Ariel Waldman and Nicholas Fitzroy-Dale

By Cher Potter | Published: May 19, 2012

NEW MEETUP

Ariel Waldman – spacehack.org: a directory of ways to participate in space exploration

Ariel Waldman has just finished her TV spot on the SyFy channel showing how Spacehack.org allows anyone to hack into space exploration – she’ll talk about bringing together scientists, technologists, designers and people with good ideas to see what they can create in one weekend. She is the creator of Science Hack Day  SF and also the coordinator for Science Hack Days around the world, an interaction designer, and a research affiliate with Institute For The Future.

Nicholas Fitzroy-Dale – biohacking at the London Hackspace

Nicholas Fitzroy-Dale has a doctorate in computer programming with a special interest in performance optimisation, embedded systems, and mobile devices – but he also helped develop the the nascent field of amateur biology at the London Hackspace. His online journal moves between subjects like functional programming and the misshapen architecture of the human ear. He’ll talk about biohacking, the intentions and possible outcomes.

 

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Current Research in Speculative Fiction conference

By Cher Potter | Published: May 7, 2012

Now in its second year, the CRSF is a one day postgraduate conference designed to promote the research of speculative fictions, showcasing some of the latest developments in these dynamic and evolving fields. The University of Liverpool is a leading centre for the study of speculative fiction, being home to the Science Fiction Foundation Collection, and is thus an ideal venue for fostering the next generation of scholars of the fantastic. Topics explored include • Alternate History •Eco-criticism • Gaming • (Geo)Politics • Graphic Novels • Music and SF • Non-Anglophone SF •  (Virtual) Spaces and Environments • Weird Fiction • World Building.

It’s on 18th June 2012, with Professors Fred Botting and David Seed giving keynotes.

http://currentresearchinspeculativefiction.blogspot.co.uk/p/crsf-2012.html

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Terraforming and Zero Gravity Design

By Cher Potter | Published: April 23, 2012

NEW MEETUP!

There’s an Alterfutures meeting this Thursday in the loft! It’s late notice, but we hope you can make it down to support our two presenters.

Chris Pak – Terraforming/Terrorforming

Chris Pak, currently finishing his PhD, will present his thesis on terraforming –  a concept that developed from both science fiction and science. He’ll discuss the way in which science fiction has been influential on the technological development involved in terraforming, how terraforming relates to local and global environments and how it helps us understand some of the problems associated with anthropogenic climate change.

Samantha Lee – Landscapes of Plausible Uncertainty

Samantha Lee, part of the Unknown Fields division at the Architecture Association, is currently working on an amazing project to turn a landscape into a supercomputer. She will discuss how, through the supercomputer, we could have a grasp over a natural world and therefore over our uncertain futures.

Joseph Popper – The One Way Ticket

Joseph Popper will present his final work-in-progress project for Design Interactions at the RCA. He is exploring one-way missions to space and what that means economically, ethically and poetically by simulating the specific phenomena to be encountered aboard the spacecraft.

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Alterfutures in Shanghai

By Cher Potter | Published: April 18, 2012

NEW MEETUP

On Tuesday 17th April, Alterfutures hosted a special satellite event in Shanghai at the co-working studio Xindanwei, where a list of great speakers from Speck Design, New Territories Studio, Xindanwei, Tank Shanghai and more shared their thoughts on alternate visions of the future, speculative design, and science fiction in China.

Read more here: http://www.jingdaily.com/event-watch-alterfutures-in-shanghai-future-design-and-science-fiction/17470/

Thanks to curator Samantha Culp and our lovely hosts: http://www.xindanwei.com

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Damien G Walter – The Quest for Weird Across the Electronic Universe

By Cher Potter | Published: March 23, 2012

NEW MEETUP

It’s Alterfutures number 10!
Damien G Walter, the Guardian Science Fiction columnist and writer of weird and speculative fiction will join us at the next Alterfutures meetup on Thursday 29th March. He’ll be talking about science fiction as a ‘literature of change’, the political possibilities of the SF genre, and his own quest for weird fiction across the electronic universe.
We’ll follow with a discussion on the future of the book, the book-internet merge and meta-content. DGW: ‘I’ll do my best to get some bizarre ideas out of you all!’

