Proposal Transcript: 

At the root of this design proposal, lies this idea of 'speculative design'. The design I bring forward today has little to no practical use in the world we live in today, but does bring a question to the audience's mind: what type of world would we be in if it was?

So, what potential future gives this proposal it’s context? I would like you to put yourself into the shoes of someone living 50 years from now. The post-pandemic world has collapsed in the wake of an environmental crisis and we witness as society begins to respond with masked diversions. While politically, the system structure is very much the same, it is corrupt and chaotic (even more so than what it is now. World population is forecasted to be nearly 10 billion by the year 2050 (Hincks, 2018) which, reasonably so, has had a large effect on the world’s resources. While technology’s capabilities continue to grow, it’s this issue of masked diversions which seems to make people wonder if we are progressing at all. The environment around us is dying more and more every day, and with a sense of lost hope, people are beginning to accommodate for that change, rather than advocate to fix it. In this world, we’ve created the biggest disconnect between humans and the environment history has ever seen.

I’d like to continue by introducing Sabrina and for this proposal, she acts as my

hypothetical granddaughter. This is her reality. She wakes up with dread for

the day ahead, going to University under a scholarship, her commute is long and

stressful. Through the city she is suffocated by polluted air, coughing her way

to each class while she watches in envy as the obviously richer go about their

day. In this society, air pollution levels in different areas hold power as the main effect on housing pricing, meaning the richer are able to buy into a better quality of life. Sabrina is scared, helpless and tired of the life she is living. Diving into this world was what inspired by initial sketches, mainly focusing on artefacts that

would benefit towards her environment, seeing as this was clearly a main focus in her daily stresses.

After much exploration into the different responses I could have to this dystopian world and what I could possibly implement to help someone like Sabrina’s way of life, I was led to my final concept. This concept came forward in the form of an oxygen vape. This catered towards this world where environmental issues are being responded to with ‘masked diversions’ and would give the user oxygen in the purest form. A vape is an electronic cigarette that takes a liquid and heats it to a vapor which the user can inhale – in current society, the liquid often contains nicotine (TeensHealth, 2019). Of all three finalised designs, this held the most strength in terms of being speculative as it triggers the audience’s thoughts on air pollution. It also holds a lot of irony when compared to how vapes are currently perceived in society.

The product would be incorporated into Sabrina’s life on a daily basis, and most likely improve her interactions and everyday activities but also hold its own negative effects. Environmentally, it is not actually solving the issue, rather accommodating for it. If anything, companies that produce this product would have biases towards not fixing air pollution, because without said air pollution, they stop making money. On top of that, the disposable nature of the product introduces (most likely plastic) a new stress on landfills – in quite a dramatic way if the product were to be successful and used often by a lot of people. Current vapes are often considered a biohazardous waste because of the heavy metal, battery and nicotine residue and are often not disposed of properly (Healthy UC DAVIS, 2020). This combined with the 41 million people that currently vape, the levels of waste vapes cause currently is astronomical. Keep in mind, in the current context, we’re talking about a harmful (though addictive) substance that is not needed to better their health (Jones, 2019). It’s difficult to imagine the number and waste levels on a vape which is necessary for breathing healthy air.

To further develop, this design was prototyped, with an established logo, to be photographed and tested with an audience. The practical elements of a vape wasn't really the focus in my testing, more the audience’s response to the idea in general. To get a basic idea of how the everyday person would react to the idea, I sent out a survey to about 15 people, with a range of age groups to implements diverse and well-rounded results. Generally, the audience considered air pollution and consumerism to be an issue and thought the proposed product was a possibility within the future. In saying this, the main concerns were around the environmental impacts, the health effects of pure oxygen, the lack of onus on the root cause, it being profit driven and the representation, having a bad influence on those who are uneducated about it. While some participants received it well, there is clearly issues around the balance in benefits and disadvantages of a product like this going onto the market.

The responses to the survey give evidence to my design holding relevance as a speculative design, and showed that an audience do have an awareness over the possible future this product could hold a place in.

The context of the oxygen vape as well as the thoughts and themes it brings forward, relate back heavily to the content brought forward in the design manifesto. The manifesto had a serious emphasis on the effect consumerism on the environment and moving away from that. This design hits that point not only in the way it makes the audience speculate but also in the way it itself would negatively interact with the environment.

Craswell, P. (2020). What is Speculative Design. The Design Writer. https://thedesignwriter.com.au/what-is-speculative-design/

Healthy UC DAVIS. (2020). Environmental Impacts of Vaping. Healthy UC DAVIS. https://healthy.ucdavis.edu/smoke-tobacco-free/vaping-campaign/environmental

Hincks, J. (2018). The World is Headed for a Food Security Crisis. Here’s How We Can Avert It. Time. https://time.com/5216532/global-food-security-richard-deverell/

Jones, L. (2019). Vaping: How Popular Are E-Cigarettes?. BCC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44295336

TeensHealth. (2019). Vaping: What You Need to Know. TeensHealth from Nemours. https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/e-cigarettes.html