For this week, the focus lies on “Prototyping with storytelling” and the fist text is “Demo or die: Overcoming oddness through aesthetic experience”, that was written in 2012 by James Auger. James Auger is a British designer and researcher who works at the intersection of design and emerging technologies. He is best known for his work in the field of speculative and critical design, which uses design as a tool to explore and critique the societal implications of emerging technologies.

When researchers have new ideas or technologies, it is often because of the public that they are not accepted. After all, man is a creature of habit and new things are viewed with caution and a critical eye. This is precisely where James Auger comes in in this text: How can you make new and abstract ideas accessible to people? James says the answer is through aesthetic prototypes that can be interacted with and approached. As soon as people find a visual access to the idea, they can jump over the barrier of acceptance.

Several case studies are mentioned in the text, including that of Media Lab Europe. MLE developed the ISO-Phone (isolation Phone), a device that minimises distractions and thus intensifies a phone call. The whole thing was shown to the public as a prototype: People were made to float in body-warm water and could talk to each other on the phone via an immersive helmet. The porband described that they were not distracted and that the phone call was extremely intense.

However, I wonder to what extent this prototype had an influence on today's everyday life?

And at the same time I ask myself where I would use this method nowadays? The modern possibilities with AR and VR immediately come to mind. Maybe it makes sense nowadays to create prototypes in virtual space and thus save resources. However, humans would not be able to simulate the haptic input, which is a big part of a prototype.