by Khin Khin
I found this reading to be very interesting and I strongly agree with what they had to say. I think it’s important for us, not only for designers, to think of new ideas. What we’ve been doing for so long is using the already existing ideas and taking them further but that shouldn't be the only way. I think as the reading says, it’s essential for us to start dreaming and keep dreaming of different futures and not be so caught up with keeping things realistic all the time. It’s true that we’ve been hopeful for our futures, we HOPE something will come to save us, we HOPE everyone and everything we love will continue to survive but we can’t continue to live that way. This part of the reading reminded me of a text I read in high school which also discussed how we as individual humans but also as a society need to start acting and saving ourselves from our own mistakes rather than waiting and hoping for some holy spirit to come to save us. Realistically, that’s not going to happen anytime soon and if we don’t act on solving the problems we have now, they’re only going to worsen the longer we wait.
I also liked the part about conceptual design, even though they might not be practical, it is still important to have these absurd and abstract ideas. Thinking outside the box has always been something that has been encouraged ever since I started school and there is no reason to stop yourself from imagining things. When I brainstorm project ideas, my first thought isn’t something that’s practical. I usually force myself to make it impractical, it’s not always about creating something that will bring you the most revenue or something that will be popular but it’s about the process of creating something, and the motive behind it. So, I think the ideas discussed in these two chapters are really valuable for designers but also for everyone in society because we want to collectively create a future where we can all flourish.
