An exploration of how webcomics can improve the accessibility of future-oriented speculative and critical design

Design research increasingly explores emergent applications of technologies through experimental practice. Broadly referred to as Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) as well as Design Fiction and Ludic design, these approaches propose and reflect on future technological possibilities in design. SCD has featured in exhibitions at museums such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and has initiated debates that question the prevailing norms and expectations of design since the early 2000s. Recent criticisms have dismissed SCD as inaccessible and oriented towards privileged audiences who are comfortable in the gallery settings in which SCD is most often exhibited. Rather than dismiss SCD as elitist my thesis addresses these criticisms by identifying Arturo Escobar’s account of the pluriverse as a conceptual framework with which to negotiate cultural difference in design, and scenario planning as an established method with which to address bias in design. In conjunction with my analysis of a framework and method for overcoming perceptions of elitism in SCD, I developed a series of webcomics on technological futures. This practice-based research represents different perspectives on design in the context of daily life in the near future