VIS 133A Specualtive Design Studio: Oceanic Futures Spring 2023
UC San Diego
The field of speculative design emphasizes critical practices and interventions that are based in fabulation and exploration of alternate futures and realities. In VIS 133A (Sp 23), we will follow this trajectory into the sea, where “the field” and associated methods are unmoored from terrestrial realities and challenged by liquid phenomena. Students in the course will engage with the ongoing turn of contemporary art and design toward the ocean, and question how these trends relate to the spectre of anthropogenic climate change. Against a backdrop of rising sea levels, melting polar ice caps, loss of marine biodiversity, ocean acidification, etc., what insights and impacts can speculative design offer in (re)imagining the perils and promises of oceanic futures?
"Topic" comes from the Greek topos, meaning place. We tend to think of "place" as a fixed location, typically on land. This speculative design "special topics" course focuses on design relating to a "place" that is unfixed and fluid: the Earth's ocean. We will consider the ocean and other fluid environmental systems in ways that complicate the association of place with land, property, and fixed locations. We will explore the place(s) of critical and speculative design in fluid environments, focusing specifically on ocean systems and maritime social practices. The course will move away from traditional boundaries of studio and classroom and into San Diego’s coastal ecosystems, deep sea environments, labs where marine life is scrutinized, studied, and even designed, oceanographic archives, and centers and edges of traditional and Indigenous maritime craft.
Participation in this course will involve several site visits and field trips, both on and off main campus. The instructor anticipates that a significant number of weekly meetings will take place away from the assigned classroom space. In addition to completing weekly readings and a mid-quarter project development presentation, students will create an original ocean design research project, consisting of both written and visual elements. VIS 133A has prerequisites (VIS 30 and/or VIS 41), however exceptions may be made for students who wish to enroll and are already engaged in marine and environmental science majors, environmental humanities, marine engineering, archaeology, anthropology, and related fields.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes:
Develop critical design research practice, vocabulary, and skillset.
Conduct critical design research in the context of laboratories, archives, and non-terrestrial and fluid environments.
Identify and evaluate connections between speculative design and oceanographic research.
Demonstrate knowledge of an ongoing “oceanic turn” in the fields of visual art and design
Student work samples:
He Xuanru, Catherine Tang
Yuto AyabeHe Xuanru, Catherine TangEvelyn ChenStephen De La Pena