Feeling the Heat: Uncomfortable Design Fictions for Alternative Forms of Summer Comfort

Abstract

Ironically, global warming is leading to increased demand for artificial space cooling, which in turn fuels greenhouse gas emissions. In this pictorial, we present a set of deliberately uncomfortable design fictions aimed at disrupting this harmful cycle and opening new design spaces for alternative forms of summer comfort. Through the fictions, we argue how designers' assumptions about comfort play a role in steering responses to global warming in narrow, resource-intensive and exclusionary directions. In our discussion, we increase the heat by reflecting on the role of assumed users in fueling resource intensive lifestyles, and challenge designers to consider users that are affluent but nonetheless willing and able to invest effort and change their expectations in the face of current global crises. We close with a visual provocation that links designing low effort technological solutions to the breeding practices of the cuckoo.