Science fiction author Bruce Sterling wrote an essay for
Domus Magazine on Unfold's Kiosk project and the
cross-contamination between design and science fiction. The Kiosk
project itself was inspired by Sterling's earlier essay
Kiosk on "fabrication technology, rampant computerized
copying, and piracy machines escaping organized
control".
Science fiction author Bruce Sterling wrote an essay for
Domus Magazine on Unfold's Kiosk project and the
cross-contamination between design and science fiction. The Kiosk
project itself was inspired by Sterling's earlier essay
Kiosk on "fabrication technology, rampant computerized
copying, and piracy machines escaping organized
control".
"...That’s the basic problem with science
fiction—it’s burdened by the page- turning requirements
of “fiction.” My story called “Kiosk”
concerns fabrication technology, rampant computerized copying, and
piracy machines escaping organized control. However, since
it’s fiction, it centers on the tough but soft- hearted
Slavic guy who runs the Kiosk. He’s the hero, he’s the
reason the reader cares. The Kiosk he owns has the reduced status
of a Hitchcock McGun.
Now, in “design fiction,” one doesn’t
face that problem. The Unfold group briskly pirated this sci-fi
notion of mine. They didn’t ask my permission to borrow a
sci-fi idea, and really, whyever should they bother? Heaven knows I
never do!
So Unfold cleverly mocked-up a Kiosk, and this device
became the star of their Milanese street operation. It’s like
a street-puppet at a protest.
Unlike my story, Unfold’s “Kiosk” needs
no hero. The device itself becomes the center of the action. The
gizmo is just there, as a helpful cultural irritant.
The Unfold Kiosk is a design-fiction conversation-piece.
It’s what Julian Bleecker calls a “theory
object.” It’s a device around which commentary can
accumulate, without requiring the coherent, linear shape of some
fictional narrative. The Internet loves “theory
objects.” Since Unfold also included a working 3-D
scanner, there’s a propaganda-of- the-deed happening there.
Science fiction tales entirely lack those deeds..."
"...Then there’s that third aspect, the nature of
what our society does with technology in real life. That’s
the issue that underlies both my story and the Unfold
“Kiosk”, and it’s quite a dark matter. My story
speculates about that problem by personifying it and dramatizing
it. The Unfold Kiosk project is a design intervention, it’s
an effort to raise designer consciousness as part of a trade
show..."
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