“Speculative Everything”: Introductory Course in Futures Studies & Speculative Design
Dr. Aude Florence Bertrand-Höttcke
"Futures studies is the field of researching, crafting and instrumentalizing visions of possible futures based on specific methods, models and theories." (Julienne DeVita, Parsons School of Design at New School NY)
While speculative methods are rooted both in philosophy and the arts, it is much more recently that they made an entry in the field of design, especially with the acclaimed essay "Speculative Design: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming" (originally published 2013).
"Speculative Design" is a valuable resource as it allows for critical thinking while unleashing the transformative potential of imagination. While this new discipline should not be mistaken for a substitute to philosophy and critical studies, it helps turn thought experiments into something graspable and actionable (be it an object, situation, embodied performance, or social prototype).
Why take this course, apart from the fact that it can be quite fun? Futures Literacy has been recognised as one of the most important capabilities by UNESCO. Indeed, it is already being used in a variety of branches and professions (e.g. NGOs, think & do tanks, academia, entrepreneurship, strategic and crisis management, to name a few).
And the great thing is you don't have to be a trained designer to learn how to use speculative design methods.
This course helps students jumpstart in the field and practice of speculative design through:
a quick introduction on futures studies as an emerging field (both academic and practical) and on topics such as critical studies, futurology and sci-fi studies, speculative design, systemic/critical design and design fiction;
an emphasis on design futures, which is "a subset of approaches combining design and futures studies" (DeVita);
action learning via case studies with the use of design capacities such as mapping and sketching/visualization tools (signals sensing, futures bazaar, STEEP modelling…) to sketch immersive and experiential design fictions.
Dr. Aude Florence Bertrand-Höttcke
Aude Bertrand-Höttcke worked as a consultant for international organisations and in the field of contemporary arts before completing a PhD in cultural studies at Witten/Herdecke university.
Since 2023 she has been a faculty member at WittenLab.
Her areas of interest revolve around normative changes in contemporary urban cultures, which she likes to investigate through collaborative & immersive action research / action learning projects.
Since 2025 Aude has been a member at the network for critical futures studies and the plurality university network 'U+', with whom she has recently been co-designing a new series of futures workshops.
She has a training in design futures at Parsons School of Design.
Her study on artistic interventions in public space was published in 2025 (in German) at Kulturverlag Kadmos Berlin, with a grant by the Foundation for the Humanities 'Geschwister Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung für Geisteswissenschaften'.
www.kulturverlag-kadmos.de/programm/details/gesellschaft_leisten
Ziele & Kompetenzen
By the successful completion of this course, students will:
Become familiar with grounding principles of futures studies and design futures.
Develop an understanding of futures as related to pluralistic and systemic thinking in a complex world.
Get acquainted with techniques for identifying, researching and critiquing signals of change — or "weak signals".
Apply design futures methods and approaches to concrete topics through case studies.
Experience using methods and frameworks for forecasting hypothetical conditions.