the Science Museum, London in July 2004. The gallery is aimed at children from 7 years to 14. It’s about energy. The information the museum wanted to communicate is intangible; so all the exhibits are interactive.

Hannah Redler, the curator asked us to submit a proposal for an exhibit. When we looked at the document the section that captured our attention was on energy futures. This was an opportunity for us to apply some Critical Design thinking within a public context.

One of the main messages the museum wanted to put across was that in the past it’s been impossible to predict the future of energy. They told us many predictions had been wildly wrong. So we put forward three different energy future scenarios, speculating on the social impact these futures might have on the life of a child, particularly trying to capture the imagination of a child. All the material from the museum was a little bit predictable with a bias towards hydrogen and hydrogen cars. We did our own research, and found some very fascinating ideas about different potential energy sources.

Teddy Bear Blood Bags

Probably the most unlikely scenario of all, we found a meat-eating robot, a gastro-bot, being developed at the University of South Florida called ChewChew. It uses a technology called microbial fuel cells, containing living bacteria, which break down food, converting the sugars and nutrients into electrical energy. Imagine if this technology took off. How would things change? It really sparked our imaginations. What would it mean, animal and blood products as energy? Maybe you would feed meat to domestic products like TVs and Lamps. Rodents, Worms or even human blood become sources of energy (figure 1). Would humans and animals be exploited in new and horrible ways? Or would laws be passed to protect them? Batteries would change. We made a FM radio that uses a blood bag in the shape of a teddy bear to power it. We used the language of design to make the product more friendly and acceptable (figure 2). Younger people would probably adopt the new technology easily, however the older generation might need a little help to re-adjust. Books would have to be written to allow people to come to terms with the changes (figure 3).

Poo Lunch Box

Another scenario was inspired by seminal ecological book, ‘Cradle to Cradle’, written by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. We found a story about rural farmers in China using biological waste on their padi fields. When someone comes around for dinner, they are expected to leave a ‘gift’ before they leave, returning the nutrients from the meal back to the soil. How would social behaviour and etiquette change if the main source of energy was human sewage? (figure 4). But this is not science fiction. With each scenario an expert in the field told us the current state of each technology. Dr Judith Thornton, head of biology at the Centre for Alternative Technology, says:

‘Human poo is being used today to produce electricity, but only in power plants – not in people’s homes! People living in Denmark can leave their poo out for the bin men, who recycle it to make compost.’

‘Poo power is likely to take off on a large scale over the next few years. We already have the world’s largest chicken poo power station here in the UK. It can produce electricity for almost 100,000 homes.’

In this scenario one of the objects we designed was a Poo Lunch Box (figure 5). Perhaps children would be expected to bring their waste home from school in their sandwich box. Poo would be far too valuable for the school to keep, it would be needed at home. Poo would also be too valuable to flush away, new toilets would have to be designed (figure 6).

Hydrogen is the most likely scenario

But even in the most likely scenario, hydrogen, we wanted to hint at a different set of underlying motivations; technology does not always bring the best out in people. In our hydrogen scenario we looked at how over competitive parents might exploit their children, a return to child labour. This time Jeremy Rifkin’s book ‘The Hydrogen Economy’ was our inspiration. He suggests energy production could be decentralized and energy consumers could become energy producers. Local communities could produce their own energy. We imagined households as competitive producers, competing against their neighbours. Children get drawn in and become part of the workforce (figure 7). Households would need to market their company and brand the family. Everyone in the family might have to wear uniforms with the family logo on it (figure 8 & figure 9).

When a child reaches their 8th birthday, instead of receiving a birthday card they get a contract camouflaged as a birthday card. They have to sign it, which commits them to producing a certain amount of hydrogen a week. Of course any extra becomes pocket money (figures 10-11).

Children are encouraged to play outside as much as possible. They have to wear a specially adapted backpack containing an electrolyser and a hydrogen collection bottle (figure 12). The electrolyser uses a solar panel to turn water into hydrogen and is a piece of lab equipment used by children in their science class at school. Ironically, this could be seen as very ethical. Children are made aware at a very young age of their energy liabilities. They understand how each one of us, needs to take on some individual responsibility.

Summary

These scenarios are deliberately made abstract and cartoon-like to engage with children, Although they are colourful and fun they harbour darker values hinting at a different set of motivations. We are not suggesting this is a future we want, but it helps to see what possible futures might be in store. They can be seen as cautionary tales

This kind of critical ‘What if’ narrative, is a value fiction. This is a way we think the design of hypothetical products can become a critical medium. A critical medium that can engage a broader audience of non specialist who may not have considered how our technological consumer lives are being shaped.

The Science Museum is currently under taking a five-month evaluation of the gallery. Maybe we can post a footnote when we hear the results.

Dunne & Raby are a London based design practice working with industrial research labs, academia and cultural institutions.

Projects include: Hertzian Tales, a combination of essays and design proposals exploring the aesthetic meanings of electronic objects (published 1999); Weeds, Aliens and Other Stories (with Micahel Anastassiades), a collection of psychological furniture for the home and garden, now in the permanent collection at the Victorian & Albert Museum, London; FLIRT, a European Union funded research project investigating location-based services for mobile phones (published 2000); and Placebo, a collection of electronic objects which explore mental well-being in relation to domestic electromagnetic fields (published 2001).

BioLand their current research project investigates how a critical design approach can be applied to the field of biotechnology.

Anthony and Fiona were founding members of the CRD Research Studio at the Royal College of Art (1994-2002), they currently lead studios in the Design Product and Architecture & Interiors departments.

Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects was published by August/Birkhauser in 2001.

Photo Credits: Jason Evans 2004 (D&R Science Museum – Hydrogen, Poo, Meat). All other images are Dunne & Raby 2004.