Speculative Science : Our Possible Future

When all things are possible by science. Would you prioritize human values above nature, or would you regard humans as disposable within the natural order? 

This is the collection of Speculative Science projects that address the human age - the Anthropocene and the after-human era, post-human life form. Questioning and imagining human life in the coming future when everything is possible by the advancement of biology, science, CRISPR, etc.

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What could be the possible solution to the mediocre creativity today?

We should eradicate money. Value shouldn't be calculated by money anymore. Imagine a new world system, a world without money, where people work solely for their passion and interest and not because of the burden of making a living. No economic social class. Everyone should be unique and ingenuity becomes the drive to become a social being. Perhaps social class would be divided by creativity and ideologies. Perhaps education no longer motivated by money, focusing on discovery and inventions instead. The structure of politics then will be deconstructed and re-imagined. Human relationships then will become diverse, because people no longer want to become 'normal' to blend in and be able to commodity their life. 

Science and Spiritual Realm

"You can make th sound of two hands clapping, Now what is the sound of one hand?" 

- Tao of Physics (p.49)

I think there's an interesting point the book Tao of Physics tells us about. Eastern beliefs think the way researchers think, and observe the way scientists observe. Could it be that, because we are all human after all? there's a limited way of what we can do to make sense of our world. Creativity and understanding are 'enlightenment' that humans receive when they try hard enough to be mindful and thoughtful. 

To me, science is one way to make sense of the world through evidence humans receive through sense receptors, which would be proved because the majority of people receive the same thing, and it becomes 'objective'. But science, if you push the notion too far, science can't explain its own discourse, hence the spiritual realm is omnipresent and interconnected with science. Like what Capra said in the book " Fishing baskets are employed to catch fish, but when the fish are got, the men forget the baskets" we tend to forget that science is never independent, but a product of humans to understand the 'mystical' realm we experiences.

This also reminds me of design. No one can make an absolute assessment of design if it's a good design or bad design. If the evidence says that a design is a good design, it's still a difficult task to explain why it's good. Because design is a combination of objectivity and subjectivity, that's why the work of design is mysterious.

Sustainable lifestyle?

Wicked problem is complex, there's no single factor, and everything is related to each other, affecting but at the same time affected by another factor. We can see this problem in the climate crisis, social and cultural issues, and many more. I believe that no one can put the blame on one factor only. Climate crisis, for example, we couldn't blame just human activity on that. It's not as simple as changing one's lifestyle to slow down the environmental damage. What about the industries? farming industries, for example, produce greenhouse emissions multiple times more than fossil fuel emissions. Or textile production, jeans, for example, use 1800 gallons of water just to produce a pair of jeans. And what about the earth's axis and orbital route that constantly changing? The earth has been through extremes of climate changes over billions of years, is it possible that the climate changes naturally too? How could we as humans help ourselves face these changes? Is there anything we can do? what about us as designers? Is it possible to establish a sustainable lifestyle?

As a design student, I have always been asked and challenged to think about how design could respond to the wicked problem. Honestly, it's very difficult to answer, I don't think there's a correct answer either. I think living sustainably is not only about lowering our carbon footprint but also about a lifestyle that can sustain our own necessities, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. One of the example is biomimicry. Biomimicry is adopting the way nature can sustain its own life without external help. Sharklet is one of the technologies inspired by shark skin to prevent fouling by bacteria. Surfaces in hospital have been relying on the use of chemicals to fight off the bacteria but this could lead to the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. the shark skin is formed by dermal denticles in diamond shapes that could prevent microbes to attach.

Although this one thing wouldn't be able to be considered a lifestyle, human life has to be side by side with nature. The intention is to connect with it, be inspired by it, and invent a new way of living as the world also changes for better or for worse.

Arcane: the amazing visual production

Arcane is an animated series that is set in a utopian city called 'piltover' and an oppressed district called 'zaun'. The story is based on video games League of Legends by Riot Games. Visually the utopian city adopted Art Deco style with skyscrapers and geometrical decoration, bright and lush with traditions.

 While the oppressed zaun visually presented in art nouveau style, organic buildings with dark environments. 

Everything in this movie is digitally hand-painted. Not only that but the environment and the characters are combined with 2D and 3D elements. The intricate background, for example, is mostly drawn. This means the lighting and shadow are also painted. The drawing has to be adjusted in a certain way so that it will look realistic in perspective. Fortiche, the producer studio, successfully made a seamless combination between the 2D elements, 2D visual effects, with the moving 3D elements. 

In arcane, they deliberately make objects painted, highly detailed and multi faceted by applying it through texture projections, this makes Arcane visually different than other animated movies. Creatively establishing their own identity in animation.

Though this movie adapted steampunk genre where the visual seems to focus on machinery and historical references. I like to see it as an alternate future. What if human decided to create a utopian world. While there's another world where resistance live, no rules. We can see how this movie also show the advancement of science that could figure out a power that almost like 'magic', body modification, and so on. 

Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

Conspirators of pleasure, a dark comedy/ silent movie released in the 1996. This movie told individual stories of six people of their personal obsessions and fantasies, and how it interlaced with each other. 

The movie is intriguingly showing human desire and fantasy, to what extent a person can do to fulfill their imagination (perhaps their intrusive thoughts?) People can be really creative and avant garde in their head. What if human do everything that crosses their mind. In this movie, human desires became a force of creativity. Like how someone in the movie use a roller pin, fur, and nails to inflict physical sensations. Or the guy who invent a whole mechanical machinery to serve him pleasure. Should there were not desires, perhaps they won't make these things.

Human are not only intelligent being, but also a spiritual being. They are looking for connection with the spiritual realm thus the imagery of rituals, symbolic objects like blood and candles. This is also the part where the movie was cleverly using reappearing objects like fur, wardrobe, nails, feathers, umbrella. And so on. I interpret that the movie used these objects as a symbolic meaning of how these obsession and energy could be found and delivered through everything and everywhere in daily life.

Neural lace - when our brain becomes internet

Imagine a world where we can access the internet through our brains. Perhaps there will be no school, there's no such thing as being 'not well-informed', there's no such thing as being hidden anymore. Hacking is no longer on the surface-based level, but every piece of your thought, knowledge, and opinion will be easily known, stolen. Telepathic is no longer a myth. Resting will become a myth. Neural lace will break the world's record of 'shock'. Safety and security will become the new real estate or the new stock market. 

Perhaps we begin to experience the real augmented reality. No additional device, only senses, and the neural lace.  Our imagination becomes real, and our memory can be regenerated, resurrected. The boundaries between reality and virtual become blurry and dissolved. Human is no longer human, we become the new computer.

Designer's Dystopia

First of all, I would like to ask you to define what fantasy is? what is it like to be in a dream? Close your eyes, and try to visualize it in your mind.

Does the image come to you similar to the image above? What if I ask you before you see this image, would it make any difference? As a design student, I have asked this question many times. How far does the source of information affect my design output?

There's a diverse way to see the world we live in today. One might have a positive outlook that human culture and development will make our world a better place to live in. With the ongoing trend, climate crisis, human crisis, and ongoing issues, we couldn't help but imagine that an apocalyptic world is not far ahead. However, if we look closer again aren't we already living in a dystopian world now? A world where creativity seems to flourish, but is currently dying.

Thanks to social media and the internet, everyone is becoming an influencer, creator, and artist of their own. But with the risk of influencing and being an influencer, the world has become more uniform than ever. We are borrowing and stealing ideas, we think we create something new when we are actually just crafting. We take for granted inspirations from the internet, anything that does not make sense or is economically invaluable is trash. We give meanings based on the information we see online, and we begin to trust ourselves to give meanings and imagination less and less. Especially with the development of AI these days, we begin to lose our confidence. Do humans create AI or does AI shape our way of being creative? 

If creativity indeed has collapsed, what are we supposed to do? Is there a need for us to fix it? As designers, I think we should reconsider how we do things. Unhabituate ourselves from seeking inspiration from other works, keep an open mind, and reconsider the neoliberal ideology we unconsciously internalized in our lives. We don't design only for sales, we don't project our life as a subject of popularity. I think designers also need to redefine themselves as something more than an employee with a mouse and design softwares. Designers have their own power and freedom to create more than a set of design guides and rules.

Shock tactic is absurd!

Shock tactics have always worked well to attract instant public attention, stir up discussions and criticism among the public. Things like the porcelain urinal as an art, or duct-taped banana in the museum have never failed to be brought up once in a while when talking about absurdity in art. But does this strategy still work today? it takes more than just yes or no to answer this question. I think we need to put the intention, purpose, and risks into account when talking about shock tactics.

With the rapidly growing technology and communication, the culture also constantly growing and changing. People start to develop critical thinking towards any information they find. However, society also begins to create its own standard of ethics according to their convenience.  So there's nothing certain, it's always an experiment when we're talking about public response. The things that are beyond the social 'ethics' will become viral, a place for discussion, and this is exactly the purpose of shock tactics. Of course, in terms of becoming 'viral,' they could be categorized as either extreme 'positive' or extreme 'negative'. Either people will love it or they will hate it. This is where things get interesting, the debate.

Personally, I think that something that we get quickly we also lose it quickly. When there's nothing to talk about, the public gets bored, and the next thing you know it will be quickly covered by a new topic. Also, it is very risky to test the public's standard of ethics, once the public labels it as 'bad', it will be quite a challenge to change this image. I think being different is great, especially in this very saturated world, but creating a meaningful difference is what we need to achieve more than anything. I'm not saying that being weird is wrong, but it's always important to consider our position in society and to be responsible for whatever we are doing.