Speculative Performance: Staging Intergenerational Speculation to Explore Critical Literacies of Technological Futures

Paper Title

Speculative Performance: Staging Intergenerational Speculation to Explore Critical Literacies of Technological Futures

Publication Info

• Topic area: Intergenerational engagement with critical technological literacies through speculative design and performance.
• Keywords: Speculative performance, intergenerational engagement, critical literacies, digital technology, data systems, HCI, speculative design, performance-based methods, socio-technical systems, community workshops.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing critical literacy initiatives often rely on structured pedagogical approaches that may not engage diverse audiences effectively. Speculative and performance-based methods in HCI have been underexplored for fostering critical technological literacies, particularly across generations.
• Significance: Understanding and critiquing socio-technical systems is increasingly important as digital technologies mediate everyday life. Intergenerational engagement offers a unique opportunity to surface diverse perspectives and foster dialogue on technological futures.
• Motivation and related work: Prior work in speculative design and performance-based methods has explored values, futures, and critiques of technology but has largely been designer-led. Emerging research highlights collaborative and participatory approaches, yet gaps remain in applying these methods to cultivate critical literacies across generations.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Speculative performance—a method combining speculative design, performance, and intergenerational engagement to imagine, enact, and reflect on technological futures.
• Novelty:
  1. Introduces speculative performance as a method integrating creative, embodied, and collaborative practices to support critical literacies of digital technology and data.
  2. Demonstrates how intergenerational perspectives foreground diverse lived experiences and enrich socio-technical engagement.
  3. Reflects on methodological implications, highlighting opportunities and challenges in speculative performance.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted two five-day workshops with ~30 participants (aged 12–72) in intergenerational groups.
  • Participants created speculative artefacts (e.g., wearable devices, therapeutic AI) and performed dramatic scenes exploring technological futures.
  • Workshops alternated between makerspace (prototyping artefacts), drama space (developing narratives), and community space (reflection and dialogue).
  • Final public performances were followed by audience discussions on ethical, social, and emotional dimensions of technology.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Participants demonstrated systemic understanding (e.g., data systems’ authority, surveillance implications), critical thinking (e.g., ethical tensions, relational dynamics), and alternative imaginaries (e.g., resistance strategies, nuanced technological futures).
  • Artefacts included the "Portal of Truth," "Cybersuit," "Chaos Boys" surveillance device, and "Hologram Doctor," each exploring distinct socio-technical themes.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Enabled embodied, relational, and narrative exploration of socio-technical systems, contrasting with abstract or prescriptive pedagogical approaches.
  • Intergenerational collaboration enriched critical engagement by surfacing diverse perspectives and fostering dialogue.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Data collected through fieldnotes, artefact descriptions, scene synopses, and qualitative content analysis using the Critical Datafication Literacy (CDL) framework.
  • Workshops were not designed for formal assessment but focused on exploring emergent critical literacies.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Partial and idealized representations of technologies; limited systemic critique.
  • Fluid participant composition and lack of detailed demographic data.
  • Future work could explore embedded evaluation strategies, broader socio-technical issues, and more flexible workshop formats.

Summary

This paper introduces speculative performance as a novel approach for fostering critical literacies of digital technology and data through intergenerational engagement. Two workshops demonstrated how participants created speculative artefacts and dramatic scenes, surfacing systemic understanding, critical thinking, and alternative imaginaries. The method enabled embodied and relational exploration of socio-technical systems, enriched by intergenerational dialogue. While limitations include partial systemic critique and evolving participant composition, this work contributes a creative and participatory framework for engaging communities with technological futures. Future research could expand on this approach to explore broader contexts, longer-term impacts, and more inclusive formats.