Not Here, Not Now

Anthony Dunne is University Professor of Design and Social Inquiry at The New School/Parsons in New York. He is the author of Hertzian Tales (MIT Press). Fiona Raby is University Professor of Design and Social Inquiry at The New School/Parsons in New York. Her projects are included in several permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the MAK, Vienna. Together they are the award-winning partners behind the design studio Dunne & Raby. They are also Co-Directors of the Designed Realities Studio at The New School/Parsons in New York. Their books include Hertzian Tales, Design Noir, and Speculative Everything.

“Not Here, Not Now successfully demonstrates the centrality of Dunne & Raby to contemporary design. By examining projects oscillating between reality and fiction, this must-read travelogue encourages bold thought for designers, scholars, artists, and beyond.”—Alexandra Midal, Professor, University of Art and Design, HEAD–Genève (HES-SO); author of The Murder Factory and Design by Accident“In an age of crisis, design is expected to produce bold solutions, yet designers are trapped in systems that allow hardly any deviation from the norm. Dunne & Raby have dedicated themselves to expanding the design imaginary, and this book is a valuable toolbox of approaches that open up a world of many worlds.”—Justin McGuirk, Director, Future Observatory“In a quest for the radical potential of a more expansive reality, Dunne and Raby invite designers to engage the world with a speculative what-if sensibility. Refusing the stifling foreclosure of the future into the shape of what is most statistically probable, the authors’ impossible objects are alluring thought experiments of the not-yet-here, however vulnerable and uncertain that world might be.”—Rania Ghosn, Associate Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, MIT; Founding Principal, DESIGN EARTH“What might it mean to design, not for the world as it is, but for the world as it should be? This visionary book surveys a range of ‘impossible’ designs, helping us to imagine how they might become possible, or even probable.”—Steven Shaviro, Emeritus Professor of English, Wayne State University

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Realists of a Larger Reality1. An Archive of Impossible ObjectsObjects Made From WordsA Machine-Generated Impossible ObjectAn Object from an Alternative Visual History of Quantum ComputingSwatches of Forbidden, Chimerical, and Imaginary ColorsA Pocket Universe in the HomeObjects Undergoing Space-Time CollapseA Stone RaftAn Object from One of Einstein’s DreamsAn Object from an Alternate Quantum ImaginaryA Human, Imagined Through a Generalized Nonhuman UmweltA Flag for BiomiaA Vegetable Lamb2. Quantum Commonsense: New Metaphors, Images and Concepts?3. Unreal by Design4. A Public Lending Library of Things5. The United Micro Kingdoms (UMK), a Traveller’s Tale6. Once Possible, Now Impossible: A Partial Inventory of National Dreams Made Physical7. A Nonstandard, Incomplete Glossary of the Not Here, Not NowC/D: By Way of a Conclusion.BibliographyList of Illustrations and Credits