Reimagining Wicked Problems Through Speculative Design: Collaborative Classroom Experiments.

Abstract

Abstract Design can be explored by various agents—professional and non- professional designers—in different areas, through processes, which represent the creative and social territories inhabited by those agents. Design thinking principles have been increasingly adopted by public and private organisations, from various sectors, to tackle complex problems and envision solutions. Speculative Design can play a fundamental role in experimenting with unconventional approaches. The DXT ideation tool, hereby presented, is a methodological tool, which engages students and creative practitioners in a participatory design process that challenges conven- tional human-centred perspectives in Human-Computer Interaction. Rooted in the principles of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, it aims to respond to unsus- tainability, through societal innovative, ecological and inclusive solutions. As an exploratory pedagogical process, it explores dystopian future scenarios, with the help of generative AI. In doing so, it confronts the students with inexhaustible possi- bilities and the amplification of image generation, with few constraints. However, it also confronts them with the unpredictability of the outcomes of AI tools. For instance, while AI models can help diminish biases and prejudices, they can also inversely enhance them. Simultaneously, while speculative scenarios stimulate crit- ical thinking around dominant narratives, revealing the possibilities of current trends, they challenge the conventional linearity between past, present and future. Keywords Speculative design · Generative AI · Theatre of the oppressed