James Auger

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Enseignant chercheur at École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay

The article positions the author's work as speculative design but—like the term design fictions—is open to several interpretations. How is the fictional character of such work conceptualised and produced? What kinds of speculation are involved? The article considers the value of one particular approach and argues that speculative design serves two...

This article begins by asking: “Why are robots not becoming domestic products?” In addressing this question the author borrows from the science of ecology and biological concepts of evolution and domestication to make an analogy between the shift of habitats that occurs when an organism successfully goes through the process of artificial selection...

One of the enduring objects used to represent the technological future is the robot. This legacy means that its promise has the ability to evolve in accordance with our societal and cultural dreams and aspirations. It can reflect the current state of technological development, our hopes for that technology and also our fears; fundamentally though,...

Speculative design practice questions the practice of design and offers some alternatives that are essential for the world of today and more importantly, the world of tomorrow. Based on the urgent need for an upgrade related to speculative design educational practice, the SpeculativeEdu (Speculative Design – Educational Resource Toolkit) project is...

Design influences desire. If in the past design has been used to encourage consumption, to make consumer goods desirable, then in the future we must enlist design in the fight to bring our desires more closely in line with our needs. A shift is required to preserve what has taken millions or billions of years to form in the past, and to avoid a leg...

This paper examines how an emerging technology can transition from the habitat of the laboratory to everyday life, with a particular focus on the different roles design can play throughout this process. Design is intrinsically linked to notions of the future, through the arrangement of elements to accomplish predetermined goals. More familiar is de...

The version of design that was shaped and perfected during the 20th century played a huge role in the making of the modern (global northern) world. Whilst design’s potential as a contributor to the making of worlds is clear, its methods, metrics and purposes have led to a world that is increasingly revealed as fragile, broken and unsustainable. In...

Atopia as both the site of architecture's critical confrontation with hegemonic systems and the theoretical space in which its own processes can be challenged. A literal no-place, atopia represents the spatial end-product of a society seemingly flattened by supra-territorial flows of information and material. It expresses both a physical artifact...

This article explores the role of the future in contemporary technology design, and elaborates how imagination can influence the present through the mechanism of speculation. Three applications of futures are introduced: extrapolation examines present data and trends to predict possible futures, reflecting on the present imagines possible futures f...

One method of reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions in the transportation sector is the replacement of conventional fossil fuel-based vehicles with Electric Vehicles (EVs). However, fossil fuels are still the primary source of electricity production in many regions and the utilization of EVs in such regions increases the electricity demand because of...

HCI is complicit in the climate crisis, as the systems and services that we design engender unsustainable energy use and waste. HCI has equal potential to find solutions for environmental challenges and script, by design, the behavioral changes needed for sustainable net futures. We explore this dichotomy through the lens of data transmission, exam...

The architectural historian and critic Kenneth Frampton ‘never recovered’ from the force of Hannah Arendt’s teaching at The New School in New York. The philosopher Richard J. Bernstein considers her the most perceptive political theorist and observer of ‘dark times’ (a concept which, drawing from Brecht, she made her own). Building on the revival o...

Design and Futures is a major collection of peer-reviewed articles, essays, interviews, and manifestos, edited by Stuart Candy (Carnegie Mellon University) and Cher Potter (Victoria and Albert Museum), documenting 'design futures' discourse and practice around the world. First published as back-to-back volumes in the open access Journal of Futures...

Industrial design, for the most part, is about exploiting the potential of new technologies to create functional, usable and desirable products-design is at the heart of future formation. Unfortunately, this process is mostly devoid of any critical or philosophical foundation. Some myths taught at design school: 1. Design is good. 2. Design makes p...

Falling costs and the wider availability of computational components, platforms and ecosystems have enabled the expansion of maker movements and DIY cultures. This can be considered as a form of democratization of technology systems design, in alignment with the aims of Participatory Design approaches. However, this landscape is constantly evolving...

This paper proposes and discusses planning approaches for the development and operation of renewable energy systems for electrification. The approaches presented here are based on consumption pattern analysis. Consumption pattern of Madeira, Portugal is presented as an example. The proposed approaches include scenarios where electricity is fully su...

This paper presents the identification and analysis of a set of four 'oblique constraints'—named as progress dogma, future nudge, means and ends, and infrastraints—which act as pervasive but often unacknowledged constraining influences that shape design practice and by extension limit future possibilities. We ask: How and why is power exerted? How...

This manifesto marks the first anniversary of a project, Reconstrained Design, launched explicitly to challenge the state of design: its narrowing pathways, prevailing assumptions, and corporate agendas. Taking Our manifesto takes the form of a preamble which outlines the history of the manifesto genre and its origins in the historical avant-garde...

Islands are often used as conceptual testing grounds or repositories for larger ideas of how the world should or should not be. Islands may represent our hopes and dreams (Aldous Huxley’s novel Island, Gauguin’s Tahiti) or our fears and follies, especially concerning our darker nature (The Island of Doctor Moreau, Lord of the Flies). In our new pro...

Speculative design is immature and evolving. Its boundaries, de nitions, and purpose can therefore lack focus, claims James Auger. The spectacular and provocative nature of many speculative design projects has led to them being widely disseminated across a broad range of media and contexts. This has raised the pro le and appeal of the approach but...

This paper describes a group of objects produced as a collaboration between designers and scientists/engineers. They explore an alternative approach to bringing robots into the domestic environment, exploring both the aesthetics and functionality that may elicit a symbiotic coexistence with humans in their homes. They are all based on the technolog...

In this paper we describe the Iso-phone, a telecommunications concept providing a service that can be described simply as a meeting of the telephone and the floatation tank. By blocking out peripheral sensory stimulation and distraction, the Iso-phone attempts to create a telephonic space of heightened purity and focus.By presenting an everyday pro...

This is an exhibition of Auger and Loizeau's audio tooth implant. The exhibition was supported by the Science Museum and the Royal College of Art and funded by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts). Implant technology is already commonplace in the form of replacement surgery (artificial joints, pacemakers, etc). The Audi...

The research and design of the Iso-phone: a total submersion telephonic experience was supported by the Human Connectedness Group Media Lab Europe. This project examines how tele-communications might exist from a perspective that prioritises quality of experience over notions of efficiency, often represented in multi-modal, omnipresent services and...