This render activity proposes an exercise based on the approach of design fiction and speculative design. Within the resources of Design Futures Lexicon, there are the strange and inspiring Surprising Futures Design Words. Each of these terms is “deliberately alternative, and more than a mouthful, in that it offers unexpected, surprising and possibly deflecting and disruptive words”. In sort of call-to-design, this render is an invitation to illustrate, prototype, tell the futures implied by these terms. In short, you are invited to create (design) fictions that speculate on this word and tell about its related world, according to your imagination.

Rendering Surprising Futures Design Words, in a few steps:

1. Browse the Surprising Futures Design Words list (words only or with definition).
2. Pick one or two words you like.
3. Imagine what this term could actually look like, what it could do, how it could shape our society or be shaped by society tomorrow.
4. Write a fiction, or produce a design fiction scenario (with its speculative product, space, service, ritual, etc) showing a glimpse of the future in which this term has become a reality.
5. Reflect on your design process: what were the intriguing ideas or methodologies having appeared during the activity? To which extent the future you designed might be preferable? For whom? How could we foster its emergence or, on the contrary, try to avoid it from happenning?

Looking for inspiration? Here’s a short fiction on Catavaulting!
If you wish, feel free to share your scenario as a RENDER of the Design Futures Lexicon. Go to the Design Futures Lexicon Renders contribution section to find out how to contribute by sharing your work.

A short fiction on “Catavaulting”

“Catavaulting
The activity of process or result of having thrown forward or propelled an idea, artifact or process into a secure repository, archive or deep hiding place.”

In 2027, the content security firm Voight&Co has become quite an example of successful digital shift. With an age-old experience in designing secured vault and unpickable locks, the company has put all of its expertise to build the very first “smart vault”: the C-Vault. Based on a proprietary “Catavaulting” technology, this product from Voight&Co offers a secured – and securitarian according to some – vault for futures imaginaries.

Voight&Co has imagined a new innovative product disrupting a well-known phenomenon: reports gathering dust on a shelf. The Voight&Co solution helps decision makers and leaders in making sure undesirable visions for the futures of their organisations are duly forgotten, cancelled, or at least not available to inspire stakeholders. Designed by impenetrable vault engineers, the C-Vault locks down all the reports and work that are shaking the status quo or seen as too challenging for the organisation.
The promise is quite simple: the Catavaulting technology helps you send emerging catastrophes directly into a vault of which you only have the key. In doing so, decision makers and leaders are able to deploy an efficient future escapism strategy by not having to deal with emerging implications of present applications.

The C-Vault also embeds additional innovations to keep an eye on those futures placed under lockdown. Each product is equipped with the “Imaginaries Crawler” feature, an artificial intelligence-driven monitoring system. As an owner of a C-Vault, the “Imaginaries Crawler” assistant will notify you when it detects weak signals suggesting a locked-down future vision could resurface, or worst, happen. To do so, this technology scans internal reports and activities from an organisation, crossing these inputs with megatrends analysis, to identify the possible resurgence of a future vision that has been previously and safely added to the smart vault. C-Vault clients can then decide and take decisions to lock new futures imaginaries and visions back in their vault.

Nevertheless, Voight&Co is well aware of its influence on the course of History. This is why, in parallel to offering the controversial C-Vault, the company has been developing its Corporate Social Responsibility. Understanding societal concerns, Voight&Co has repurposed its “smart vault” technologies for an open initiative. Called “The Reserve of Endangered Imaginaries”, this programme relies on the very same technology as the C-Vault, but it allows anyone to add a vision or imaginary of the future to a common secured vault. When conditions and contexts are leading to the appearance of ones of these preserved futures, all the members programme are notified of this possible awakening and are then invited to act according to their beliefs, in order to accelerate or to cancel the appearance of this future.