Abstract
Speculative design stretches the boundaries of future plausibility, enabling creators to engage audiences by evoking empathy and provoking debate. Designers often use satire and humor, techniques that comedians have employed for centuries, to engage the public. We examined the popular YouTube comedy series '2032/2033 Futures', which depicts near futures, to understand how comedy can broaden future plausibility and challenge viewers to think critically about preferred futures. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the creators to contextualize their comedic techniques, such as humor, satire, irony, and wit, within future-oriented narratives and prototypes. Our findings illustrate how comedy can revitalize speculation as an experimental approach: a) to the notion that boundaries of future plausibility are shaped by collective empathy and can expand through speculation, b) to the unearthed significance of notions once considered preposterous, and c) to crafting scenarios that break from linear time, showcasing a polyphonic temporal and spatial narrative.
Keywords
polyphonic speculation; speculative design; comedy; future plausibility
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.433
Citation
Sun Park, E., and Daniel Shin, H. (2024) Contextualizing Comedy Techniques for Speculative Design: Unraveling Futures Cone from Sketch Comedy Series, ‘2032/2033 Futures', in Gray, C., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.433
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Contextualizing Comedy Techniques for Speculative Design: Unraveling Futures Cone from Sketch Comedy Series, ‘2032/2033 Futures'
Speculative design stretches the boundaries of future plausibility, enabling creators to engage audiences by evoking empathy and provoking debate. Designers often use satire and humor, techniques that comedians have employed for centuries, to engage the public. We examined the popular YouTube comedy series '2032/2033 Futures', which depicts near futures, to understand how comedy can broaden future plausibility and challenge viewers to think critically about preferred futures. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the creators to contextualize their comedic techniques, such as humor, satire, irony, and wit, within future-oriented narratives and prototypes. Our findings illustrate how comedy can revitalize speculation as an experimental approach: a) to the notion that boundaries of future plausibility are shaped by collective empathy and can expand through speculation, b) to the unearthed significance of notions once considered preposterous, and c) to crafting scenarios that break from linear time, showcasing a polyphonic temporal and spatial narrative.