prisoners outdates the emergence of prison as Many efforts in the literature tried to close the
an architectural type. It is also wrong to think that gap between futures and design through already
exile as a punishment is completely extinct today. existing practices of speculative design, critical
Speaking of incarceration in the United States is
gaining more popularity in political debates. The
U.S. has now the greatest incarcerated population
in the world and some have tried to relate the
overpopulation of the prisons to the rise of private
prisons with decades-old pioneers like GEO
Group and Corrections Corporation of America
(CCA). Of course, prisons are not the only public
enterprise that is being privatized in recent years.
Reduction of federal funds for the space program
design, design fiction, etc.
6
among these practices is that they deal with
fictitious and unreal worlds and stories, Thus the
futures’ core idea of multiple scenarios leading
to multiple situations, serves well these practices
of design. Designers in the real world provide
designed stuff for real-life situations. Therefore,
as a colonization destination for the company. I
the most notable but with Orbital Sciences, Virgin had to consider the space-related, engineering
Galactic, Blue Origins, etc. they are far from the considerations of a space program while ensuring
only player. maximum security and efficiency for the inmate
labors, maximum profitability for the investors,
and maximum entertainment for everybody else.
might be connected in ways that were unknown I tried to exhaust the story by making props and
before. All you need are reasonable economic scenes and perform different parts of the story in
stakes and motivated investors. Thinking about different media. I even went so far as to perform a
fictional scenarios of punishment in outer space one-man show in different characters to present
raises serious issues and problems both in the the project. However, I still consider spaceXile an
domain of storytelling and design. These issues unfinished project for its yet uncovered narrative
can be projected and addressed not from a bits and design opportunities.
critical, and interrogative one, one that is capable
of igniting conversations. This was the initial spark
from which I established a story and submitted a
Masters’ thesis to the school of architecture and
planning at State University of New York (SUNY),
Buffalo in 2016; spaceXile. 4
THE ROLE OF SPECULATIVE FUTURES AND
DESIGN
In essence, spaceXile
5
is a work of Speculative
Design that implicitly benefits from the theoretical
Interview with Riel Miller
by Claire Nelson
emerge from fictional stories. 7
rise of private space companies. SpaceX might be
problem-solving point of view but a provocative,
WE WANT
design is very similar, only the design situations
To narrow the scope of work I only focused on Mars
astronauts, though seemingly quite unrelated,
ON THE FUTURE
one can imagine that the practice of speculative
and retirement of Space Shuttles motivated the
Shipping prisoners and spaceships shipping
CONVERSATIONS
The common point
It was common for people to stop by the thesis
studio to take a look at the ongoing work. During
that period of almost a year, I saw many people
(scholars, peer students, as well as the general
public) engaging with the story and its products.
I have seen people talking about the implications
of such a scenario. I have seen people disagreeing
each other on ethical concerns as well as technical Some 200 governments adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), what is
ones. After these experiences, I feel more certain called Agenda 2030, in 2015. Arguably this is the most broadly-based global perspective
than this speculative futures approach to design on the future. Action to achieve the SDGs will require motivation and engagement from
and storytelling can ignite public discussion about governments, businesses, communities and individuals. Futures thinking for everyone.
who we are now and by shifting the context it can
In this interview, we hear from Riel Miller, one of the world’s leading strategic foresight
show us where we stand on issues right now.
designers and practitioners. Currently, Riel holds the position of Head of Futures Literacy
framework and methods of Futures Studies.
at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in
Paris.
4 Bizeh, P. (2016). spaceXile: Speculating Futures of Social
Punishment in Outer Space, State University of New York at
Buffalo.
5 In the Scenario part I mention a couple of designed objects
and mechanisms. For other documents, videos, and complete
description of the project please visit pouyanbizeh.com/
spaceXile.
36
HUMAN FUTURES
6 Many of such efforts started with Stuart Candy’s Interactions
with Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby as is stated in this lecture
by Anthony Dunne: http://youtu.be/QbVHXrCBFBE
7 Closely established on the idea of experiential futures by
Stuart Candy: Candy, S. (2010). “The futures of everyday life:
Politics and the design of experiential scenarios.” University of
Hawaii, Manoa.
Claire:
We understand that the UN SDGs are one of the major drivers of the planetary noosphere--
17 global goals and 169 targets to help us achieve more thrival in our shared future by
2030 and beyond. But, in fact, all of these goals are cross cutting in some way. We cannot
draw hard boundaries and borders around these issues. Help us understand the role of
UNESCO, which has education, science and culture in the SDG agenda.
HUMAN FUTURES
37