Many people are fondly nostalgic about the technologies of their pasts, but what happens when we shift from nostalgia (longing for the past) to neostalgia (longing for what could have been)? What can we learn and create—especially while working towards equitable futures?
In this hands-on, speculative design workshop, participants will first reflect on their early experiences with technology through a visualization exercise. They will be encouraged to interrogate the social values—both beneficial and harmful—that exist within personally formative computing technologies.
Next, participants will brainstorm alternate-reality computing artifacts from a personal, healing lens, that instead embody values they wish they could have seen—both socially and technologically.
After sketching or free-writing about their speculative artifact, participants will opt-in to share them within small breakout groups, mentioning what experiences and values inspired them. Finally, the group will return for a reflective discussion.
My goal in this session is to provide a playful, participatory space for participants to think about systemic issues in technology (and how they manifest in its design, creation, and implementation) on a hyper-personal level. My intent in using this hyper-personal lens of nostalgia and healing is to provide a tangible, personally-grounded entryway for participants to reflect on technology and imagine alternatives.
For me, facilitating this workshop aligns with my goals as an artist. I have been exploring a practice that involves reimagining computing systems from my own personal lens (see https://jackieis.online/projects/jackiesos). I am especially interested in disseminating a similar prompt through educational formats, as I believe those formats can be effective ways to increase critical participation in technology and work towards cultural change.
How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?:In the first half, when reflecting on their past experiences through guided reflections, the participants will share their reflections with the group via the Zoom chat. I don’t anticipate that this will be affected by the size of the session, although if the number of participants is small enough we can adapt this to a speaking format.
The second half of the session will involve a guided design session, facilitated by me. After participants are done designing, they will be assigned to breakout rooms of around 4 people. Again, if the number of participants is small, this may work as a main group discussion.
After breakout rooms, participants will come back for a group discussion. For a large audience, I will invite participants to share in the chat and/or speak on video by typing “hand” in the chat.
We're hoping that many efforts and discussions will continue after Mozfest. Share any ideas you already have for how to continue the work from your session.:I am currently developing a longer-form version of this workshop as a multi-session class, independent from Mozfest. I hope to capture the results of that longer class, as well as this shorter Mozfest session, in a dedicated website where people can share their artifacts alongside the values they considered while designing them.
To help create this documentation, I will invite participants to email me a picture or summary of their speculative artifact at the end of my session.
Jackie Liu is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and programmer. Her work combines speculative design, web programming, and education with a deeply personal voice, to make playful interventions in computing culture.