Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
While there is much more to be said about Maker practice, we feel that this brief
introduction provides a good grounding in the movement. The remainder of the
chapter will explore potential paths that this exponential growth of home fabrication
and making processes might take, using the framework of design fi ction as an
analytical tool.
11.2
Envisioning and Design Fiction
The notion of design fi ction is a relatively new one. Bruce Sterling coined the term
in his 2005 topic
Shaping Things,
where he distinguished it from other forms of
science fi ction as being more concerned with the realities of design than with the
“grandeur of science” (Sterling
2005
). The term was later picked up and expanded
in a presentation given by Julian Bleecker at the Engage Design conference in 2008,
where he discussed the ways in which “science, fact, and fi ction are all knotted up,”
i.e., infl uencing one another (Bleecker
2008
). Bleecker's talk was given in response
to an unpublished paper by Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell entitled “Resistance is
Futile: Reading Science Fiction Alongside Ubiquitous Computing” (Dourish and
Bell
2014
). In this article, the authors perform parallel analyses of design trends in
science fi ction television during the period from 1963 to 1989 and developments in
ubiquitous computing in the 1980s. They show how science fi ction stories in movies
and topics play a signifi cant role in shaping the general public's understanding of
science fact and even contribute directly to inspiring the scientists and technologists
who engage in turning fi ction into fact.
David Kirby uses the term diegetic prototypes to “account for the ways in which
cinematic depictions of future technologies demonstrate to large public audiences a
technology's need, viability and benevolence” (Kirby
2010
). Both Kirby and
Bleecker provide the gestural interface from the fi lm Minority Report as an example
of a fi ctional realization of a technology that went on to broadly inform public
opinion (and design practice) about interactive technologies. A more recent work by
Bleecker explores how actual design and science as practices intersect with the
imagined futures of science fi ction narratives (Bleecker
2009
). There is certainly a
rich body of evidence connecting representations of technology in fi ction to actual
innovations. Nathan Shedroff and Chrostopher Noessel dedicate an entire topic to
tracing the connections between science fi ctional interfaces and interaction design;
one of their more striking observations is the similarity between the fl ip-open
communicators of the original Star Trek television show and the immensely popular
Motorola StarTAC phone, which was the fi rst cellular phone to fl ip open and closed
( Shedroff and Noessel
2012
).
In a recent interview, science fi ction author Bruce Sterling redefi ned design fi ction,
in light of the evolution of the concept in these other venues, describing it thusly:
It's the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about change. That's the
best defi nition we've come up with. The important word there is diegetic. It means you're
thinking very seriously about potential objects and services and trying to get people to
