Power- Speculative Design
Artist Statement
The Arkive Library Booth is a speculative design product for the betterment of all economies. Our group, IRDC, was given the theme “power” and asked to design a product based on this theme. Inspiration for this booth struck when the class took a trip to Packard Library and we noticed the way that students only seemed to perk up when discussing the technological advances the library had undergone; advancements which made libraries more symbolic than practical. We all agreed that knowledge is a strong form of power and used that as the foundation for our product.
This product is essentially a library kiosk designed to make information easily accessible for people of all social classes. All available documents and materials are in a digital format and can be accessed by either downloading the file to your device or sitting in the booth and reviewing the documents on screen.
The Arkive provides private tutoring available via holographic instructors, in order to give those who may not be able to afford a better education a chance to instruct themselves for better jobs and opportunities. In turn, this would help to improve the quality of life. Ideally, the booths would be internationally connected to allow for a more well-rounded education and to promote international awareness.
These booths are meant to be purchased by the city, state, or government, just as a normal library would be, and will not be available for private purchase or sale. This is to prevent the information stored in the booths from being put on the internet for the information to be tampered with.
Name: Micah Anderson
Team: IRDC
Theme: Power
Response Paper
Briefly describe the theme and how it influenced the way your team approached the final
product (Speculative/product design).
Power was our theme, and we worked on the principle that knowledge is power. By
giving more people access to empirical knowledge, we decided that power was
distributed more evenly over the population, keeping injustice to a minimum.
Having a greater understand of your theme how do you think this will affect you as an
Artist/Designer and the way you will approach making in the future? How does this
impact the way you think about your viewer’s experience?
I think I will be more receptive to unconventional ideas about the interpretation of themes in the future. I will be able to produce a variety of things to appeal to a wider audience.
How was your collaborative experience? What would you change or not change about
this experience and why?
I think it could’ve been a lot better. My group was fairly difficult to get along with, and
though I’ll have to deal with that in the workplace, placating a group member who is
unwilling to accept new ideas versus her own was a majority of my focus for the project.