Mission & Vision

Our Mission

Relatronica exists to explore the complex relationships between emerging technologies, social systems, and human experiences through speculative design. We create provocative artifacts, scenarios, and experiences that challenge assumptions about possible futures, stimulating critical dialogue about the trajectories we collectively shape.

As a studio, we operate at the intersection of design, technology, and futures thinking—crafting speculative scenarios that illuminate potential consequences of current trends and decisions. Our work serves as a catalyst for meaningful conversations about which futures we want to create and which we wish to avoid.

Our Vision

We envision a world where speculative design becomes an essential tool for navigating complexity and uncertainty. Where the exploration of alternative futures informs more thoughtful, ethical, and inclusive decision-making in technology development, policy creation, and social innovation.

Relatronica strives to be a leading voice in expanding the boundaries of design practice—moving beyond problem-solving to problem-finding, beyond immediate constraints to long-term implications, and beyond singular solutions to multiple possibilities.

Our Philosophy

Critical Inquiry

We question assumptions embedded in technological and social systems, examining how they shape our understanding of what's possible.

Pluralistic Futures

We reject deterministic narratives about the future, instead exploring multiple potential scenarios that reflect diverse perspectives and possibilities.

Tangible Speculation

We believe in making abstract futures tangible through designed artifacts, experiences, and narratives that can be engaged with in the present.

Ethical Consideration

We approach speculation with an awareness of its ethical dimensions, considering whose futures we're imagining and the implications of our design choices.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

We bring together diverse expertise and perspectives, recognizing that the most compelling speculative work emerges from the collision of different disciplines.

"At Relatronica, we don't predict the future—we explore possibilities, challenge assumptions, and create spaces for critical reflection about the futures we might create together."

Research Areas

Relatronica explores multiple domains where speculative design can illuminate potential futures and challenge existing paradigms. Our research areas represent the intersections where emerging technologies meet social, cultural, and environmental systems, offering new lenses through which to view tomorrow.

Post-Anthropocene Ecologies

Exploring more-than-human futures and alternative relationships between technology, nature, and ecological systems. This research area examines how speculative design can help us reimagine our relationship with the planet beyond extractive paradigms.

  • Interspecies collaboration and communication systems
  • Regenerative technologies and circular design approaches
  • Climate adaptation scenarios and resilient infrastructures
  • Biodiversity-centered design frameworks

Algorithmic Societies

Investigating the social implications of algorithmic decision-making, artificial intelligence, and automated systems. This research area uses speculative scenarios to examine how these technologies might reshape social structures, governance, and human agency, particularly focusing on equitable and just futures.

  • Alternative models of algorithmic governance
  • Speculative data practices and infrastructures
  • Human-machine collaboration frameworks
  • Ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence

Embodied Futures

Examining how emerging technologies might transform human embodiment, perception, and identity. This research area explores potential futures of the body, senses, and cognition through speculative artifacts and experiences, asking what it means to be human in an evolving technological landscape.

  • Extended sensory capabilities and perceptual augmentation
  • Biotechnological interventions and their social implications
  • Alternative models of health, care, and well-being
  • Evolving notions of identity in technologically-mediated environments

Alternative Economics

Exploring speculative economic systems, value exchange mechanisms, and resource distribution models. This research area uses design to imagine alternatives to current economic paradigms and their technological manifestations, aiming for more sustainable and equitable ways of living.

  • Post-scarcity scenarios and their implications
  • Alternative currencies and value systems
  • Cooperative technological infrastructures
  • Speculative models of labor, production, and consumption

Pluralistic Knowledge Systems

Investigating how different ways of knowing and understanding the world might inform technological development and design practices. This research area explores the integration of diverse epistemologies into speculative design approaches, enriching our collective foresight.

  • Indigenous futurisms and technological sovereignty
  • Decolonial approaches to speculative design
  • Integration of traditional knowledge with emerging technologies
  • Alternative models of education and knowledge transmission

Speculative Methodologies

Developing new approaches, tools, and frameworks for speculative design practice. This meta-research area focuses on evolving the discipline itself through methodological innovation and critical reflection, pushing the boundaries of what speculative design can achieve.

