Oslo Architecture Triennale
Scenarios for another future
The current economic & political structure is failing and climate change is accelerating the urgency for different ways of being human. The task of creating positive systemic change is urgent.
FACTORY OF THE FUTURE examines possible scenarios for another future.
Each monitor displays a video portrait of a person describing the everyday lives of a multiplicity of characters in the cities of London and Oslo, in a transformed future.
The videos play on loops of different lengths, allowing for continuous convergences, overlaps and serendipities between contrasting perspectives and stories. Sonically, the voices chatter like birds in a wood, weaving together in ever-changing relations of volume and emphasis, creating an accumulative sensation of interconnection; if you move up close to a portrait, headphones allow you to focus on individual stories.
Maps of each of the cities allow audiences to connect the stories to the places being talked about.
Taking a liberating step away from our immediate constraints & looking into an open tomorrow, FACTORY OF THE FUTURE applies the method of ‘future scenario thinking’ to explore the role of design and architecture in shaping sustainable economic, social & environmental values for the future.
There is often a perceived distance between the institutional powers of the city and citizens in civil society. This project tests how arts practices can foster stronger links between innovation, change and citizen involvement. The project aims to expand the ways urban futures are discussed, imagined & built.
Factory of the Future at OAT 2019
PEOPLE
Zoë Svendsen, with actor-creators Anna-Maria Nabirye, Charlie Folorunsho, Tom Ross-Jones, Shôn Dale-Jones, Stefanie Mueller, Jess Mabel Jones (London) and Arturo Tovar, Elisabet Topp, Heiki Riipinen, Mariama Ndure, and Mona Grenne (Oslo); and artistic collaborators Lucy Wray, Andrea Ling, Rob Awosusi, Maina Joner, Cecilie Sachs Olsen, Simon Daw, Renata Tyszczuk.
The stories have been inspired through conversations with: Hamza Kader, Samantha Lawson, Cliff Moustache, Jarl Solberg, Dominic Wilson and the second year acting students Nordic Black Theater Oslo, Anne Beate Hovind, Faisa Warsame, Kai Reaver, Katja Bratseth, Øystein Aurlien, Kåre Ivar Gauksrud, Renata Tyszczuk, Alan Simpson, Kate Fletcher, Chris Sandbrook, Peter Newell, Chris Hope, Barb Jacobson, Fran Boait, Andrew Simms, Kate Raworth, Wanda Wyporska, Sue Riddlestone, Charlie Kronick, Richard Murphy, Frances Coppola, Kriti Sharma, Anna Coote, Anthony Molloy, David Boyle, Terry McAllister, Indy Johar, Carolyn Steel, Indra Adnan, Will Mcallum, Paul Mason, Lucy Wray, John Fanshawe, Jo Holland, Isobel Cohen, Ha-Joon Chang, Laura Anadon Diaz, David Thomas, Rosalind Aveling, and conservationists at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, Snjolfur Richard Sverrisson, Hans Jørgen Hamle, Richard Cooper, Isabel Ruiz Lopez, Hele Bendixen, Magnus Berg Jørgensen, Saga Bernadina Andersson, Um-Ul-Banin Sayed, Eva Storrusten, Fredrica Miller, Tone Smith, Ellen Stenslie, Marius Grønning, Mads Paulsrud, Astrid Fadnes, Einar Kleppe Holte, Maiken Lønnerød, Pål Erik Olsen, Kaja Knutsdotter Fjørdoft, Francis d’Silva, Katerina Eriksen, Stine Marit Sundsbø Hollerud, Bjørn Ecklund, Jenny Josefine Holen, Kate Milosavljevic, Cecilie Dawes, and many others.
Created by METIS, directed by Zoë Svendsen
Produced by Nicky Childs for Artsadmin
Curated by Cecilie Sachs Olsen for the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2019, commissioned by DOGA
Artsadmin (London) enables artists to create without boundaries, producing bold, interdisciplinary work to share with local, national and international audiences. The advisory service supports artists at every stage of their development with free advice and opportunities. At Toynbee Studios, Artsadmin has established a centre for the creation, rehearsal and presentation of new work.
Oslo Architecture Triennale is the Nordic region’s biggest architecture festival, and one of the world’s prominent arenas for dissemination and discussion of architectural and urban challenges.
