ADVANCED DESIGN PRACTICES FOR SHARING FUTURES: A FOCUS ON DESIGN FICTION

The main objective of the study is to understand, and improve, the role of Advanced design as facilitator in the dynamics of shaping, but mostly sharing possible visions of the future. In order to explore this potentiality, the paper identifies the specific area of design fiction as an illustrative field of this approach. Emerged in the last decade as “a discursive space within which new forms of cultural artefact (futures) might emerge”, design fiction is attracting multi-disciplinary attention for its ability to inform the creation of a fictional world. The paper will develop the discourse through three levels: presenting the potential role of Advanced design in the debate about “future literacy”; introducing the notion of design fiction though a reading of the evolution of the respective theoretical framework and, finally, discussing a selected body of case-studies where emerges the value of design in the practice of sharing futures.