Echoing the Istanbul Biennial’s question “What are contemporary design manifestos?”, we ask: “What are understandings and practices of utopics that are relevant today and what roles may design and architecture platforms have in manifesting difference?” We argue that the ‘manifesto’ is a call for avant-garde thinking and making in the here and now. Our project UTOPIA NOW HERE explores notions of the manifesto through a critical exploration of utopics. U-topia can be defined, quite literally as ‘no-place’ or ‘no where’ – utopian thinking displaces our normal spaces and times so we can engage radical difference.

Demanding UTOPIA NOW HERE, we speculate on how design can construct spaces in which difference can be imagined, discussed and lived in the here and now, rather than lingering on spectres of modernist pasts or projecting ineffectively into distant futures. Echoing the Istanbul Biennial’s question “What are contemporary design manifestos?”, we ask: “What are understandings and practices of utopics that are relevant today and what roles may design and architecture platforms have in manifesting difference?”

Utopic manifestations, in our work, take the form of public and participatory platforms. Such platforms are created for practitioners, stakeholders and the public to imagine, discuss and experience alternative practices of design, architecture and urbanism. Examples from our work include the platform DESIGN ACT for discussion among socially- and politically-engaged practitioners, the association Action Archive that collects hidden histories of participatory planning and architecture, and the design research project Switch! Energy Futures for debating environmental justice. Through our project work, we explore utopics as “ficto-critical practice”, “embodied” and “lived utopias”, that is, as methods to imagine, materialize and experience radically different forms of design engagement in society.

We explore these questions at the Istanbul Design Biennal:
• What kinds of alternative platforms are there, and how do they operate?
• What are design roles in forming and producing knowledge through such platforms?
• What differences may be imagined and effected through such platforms?

UTOPIA NOW HERE will manifest during the Istanbul Design Biennial as a temporary platform organizing open dialogs sharing examples and exchanging experiences with local and international practitioners across design, architecture, urban practice and art. Together, we will explore possible forms and politics of utopic practice today. Our aim is to deepen knowledge and expand networks concerning platforms for manifesting difference. Throughout the first week of the biennial, UTOPIA NOW HERE will present a public program of presentations, discussions, meetings and excursions.

The full program will be continually updated here:
/ Istanbul Design Biennial / Program


More about the Istanbul Design Biennial
tasarimbienali.iksv.org/en


Featured Projects in Istanbul

Action Archive
/ Projects / Action Archive

DESIGN ACT
/ Projects / DESIGN ACT

Switch! Energy Futures
/ Projects / Switch! Energy Futures



Participants in Istanbul

Magnus Ericson
/ Participants / Magnus Ericson

Ramia Mazé
/ Participants / Ramia Mazé

Meike Schalk
/ Participants / Meike Schalk

UTOPIA NOW HERE takes place in Istanbul in collaboration with
The Consulate General of Sweden


Contact

Ramia Mazé
Phone: +46 705 942932
ramiamaze[at]gmail[dot]com

Magnus Ericson
Phone: +46 708 361481
mail[at]magnusericson[dot]se