Always more committed to the world as it could be, rather than the world as it really is, architecture has a long legacy of speculation. More often than not, however, architectural speculation has reserved its energies for aesthetic or technological innovation, rather than a thoughtful reappraisal of its own disciplinarity and its social or ecological commitments. This talk will reflect on architectural speculation from the point of view of recent scholarship in science fiction and global, minoritarian futurisms.
Understanding architecture as a practice in science fiction asks architects to learn from other storytelling traditions to imagine different futures for spatial practice, and also supplies a vocabulary for the discipline to learn from practices which are already in the process of imagining more socially and ecologically attuned futures.
This event is the third iteration of Rehearsing the Not Yet, a collaboration between choreographer Ingri Fiksdal, Marie Nerland’s curatorial project, Volt, and dancer and choreographer Louis Schou-Hansen. Rehearsing the Not Yet looks to explore alternative histories as a means of envisioning and creating room for diverse modes of physical practice by asking: ‘What could have happened?’ Intended to unfold over the course of several years, Rehearsing the Not Yet will comprise various components – including talks, seminars and reading groups – culminating in a performance to be held in public space and/or a gallery space in 2026.
