Envisioning Post-Apocalyptic Futures: A Speculative Design Toolkit for Non-Designers

Abstract

This thesis discusses the applications of speculative design within a non-design context, examining the potential of speculative design as a medium in expressing postapocalyptic environmentalist visions of the future. This thesis primarily consists of literature reviews and analysis of environmental futures and current speculative and foresight methods to understand the current barriers post-apocalyptic environmentalists face when attempting to imagine their versions of the future as well as how speculative design and design foresight methods could address these barriers. Finally, this thesis concludes with a proposal for a toolkit that adapts methods from speculative design and design foresight to deconstruct speculative design as a practice used only by experts into a medium that non-designers can potentially practice their work through.