Afrofuturism as critical constructionist design: building futures from the past and present

ABSTRACT

Society's ability to collectively address global challenges will require efforts to include diverse voices, perspectives, and epistemologies. Building on critical design, which positions these challenges as requiring changes in our values and beliefs, we examine the nature and potential of a critical constructionist design framework within an Afrofuturist aesthetic. This framework invites Black youth to critically examine social, economic, and environmental systems by both connecting to personal and family histories as well as reflecting on local and lived experiences. We ground our discussion of this framework in an implementation where, in consultation with professional designers, artists, and scholars, five Black teen girls designed and produced a collection of critical artifacts. We invited participants to use their personal experiences in the present, as well as their family and cultural histories, to design futuristic artifacts that critique existing social inequities and environmental instability.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical design
• Afrofuturism
• constructionism
• making

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Nathan Holbert is an Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Learning Technologies Design at Teachers College, Columbia University. Nathan uses design-based research methods to develop and study playful tools and environments that allow all children to leverage computational power as they build, tinker, and make sense of personally meaningful ideas.

Michael Dando is an Assistant Professor of English and Communication Arts at Saint Cloud State University. His research focuses on how urban youth negotiate various cultural forms including hip-hop and comics to generate social, cultural, and political identities that create new and sustaining avenues for critical engagement.

Isabel Correa is a designer and a doctoral student in the Instructional Technology and Media program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research focuses on the use of design as a learning tool for community engagement and social change.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.