Mobile Utopias 1851-2051 Research Co-Creation Workshop
Date: 19 April 2016 Time: 10-4pm
Venue: Design Studio, LICA, Lancaster University
How will we be living in 2051? How do we want to be living? As one of several activities associated with the funded research project, ‘Mobile Utopias 1851-2051’, this collaborative workshop invites participants to imagine and develop utopias of everyday life for 2051. In particular, we will focus on the participants’ ideal or dream scenarios for the future and on how their respective ‘utopian everyday’ might be lived in practice. We will explore why we choose these utopias, whose voices are missing, and how to bring utopia into being in personal and professional life, and the challenges we all face in the process.
In order to stimulate thought and discussion, we ask you to bring an object to the workshop capturing what, for you, is a key aspect of a mobile utopia or dystopia. Crucially, mobile does not only refer to transport alone, but to the communicative and imaginative movement of information, people, goods and ideas. Your object might be from the past, present or an (imagined) future. It should be small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, and ideally something that you can leave with us. In the workshop the objects will be used as inspiring starting points to narrate utopias of everyday life.
The workshop will review and create insights, materials and resources to develop the research, including audio/video clips, drawings, photographs, and maps. Materials provided will also include past visions and plans illustrating the changing faces of Lancaster, Birmingham and London. The material captures ideas about futures of the flows of goods and resources, energy, movement in public spaces and transport as well as the changing character of our homes and the nature of domestic life during the period 1851-2051.
Participants will be invited to imagine, develop and discuss utopias through a variety of means which might include the making of storyboards of the future, writing postcards from the future, and serious play with objects and models that are evocative of utopias and futures. By doing so, we hope to create a snapshot of how participants with a variety of concerns and priorities imagine futures, and the common and/or conflicting aspirations and ideals that emerge. The process will be captured in the form of an instant journal, and will also contribute to the development of a participatory artwork, to be exhibited as part of ‘Campus in the City’ in Lancaster city centre on 18th May 2016 and the Utopia Fair in Somerset House, London, on 24-26 June.
We have limited funds to pay for your travel to the workshop. If you require funding, please contact us, stating how much is needed. Lunch and other catering will be provided. Participants will be credited as co-creators on the project website.
Event website: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mobile-utopias-1851-2051-tickets-23043388395
Contact:
Who can attend: Anyone
Further information
Associated staff: Monika Büscher
Organising departments and research centres: Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe), Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Mobilities.Lab, Sociology
Keywords: Design, Design and innovation, Design forecasting, Design futures, Design research, Futures, Mobilities, Utopia, Utopianism
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