About this Event
Welcome to the second edition of Designing Sustainable Worlds, a new hybrid seminar series from the Institute for Sustainable Worlds at Norwich University of the Arts in which we bring together interesting people and projects exploring what it means to ‘design’ ‘sustainable’ ‘worlds’—recognising that each of those terms is very much open to debate.
For our second edition, we’re exploring how artistic methods and architectural practice can intersect with imagination through a critical justice lens with two speakers working internationally, whose work will be of interest to the design, architecture, futures, sustainability/transitions, and creative education community, and students, educators, and researchers more widely. All welcome: please do register. If you're joining online, we'll send you a Teams link before the event. If you're joining in person, we'll be in DS4, Duke Street.
is Assistant Professor in the Urban Futures Studio at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Netherlands. Her research develops and examines approaches to questioning so called ‘inevitable’ unjust futures and fostering collective imagination and agency towards more just and sustainable societies. She weaves together critical and artistic concepts and approaches to collaboratively explore possibilities for transformative changes with diverse societal groups. Josie shares recent experiments in social dreaming in her blog Utopian Pulses. Her latest publication Utopia*Art*Politics is a collection of work by 33 artist-researcher practitioners experimenting with how artistic practices can enable radical imagination and politics.
The art of utopian imagination
In the face of multiple intersecting socio-ecological crises, society has struggled to develop compelling visions of better possible futures. Through reflecting on different approaches to utopian imagination, three imaginative experiments in an African context, and research on atlases that share alternatives around the world, this talk will explore the art and politics of reimagining and remaking our world.
is a Lecturer in Architecture at Norwich University of the Arts, UK, teaching across the BA and MArch programmes. Her research and practice (spaceKIOSK) investigate spatial politics through drawing, mapping, and critical architectural production. She is particularly interested in the intersections of trade, decolonisation, and global economic systems, exploring how material and financial flows shape built environments. Her work spans spatial research, writing, and curation, with a focus on power, representation, and the uneven geographies of transformation.
From Extraction to Relation: Fields in Formation Across Uneven Geographies
This talk outlines an approach to architectural research through curatorial mapping and the construction of a living archive, tracing spatial practices across multiple, uneven geographies, including the African continent, revealing hidden infrastructures of knowledge, labour, and material exchange, and positioning imagination as a radical act.
The format is short talks, followed by a discussion moderated by Dan Lockton, Institute for Sustainable Worlds. Sign up to our newsletter to hear about future events.
Thursday 2 April, 15.00–16.00 UK time (BST, GMT+1).
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Duke Street - Norwich University of the Arts, 4 Duke Street, Norwich, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
