Contributed By:
The Extrapolation Factory
The Alternative Unknowns Method is an experiential way for designers to explore and prototype new approaches within complex social and technological scenarios using designed live action simulators. Alternative Unknown simulators approximate features of the real world, leveraging design strategies, service design and improvisational acting techniques to bring them to life through the role-play of hypothetical interactions and events within a context being investigated. The goal of the Alternative Unknowns Method is to offer practitioners a tool for envisioning new design possibilities and alternatives that could be achieved.
About The Extrapolation Factory:
The Extrapolation Factory is a design-based research studio for participatory futures studies, founded by Elliott P. Montgomery and Chris Woebken. The studio develops experimental methods for collaboratively prototyping, experiencing and impacting future scenarios. Central to these methods is the creation of hypothetical future props and their deployment in familiar contexts such as 99¢ stores, science museums, vending machines and city sidewalks. With this work, the studio is exploring new territories for democratized futures by rapidly imagining, prototyping, deploying and evaluating visions of possible futures on an extended time scale.