Abstract
This paper explores haunt ological speculation as an innovative approach to Speculative Design in undergraduate design education. While Speculative Design methodologies have gained prominence in design curricula, they often struggle to imagine future scenarios beyond apocalyptic narratives, leading to a form of "imaginative paralysis." To address this challenge, we integrate "hauntology" into Design epi stem ologies. Hauntology expands ontological frameworks by incorporating "the presence of absences"—events that could have occurred but did not materialize—as factors shaping the present, thereby broadening possibilities for imagining and designing futures beyond dominant contemporary logics. We present two case studies of "haunt ological speculation exercises" implemented in design courses, exploring "lost futures" from specific historical bifurcation points where students engage in counter factual thinking supported by AI-generated imagery to imagine alternative Design possibilities. The integration of haunt ological thinking presents three key contributions to design education: i) exploring unrealized potentialities challenges ontological presumptions about the future and past and Design's agency in shaping them, enabling speculation about non-evident potentials in truncated timelines; ii) a concrete, replicable didactic methodology that makes the haunt ological perspective actionable within design education; and iii) a formative use of generative AI to visualize inexistent scenarios and debate their plausibility and hegemonic biases. We argue that haunt ological speculation offers a valuable tool for design education, fostering critical thinking about the constructed nature of the world and Design's role in shaping historical contexts and future possibilities.
Keywords
Hauntological speculation; Lost futures; Design education; Socio-technological scenarios with AI
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.34
Citation
Álvarez, P.,and Labbé, J.T.(2025) Hauntological Speculation Device: Designing lost futures with design students and generative AI to explore alternative socio-technological scenarios, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.34
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 2 - Design Futuring
Hauntological Speculation Device: Designing lost futures with design students and generative AI to explore alternative socio-technological scenarios
This paper explores haunt ological speculation as an innovative approach to Speculative Design in undergraduate design education. While Speculative Design methodologies have gained prominence in design curricula, they often struggle to imagine future scenarios beyond apocalyptic narratives, leading to a form of "imaginative paralysis." To address this challenge, we integrate "hauntology" into Design epi stem ologies. Hauntology expands ontological frameworks by incorporating "the presence of absences"—events that could have occurred but did not materialize—as factors shaping the present, thereby broadening possibilities for imagining and designing futures beyond dominant contemporary logics. We present two case studies of "haunt ological speculation exercises" implemented in design courses, exploring "lost futures" from specific historical bifurcation points where students engage in counter factual thinking supported by AI-generated imagery to imagine alternative Design possibilities. The integration of haunt ological thinking presents three key contributions to design education: i) exploring unrealized potentialities challenges ontological presumptions about the future and past and Design's agency in shaping them, enabling speculation about non-evident potentials in truncated timelines; ii) a concrete, replicable didactic methodology that makes the haunt ological perspective actionable within design education; and iii) a formative use of generative AI to visualize inexistent scenarios and debate their plausibility and hegemonic biases. We argue that haunt ological speculation offers a valuable tool for design education, fostering critical thinking about the constructed nature of the world and Design's role in shaping historical contexts and future possibilities.