a workshop about Near Future Design http://www.artisopensource.net/2013/11/14/openness-and-near-future-design-at-i-lab-at-luiss-university/

1. OPENNESS
Art is Open Source!
www.artisopensource.net

2. INTRODUCTION
What is the Internet

3. your computer
(or smartphone, or
tablet, or…)
1001001001110…
bits transmitted physically
a wire (or a satellite, or
some magnetic waves…)

4. your computer
(or smartphone, or
tablet, or…)
1001001001110…
bits interpreted from signals
1001001001110…
bits transmitted physically
network
your network card,
the USB stick through
which you connect…
a wire (or a satellite, or
some magnetic waves…)

5. your computer
(or smartphone, or
tablet, or…)
packets of digital information
1001001001110…
bits interpreted from signals
1001001001110…
bits transmitted physically
TCP
software on your PC or
on your provider
network
your network card,
the USB stick through
which you connect…
a wire (or a satellite, or
some magnetic waves…)

6. your computer
(or smartphone, or
tablet, or…)
decides routing: this packet
is for me, this packet is not..
packets of digital information
1001001001110…
bits interpreted from signals
1001001001110…
bits transmitted physically
IP
software on your PC or
on your provider
TCP
software on your PC or
on your provider
network
your network card,
the USB stick through
which you connect…
a wire (or a satellite, or
some magnetic waves…)

7. your computer
(or smartphone, or
tablet, or…)
the web: defines documents.
assembles text, images, videos
and more from all the data you
receive over the Internet
(web pages, social networks…)
decides routing: this packet
is for me, this packet is not..
packets of digital information
1001001001110…
bits interpreted from signals
1001001001110…
bits transmitted physically
http
your browser
IP
software on your PC or
on your provider
TCP
software on your PC or
on your provider
network
your network card,
the USB stick through
which you connect…
a wire (or a satellite, or
some magnetic waves…)

8. http
Each layer is service
on the one below
IP
TCP
network

9. http
Each layer is
a form of power
IP
TCP
network

10. Example:
CISCO
http
produces large part of the network devices all
over the planet.
!
What happens if there is a backdoor on all
its devices?
!
The Internet stops.
IP
TCP
network

11. Example:
How can we avoid catastrophe?
http
solution: openness!
!
if source code in the devices is
Open Sources, Cisco is not able
to hide backdoors.
IP
TCP
network

12. Example:
Telecom Italia
http
is the main provider of
connectivity in Italy.
!
What happens if they do
not adopt Net Neutrality?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
!
anything from censorship to
authoritarian regimes
IP
TCP
network

13. Example:
How can we avoid catastrophe?
solution: openness!
http
IP
!
transparency on rules
open, transparent protocols
neutral, transparent infrastructure
TCP
network

14. Example:
This is true even at physical level
Julian Oliver (artist): images of where internet
cables arrive on the beach, among machine guns
and tanks
!
http
IP
TCP
or:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/the-creepy-long-standing-practice-of-undersea-cable-tapping/277855/
network

15. each of these layers
corresponds to
!
INCREDIBLE
POLITICAL POWER
!
and/or to
!
AMAZING
BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES
http
IP
TCP
network

16. not “free” as in “free beer”, but
!
“FREE” as in “FREEDOM”

17. http
IP
TCP
netwo

18. INTERNET
does not exist
!
!
PEOPLE
exist
http
IP
TCP
netwo

19. for this
INTERNET
does not exist
!
!
PEOPLE
exist
http
as a tool
for expression
IP
TCP
netwo
all of this

20. HUMAN
BEINGS

21. HUMAN BEINGS
daily lives

22. HUMAN BEINGS
daily lives
recurring/emerging
behaviors

23. HUMAN BEINGS
daily lives
RITUALS

25. UNDERSTAND EMERGING RITUALS

26. EXAMPLE:

28. http://www.artisopensource.net/projects/incautious-porn.html

31. EXAMPLE:

33. http://artisopensource.net/projects/enlarge-your-consciousness.html

37. HUMAN
BEINGS

38. Paul Du Gay
“Doing Cultural Studies: the story of the Sony Walkman”
http://books.google.it/books?id=Gop0dQGKm5sC&dq=paul+du+gay+walkman&hl=it&source=gbs_navlinks_s

