An adapted and now publicly-available template for making your own protocol design fiction, similar to what we used to create South Beast Asia

A Protocol Design Fiction Workshop — and Canvas

The Khlongs & Subaks workshop (where South Beast Asia was born) was the first protocol design fiction workshop in this particular combination that we know of.

What’s protocol design fiction?

Inspired by design fiction but with a protocol-first lens, protocol design fiction is about imagining new possible worlds, shaped by strange new rules, and made tangible through the design of fictional artifacts (which can take the form of institutions, policies, and roles, not just objects or technologies).

For our workshop, we created a custom Protocol Design Fiction Canvas (or Canvas / PDF Canvas for short), which we used in the making of the world and materials you now see on this site as South Beast Asia.

We think it worked quite well for us — so we’ve decided to adapt and share a copy below for broader use.

The Canvas

You can find the PDF Canvas below, or via this link.

It’s in a Google Doc format (which you can duplicate or save to your own drive for your own use) with multiple tabs:

1. Screen — for digital use, e.g., brainstorming on your laptop or phone. Double-click on the yellow highlighted text areas and enter your ideas or sketches. You can duplicate the tab as much as needed.
2. Print — the template in A3 and A4 size for hands-on workshops. A4 works well for individual brainstorming, A3 works well with groups (with space for sticky notes). You can even split-print it across 4 A3s to make a giant A1 size Canvas for larger group use.
3. Display — is a larger-view table which is useful for presenting at a workshop or sending instructions as a screenshot (as the text is much larger relative to table and easier to read).

Protocol Design Fiction Canvas (V0.625)

Protocol Design Fiction Canvas (V0.625)

Enjoy, and feel free to let us know if you find the Canvas useful, or if you have suggestions for further iterations.