Design fiction workshop for hybrid prototyping

Join the workshop at IdeaSquare on Oct. 31!

Overview

This one-day workshop invites participants to explore hybrid scientific and maker collaboration through the lens of remote physical prototyping. Using Design Fiction, they will imagine speculative but grounded scenarios where interdisciplinary teams prototype together across distance.

Participants will co-create fictional quick start guides as tangible storytelling artifacts, envisioning future tools, workflows, and hybrid setups. While inspired by ubiquitous computing, the workshop is open to any technology that could enable distributed prototyping—low- or high-tech.

The format is based on three parallel groups of about five people each, with each group exploring a single scenario—allowing for up to three different scenarios and around 15 participants in total. The workshop brings together CERN researchers, Swiss academic makerspaces, FabLab members, and students to jointly explore hybrid collaboration models.

Methodology

Immersive start: walkthrough introduction to IDEASquare and Design Fiction practices
Scenario exploration: guided prompts from real-world observations and speculative user stories
Co-creation: group-based narrative prototyping (quick-start guides)
Collective reflection: final exhibit and discussion on emerging forms of distributed fabrication

Participant Roles

Scientist/Researcher (CERN or academic) – Brings research context and scientific needs
Engineer/Technologist – Contributes technical knowledge on tools and constraints
Maker/Prototyping Specialist – Translates ideas into tangible diegetic artifacts
STS or Design Researcher – Adds perspective on collaboration and sociotechnical systems
Student Participant – Offers fresh, creative outsider insight (e.g., UNIGE hackathon option)
Storyteller/Documentarian – Captures and communicates the process for wider dissemination

Expected Outcomes

Fictional design artifacts (quick-start guides) envisioning hybrid collaboration and distributed prototyping across CERN, academia, and makerspaces
A hands-on Design Fiction experience embedded within IDEASquare, enriching its methodological repertoire while being accessible to external collaborators
Contribution to IDEASquare’s mission as a testbed for CERN, by engaging staff, students, and makers in speculative design processes grounded in real collaboration challenges
Strengthened ties between CERN and the Swiss academic/maker networks, creating opportunities for future co-creation, distributed prototyping, and cross-institutional learning