40. the most influential anthropological
study of modern times
the iPhone is “empty”
!
it is ready to be “filled”
(with apps)
this is its value:
it is a platform for human expression

41. NEAR
FUTURE
DESIGN

42. FUTURE
does not exist
it’s a performance

43. HUMAN BEINGS
daily lives
RITUALS
IDEA
SIMULACRUM

44. SIMULACRUM
“Organize a fake holdup.Verify that your weapons are harmless, and take the most
trustworthy hostage, so that no human life will be in danger (or one lapses into the
criminal.) Demand a ransom, and make it so that the operation creates as much
commotion as possible — in short, remain close to the “truth,” in order to test the
reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulacrum.You won’t be able to do it: the
network of artificial signs will become inextricably mixed up with real elements (a
policeman really will fire on sight; a client of the bank will faint and die of a heart
attack; one will actually pay you the phony ransom).” [p. 20]
!
(from Jean Beaudrillard’s “The Preecession’s of Simulacra”)

45. According to Bruce Sterling, Design Fiction is:
!
“It’s the deliberate use of diegetic prototypes to suspend disbelief about
change.That’s the best definition we’ve come up with. The important word
there is diegetic. It means you’re thinking very seriously about potential
objects and services and trying to get people to concentrate on those rather
than entire worlds or political trends or geopolitical strategies. It’s not a kind
of fiction. It’s a kind of design. It tells worlds rather than stories.”

46. According to Kook Agency:
!
“to produce Design Fiction means to design a campaign that is
seriously possible. An object or a service that captures and focuses
attention on a transformation without having to deal with global
trends or geopolitical scenarios. A scenography which is able to
catalyze attention and outline a possible world“. And “Design Fiction
is not a type of fiction, but rather the design of our interface with
reality.The culture of the project applied to the implementation of
possible worlds which can only get built through stories.”

47. http://www.artisopensource.net/2013/08/02/design-fiction-and-near-future-design-at-frontiers-of-interaction-2013/

49. http://www.artisopensource.net/2013/05/26/transmedia-narratives-simulacra-simulation-fake-and-design-fiction/

51. In William Gibson’s “Neuromancer”, a terrorist sect called The Panther
Moderns takes advantage of the fuzzy boundary between the
simulacra and the real to create chaos at the Sense/Net Corporation:
!
Nine Moderns, scattered along two hundred miles of the Sprawl, had
simultaneously dialed MAX EMERG from pay phones.Nine different police
departments and public security agencies were absorbing the information that
an obscure subsect of militant Christian fundamentalists had just taken credit
for having introduced clinical levels of an outlawed psychoactive agent known
as Blue Nine into the ventilation system of the Sense/Net Pyramid. Blue Nine
had been shown to produce acute paranoia and homicidal psychosis in eightfive percent of experimental subjects.

52. In the narrative, the Panther Moderns combine multiple
media and modalities to stimulate as many perceptive
modalities as possible to make the people in the Sense/Net
building believe that a fundamentalists have infected the
building with a powerful hallucinogenic drug, thus causing
violence and horror.

53. Transmedia Narratives
!
a transmedia story represents the integration of
entertainment experiences across a range of different media
platforms
!
Henry Jenkins, 2007

54. Transmedia storytelling represents a
process where integral elements of a fiction
get dispersed systematically across
multiple delivery channels for the purpose
of creating a unified and coordinated
entertainment experience. Ideally, each
medium makes its own unique contribution
to the unfolding of the story.

