Spring 2017
About
This booklet was created by the students of the National University of Singapores
Spring 2017 Design Fiction course.
This class explores the concept of Design Fiction where science fiction - type story-
worlds are shared through the creation of interactive, futuristic objects. These novel
designs aim to suspend disbelief and invite audiences into the possible future worlds
expressed by these interactive objects. The ideas and storyworlds surrounding the
designs provoke audiences and encourage discussion about current issues that may
lead to such futures.
Syringe
Quick easy dispensing of O2
with large holding capacity
Plant Dome
Airtight dome prevents
contamination, and maintains
optimal temperature for the
production of good quality O2
Pollution is an increasingly pressing problem, and every individual contributes to it in their own
way, whether they realise it or not. Before you grab that set of disposable utensils or ask for that
extra plastic bag, always think of the consequences of your actions because every act counts.
Through speculative design, we hope to engage audiences to think about ecology and the issues
that surround it more critically. In this propaganda-tinged story world, we also want people to
question and challenge what they are being told, rather than just blindly accepting others agen-
das.
AGENTS
WANTED
UBPF RECRUITMENT DRIVE 2017
UBPF
If you share the same passion, then come join us and be part of this dynamic organisation!
In this futuristic story world, Hazel takes on the role of a human scientist working for the
United Beast Peace Foundation (UBPF). Her boss, Big Bear, comes from a long line of
circus bears, genetically modified to be smarter and trained to pick up more tricks. Gen-
erations after, the bears have gained human-like intelligence, with Big Bear amongst
them.
Mission
Disturbed by the persistance of poaching despite being in a new society of animals and Capture target and bring him back
humans in co-existence, Big Bear decided to put his intelligence to use by setting mea- to the HQ!
sures in place and plans in motion, in order to combat this issue that still plagues the Target Profile
world. Krew Earl Mann (38)
178cm, 85kg
The UBPF resembles Marvels Avengers, but instead of humans, it seeks to avenge wild-
life. In UBPF, its field agents are its avengers. Under Big Bear's directions, scientists Misdeed
Engages in illegal wildlife trade
create and arm field agents with high-tech gadgets to kidnap individuals who engage in
activities that threaten wildlife. These individuals will then be exploited for their labour
or extorted to keep the organisation running. In essence, the UBPF hopes to gradually
reduce the number of individuals that pose a threat to the environment.
Credits
Hazel would like to extend her sincere gratitude to her friends Shawn and Zuo Yi
who have helped her in the video documentation for the project.
Red fox, Justice scale, Cross & Globe: Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
Equal sign: Icon made by Madebyoliver from www.flaticon.com
[Footprints Logo Circle]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2017, from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?im-
age=191764&
picture=footprints-logo-circle
Contact: plantnetorium@gmail.com
Alcatraz Island. (2016, August 05). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from https://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/alcatraz-island
Analyze the Spread of Epidemic Diseases with Simulation. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from https://www.comsol.com/blogs/analyze-the-spread-of-epidemic-diseases-with-simulation/Australia's Great Natural Wonder. (n.d.). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from http://
www.greatbarrierreef.org/
Epidemic Facts for Kids. (2017, February 25). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from http://easyscienceforkids.com/epidemic/
Clements, R., & Musker, J. (Directors). (1989). The Little Mermaid [Video file]. United States: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. Retrieved March 21 , 2017, from movies.disney.com/the-little-mermaid
FOR HONOR AND GLORY
fighting the war with cockroaches
Roach Regiment
Learn more about the secret
weapon that will change the
landscape of war forever
DEPARTMENT
OF DEFENSE
Dear Recruit,
In accordance to Military
Conscription Act (II), you
have been drafted to serve
in the Royal Roach Regiment.
You will undergo a series of
tests including piloting roach
tanks to assess your
capabilities.
Non-compliance will be
severely punished under the
administration of Great
Leader Donald J. Trump.
IED
IF
SS ent
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cat
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scheme
the Cat Control Agency
Chen Wenshi Lisa
Jasmine Moh
I N THE Y EA R 21 0 0. . .
There is a trend of keeping wild,
exotic cats as people have become enamoured with
their beauty and they have a gotta-catch-em-all'
attitude for all the various breeds of cats out there.
Phase 3: Support
For the wild cats which are allowed to roam freely on the streets, Dr. Meow is created
to support their lifestyle. As no one is responsible for these cats anymore, the cats can
approach Dr. Meow for repose.
