Knowledge Lab, Seminar Series - Speculative Play: Creating Collisions between Critical and Speculative Design. Dr. Rilla Khaled

Taking the position that design can prompt speculation on alternative presents and futures, speculative design re-imagines invisible and embedded cultural assumptions of how the world is and proposes instead, “How the world could be”, and “Why isn’t the world like this?" Many examples of speculative design concern physical objects, sometimes accompanied by adept social engineering to make them appear real.

If speculative design is about inviting people to entertain alternative realities, however, we should consider how speculation is enacted. In this talk, I will introduce and explore a novel design practice called Speculative Play, bringing together the critical practices and forecasting of speculative design with the hands-on functional experience of play, especially digital games. Through the Neo//qab and Remote Intimacy Devices case studies, I will show how Speculative Play can expand the traditional boundaries of speculative design as well as how we understand digital play.