Join world-renowned British duo Anthony Dune & Fiona Raby as they bring their ground-breaking perspective on contemporary design to Melbourne Design Week. Designers Dunne & Raby are well known for drawing attention to the concept of “speculative design” which proposes a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. Join the duo as they introduce Australia to their latest design project Not Here, Not Now in which they explore fictional objects for an alternative world.
“As designers, when we design for the ‘not here, not now’ our work is by default, relocated to a ‘future’. Particularly if technology is involved. But futures are just one way of framing the not here and not now. And not always the most helpful for the kind of work we do. In contrast to futurology, future studies, and foresight which all attempt to mitigate risk in the face of uncertainty, or to identify preferred futures, the not here, not now is a place for thought experiments that explore alternative values and worldviews made concrete through the design of everyday things. A place to explore different ways of being in the world and how things could be otherwise. Not as prescription, but as prompt.” – Dunne & Raby
Participants
Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby are partners in the design studio Dunne & Raby. They are also University Professors of Design and Social Inquiry, and Co-Directors of the Designed Realities Studio at The New School/Parsons in New York. Their books include Hertzian Tales (1998, 2006), Design Noir (2000,2021), and Speculative Everything (2013) and their design projects are in several permanent collections including MoMA in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the MAK in Vienna. In 2021, Fiona and Anthony were made Royal Designers for Industry (RDI) and Life fellows of the Royal Society of Arts (UK). In 2015, Dunne & Raby received the inaugural MIT Media Lab Award (US), and in 2009, Anthony was awarded the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education (UK).