ABSTRACT
The chapter emphasizes the relevance of material artefacts in communicating and constructing technological futures. It introduces a hermeneutic approach to study the technological design of present futures by analyzing prototypes. It is suggested that prototypes themselves are media of communication in which anticipations are inscribed and made readable. After a short discussion of the hermeneutical approach to the future and some methodological considerations of studying artefacts and technologies, the chapter discusses the epistemic and social function of prototypes. It concludes that prototyping turns the present into an object of design instead of giving access to the future. If objects are regarded as prototypes, they are framed as unfinished works in progress that ought to be evaluated and demonstrated. Under the technological gaze of prototyping, the present becomes a testbed for the future.