  • Participatory and community-based speculative design methods
  • Evaluation frameworks for speculative design impact
  • Integration of speculative approaches with other design disciplines
  • Critical examination of speculative design's limitations and potentials

These research areas are not isolated domains but interconnected territories that inform and influence each other. Our projects often span multiple areas, creating rich intersections where the most provocative speculative work emerges, leading to holistic and insightful explorations of the future.

Toolbox for Ethical Futures

At Relatronica, we believe that speculative design must be grounded in ethical considerations. Our toolbox represents a collection of methodologies, frameworks, and approaches that help navigate the complex ethical dimensions of imagining and designing potential futures, ensuring we build responsible and thoughtful pathways forward.

Ethical Frameworks

Core principles and approaches that guide our speculative design practice:

  • Pluralistic Ethics: Acknowledging multiple ethical perspectives rather than imposing a single moral framework.
  • Consequentialist Exploration: Examining potential consequences of technological and social developments across different timeframes.
  • Distributive Justice: Considering how benefits and harms might be distributed across different communities and populations.
  • Non-Identity Resistance: Protecting individual and collective identities in design processes.
  • Intergenerational Responsibility: Accounting for impacts on future generations.

Critical Reflection Tools

Methods for examining assumptions and implications in speculative design work:

  • Ethical Impact Assessment: Structured evaluation of potential ethical implications across different scenarios.
  • Positionality Mapping: Examining how designer perspectives and privileges shape speculative outcomes.
  • Stakeholder Constellation: Identifying affected parties across different temporal and spatial scales.
  • Value Tension Analysis: Surfacing conflicts between different values and principles in speculative scenarios.
  • Ethical Uncertainty Exploration: Deliberately engaging with ethical ambiguities and dilemmas.

Participatory Methods

Approaches for involving diverse perspectives in speculative design processes:

  • Pluralistic Scenario Building: Co-creating future scenarios with diverse stakeholders.
  • Community Futures Workshops: Engaging communities in speculative design processes.
  • Expert Elicitation Protocols: Structured methods for incorporating specialized knowledge.
  • Marginalized Futures Amplification: Centering perspectives often excluded from futures discourse.
  • Intergenerational Dialogue: Creating exchanges between different age groups about preferred futures.

Futures Literacy Techniques

Methods for developing capacity to imagine and engage with alternative futures:

  • Assumption Archaeology: Unearthing hidden assumptions about the future.
  • Temporal Perspective-Taking: Adopting different timeframes for considering implications.
  • Alternative History Exploration: Examining how different past decisions might have led to different presents.
  • Weak Signal Amplification: Identifying and exploring emerging trends and possibilities.
  • Counterfactual Scenario Development: Creating scenarios that challenge dominant narratives.

Implementation Approaches

Strategies for applying ethical considerations in speculative design practice:

  • Ethics-by-Design Protocol: Integrating ethical considerations throughout the design process.
  • Ethical Implications Documentation: Transparent communication of potential ethical dimensions.
  • Reflexive Practice Journal: Ongoing documentation of ethical reflections and decisions.
  • External Ethics Review: Seeking outside perspectives on ethical dimensions of speculative work.
  • Impact Evaluation Framework: Assessing how speculative design interventions influence discourse and decision-making.
"Ethical speculation is not about predicting the 'right' future, but about creating spaces for critical reflection on which futures we collectively want to create and which we wish to avoid."

These tools and approaches are not prescriptive solutions but rather starting points for ethical engagement with speculative design practice. We continuously evolve our toolbox through critical reflection, collaborative dialogue, and practical application, ensuring our work remains relevant and impactful.

Scenario Generator

The Relatronica Scenario Generator is an interactive tool for exploring and creating speculative future scenarios. Based on established futures methodologies and enhanced with our unique approach to speculative design, this tool helps users navigate the complex terrain of possible futures and unlock new perspectives.