Listen to his recent Guardian podcast Science Fiction Now and Tomorrow – Is SF poised to dominate the popular consiousness of 2012?

damiengwalter.com

guardian.co.uk/profile/damiengwalter

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Tony Noble – constructing the look of the future

By Cher Potter | Published: January 19, 2012

NEW MEETUP

Hi everyone, the first meetup of 2012 is set to be a fantastic start to the year!

Tony Noble, the production designer of the science fiction movie ‘Moon’ will talk about how he meticulously constructs the future, on film. He’ll give a look into the research and processes from the astounding monochromatic lunarscapes and cagey computer-personalities of Moon to his work on apocalyptic science fiction ‘The Devide’ to be released next month…

This man is a master.

The event will be held on January 31 at the Sense Loft 68/70 Wardour Street. If you would like to attend, please RSVP via our Meetup page. A huge thanks to Sense for sponsoring this event.

Stills from Moon

Tony art directed Gavin Hood’s RENDITION and was the UK concept artist for Robert De Niro’s THE GOOD SHEPHERD. More recently, Tony completed work in Canada for Xavier Gens’ post apocalyptic science fiction THE DIVIDE, which is getting great reviews stateside. Tony’s latest theatric release was the highly acclaimed and multiple award winning science fiction MOON, for which Reel Film Reviews andScreaming Blue Review referred to Tony’s production design respectively as “jaw dropping” and “perfect”.

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Design for the REAL World Victor Papanek Design Competition

By admin | Published: April 9, 2011

DESIGN COMPETITION!!!!

Established and emerging designers are invited to submit innovative and radical examples of ecologically responsible and/or socially responsive designs that address everyday problems or social needs in the spirit of Victor Papanek’s philosophy. All varieties of product design may be submitted, including furniture, lighting, tools, appliances, transportation devices, or any other three-dimensional objects. Submitted designs must exist as tangible products, either as realized samples or as final prototypes. Designs must have been conceived within the last three years.

The winning entries will be featured in exhibitions held at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (November 10, 2011—January 31, 2012) and the Museum of Arts and Design and/or the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (March 6—June 17, 2012), depending on the number of finalists. There is a possibility that the exhibition will travel to other venues worldwide.

Submissions are solicited in the following categories:

Designed Objects realized or in final prototype stage which

  • significantly improve existing standards within their product group
    with the aim of achieving net zero environmental impact
  • offer social benefit to underserved segments of society or are driven
    by socially responsive considerations.

Social and/or Ecological Infrastructures and Design Concepts not yet fully realized or produced but in development which

  • address transdisciplinary design perspectives on urbanization, in areas such as
    housing, transportation, accessibility (inclusive design), communication, social and
    medical care, and the implications of national and international migration, etc.
  • offer paradigm-shifting solutions to bridge the lives of individuals and social
    networks by creating processes, systems and devices or combinations
    thereof that have the potential to transform social relations.

Important Dates

  • Submissions open on March 1, 2011
  • Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2011
  • Finalists will be notified on July 15, 2011
  • Winners will be announced on July 20, 2011

The competiton is being judge by a host of super clever design peeps including:

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Animal Architecture Awards

By admin | Published: April 9, 2011

Animal Architecture seeks exciting projects that engage the lives, minds and behaviors of our alternate, sometimes familiar companion species — insects, birds, mammals, and fish – each one with unique ways of world-making. As our society re-examines its place in the global ecology Animal Architecture invites your critical and unpublished essays and projects to address how architecture can mediate and encourage multiple new ways of species learning and benefiting from each other – or as we say it here: to illustrate cospecies coshaping.

We believe that a greater understanding of biotic and ecological relationships can influence design, reshape our cities, and restructure our homes — benefiting the human and non-human animals that interact with and around them. The burgeoning field of Anthrozoology is quantifying the positive effects of actively engaging other animals in human life. More than just simply pets, how can this growing awareness of other species influence the way we shape the world?