55. SIMULACRUM
WORLD-BUILDING

56. SIMULACRUM
WORLD-BUILDING
create a trans-media narrative, to suspend disbelief
and to create a believable reality,
to form an immersive experience

57. people
WORLD-BUILDING
reactions
expression
of the
“preferred
future”

58. people
WORLD-BUILDING
reactions
expression
of the
“preferred
future”
}
}
Shifts the
perception
of what
is “possible”
transforms
the future
into a
collaborative
performance

59. The Future becomes a
performance

60. The Future becomes a
performance
in which people describe their preferred
futures

61. the Workshop

62. workshop
schema

63. partially composed narrative
describes the setup
Research:
elements which are useful
for the story, and
background information
(society, technology, actors,
context...)
identify story functions +
create story resolution

64. 1)
create the map of the present
•
•
•
•
state of the arts and technologies
market trends
emerging rituals
…

65. 2)
use them to infer a concept
•
•
setup the story
imagine world building elements (start)

66. 3)
create the story functions
•
•
•
•
•
the story functions are the building blocks of a story
try to make a strong, reliable, consistent story structure
try to use classical story structures
es.: 3 acts (setup, conflict, resolution)
you can use the story cards (attached to slides)

67. use story functions as kernel
events.
map satellite events.
balance story logic.

68. 4)
•
•
•
•
create the event map
the event map is the diagram of the story
each circle is a section
each identified story function has a section, of which it is the kernel event
additional sections can be added, to balance the story

69. crafting a well structured narrative. These can be expressed as
a text, a storyboard or an enactment.
1
Far left: a schematic diagram
2
used in structural narrative
theory (Chatman, 1980:54*).
Left: the approach adapted
for design is a paper-based
Event Map.
a) Kernel event
b) Narrative “block”
c) Satellite event
d) Anticipatory event
e) Possible but unfollowed path
f) Retrospective event
3

70. represent story in sketch
form.
increase granularity.
make more concrete.

71. 5)
•
•
•
•
create sketches
sketch the story as if they were the scenes of a movie
sketch also satellite events, parallel events, flashbacks, flash forwards…
give consistency, make it tangible: if it isn’t, go back to previous steps
group sketches in sets, to be implemented as the components of the transmedia
narrative

72. represent in different media.
validate.
find best representation.
communicate (transmedia).

73. 6)
create representations
•
•
•
•
implement the transmedia narratives
create the design fictions (diegetic prototypes)
disseminate
start the performance

74. on freedom:

75. Comprendere il mutamento è essenziale anche e soprattutto per dirigerlo, per
fare fronte alle emergenze e ai rischi effettivi di catastrofe (ambientale, nucleare,
economica) che «il corso delle cose», da solo, non ci garantisce certo di evitare. Il
lavoro di studio e di previsione sul futuro sembra essenziale per affrontare in
maniera adeguata tutti questi problemi. A condizione che questo lavoro (come in
ogni altro campo della scienza) non generi una nuova casta di super-tecnici che
si arroghino il diritto di decidere – soli o in combutta con le burocrazie che
governano – il destino di tutti. Su questo destino, non ci deve essere dubbio, la
parola spetta agli interessati.
Antonio Caronia

76. let’s start!

77. PHASE I
Duration: 5+5 minutes
Story Setup
Form groups
Work in couples
Each group sets up a scenario
Present it using a single sentence
Pass it on to your left, elaborate it

78. PHASE 2
Duration: 15 minutes
Q&A
Each group presents scenario: 2 minutes
Other groups pose questions: 5 minutes

79. PHASE 3
Duration: 25 minutes
Story Functions
Pick three random story cards (functions)
One card from each set (Setup, Conflict, Resolution)
Create a story using the functions

80. PHASE 4
Duration: 10 minutes
Event Map
Create Event Map for the story.
Using story functions as kernel events.

81. PHASE 5
Duration: 16 minutes
Q&A
Each group presents the Event Map: 3 minutes
Other groups pose questions: 5 minutes

82. PHASE 6
Duration: 20 minutes
Represent
Create Sketches for story
Think as if you are creating the storyboard for a movie
Create sketches for side stories, too

83. PHASE 7
Duration: 20 minutes
Show
Each group can present their sketches in 10 minutes

84. www.artisopensource.net
!
salvatore.iaconesi@artisopensource.net
oriana.persico@artisopensource.net