Spring 2017, Spring 2019
Instructors: Chris Falliers (2019); Chris Falliers & Joseph Becker (2017)
Utopian or dystopian speculation often champions, or warns of, the potential for current/near future technologies to trigger societal or environmental transformation. Artists and designers have engaged in this work by constructing polemic objects or speculative representations to spur public discourse. As we consider the possibilities of social exchange and environmental transformation within today’s technological milieu (open-source communities, ubiquitous algorithms, biological simulations, sensor-saturated environments, etc.), what are today’s artifacts for utopian/dystopian speculation/critique?
Exploring the speculative artifact as a polemical statement, the two versions of the class balanced analysis and speculation. The seminar explored readings and case studies by artists, architects, writers, and scientists that leveraged advances in science and technology to posit spatial forms of human interconnectivity and environmental explication. The class engaged with curators and works from Bay Area exhibitions on art + design’s relationship to science or environmental idealism, BAM’s Dimensionism: Modern Art in the Age of Einstein and SFMOMA’S The Sea Ranch, Architecture, Environment, and Idealism, SFMOMA’S Stillness in Motion, as well as an SFMOMA Collection Study Center session to discuss student-selected works. The 2017 class had the opportunity to launch artist Tomas Saraceno’s Aerocene Discovery Kit. Joined by members of Antfarm, colleagues from other universities, and kids in park, an outdoor class mixed flying 20’ solar energy-filled balloons with a discussion on contemporary environmental thought.
Using understandings gained from an analysis of speculative work, students developed a speculative artifact of their own, one that engaged in a dialogue between technology, environmental, and/or societal exchange.
Cloud Cities, 2019: Victor Chang, Kshitija Hagarkar, Karol Horr, Mamdouh Khogeer, Marwan Mohammed , Caroline Randall, Elsy Zhang.
Cloud Cities, 2017: Jennifer Brandel, Paulina Buchcik, Madeline Cunningham, Mai Yamada Duellman, Eric Fura, Sean Gentry, Pearce Gillespie, Bonny Guo, Antuanette Holder, Kow Kao, Manasi Kshirsagar, Xenia Mosley, Pete Pham, Nicholas Schribner.