Design and the Projecting of the New

The paper is a theoretical contribution to the discussion of projection in design and is, beyond the paper, a part of a larger discussion of meaning creation in design. The paper discusses the paradoxical situation in projecting the new and unknown as all projection necessarily is bound to a starting point in the given. Nevertheless, design offers a series of methods for projecting. The paper proposes five models in design that have attempted at organizing experience in a new way and aimed at offering a projection into a future with a concrete starting point and an abstract intention of carrying out an open exploration of the possible. These are selected due to their potential for evoking something previously unknown: (1) an exploration of design with artistic means, (2) an investigation of the potential of form, (3) the possibilities of experimentation, (4) the role of scenarios, and (5) the challenge of digital technology. In the discussion, a series of dichotomies are employed, known versus unknown and closure versus openness, and related to questions of linearity of prediction/anticipation on the one hand and the question of disrupting the linearity on the other hand. In connecting the real and the speculative, design is a central medium for future-oriented projection.