Speculative Fiction and Digital Politics

This class explores the space where fiction, digital politics and regulation meet through the poetics of critical making. From classic works of science fiction and net art, to folk and conspiracy theories to contemporary tactical media and speculative design, students learn about futurist discourses and practices around technologies old and new. We tie these tropes with specific digital policy and ethics issues as a means to approach an ethically reflexive design of new technologies. We practice becoming critical makers through exploring contemporary digital interfaces as spaces of engaged writing and creative inquiry through hands-on exercises. How can fiction help us better understand today’s complex technical infrastructure and inspire ways of being other than our current condition, creating alternate realities towards better futures?