Animal Architecture wants to hear your ideas. Animal Architecture (formed in 2009) is dedicated to providing a forum for addressing the myriad issues arising from the complex interactions between animals and human society. The lens of our focus is Architecture. The aim of our study is to again see ourselves as partners in an intimate and reciprocal relationship with larger (sometime smaller) ecological forces.

All creatures great and small. Submit your project to us. Submissions can include past work, current research and built or unbuilt projects.* Winning entries will be announced mid summer 2011 and will be eligible for inclusion in a publication and exhibition. Details to follow.

what: The Animal Architecture Awards
Register By: May 15th 2011
Deadline for submittals: June 12th 2011
cost: $25 Students, $50 Professionals

Submission requirements:
1) Project Abstract (<250 words pitching your project)
2) Project Description (< 600 word detailed description/narrative of the proposed project)
3) Images/Boards (no more than 10 images or 5mb, which ever comes first, of your visual project)
4) Further details regarding uploading, file transfer and submission will be disseminated after registration.
5) Posters available for distribution can be downloaded here (color and b/w).

*Projects cannot have appeared in previous publications and the entrant(s) must have exclusive rights to all content.

Jury Committee Members:

Neeraj Bhatia, Wortham Fellow Rice University
Ned Dodington, Founder Animal Architecture
Allison Hunter, Visual Artist
Joyce Hwang, Assistant Processor University of Buffalo SUNY, Director Ants of the Prairie
Sanford Kwinter, Professor of Architectural Theory and Criticism, Harvard GSD
Jon LaRocca, Founder Animal Architecture
Geoff Manaugh, Author of BLDGBLOG
Cary Wolfe, Professor of English at Rice University and Series Editor Posthumanities,

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Micronations Revolution – we want pictures!

By admin | Published: March 14, 2011

Micronations Revolution

Previous speaker at AlterFutures6, Nelly Ben Hayon, has recently put together a ‘show’, with the London Bridge art collective Shunt, entitled Micronations Revolution. Over the weekend she along with many contributors, artists and co-organsiers put on a fascinating explosion of performances, experimental experiences, workshops and interactions to stimulate those in need of a ‘revolutionary party’.

As described so eloquently on the Studio Myers & David Benqué created Micronations Revolution website,

Shunt in association with Nelly Ben Hayoun, is opening it’s wrought iron doors and introducing four new worlds, four party systems, four micro-nations. Each new nation represents a site of adventure and play, for the audience to move through, explore and own. Yet, they are also potent instruments of propaganda, laboratories of new forms and vocabularies orchestrated by an unseen puppet master.

As James King described it via twitter yesterday, “Well, the general consensus is that Micronations Revolution is basically a party inside Nelly Ben Hayoun’s head. Awesome.”,  we are expecting some visually arresting footage and photos to be released soon, lets keep a look out!

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Postcards from the Future exhibit

By admin | Published: March 14, 2011

Tower Bridge, River Thames, London

Wish You Were Here? Postcards From the Future is an interesting exhibiton that just finished in London last week but well worth blogging about.

The display of 14 arresting images on display at the Museum of London, part of the London Futures climate change exhibition, show familiar views of the capital digitally transformed by illustrators Robert Graves and Didier Madoc-Jones that provoke the mind to imagine/envision/experience the impact global warming will/may/could have in the streets of London.

“The display brings home the full impact of global warming, food scarcity, rising sea levels and how all Londoners will need to innovate and adapt to survive. Examples of the striking images include Parliament Square put to work as a rice paddy, ice skating down the Thames, Buckingham Palace surrounded by a sea of shanty housing and the Gherkin occupied by thousands of eco-refugees highlight the shocking realities we could face.”

Certainly reminds me of the projects by Squint Opera in particular their Flooded London visuals. I wonder what these illustrators would see as a provocative reaction and how the Museum of London’s programme of events and exhibition have made an impact particularly in light of recent global events.

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