SPECULATIVE DESIGN THROUGH CROSS-CULTURAL LENSES

Day01. Wednesday, July 07, 21:00-21:30 EDT

Living abroad means getting to know a brand new culture and seeing the world from a different point of view. This talk shares how cross-cultural perspectives can inform speculative design works, opening up new opportunities and conversations that can better connect people and cultures. Addressing the regional and global unseen issues, it aims to inspire and engage reflections as well as promote more desirable and inclusive future decisions.

Living abroad means getting to know a brand new culture and seeing the world from a different point of view. As dual-language speakers, who have been shaped by Chinese lifestyle and cultural norms, we opened another window to better understand the world when we moved to the US. As we constantly experience the merging and sometimes conflict between the cultures, we want to give back as well. Therefore, we wove our unique perspectives and cultural layers into our works, in order to open up new opportunities and conversations that can better connect cultures and people. In this talk, we'll share some cross-culture perspectives through speculative design works of our own and young professions in China. We will address regional and global unseen issues and opportunities, as well as pushing the boundary of current perception and mental model. We motivated by the Relevant, Responsible, and Reflective spirits and our works are not only aim to inspire and engage reflections, but also to promote more desirable and inclusive future decisions.

Shihan Zhang is an interdisciplinary designer whose passion lies in challenging cultural stereotypes and social preconceptions through building experiences of future-present intersections. Her work focuses on expanding technology possibilities and extrapolates world conditions to address anthropogenic challenges. Through a systematic and cultural lens, her works inspire conversation and empower her audience to reflect. Her works have been humbly recognized by FastCo. World Changing Ideas, WIRED Creative Hack Award (Japan), International Design Excellence Awards, 100 Design of the Year 2019 by Award360 (Asian), and etc. She also gave talks and exhibited works worldwide in Dutch Design Week, IFTF 10 Year Forecast Summit, Stanford Foodinno Conference, Toronto Design Week, and etc. She co-founded alterR.studio and currently exploring Non-human Centered Thinking, and also a member at NEW INC under Creative Science track in New Museum (NYC), Supported by Science Sandbox.

Qinqin Yang is an interdisciplinary designer and artist with a mixed background in interaction design, speculative design, and creative technology. Most of her work is research-based, in between reality and fiction. She holds several patents for innovative designs and is skilled at building proof-of-concept with mixed media. Dedicated to making something fun, she is a self-motivated designer interested in imagining possible worlds and creating novel storytelling. She takes design as a tool and method to question the cultural, social, and ethical implications of emerging technologies in order to envision the future and reflect on impact at the system level. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons the New School of Design and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Art History from the University of California - Los Angeles. Currently, she is incubating alterR.studio at NEW INC under Creative Science Track and she is also a senior creative planner of new media design agency OUTPUT.