Yonsei University Explores Future Design with New Speculative Design Course

Yonsei University's Department of Integrated Design is pioneering a new approach to design education with its introduction of a Speculative Design course. Led by Professor Shin Hyun-jae and lecturer Dr. Park Eun-sun, this elective course is the first of its kind to be offered as a regular, independent subject at a Korean university.

The course is built on a unique research-based educational model that merges futurism, comedy, and design. It challenges students to move beyond conventional problem-solving by examining everyday frustrations and societal contradictions. Using these observations as a foundation, students are tasked with designing hypothetical future objects, services, systems, and even spatial arrangements.

Dr. Park Eun-sun's doctoral research on Speculative Design pedagogy forms the core of the course's methodology. This approach integrates Korean comedy content, analysis of stand-up comedy, futurist thinking, and design workshops. Educational materials and workshop techniques are drawn from qualitative research on comedy YouTube channels like 'Kick Service' and 'Nan Jom Geuraejjago,' as well as interviews with Korean stand-up comedians. Students learn to apply comedic principles such as observation, exaggeration, subversion, and defamiliarization to critically analyze existing social orders and reimagine them in future contexts.

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Speculative Design is not about predicting the future, but an attitude of looking at the present and asking questions.

This innovative curriculum demonstrates the potential for Speculative Design to evolve within design education, offering a distinct model that blends diverse fields. It suggests that design education can expand beyond purely problem-solving frameworks to become a space for social imagination, critical inquiry, and public engagement. The course encourages a more experimental and reflective approach to design, prompting deeper consideration of its role in shaping societal values and structures.

Students involved in the course shared their insights, describing Speculative Design not as a method for predicting the future, but as an "attitude of looking at the present and asking questions." They reflected on how the course prompted them to reconsider the role of design in revealing invisible social structures and value systems. The outcomes of this course are being showcased in an exhibition titled 'Absurd Futures Born from Trivial Questions' at HAAP Square in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, from June 13 to June 26.

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It made me rethink the role of design in revealing invisible social structures and value systems, beyond simply solving problems.