Dark Clouds, Io&#!+, and [Crystal Ball Emoji]: Projecting Network Anxieties with Alternative Design Metaphors

This design inquiry engages concerns set within the frame of network anxieties. Our work projects and engages negative affective dimensions of digital networks including anxiety, exhaustion, overstimulation, overload, paranoia, unease, distrust, fear, and creepiness. We do this by designing alternative Internet metaphors and then applying these metaphors to the design of IoT (Internet of Things) technologies to generate speculative design proposals.