Speculative Design Final Presentations

VIS 190 Thesis Studio

June 11, 2021

1:00 - 4:00 p.m. PDT
Teddy Cruz Studio
Speculative Design for Solidarity

4:00 - 5:30 p.m. PDT
Ricardo Dominguez Studio
XENO-City

YouTube Stream: https://youtu.be/t_KhldxbiS8

Tzinti Aguirre-Medina • Kristyn Aquino • Mia Chiang • Dana Chou • Sabrina Chuang • Sofia Francisco • Lola Gonzales • Bryce Grubbs • Tanish Jindal • Xochilt Khoury • Megan Lamb • Grace Murphy • Justin Padilla • Ivy Penn • Alicia Tam • Kenny Tran • Roy Velasquez • Cindy Vergara • Geraldine Wambersie

The role of designers in imagining alternative futures for a world in crisis has never been more important. Speculative Design is an artistic approach that emphasizes new ideas and solutions for the present that involve thinking through the future, putting design questions like “what if?” and “for whom?” ahead of market and industry imperatives. The Speculative Design Major prepares students for creative arts-based design practices fueled by critical speculative thinking and consideration of people, beings, and ideas usually marginalized by design. Situated in a visual arts department, we engage in research-based art practice, interdisciplinary writing, and design for social change. The major bridges computing in the arts, film and photography, digital media, studio art, public culture and community-based practice, and history, criticism, and theory. We encourage students to engage in the transformation of communities, ecologies, technology, and geopolitics through design. Debate about design values, possibilities, and outcomes is encouraged in a curriculum that offers a mix of studio, laboratory, lecture, and seminar classes. Each student in the major builds a portfolio that reflects aesthetic, social, and critical design thinking. Through project-based learning, we prepare aspiring design artists, graphic designers, urban designers, and design critics and scholars to imagine possible futures for our diverse and more than human world.