What is Design Fiction?
Design fiction is about merging fictional literary practices and speculative artistic craftmanship in order to engage in critical ways of future making in design.

A SEMINAR ON DESIGN FICTION
The social design unit has previously worked with Danish authors Kaspar Colling Nielsen and Peter Adolphsen with the aim at exploring new ground conditions for design. Colling Nielsen’s dystopian vision of a Danish civil war (2018-2025) has been our starting point for a design-based inquiry into the as yet unknown socio-cultural consequences of the financial and economic crises; and Adolphsen’s speculations of a pandemic wrinkle fucking disease set stage in 2016 for a collective design and theatre performance.
Researchers
Eva Knutz, Thomas Markussen, Tau Ulv Lenskjold Department of Design & Communication, University of Southern Denmark
Collaborators
Peter Adolphsen, Kasper Colling Nielsen, Mark Blythe, Andrew Morrison, Per Krogh Hansen, Mette Gislev Kjærsgaard
Funded by
Budget
300.000 Kr.
Project time
May 2016
PUBLICATIONS
Design Fiction as a Practice for Researching the Social
Markussen, T., Knutz, E., & Lenskjold, T. (2020). Temes de Disseny, (36), 16-39
Probing the Future of Participatory Healthcare through Speculative Design
Knutz, E., Markussen, T., & aus der Wieschen, M. V. (2020, July). In 6th European Design4Health conference (pp. 73-82). Sheffield Hallam University
Fiction as a resource in participatory design
Knutz, E., Lenskjold, T. U., & Markussen, T. (2016). In Proceedings of DRS 2016 International Conference: Future–Focused Thinking (pp. 1830-1844). Design Research Society
The role of fiction in experiments within design, art & architecture-towards a new typology of design fiction
Knutz, E., & Markussen, T. (2014). Artifact: Journal of Design Practice, 3(2), 8-1
The Poetics of Design Fiction
Markussen, T., & Knutz, E. (2013, September). In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Designing Pleasurable Products and Interfaces (pp. 231-240)
Fictional emotions within Emotion driven Design
Knutz, E. (2012). Published in proceedings of 7th International conference on Design & Semantics of Form & Movement, Wellington, New Zealand, 2012
PUBLICATIONS
The Role of Fiction in Experiments within Design, Art & Architecture: towards a new typology of Design Fiction
Knutz, E., Markussen, T. & Christensen, P. R.(2013)Artifact, vol.3, Issue 2, pp.2.1-2.13
The Poetics of Design Fiction
Markussen, T. & Knutz, E. (2013) In Proc. of the DPPI Conference, ACM Press.