Speculative Design
Using design to explore possible futures and question how technology, culture and society might develop.
Lectures, readings and hands-on projects introduce speculative design as a form of inquiry. Students turn research and scenarios into prototypes, mock-ups and other artifacts that make imagined futures tangible and open them to discussion.
Selected student projects from Spring 2026 and Spring 2024. The original student descriptions below present fictional scenarios and design proposals as speculative coursework.
Course outline
A public outline based on the Spring 2026 syllabus.
Goals
- Use speculative design methods to investigate possible futures and alternatives.
- Build critical arguments and communicate complex ideas through design.
- Experiment with physical prototypes, 3D modeling and digital fabrication.
- Create and present artifacts that question assumptions about technology, culture and society.
Methods & making
Research & scenario building
Scan emerging signals, gather primary research and use design futures methods to develop scenarios.
Prototyping & fabrication
Move between rapid physical prototypes, 3D modeling, digital fabrication and prop making, testing and refining an artifact through successive iterations.
World building & documentation
Design artifacts from imagined realities, explain the worlds that need them, and communicate the proposals through photographs, illustrations, posters and presentations.
Project documentation: A scenario matrix, prototype iterations, process documentation, a story or functional illustration, physical artifacts and photographs.
Spring 2026
Speculative Design · Fordham University, Visual Arts Department
Community Engaged Learning partner: Cybernetics Library
MOLT: Mole-Oral Listening Translator
Student project by Grace Do · Spring 2026
Speculative scenario · original student text
In a near future where people regularly live with and marry AI robot companions, scientists have learned to decode animal speech—revealing that deceased humans reincarnate as underground naked mole rats. While the dead are still technically around, they live buried in colonies out of human reach.
Proposal · original student text
MOLT is a disposable face attachment designed for personal AI robots. Snapping on over the robot’s mouth and ears, it temporarily gives the machine the large teeth and auditory sensors of a naked mole rat so the animals will actually understand and trust it. A person uses MOLT to send their AI down to have a conversation with a reincarnated relative on their behalf. The device only works for 24 hours before it breaks down, offering families a brief, private window to process grief and say one final goodbye.
VERDIS
Student project by Nesra Mussa · Spring 2026
These process images document an earlier wall-mounted exploration; the final proposal evolved into a necklace.
Speculative scenario · original student text
A destructive plant fungus has wiped out traditional agriculture, leaving food scarce, while air pollution has grown so thick that toxicity has become its own kind of economic currency. In a world where everyday people cannot rely on broken supply chains, finding a reliable way to stay fed is an urgent daily challenge.
Proposal · original student text
VERDIS is a curved necklace worn across the collarbone and throat that grows a live colony of microalgae inside a mesh frame. Because it sits right next to the mouth, it captures the carbon dioxide the wearer breathes out, uses light to turn it into nutrients, and passes that nourishment straight through the skin. By creating a self-sustaining loop powered entirely by breathing, it allows a person to nourish themselves quietly using the polluted air around them.
Spring 2024
Speculative Design · Fordham University, Visual Arts Department
TURRITOPSIS
Student project by Siqi Weng · Spring 2024
Speculative scenario · original student text
The "immortal jellyfish" (Turritopsis dohrnii) is one of the only creatures capable of resetting its cells back to an early stage when stressed, aging, or damaged. As humans look for ways to cheat mortality and live forever, biology offers a blueprint outside conventional medicine.
Proposal · original student text
TURRITOPSIS is a wearable silicone-and-membrane interface that wraps around the wrist, hand, and forearm like living ocean tissue. Fitted with light-up cores, translucent gel layers, and tentacle-like tubes, the piece explores what it would feel like to physically fuse human skin with jellyfish biology. It acts as a bridge between two species, asking how human life and identity might change if we could reset our bodies instead of growing old.
AQUA WALKER
Student project by Shamia Rahman · Spring 2024
Speculative scenario · original student text
Rising sea levels and extreme storms are causing frequent street-level flooding in coastal cities like New York. With municipal drainage systems failing to keep water at bay, city dwellers need everyday tools to stay mobile when streets turn into waterways.
Proposal · original student text
Aqua Walker is a set of buoyant shoe platforms 3D-printed from recycled ocean plastic that snap directly onto regular footwear. Instead of relying on boats or wading through dirty runoff, the user can walk straight on top of the water's surface. It reframes plastic waste and flooding from insurmountable crises into practical, accessible tools for urban survival.