“The definition of an ominous optimist is someone that goes through bad days in his life but is still optimistic for the future” says Mat Randol in “Ominous optimist ft. the solar system.” Such an affirmation synthesizes well the tone of this conversation with Mawena Yehouessi & Steffi Njoh Monny, respectively founder and editor-in-chief of the online platform Black(s) to the Future. In it, we discuss about the political role of science fiction and speculative visions for the African diaspora through humor and (terrestrial and extraterrestrial) gravity. Steffi Njoh Monny, as in Steffi Graf—same name, same date of birth, only twenty years earlier… ...

The man-made peninsula Palm Jumeirah on the coast of Dubai is a project of superlatives and an exemplary model for the gated communities and resorts that have developed worldwide in property bubbles. The development may be spectacular, but cannot conceal the fact that the former marketing success story is faced with serious problems. How can an isolated anti-urban exclave be opened up and integrated? Can issues concerning networking, the public sphere and affordable housing, as well as climate change adaptation, biodiversity and the supply of energy be resolved through targeted tactical interventions? The Charter of Dubai is a manifesto of ...

In this second episode with Alice Wong, we discuss the politics of the straw ban.

Equal parts Borges, Burroughs, Baudrillard, and Black Ops, Dispute Plan to Prevent Future Luxury Constitution charts a treacherous landscape filled with paranoid master plans, failed schemes, and dubious histories. Benjamin H. Bratton’s kaleidoscopic theory-fiction links the utopian fantasies of political violence with the equally utopian programs of security and control. Both rely on all manner of doubles, models, gimmicks, ruses, prototypes, and shockandawe campaigns to realize their propagandas of the deed, threat, and image. Blurring reality and delusion, they collaborate on a literally psychotic politics of architecture. The cast of characters in this ensemble drama of righteous desperation and tactical trickery shuttle ...

The Era of Objects is the third in a series of Blowup readers. It collects several essays exploring the future of objects, beyond the clichéd fantasy of the flying car. The scope of this reader is purposefully broad. The things that we use and how they are networked and attuned to us and our surroundings is a huge subject. The writers who have contributed to this e-Book approach the Internet of Things, design fiction, product design, speculative design, and the smart objects and environments of our future with all the shades of grey of humanity—whether it’s a fictional dialogue over a ...

In this book, stories portray the production of our built environment, guided by three characters: Giraffes, Telegraphs, and Hero of Alexandria. Having developed its long neck to reach the leaves of high trees, the giraffe represents the vernacular approach to architecture, in which construction follows forces of nature. The telegraph, in contrast, embodies the modernist paradigm, in which technology reigns supreme and forces nature to adapt. Inspired by Hero of Alexandria, we subscribe to a third paradigm – using technology to optimize nature and, inversely, nature to assimilate technology.The book is a collection of 13 architecture and urban research projects ...

This conversation is an interview I did with graphic novelist Marc-Antoine Mathieu for Chicago-based architectural journal MAS Context (Issue 20: Narrative). The interview was made in French as you will hear, but for the purpose of Archipelago, this version is dub with the English version given by Liduam Pong. Marc-Antoine and I speak about his fascination to design labyrinths in which he can loose his characters, his readers, and himself as well. We also evoke the specificity offered by this unique medium of the graphic novel, as well as the way third and fourth dimensions can be considered and imagined through this ...

This conversation with Martin Byrne aims at introducing the rich literary work of science fiction author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982). We explore together his recurrent hypotheses of overlapping realities, the idea of entropy of matter and mind as expressed through the neologisms of kipple and gubble, the question of what is a human being thanks to the character of the android, and finally Dick’s mysticism through his exegesis. Dick’s work has been adapted many times in cinema and is recurrently quoted in current events, as his inexhaustible imagination has depicted more or less near futures which base tell us something about our present. Martin ...

In Outer Space as Extreme Scenario, a range of specially-commissioned and previously published pieces have been collected which investigate how the exploration of outer space has inspired and challenged artists, designers, thinkers, and the general public. This eBook, the seventh in the series of Blowup readers released by V2_, explores the extreme scenario that is outer space. It forms part of the ongoing research into Innovation in Extreme Scenarios carried out by V2_Lab…

Popppappp is a novel about the visual and the political. Two British graphic designers find themselves imprisoned in a brutalist Syrian media centre by the Kamerads, a fanatical paramilitary organisation intent on making a fundamentalist religion from the lyrics of Sark E. Myth, lead singer in post-punk band the Foul. Popppappp and the Cowardly Minotaur believe they can stay alive as long as their design skills enhance the Sark-e-hideen’s broadcasts and magazines. All around them hostages are being executed and cultural monuments destroyed, but the two designers sit in Arne Jacobsen Ant chairs discussing the design history of watches, cars ...

Volume 09_Science Fiction includes: Introduction: When James Graham Ballard meets Philip K. Dick, What do They Talk About? — Science Fiction as an Inventor of Dilemmas: From Utopia to Apocalypse (by Peter Paik) — 2037 (by Raja Shehadeh) — Collision, Sexuality and Resistance — Ballardian Landscapes: Desacralizing Thaumaturgic Modernity — The Fouled Beauty of James Graham Ballard — Letter to James Graham Ballard (April 14th 2009) — Psychotropic Houses (by James Graham Ballard) — The Brutal Art of Enki Bilal — The Work of Philip K. Dick: Between Paranoia and Schizophrenia — Funambulist Paper #03: Transcendent Delusion or; The Dangerous ...

In the second episode of my miniseries interviewing my professors and advisors from MICA, I talk to my writing professor, Abraham Burickson. In addition to teaching writing at MICA, Abe is also an architect, poet, and performance artist who runs Odyssey Works, a performance group that creates durational performances for audiences of one. In this conversation, Abe and I talk about his background the relationship between design, writing, and performance, design fictions, and creating experiences.