Tropical Futures Institute

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Soft Robotic Exosuit from Wyss Institute on Vimeo.

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On Speculative Design

“Speculative Design (SD) understands itself as progressive alternative perspective to mainstream Design culture (and as an alternative to other alternatives as well).1 It knows that “Design” is not some magic way of thinking (involving stick-up notes, sharpies and colored beanbags) that just makes things better by “building trust,” “understanding the customer” or “getting a seat at the table” or similar. Design is also the means by which pathological relationships to material culture are made more efficient and more delightful, and we are worse for it. Some may even conclude that the job of Design in the 21st century is to undo (much of) the Design of 20th. It may also be to re-claim and re-launch other frustrated Modern impulses that were dry-docked by century’s end, not only designing things —widgets, withdrawn objects, manifest subjectivities, formal forms, etc.— but also designing the relations between them: systems, supply-chains, encounters, obligations, accounting protocols, and so on.” - Benjamin Bratton http://dismagazine.com/discussion/81971/on-speculative-design-benjamin-h-bratton/

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First TFI Post!

Hey what’s up!

Welcome to the blog, we’re documenting our journey. 

The next couple post will be coming from our second resident at TFI, Ronyel Compra, an artist based in Cebu, Philippines.