Master thesis || Online version of the Nano World Map
In my Master graduation project I worked as an intern for the Rathenau Institute. I investigated the integration of design for debate and technology assessment. I explored these topics in the context of the Nano supermarket and at the Rathenau Institute.
For the Nano supermarket I designed the Nano World map that was sold at the exhibition and communicates that nanotechnology is not just a trend in material science but has a much larger impact. I explored more than hundred speculative, emerging, and established products and mapped them in an imaginative world map with ‘markets’ as countries, ‘issues’ as mountains, and ‘fundamental concepts’ as seas.
For the Rathenau Institute I designed a graphic template for a slideshow presentation at the Making Perfect Life conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. The graphics communicate the ‘new technology wave’ which describes current technological developments. These developments were reviewed through two mega-trends (‘biology becoming technology’ and ‘technology becoming biology’) in the Making Perfect Life project by the Rathenau Institute. The ‘new technology wave’ was further used to design an interactive version of the graphics and develop a speculative product to stimulate debate.
These design activities led to guidelines for the integration of technology assessment methodology in design for debate practice. To exemplify the integration, I designed a tool that helps designers to specify the political value of a design for debate.
You can buy the map here.