Dr. Meow
P ROTOTY PE
DR . M E O W Cancer
Cell Rate
0%
Cholestrol
Levels
160
mg/dl
3.1 Scanner
Scans for illnesses when
4. Treatment Liquid Maker + the cat is eating.
Spray
After the scan, treatment
liquid will be formulated
based on the data from the
scanner and monitor. The 2. Pressure Sensor and
treatment liquid is then Heart rate monitor
sprayed onto the cat if it is Senses when the cat is
sick. present, and activates the
scanner. (This saves
electricity!)
iterations
I TERATIO N S
After the lo-fi prototype exhibition at the Art Science Museum, the feedback we
received was mostly about the ambiguity of the monitor. We decided to simplify
the pulses plotted in the monitor, and make this solely for humans to help with cat
survelliance. We recognise that Dr. Meow is made for cats and they would be
unable to use the monitor, rendering it useless to them. However, we need the
monitor to better present our prototype (to humans). Thus, we gave it a real
purpose - mass surveillance on the cat populations health. We have also added
Cancer cell percentage and Cholestrol levels into our output display, to help us
better explain what illness the cat has to the audience.
Initially, we wanted to use an LCD display as our output for the cats vitals, but we
were unable to integrate it into our prototype despite hours of effort. We then
experimented with using the computers monitor display instead, and we feel that
the plotter helped the audience better visualise the heart rate and health
conditions than what our 16x2 LCD is able to with only numbers.
Also, we have created various parahernalia to help our audience better understand
the storyworld.
presentation Elements
P RESENT AT ION E LE M E N T S
Your Cat Collection
Manager
SELECT NEW CAT
Cat Abandonment
Booklet
Interactive Story
Final Message
FI NAL ME SS AG E
While it may seem fun to raise animals at the start, sometimes we are unable to live
up to the responsibility of giving them the sufficient care they need and end up
abandoning them.
This is even worse for wild animals because they are not meant to be in captivity.
You might think that they enjoy being your pet due to their obedience towards you.
In actual fact, what makes them the happiest is being free in their natural habitat.
In this world, people abandon their wild cats and the cats are treated differently,
based on how they turn out after being in the care of their previous owners.
In the last few decades, environmental degradation has spiralled out of control due to rapid urbanisation. Rising deforestation
and pollution levels are signs of a lack of nature connectedness. Additionally, fertility rates have dwindled drastically, leading
scientists to predict that the human race will be endangered by the year 2545.
This is why the State has developed The Transplant Facility. As a healthy adult citizen, it is your duty and responsibility to
surrender your reproductive cells to the Facility.
The Transplant Facility uses in-vitro fertilisation technology to form an embryo, that will then be transplanted into the flower of
a cannonball tree (Couroupita Guianensis). Your baby will grow within the fruit of the tree until it is ripe.
The procedure is safe and your foetus will be fully taken care of until birth. With The Transplant Facility, your child will be able to
identify with nature, growing up to have an innate passion to protect the environment. Fertility rates will also increase, breeding
a new generation who will help to preserve nature and the human race.
2 Extraction Rooms
4
Once declared healthy,
fertilisation cells will
be extracted using the
extraction device. The
process is designed
5 to be quick, safe, and
comfortable.
3 Fertilisation Laboratory
Air and soil conditions in the Greenhouse are monitored and controlled tightly by the Control Centre. Nutrients are injected into
the soil to ensure the foetuss survival. Each foetus will also have a personal blood bag and waste sac.
6 Visitor Centre
Parents will sign the birth certificate before taking their baby home.
About the project
The aim of this project was to get people to reflect on the two issues mentioned: environmental degradation and falling fertility
rates due to urbanisation. We wanted to project a dystopian future, and we wanted the experience to be uncomfortable,
awkward, and even creepy. We felt that having a strange project would make people fear the possibility of The Transplant
Facility becoming a reality in the future, and they would hence reflect on these issues today and start making a change.
While sitting in a field staring at trees, we thought it would be cool if babies could be
plucked from branches. By growing babies on trees, we wanted to create a world in
which humans would identify with both their human parents and Mother Nature, in
light of an increasing lack of nature connectedness.
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by
apple life
We spend 90%
of our time in
urban landsapes
Research suggests that by including nature into
our surroundings we can improve our physical and
mental wellbeing.
MANIFESTO
1.
Taking the crap and pretentiousness out of
environmentalism.
2.
Actions to awake the the public on
the brainwashing and greenwashing
techniques used by multi national
companies. atmos is a design fiction
project that examines the
3. lengths at which we are willing
Moving past the politically correct to go to bring nature into our
lives, it is also a critique on how
censorship that is rampant in our media.
companies and consumers
address this instinctual want.
