The Storm: A Utopian Forecast for London?

In dialogue and collaboration with artist collective Fourthland, UCL Urban Laboratory will host an experimental pedagogy - using performance as research - to unpick narratives of London's regeneration. The Storm: A Utopian Forecast for London? weaves together layers of narratives within regeneration, urban planning and grass-roots movements into a participatory re-enactment.

The Storm brews in response to the increasing privatisation of public spaces and the sanitization of interaction; and the potent viewpoints of human interaction, collective action and the activities that stabilize the local people economy. Reflecting on Ruth Levitas' notions of utopia as method rather than a distant goal, The Storm produces a method of utopia constructed through the imaginary reconstruction of society through architecture, archaeology and ontology. Seeking, in its aftermath, to create a new atmosphere of conversing and questioning across disciplines. The multi-media experience fuses together a collection of various public enquiries, consultations, publications and planning meetings. Set alongside observations of social engaged processes, land acts and collected sounds.

Taking place as part of the UTOPIA season in the epicentre of London at (and next to) Somerset House and as part of the London Festival of Architecture programme, The Storm emerges from Fourthland's social practice on various London estates and two years of research attendance at public enquiry and developer led consultations. The work has also developed in response to enquiries within the Urban Laboratory, including questions on education for the future city, the cultural representations of urban life through Cities Imaginaries, and concepts emerging from Cities Methodologies.

Tickets are free and are available via a ballot, to ensure a range of voices and dialogues are present in the storm. The ballot is open 6 - 17 June. Add your name here.

Visitors can experience the work in the Utopia Treasury from 27 June - 3 July. After the Storm on Sunday 3 July will be an opportunity for a wider audience to learn and discuss the event within the archaeology and archive of the re-enactment.

Further links:

• Ticket ballot
  
• Call for text: The Storm: A Utopian Forecast for London?