Abstract
A key political challenge of addressing climate change has been that, despite its deep involvement with so many aspects of our society, its threat can at times feel abstracted from our daily lives— a gap futurists lament as the “experiential gulf” between our ability to imagine the future and our capacity to experience it. Immersive Design Fiction Experiences (IDFEs) use virtual reality as a way of bridging this experiential gulf by positioning participants as embodied subjects within a virtual storyworld. With IDFEs designers can explore a rich palette of experiential phenomena—such as speculative social rituals, embodied interactions with objects, and explorations of environments. Drawing from a range of pedagogical examples teaching IDFEs in the design classroom, the paper argues that IDFEs enable participants and creators alike to activate their imagination with and through body, unlocking new kinds of inferential activity and new pathways for critically unpacking social implications.
Keywords
design fiction; immersive design fiction; virtual reality; speculative design; experiential futures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.1206
Citation
Robin McVeigh-Schultz, J. (2024) Experiential futures through immersive design fiction, 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.2024.1206
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Conference Track
Research Paper
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Experiential futures through immersive design fiction
A key political challenge of addressing climate change has been that, despite its deep involvement with so many aspects of our society, its threat can at times feel abstracted from our daily lives— a gap futurists lament as the “experiential gulf” between our ability to imagine the future and our capacity to experience it. Immersive Design Fiction Experiences (IDFEs) use virtual reality as a way of bridging this experiential gulf by positioning participants as embodied subjects within a virtual storyworld. With IDFEs designers can explore a rich palette of experiential phenomena—such as speculative social rituals, embodied interactions with objects, and explorations of environments. Drawing from a range of pedagogical examples teaching IDFEs in the design classroom, the paper argues that IDFEs enable participants and creators alike to activate their imagination with and through body, unlocking new kinds of inferential activity and new pathways for critically unpacking social implications.