PROTOTYP

Artefacts not only refer to a present. Possible futures are also inscribed in them. They can, for example, express expectations of future salvation, technological feasibility, economic prosperity, sustainable practice or aesthetic innovation. In view of these diverse and sometimes contradictory expectations of the future, it seems extremely promising to follow the traces of the possible in their material concretisation. The study of prototypes offers a particularly attractive approach to this materially inscribed and performative futurity. In prototypes, designers, artists and engineers give material form to a possible future. Prototypes are inherently unfinished artefacts that represent expected possibilities as tangible realities. Prototypes are thus temporally paradoxical: they represent an object to be realised in the future, with which they themselves, as a presently existing object, are not identical. How can this paradox be realised in practice? How can future materiality be communicated through present materiality? How are futures inscribed and read in objects? What are the specific communicative achievements of prototypes that go beyond a textual or pictorial mediation of the future? In short: How do prototypes communicate the future?

This is what the joint project aims to investigate, taking up the central idea of the call for proposals: We want to decipher prototypical objects as active communication media in their own right. In addition to scientific utilisation, the results of the project will be incorporated into an exhibition at the Deutsches Museum Nuremberg, which will make prototypical designs visible and build bridges between past and present futures.

As part of the project, prototypes will be created, presented and discussed as Critical Design artefacts in a "research through design" process and evaluated with regard to their communicative and inspiring effect for specific target groups, e.g. as triggers for changes in behaviour and attitudes or individual solutions to problems. The focus on critical design prototypes ties in with the current discourse in design research, which postulates a stronger social responsibility of design disciplines and practices with regard to ethical aspects, "hidden agendas" and technological consequences in general and considers "critical" prototypes as the communication tool of choice for discourse with consumers, citizens, politics and business. However, methodological studies on the design process of this specific class of prototypes, both in terms of the creative process and the impact analysis in the confrontation with recipients, are still lacking.

Further information https://idl.fh-potsdam.de/de/projects/prototyp/