Podcast: Design Fiction and the Generalist

Along with Paul Coulton I appeared on the Near Future Laboratory Podcast hosted by Julian Bleecker recently. It’s a humbling experience meeting your heroes, and having influenced my entire doctoral, postdoctoral and now independent research career (partly via this highly influential essay) Julian certainly fits into that category. Despite being overawed a little, I did my best to contribute some insightful comments to the conversation.

Among the many topics on offer is the unique qualities of “room scale Design Fiction” as we experimented with at the recent Mozfest showing of the Future Mundane project (see research paper here) and its predecessor the Living Room and GoggleBox of the Future.

Room scale Design Fiction… It envelops you. And that material immersion in the magic circle of the Design Fiction accelerates and amplifies the wonder.

The conversation also segues into what qualities make a good Design Researcher, including the ability to ‘stay with the uncertainty’ and “trusting the process” and the role of the generalist (more on what it is to be a generalist in another edition of the same podcast over here).

Written by

Dr Joseph Lindley

Joe leads Design Research Works and is a Senior Research Fellow at Lancaster University. He is passionate about the value of Design Research, in particular in applying that value to the challenges associated with emerging technologies, rapid societal change, and living sustainably. Probably best described as a 'generalist' his research practice usually involves material engagements with possible futures.