Project by
Mathilde Gaucher
Ang Sue Li . Goh Pei Fang . Tan Kai Qi
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
2057 2059 2061 2062 2067 2068 2070 2081 2098 2099
Governments
ordered
assassination
of DRs top DR trained first
DR field agent
management: batch of secret
discovered
Agent Z agents
plans of mutant
plants while DRs first
extracting device proto-
samples type: Seth field
test
semoceb tn
-etam tsegn
htraE no l
Dark Rangers
In 2144, an anti-GMO activist group, Dark Rangers, was formed
by a group of plant scientists in retaliation to the governments
passing of the law to legitimise the continual development of
GM plants.
Ever since its formation, one of its main functions has been
to secretly conduct research on the side effects of modifying
GM plants. After two decades of research, they discovered an
appalling side-effect to such repeated modifications performed
on plants: a gene, X-hb, is causing plants to develop a human-
like consciousness.
In order to kill off these mutated plants, Dark Rangers As a passionate nature lover, Coming from a family of X is a curious plant scientist
experimented with various methods over the years only to Y likes to experiment and scientists, R enjoys going who likes spend her time in the
have failed countless times. Only until 2169 was Dark Ranger research on stuff related to the to the field to do research science laboratory researching
environment. One fine day, with her mother. Chancing on plants cells. After her best
able to successfully devise a wearable called Seth to counter the
while studying and researching upon presumed first case of friend Y told her about what R
mutated GM plants. Then following a year of intensive trainings,
in the woods, she chanced murder by the mutant plants, discovered, X requested to join
Dark Rangers dispatched their first batch of trained agents out upon R who started showing R was horrified and decided the team due to her passion in
for mission above grounds to kill the mutant plants. her her research efforts and to research on the side effects researching on plants.
the negative effects of X-hb. of genetic modification.
Convinced by Rs thorough
explanation, Y decided to join
R in her research and advocacy.
The Government
With greater government funding of biotechnology to develop GM plants, the first
successful case in 2057 involved modifying plants with electric eels to generate electricity.
Subsequent development on this strain led to the increase in popularity of plant-generated
electricity.This breakthrough revolutionised energy production methods, expanding the
boundaries of sustainability and environmental-friendliness.
In 2062, Electricus became the first company to be licensed for harvesting GM plants in
production lines, formalising the first electricity farm. In order to reap greater economic
benefits from the low-priced production of electricity, buildings in urban and compact cities
were cleared and more spaces were allocated to the electricity farms. This establishment
pushes for the blueprint of underground cities, with people proposing the use of the
strong plant-based material to lower cities underground. Despite strong protests from the
conservatives, the first underground city was successfully subducted below the Surface in
2067. Within a short span of 72 years, humans began living underground, with their cities
illuminated by vines that transmit electricity from the electricity farms.
At the same time, a series of laws was put in place to prevent people from vandalising these proprietary GM plants. In 2061, legislation to ban unlicensed cutting
down of GM plants was first passed, followed by the requirement of a visa for citizens who wish to visit the ground above, now known as the Surface. To more
practically enforce these laws, the first batch of trained Park Rangers was dispatched to patrol GM farms and those caught for vandalism of the GM plants was given
the death penalty.
In 2081, with the relocation of government to the Government Tree Command above ground, a Notarised List of Plants to Protect (LoPP) was institutionalised. The
continual government support for the development of GM plants saw an increase in the allocation of the national budget towards the maintenance of GM farms
and research projects. This allocation reached 70% in 2144.
Progression of X-hb
In 2124, the first GM plant developed a heart and brain.
This was due to the wrong gene expression when the gene X-hb that had been originally
switched off had been expressed. Gene X-hb is a gene that codes for a heart and a brain in
humans, thus the wrong gene expression caused the GM plant to develop a human-like
consciousness over time.
This mutation is contagious and is able to spread to nearby GM plants. Over time, the number
of mutated GM plants began to populate above the ground, occupying 80% of the land by
2164.
From observing the two-legged monster (humans) who occasionally came up to visit them
from underground, the mutated GM plants came to learn about their existence and their
subservient relationship with humans.
Feeling used and exploited, they unite with a common goal: To destroy humanity.
In 2152, the baffling case of two GM workers disappearing in Electricus hit the headlines.
Investigations reached a bottleneck after the cause of their disappearances could not be
determined. With the murder, the situation reached a whole new level of severity.
