School of the Near Future – (Re)configuring Territories Spring School Open Day

School of the Near Future – (Re)configuring Territories Spring School Open Day
June 18, 15:00–17:00, 2022
Narva Art Residency

We are happy to invite you to the School of the Near Future in Narva Art Residency to conclude (Re)configuring Territories Spring School 2022.

This year’s (Re)configuring Territories research program theme is “Speculative Educational Institutions and Cities of the Near Future”, as we try, together with mentors and resident artists, to reimagine the future and develop skills and strategies to bring our imaginings to life. The program explores the politics of collective imagination in the midst of the socio-political and technological upheavals we currently face. How do the changing perceptions of territorial relationships, the experiences of belonging to a place, the multiple spatial layers of history, and their connection to human and non-human agencies shape the ability to imagine the future? What are the possible roles and structures of educational institutions in developing the necessary skills and knowledge of political imagination?

The questions the Spring School participants are faced with, among others, are: How do journalists circumvent restrictions on press freedom? How do architects work in areas with shrinking populations? How to collaborate with plants? These issues will be addressed during Spring School on the Estonian-Russian border, in the city of Narva, at the Narva Art Residency. The Spring School is part of the (Re)configuring Territories research program, where young architects, designers, artists, and journalists develop a political imagination in the midst of social, ecological, and technological change.

This open event invites locals, as well as everyone interested in the future of multidisciplinary education to conclude this year’s Spring School together with the participants. The workshop groups will share their thoughts and experiences, present the workshop processes, conclusions, and discoveries reached from the intensive coexistence of participants, organizers, and mentors, as well as look critically at both the city of Narva and their own professional fields and prejudices. The participants will unfold the three Spring School workshops:

The Seeds, Pollen, Future workshop led by Linda Boļšakova, explores the thermodynamic reincarnation in which we have been configured from that which has come “before” us and reconfigured into future beings. The workshop participants will share their workshop process as performance.

The Tactics for Freedom of Speech workshop led by journalist Ingrid Svanfeldt, looks at freedom of speech and the role of media as an infrastructure for forming societies and constructing inter-territorial roles and positions. The workshop participants will present their workshop process in the form of podcasts and written articles.

The Modelling Urban Degrowth workshop led by METASITU, works on a collective model to express notions of urban degrowth for which we -as of yet- lack words. The workshop participants will present their workshop process as an installation and presentation.

More detailed descriptions of the workshop presentations will be developed during the Spring School week and shared closer to the event date.

(Re)configuring Territories is a three-year programme (2019, 2021—2022) organized jointly by the Finnish Institute in Estonia, Narva Art Residency, and Trojan Horse. The program is supported kindly by the Kone Foundation.