The Futures Cone Framework

Our scenario generator is built on the Futures Cone model, which categorizes potential futures across a spectrum of possibility:

  • Probable Futures: Scenarios likely to occur based on current trends and trajectories.
  • Plausible Futures: Scenarios that could happen given what we currently know.
  • Possible Futures: Scenarios that might happen according to our current understanding of how the world works.
  • Preferable Futures: Scenarios we would like to see happen based on values and goals.
  • Preposterous Futures: Scenarios that seem impossible but challenge our assumptions.

By exploring this spectrum, users can break free from limited thinking about the future and engage with a wider range of possibilities, fostering creative and critical foresight.

Interactive Components

The Scenario Generator consists of several interconnected elements designed to facilitate a dynamic exploration of futures:

  1. Trend Explorer: Examine emerging technological, social, environmental, and economic trends that might shape future scenarios.
  2. Variable Matrix: Combine different variables and factors to generate unexpected scenario combinations.
  3. Timeline Constructor: Map potential developments across different timeframes, from near-term to far-future.
  4. Perspective Shifter: View scenarios from different stakeholder perspectives and value systems.
  5. Artifact Imaginer: Visualize potential artifacts, services, or systems that might exist in different scenarios.

Methodological Approach

Our scenario generation methodology follows these key steps to ensure a comprehensive and insightful process:

  1. Identify Focal Issues: Define the central questions or challenges to explore.
  2. Map Driving Forces: Identify key factors that could influence how the focal issues evolve.
  3. Determine Critical Uncertainties: Identify which factors have both high impact and high uncertainty.
  4. Develop Scenario Logics: Create frameworks that connect different possible outcomes.
  5. Elaborate Scenarios: Build detailed narratives around the scenario frameworks.
  6. Identify Implications: Explore the consequences and meanings of different scenarios.
  7. Generate Strategic Insights: Develop actionable insights based on scenario exploration.

Participatory Futures

The Scenario Generator is designed as a participatory tool that can be used in various contexts to foster collective intelligence and diverse perspectives:

  • Workshop Format: Facilitated sessions for organizations and communities to collaboratively explore futures.
  • Educational Setting: Learning tool for students exploring futures thinking and speculative design.
  • Policy Development: Supporting long-term planning and policy creation with anticipatory insights.
  • Design Process: Informing speculative and anticipatory design work with robust scenario exploration.
  • Public Engagement: Involving diverse stakeholders in meaningful conversations about possible futures.

Try the Generator

In the interactive version of our website, this section features a simplified version of our Scenario Generator tool, allowing users to experience its core functionalities:

  • Select from different trend categories and specific trends.
  • Adjust timeline parameters from near-term to far-future.
  • Choose perspective lenses through which to view scenarios.
  • Generate scenario outlines based on selected parameters.
  • Save and share generated scenarios.

The full version of our Scenario Generator is available for workshops and collaborative projects. Contact us to learn more about how we can customize this tool for your specific needs, and empower your organization to think critically about tomorrow.

"The future is not a destination—it's a multitude of possibilities shaped by our collective choices, values, and imagination."

People & Inspirations

Founded by Giuseppe Aceto, former researcher and designer at CERN, Relatronica draws on a unique blend of scientific inquiry and speculative design.

The studio is inspired by a rich lineage of thinkers, theorists, and practitioners—but it also forges its own path, exploring uncharted intersections between emerging technologies, social systems, and human futures.

Relatronica’s work seeks not to predict the future, but to open critical dialogues about the directions we are collectively shaping—by making possibilities tangible, and questioning what we take for granted.

Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby

Pioneers of speculative design who have fundamentally shaped the field through their practice and writing. Their book "Speculative Everything" (2013) articulates how design can be used to create not just products but ideas about potential futures. Their approach challenges traditional design paradigms focused on making technology easy to use and consumable, instead proposing design as a tool for speculation about alternative possibilities.

Superflux

London-based design studio that translates future uncertainties into tangible experiences. Their projects, such as the SAFE Project (2022) and their Vienna Biennale installation featuring fire-blackened pine trees, exemplify how speculative design can make complex issues like climate change "tangible, relatable, and comprehensible." Their approach to blending critical foresight with experiential design has been particularly influential to our work.

