Design Fiction and the Art of Anticipation Within Energy Futures

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate that design fiction is a form of design inquiry that offers methods for understanding and reacting to intractable societal challenges. More specifically, we unravel that narrative and literary practices of world-making used in design fiction can be of value for researching unknown futures. We argue that this contribution has been largely overlooked because design fiction is too often, wrongly, caught up in discussions about the limitations of speculative design. Additionally, we substantiate our claim by conducting a case study of an educational course addressing the challenge of unknown energy futures in an era of energy crises. In so doing, we shed new light on Design Fiction as an art of anticipation and its potential to contribute to the methods of futuring and future literacy, more broadly.