to serve different purposes, particularly in searching the space of actual possibility. Design, in this context, is framed as a process of designation.
The chapter also explores the intersection between Speculative Design and the prevalent use of models in various fields such as risk patterns, ideal options, and plotted outcomes. It contends that speculative models are prescriptive rather than adaptive, emphasizing their role in normative scenarios rather than descriptive ones. The distinction between predictive and prescriptive models is presented as crucial for understanding the uses of contingency, imminence, simulation, navigation, resistance, governmentality, universality, and neutrality in design.
As the text unfolds, the chapter concludes with a call to challenge conventional perspectives on futurism and scale. It questions the alignment between Speculative Design and Design Futures, suggesting that a more intellectually and politically rigorous approach is needed. The idea of focusing on immediate, at-hand frames of spatial and temporal reference is proposed, encouraging a shift in attention from local social history's mooring privilege. The ultimate goal, as highlighted, is to mobilize Speculative Design on behalf of conditions that do not yet exist in the present, shedding the limitations of local social history and returning attention to contemporary materialism as the point of origin for design