Benjamin H. Bratton

Theorist who offers critical perspectives on speculative design and examines how design complicates speculative models in global economies. His work challenges us to consider the broader systemic implications of design interventions and to engage with the complex interplay between technology, governance, and planetary systems, advocating for a geopolitical understanding of design.

Experimental Design Schools

We draw inspiration from emerging educational initiatives that support speculative design methods and foster new generations of practitioners. These spaces are crucial for developing the field and exploring new methodological approaches to speculative practice, creating a vibrant ecosystem of future-oriented designers.

Collaborators & Network

Relatronica operates as a node within a broader network of practitioners, researchers, and organizations exploring speculative futures. We regularly collaborate with a diverse range of partners to enrich our work and expand our reach:

  • Academic research groups focused on futures studies and speculative design.
  • Cultural institutions interested in exploring alternative futures through exhibitions and public programs.
  • Policy labs and government innovation units working on anticipatory governance.
  • Community organizations seeking to engage diverse stakeholders in futures conversations.
  • Technology companies interested in responsible innovation and ethical foresight.
"We see ourselves not as isolated visionaries but as part of an evolving ecosystem of practitioners working to expand the possibilities of what design can be and do in the world."

Bibliography & Resources

This curated collection of resources reflects our approach to speculative design and provides a foundation for those interested in exploring the field further. We regularly update this list to include emerging voices and perspectives, aiming to be a valuable guide on your futures journey.

Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming

Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby

MIT Press, 2013

A foundational text that offers a tour through the emerging landscape of speculative design ideas and approaches. The book explores how design can be used to create not just things, but ideas about alternative possibilities, challenging conventional notions of design's purpose.

Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative, and Alternative Things

Bruce and Stephanie Tharp

MIT Press, 2019

Surveys critical design practices and proposes a more inclusive field of socially minded design practice, offering a comprehensive examination of the emerging field of discursive design and its capacity to provoke thought and dialogue.

Projects

This curated collection of projects reflects our approach to speculative design and critical futures thinking. Each project explores the intersection between knowledge, imagination, and ethical innovation. We are continuously developing new ideas to expand this ecosystem and invite reflection on alternative futures.

v1.2 Mapping Thought

Mapping Thought: A Philosophical Exploration Tool

An interactive platform designed to help users explore complex philosophical concepts through visual mapping, cross-referencing, and guided pathways inspired by major thinkers.



Coming Soon
v1.0 Sci-Fi Tech Atlas

Sci-Fi Tech Atlas

A dynamic and visual database of science fiction works that categorizes and connects technologies, ideas, and narratives to highlight the speculative power of fiction.



Coming Soon
v0.8 Beta Scenario Generator

Scenario Generator

A creative tool to generate and reflect on plausible future scenarios, encouraging critical thinking on uncertainty, ethical dilemmas, and long-term change.



Coming Soon
v1.1 Data Sense

Data Sense

A project to raise awareness about data in everyday life, using visualizations, stories, and interactive tools to promote digital literacy and informed decision-making.



Coming Soon
v0.5 Alpha Political Systems Simulator

Political Systems Simulator

An interactive simulator designed for civics education workshops, allowing users to experiment with different political structures, policies, and their societal impacts in a safe, dynamic environment.



Coming Soon

What if tomorrow wasn't something to predict—but something to design?
Future Explorations is a playground of radical questions and speculative scenarios. It invites you to step beyond trend reports and market forecasts, and into the wilder terrains of what could be.

We're not interested in crystal balls—we're interested in critical thinking wrapped in creativity. Here, utopias and dystopias are not endpoints, but thought tools. Each exploration is a provocation: a narrative fragment, a design artefact, a crack in the present where the future leaks in.

Filter by theme, timeline, likelihood, or impact—but remember: the most urgent futures may not be the most probable. And the most probable may be the least ethical. This is your space to question, imagine, remix, and challenge.

Because the future isn't waiting. It's listening.

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Mission & Vision
Research Areas
Toolbox for Ethical Futures
Scenario Generator
People & Inspirations
Bibliography

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