SETH
Dark Rangers invented a device: Seth.
It assists agents in secretly destroying the
evil GM plants with its built-in motor and
blade. The blade will be released when
agents activate the button secured at the tip
of the shoe.
Prototyping
After discussing our issue and storyworld, our group decided that a way to reduce humans
reliance on genetically modified plants is to try to get rid of them. In our storyworld, plants
have been modified extensively to provide for all human wants and needs such as wifi,
electricity and water. However, the side effects of modification have kicked in after a century
and the extensively modified GM plants have developed a human-like consciousness. The
GM plants developed a heart and brain and have set out to take over humans. Thus, in order
to fit our prototype into the storyworld, we decided that coming up with a wearable is most
feasible as it aids our agents in completing their secret mission discreetly.
We thought that having a wearable on our legs will help our agents carry out mission more
conveniently than wearing it on our arm. To successfully get rid of the evil mutant plants,
we decided to attach a blade inside the shoe. The blade will be activated when our agents
step on the button secured at the tip of the shoe. Furthermore, having our prototype on
ground level will help our agents cut off the roots of the evil GM plants which will effectively
eradicate them.
CAMORPHFLAGE
SANCTUARIES
Greetings..
I bring an urgent message for Earth Inhabitants of 2017.
Thus, we
started
The Human Races failure to care for the
planet created a dystopian future on
Earth in 2117. Upon realising Earth was no
60-70%
of ALL animal
work on...
longer inhabitable, they fled to the stars for
refuge.
species THE ULTIMATE
Animal Sanctuary
As they always do, Humankind
complained a whole lot about the new HAVE GONE EXTINCT.
living conditions in space.
The phrase 'Argh, this is SO not Earth!' The remaining 30% of species were
was heard often enough that the new transported to Not-Earth , as part of
planet was eventually named 'Not-Earth'. better-late-than-never conservation
measures.
The zoos of the old days, with their cruelty, have gone.
The Camorphflage Cooperation
To ensure the animals are undisturbed by guests such that their natural behav-
introduced cruelty and disruption-free iours are observable, scientists have produced an advanced robotic organism
named Rumby. He has the ability to camouflage a human in a way they can visit
animal sanctuaries on planet the enclosures without being any nuisance And dont worry! We have an emer-
Not-Earth. gency teleportation system ready at any sign of danger.
of something as small as a suitcase. This ensures Lets help the people of both our times value and conserve the animals
around us. A number of world leaders have already been brought on a short
endless spaces for the animals to roam. jump into the future to ldrop by the Camorphflage Headquarters and learn
more before giving the go-ahead.
Invisibility Morphing
(stealth mode) (clone mode)
Rumby makes you undetectable by any animal. Morphs you into an animal for 20-30 minutes, so you
Usually used when encountering dangerous animals. can hang out with them in their natural habitat.
Only for tame animals.
Background
The Catcaller is a non-invasive nanotechnology that will allow us to catch cat abusers. An acceler-
ometer implanted in the cats body will detect any struggling motion, while a microphone implanted
in its left eye will detect any aggressive human sounds or the cats cries for help. In its right eye will
be implanted a camera, which will capture the features of the abuser and alert our headquarters. We
would immediately be able to activate our agents to apprehend the culprit at the scene. The culprit
will be slapped with a hefty $10,000 fine for their first offence, and jailed for life for the second.
The Catcaller is a non-invasive nanotechnology that has been proven to not harm the cats. They will be
subjected to general anesthesia and then the devices will be implanted in them.
Arduino
Using a breadboard, we connected two Arduinos, making one a Slave and the other the Master. We used
three specific modules.
MAX4466 Electret
Microphone Amplifier
Evaluation
With the MAX4466 and ADXL335 connected to
We adjusted the sound sensor to
the Slave Arduino, we connected the OV6760 to
only output a positive signal when
loud enough decibels were detected. the Master and connected it to our computer,
where the recorded image was sent. However, the
prototype was too bulky and fragile and contained
too many wires. We had to find a way to stream-
ADXL335 3-axis line our system.
Accelerometer
This enables the Arduino to sense
motion on the x-, y- and z-axes. We
toggled the sensitivity to only output
a positive signal when it is shaken
violently.
We then used wires to extend the MAX4466 to reach the models left
eye. With the camera extended to its right eye, this would mirror the
functions and locations of our final product.
Save the cats, Save the world. Join the Crusaders today.
Taught by Professor Andrew Quitmeyer
| Cover Design by Elaine Yeoh Tze Tsin |