Speculative Energy Futures: Post-human Design for the Energy Transition

Our technological landscape is becoming increasingly populated with systems characterized by their distributed intelligence and agency, as well as their networked capabilities. Systems such as these are especially critical in the domain of renewable energy infrastructures. User's access to energy will fluctuate according to the availability of renewable energy sources at that moment, for example: is it sunny or windy, is this a period of peak demand? These distributed systems present critical challenges to existing human-technology practice, expectations, relations, and dynamics. Similarly, they challenge human-centric design paradigms. To address these challenges and leverage the opportunities for designers, we see the need to build competences and methodologies in HCI and design research that extend past human-centered design approaches. In this workshop we will employ speculative design strategies to envision energy infrastructures that are not human-centric. Together we will identify the critical questions and design considerations necessary for facilitating the transition to renewable energies.