Climate Fictions

Central Saint Martins, London
05.05.2023

The climate crisis and biodiversity loss are existential issues for our species, and they shape any way we might conceive of space and time in the future. The narratives that drove us to this point, and our contemporary responses to these emergencies, are composed of profoundly tangible and intangible factors. In some ways the climate is the only long-term question with which we must contend.

This Climate Fiction Unit asks: How can we rethink the relationship between the local and the global, the microscopic, the grand, and the planetary? What is resilient development across space and time? What are xeno-strategies for storying the transformations to human and non-human entities within broader climate systems?

14.04.2023

Lecture 1: Adam James
Live Action Role Play

James makes sculptural, live and digital works which emanate from his steadfast involvement in the use of live action role play (LARP) as tool to trigger alternative futures, new forms of collaborative democracy and the temporary dismantling of hierarchies. James considered how Nordic LARP radically influenced his approach to arts-education, choreography, participation, film-making and sculpture. His work examines otherness, empathy and objects as the alibi for exchange through the immersive and collaborative structure of larp.

BIO: Adam James (b. 1978) is a British artist living and working in Sweden. Adam James received his BA in Fine Art at the University of Brighton in 2003. In 2007 he completed his MA in Fine Art at the Royal College of Art. In 2017 he enrolled as a PhD candidate at the University of Kent before withdrawing in 2021. Recent commissions include ‘A Common Home’ with Göteborg Konst, 2023; Vävda Rum with Sveriges Konstforeningar 2023; ‘KEMENETH’ with Tate St Ives 2021 and ‘All of Us are Myself’ with The Wellcome Collection, 2019. mradamjames.com

27.04.2023

Lecture 2: Jeremy Kamal
Black Fictions and Speculative Ecologies

This talk reframes the exclusionary dynamics of landscape history through the exploration of several Afrofuturist worlds and landscapes. Black labor has geoengineered many of our landscapes, yet Black values are rarely embedded in them. This talk reflects on the potential of new geomyths that position Black culture, technology, and nature in symbiosis and productive friction. What would our landscapes look like if shaped by the values of Black culture? We unpack this question through a collection of CGI Afrofuturist vignettes that engage storytelling and fiction as critical means to envision new trajectories of black identity and ecology.

BIO: Jeremy Kamal is an artist engaging CGI storytelling to explore relationships between Blackness, technology, and ecology. His focus on landscape-centric narratives is the driving force behind the worlds he brings to life through 3D animation, sound, world building, and mythology.
WEB: jeremykamal.com

03.05.2023

Lecture 3: Gonzalo Herrero Delicado
Speculative realities: curating for a complex world

From climate change to species extinction and resource depletion, the damaging effects of modern life are more tangible than ever. What is the role of curatorial and art practices in this context? What forms of activism can emerge from the white cubes of gallery and museum spaces? And, can new technologies present alternative forms of empathy with different audiences? Beyond mainstream notions of sustainability, this lecture by curator Gonzalo Herrero explores his work in connection to ecology and digital culture through the lens of architecture, design, art and technology. Herrero will introduce a selection of recent exhibitions, projects and commissions developed for international museums and organisations including the Royal Academy of Arts, the Museum of the Future, the Design Museum and Earthshot Prize.

BIO: Gonzalo Herrero Delicado is a curator, architect and educator based in London who works at the intersection of architecture, design and technology, exploring their connection to ecology and digital culture.
www.gonzaloherrero.eu

Curriculum Narratives Lecture Series

HOSTED: MA Narrative Environments