Abstract
In July 2023, the author carried out a design fiction workshop over a 4-day span in Vovousa, a village of 132 inhabitants by the banks of the wild river Aoos/Vjosa, in the heart of the Pindus range, in the area of Epirus, Greece. In a location with a history of tensions regarding the creation of hydroelectric dams, the workshop participants were invited as a group to consider and discuss different scenarios for the future of the settlement, set in the year 2048. As a group, they publicly presented artefacts from one selected future with the discussions following indicating that the polyphony generated by the proposals ought to be a given in any community inquiring their preferred future. Such investigations on futures ought to be a constant and continuous endeavor, since, as this short workshop illustrates, even the best outcome today is no panacea for living a preferable future tomorrow.
Keywords
design fiction; participatory workshop; rural development; community challenges
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.915
Citation
Bissas, C. (2024) Vovousa 2048: a Design Fiction workshop imagining the future in a rural and remote area in Greece, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.915
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Research Paper
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Vovousa 2048: a Design Fiction workshop imagining the future in a rural and remote area in Greece
In July 2023, the author carried out a design fiction workshop over a 4-day span in Vovousa, a village of 132 inhabitants by the banks of the wild river Aoos/Vjosa, in the heart of the Pindus range, in the area of Epirus, Greece. In a location with a history of tensions regarding the creation of hydroelectric dams, the workshop participants were invited as a group to consider and discuss different scenarios for the future of the settlement, set in the year 2048. As a group, they publicly presented artefacts from one selected future with the discussions following indicating that the polyphony generated by the proposals ought to be a given in any community inquiring their preferred future. Such investigations on futures ought to be a constant and continuous endeavor, since, as this short workshop illustrates, even the best outcome today is no panacea for living a preferable future tomorrow.