Speculative Engineering: The Case for Fictional STEM Knowledge

• In Event: 58.083 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 58.083-8 - Curricular Hacking and Other Suspensions as a (re)Turn to the Commons

Abstract

Objectives: STEM policy typically describes engineering as the field in which basic mechanical principles are used to develop useful tools. Most research into STEAM education continues to support this emphasis on tools, harnessing art practices and the creativity associated with the arts in the service of solving engineering problems (Tarnoff, 2014). In contrast, Wei (2013) advocates for “speculative engineering” in which the drive to invent is not based on utility, but fantasy and creative impulse, and a more destructive urge to not be useful. The aim of this paper is to show how speculative engineering is being taken up and explored by young people in online forums and informal make-shift laboratories.

Methods: This paper discusses online examples of speculative engineering, and shows how the image of STEM that is mobilized within these examples runs counter to the image of STEM utility. We focus on the contributions and impact of Colin Furze, a British plumber and video blogger on YouTube, with a million followers. He posts videos documenting his construction and destruction of odd custom-made gadgets and vehicles, many of which involve extravagant pyrotechnics and public stunts – most famously his jet-powered bicycle, which was declared “the most dangerous unsafe bicycle”. Many of the videos involve a gleeful deliberate misuse of some tool either for the sake of such misuse or for the sake of an imaginary world where a different fictive physics applies. Furze describes himself as a high school drop-out and “garage inventor”, inspired by the X-men and other fantasy films. Furze is only one example of an online trend of cultural interest in the misuse or counter-use of STEM knowledge, and indicates how the particular passion to modify and invent is poorly - if at all - recognized within schools (Tarnoff, 2014). Online data from blogs and affinity groups is studied for how young people are participating in this out-of-school activity. The data is analyzed as a form of public pedagogy and cultural performance, indicative of alternative ways of engaging with STEM.

Theoretical framework: In this paper I suggest that speculative engineering reflects a more artful and playful approach to engineering, and moves away from the image of the engineer as the problem solver. I draw on the work of Latour (2005) and Stengers (2000), as well as the speculative philosophy of Sha Xin Wei (2013), to argue that speculation plays a significant role in all inventive scientific practices. According to Shaviro (2015), scientists speculatively imagine a non-human world rich with agencies: “scientists work by negotiating with nonhuman entities, and by entering into alliances with them.” (Shaviro, 2015, p.11). These insights from science and technology studies, along with the recent turn to speculative philosophy across the humanities and social sciences, underpin the theoretical framework of this paper.

Significance: This paper contributes to our understanding of how young people identify with STEM knowledge, sheds light on the limitations of current STEM education policy, and draws on science and technology studies to rethink the nature of engineering.

Author

• Elizabeth De Freitas, Manchester Metropolitan University