What happens when you decouple design from the marketplace, when rather than making technology ever more consumable, designers use the language of design to pose questions, entertain, and provoke – to transport our imaginations into parallel but possible worlds? We are concerned not only with the expressive, functional and communicative possibilities of new technologies but also with the social, cultural and ethical consequences of living within an increasingly technologically mediated society. It is absolutely not about prediction, but asking what if ... Speculating, dreaming, and to facilitate reflection on the kind of technologically mediated world we wish to live in. Ideally, one that reflects the complex, troubled people we are, rather than the easily satisfied consumers and users we are supposed to be. (Fiona Raby)

Fiona Raby will, as of the winter semester 2011/12 be head of the Department of Industrial Design 2, University of Applied Arts Vienna.