‘What Design Can Do embodies a really interesting phase in design right now, where we’re transgressing boundaries between disciplines,’ said Rachel Armstrong during one of the WDCD Academy Series breakouts on 9 May. In the breakout she was interviewd together with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg by Tim Vermeulen of Het Nieuwe Instituut.
‘We are discussing and inventing new roles for design, in curating new possibilities and new culture’, Armstrong said. What followed was a discussion about the differences between possible, probable and speculative projects in the work of both Ginsberg and Armstrong. According to Armstrong, probabilistic design is ‘tapping in on the many possibilities that are imminent in science’, whereas speculative design is much more an exploration of the imagination.
The difference between the approaches of Ginsberg and Armstrong came to the front when moderator Tim Vermeulen asked them whether they would like their imaginative projects to become real some day. Where Armstrong indeed would like to see her Future Venice project become real, Ginsberg was much more hesitant.
‘The socio-economic forces behind genetic modification are problematic. With my projects I want to address these problems,’ said Ginsberg. ‘The introduction of genetic modification in nature is a very likely probability, and I think we have to work against that. We can work with scientists to find alternatives.’
Armstrong countered that we have got used to the idea that there is no risk. ‘But by embracing risk we’ve got cars and rockets and many more things. Designing with probability means accepting that there is risk in everything, and that can bring us forward.’
At least Ginsberg and Armstrong agree that fiction, probable or speculative, can help move science forward. ‘Opening up imagination can help us predict the future and see new horizons,’ said Armstrong. Or as Ginsberg put it: ‘I don’t want my imaginary slugs to become real, but I like that they exist.’
Photo: from left to right moderator Tim Vermeulen, Rachel Armstrong, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (photo Leo Veger)