CO-CREATING FARMING FUTURES

Day02. Thursday July 8, 10:30 EDT

This talk explores speculative methods for developing future narratives about the use of emerging technologies for farming in Melghat, a region of approximately 300 villages in Maharashtra, India. This was the first time that a speculative design approach has been taken with NGOs and people in this region, and demonstrates how co-creation can be used for provocation, through the development of prototypes for alternative novel agricultural futures as an aid for creating actionable transition plans.

The talk will be about presenting my recent project which explores future narratives about the use of emerging technologies for farming in Melghat, a region comprising approximately three hundred villages in Maharashtra, western India. These narratives were intended as an aid to creating actionable transition plans with NGOs working in the region.

This is the first time that a speculative design approach has been taken with these NGOs and with the people in this region. The resulting outcomes of this project are speculative representations and prototypes of alternative novel agricultural futures. Futures that are intentionally located in the everyday, rather than as far-future extreme versions of technology that are often associated with speculative design in India. In this talk I also intend to show how the research through design process walked gently with people in the region.

We will present a series of speculative futures for emerging digital technologies that were developed in conversation. This project explored co-creation as a way of provocation. The workshop will be based on this principle.

Siddhi is a Product Designer who loves exploring the realms of Creativity, Generative Design Research and Participatory Futures. Though she has always incorporated Affirmative design in her work, she has recently started exploring the domain of Critical Design and aims to design for social good.