The unit 2 brief asks us to create a “Future of Work” scenario, through the method of speculative design, and allows us to freely come up with a project. When I first read the brief many different scenarios came to my mind, as speculative design allows us to imagine and anticipate a futuristic solution to a problem. A few ideas which I had were futuristic modes of organisations, re-imaging workspaces, AI and it’s role in work ahead, the effect of automation on the labor force etc. To get ourselves educated with speculative design we were asked to do some reading around the topic. The reading I chose was “Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative and Alternative Things” by Bruce M Tharp, Stephanie M.

This book has given me the understanding, about how good design can provide solutions to many problems, such as in construction, pharma and medicine, education etc. This book gives us a much more deeper incite into how discursive design can help in improving societal problems. They have mentioned how the problem with design is the communication behind it, while they commend designers who create designs which speak for themselves, they believe that the writing, speaking and gesturing is what reinforces the effect of the work done by designers.

The thing which I found interesting about this book is that there are contrasting view points provided, the authors have included one whole chapter just to point out the things which are going wrong in design, with the chapter aptly named, “What’s wrong with design”, which has given the reader a view into how chosing commercialisation and functionalism has led us to ignore the intellectual contribution of design. I particularly found the case study about the Yog headset very interesting, which was created in the Global Futures lab at RISD, which focuses on evoking non-western versions of the future. This made me think about the future of work, and how we might have to go backwards in history to evolve ahead and how maybe the future is back to analog.