The Future Fringe was a response to another exclusive tech festival in Dublin.
Organised by designer James Delaney and hosted by the Irish Architecture Foundation, we discussed issues with emerging smart city concepts, missed opportunities, things that work and things that don’t.
I spoke about my LOQ project, creating publics and using design to draw people in to engaging with the hidden ramifications of tech.
CRITICAL I comprised of an artist talk and an introduction to Critical Design.
Beginning with a visual history of design practices, the workshop aims to engage artists and designers with the idea of asking questions and challenging assumptions through design and interventions.
We also take a look at contemporary artworks and discuss critical aspects and how the public could be engaged with the issues raised.
CRITICAL II is the follow up workshop where the participants are introduced to design methodologies and prototyping techniques.
We begin by refreshing on the first workshop and start to identify areas of concern which we want to address. Next, participants split into groups and start to design towards their chosen concerns.
Using a variety of visual, hardware and paper-based techniques we then produce prototypes which we can test on other groups and iterate on the designs to make them more effective.
Alt-Delete workshops are an introduction to digital investigations in partnership with Tactical Tech.
Taking the Exposing the Invisible Kit as a starting point, this series of exploratory workshops hopes to galvanize participants into probing the corporate, techno-political infrastructures around them and encourage reflection on our relationship with the same.
Using practical skills and techniques alongside various creative approaches that draw from areas including adversarial design, media archaeology and hacktivism, participants will be encouraged, and supported, to initiate and develop their own investigations.
Outcomes of the workshops hope to produce public engagement through an exhibition, talks, interventions and writings.
Workshops are co-hosted with Paul O’Neill.
ADVERSARIAL I is a new workshop which seeks to introduce artists to an iterative approach and take Critical Design out of the gallery space and out to the public.
The workshop starts with a short history of modern design methodologies – from User Centred to Critical and Discursive Design. Then we start introducing the concepts of Adversarial Design.
We talk about how we can try to create a space for agonism – a place for opposing viewpoints to meet and engage with one another.
Then we take a look at contemporary examples of Adversarial Design and pull them apart to understand their workings and how effectively they engage.
Finally, we move into design, prototyping and iterations on potential artifacts and systems which will help people to engage with the issues inherent to the modern world.