Project space in the Upper East Side has been transformed into a hyper-reality testing environment. It was populated with a series of experiential futures prototypes that investigate our relationships in a spectrum of post-oil scenarios.
In a private walkthrough, Heather Davis (Eugene Lang College, The New School), Elizabeth Henaff (NYU IDM), Timothy Furstnau(Museum Of Capitalism) and Karen Pinkus (Cornell University, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Ithaca) were invited to immerse themselves into alternative imaginations that explore new values and imaginaries for a post-petro New York City.
In a following public online roundtable and showcase participants were invited to delve into these scenarios together with our visiting critics and responded and discussed the provocations that the students have crafted over the course of the semester.
Imagine, oil-eating microbionts have taken over, cleaning up our current environmental mess. But they have also done away with everything beautiful and essential made out of plastics.
Imagine, the use of fossil fuels and all fossil-fuelled technology has been forbidden without a proper energetic substitute. Everything eventually has to be driven down. Less mobility, less luxury, no exuberance. Deserted petromodern infrastructures refueled with petronostalgia.
Imagine, the American Way of Life reloaded, a return of cheap oil due to some scientific and technical breakthroughs. More consumption, more mobility, more wars, more of everything. Utopia or nightmare?
The 1014 project space has been transformed into a hyper-reality testing environment. It is populated with experiential futures prototypes that investigate our relationships in a spectrum of post-oil scenarios. Through narrative techniques and design futures methods, a design studio at CUNY Citytech led by participatory futures practitioner Chris Woebken and cultural researcher Alexander Klose has developed a series of bespoke design interventions and immersive installations throughout our upper east side townhouse project space. In a private walkthrough, Heather Davis (Eugene Lang College, The New School), Elizabeth Henaff (NYU IDM), Timothy Furstnau (Museum Of Capitalism) and Karen Pinkus (Cornell University, Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Ithaca) were invited to immerse themselves into these alternative imaginations that explore new values and imaginaries for a post-petro New York City.
In this online talk, our guests delved into these precarious scenarios, while discussing and responding to new values, myths, and cultural imaginations that might emerge while being shaped by the afterlives of petro-modernity.
Documentation
