Here’s a glimpse of what might be a printable version of the same (still in development, just like this page):
What is there is?
What is that isn’t?
What if you can see it?
What if you can’t unsee it?
While vague in existence and even vague-r in its setting, life is complicated, every single version of it. The least we could try to, is perhaps, try to comprehend it, one way or another. This quote above resonates with me on multiple levels:
it defines who I am, what I stand for, and hopefully, a basis to continue to build upon, the why in all these commotions, the how for me to be able to define a “change” or at least, try to observe one in this emergent future while dealing with various alternate present(s). Through the medium of this pictorial, I implore you to take a deep dive into what I see, what I wish i would see, and all the “what if(s)” bundled into what could be. The pictorial is two sided, as most things are in life, which, effectively kickstarted this whole journey, but it isn’t all yin and yang, for I live in the liminal grey; it can be better depicted as:
This is 1 (one-point perspective) way to read the pictorial
The research is based on the idea of the Dichotomy of Life. It’s about emphasizing the need to understand what surrounds us, and what could possibly surround us. It’s about uncovering the artefacts from a liminal future (that exist and don’t) based on the fundamental belief that there is always more than what meets the eye. The research aims to tackle and comprehend the future-past continuities that bind us in ways that are not simple but spark the thought of an alternate life in things, people, and everything that surrounds in this symbiotic relationship we share through the hidden narratives we tend to overlook
Taking cues from the mundane, everyday life that surrounds us, the context lies in the context there is and what it could be i.e. taking the simple things in life and breathing in them a new one, a new story, a new beginning, a second life to enter an alternate beginning. The key part of the narrative is the story-binding thread the weaves the yarn around anything and everything, for everything is connected, as all ideas stem from a liminal consciousness that breathes within.
So far and so forth, I have been working on building various ideas and how to bring them to life, starting with Steve: your friendly neighborhood stove (which we can discuss about in-depth in the latter chapters) during the Machine paradox seminar which led to different Self explorations (in the Living with your own ideas seminar), from drafting a Universal translator to the foot-shifter, the core idea was to see through the mundane and add a definitive layer of distinct. One of the later interventions, a -culmination of sorts- intervention, was to explore the possibility of art and human, being together to create and cultivate a new relationship that could be further developed to holographically project and used as a prosthesis (refer design dialogues). The goal has always been to narratively weave and cultivate dialogues that spark a conversation.
Visual Storytelling has been one of the key findings/learnings in the sense that how media v/s medium work together to build a narrative and integrating the human aspect helps provide the stimulus that shapes the story to become relatable, therefore, make-able.
I think one of the key spaces would be to look at people/practices that have been doing this liminal-ly and understanding the practical side of things and the whats’ and whys’ of where to implement. It’s about find the space, literally, and improving on ideas, based off a second life to maybe provide an alternate ending born out of intro-retro-pro-spective actions that reflect a new beginning (of sorts).
We are all intertwined and interconnected in this symbiotic relationship that we share with each other. From me to you, to my feet to the floor, to your emotions to my visual story, everything that has an action has to have a reaction and therefore, a connection.
This is a 3 (third-point perspective) way to read the pictorial
The research aims to develop an understanding of transition design and combining the same with the ideas that are relevant to the cohorts of design fiction and speculative design to reach conclusive systematic interventions that are better visualized than “processed.” The trans-fiction theory (the name is in transition) aims to locate the various personas or identities that we witness across things, people, and fictions of our own reality and try and comprehend them in a version of reality that is, accessible. While I understand these big words may seem daunting, they seem the same way to the person in 1PP as well, but that’s the challenge, to simplify, as much as possible.
Research. The core of the context, lies in the systems that have been in place since the theory of transition design has been floated around. The context of the research might not necessarily lie there, but it is for sure, a starting point, for now. The whole idea involves around proposing an alternate version of what is currently perceivable via using the methods developed or to be developed to be able to propose interventions.
While each path and project come up with its own share of briefs and debriefs, which will be taken for a deep dive in the latter chapters where the implementation, selection and the basis of doing, whatever was done, came to be. For now though, let’s establish one of the core processes that has been a key component in defining and trying to form around the project(s) that have been. The process so far has largely been implementing the basis of design fiction but bringing it to life through a speculative lens that has been hopes to form a wheel of an automobile called transition for which the blueprints need to be developed still. The investigations, in the form of interventions help develop the systems in entanglement and understand them from closer POV to develop and establish a framework that may help set up future realities that may be.
ASKING QUESTIONS! It might seem difficult or annoying at first, but it’s important to question things and the reasons they exist, and what more could they be, not only as the designer, but as the design, and the person/thing/whatever, the design is intended for as well.
Understanding the ins and outs of the system(s) that I’m trying to combine together. The key thing about transition design is its strong footing in academia but the resilience to take a practical shape while speculative and design fiction are massive outliers that help understand but rarely define what may actually be present in reality. Therefore, the space between the BIG words is actually where the improvement might be headed towards.
Transition design allows for systematic changes to help distill a moonshot solution(s) into developable point-for-point interventions shall be connected to a reality or two, in the form of a speculative future, born from design fiction.