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Short abstract:

Our conference contribution focuses on artistic strategies to participate in spatial imaginaries of the future of two sites: The city of Cologne and the coastal village of Fairbourne, in order to make proposals for a situated, process-oriented and collaborative form of spatial futures.

Long abstract:

In view of current global crises and rising inequalities, many sites have come under heightened pressure to develop ideas for a more just and liveable future. Cities and coastal sites will increasingly be affected by climate change as ecological, social and housing challenges come to a head in multiple ways. Both sites are habitats where linear projections of the future as a continuation of the present no longer are viable. Instead, we need methods that deal flexibly and openly with uncertainty, understand existing unexplored potentials as a resource and, simultaneously, involve a variety of people in change processes in order to create acceptance for and identification with the new. Our contribution focuses on the potential of artistic strategies to participate in spatial imaginaries of the future of these two sites. Taking up processes of urban development and coastal defence in Cologne (Germany) and Fairbourne (Wales), we investigate the significance and function of artistic research in creating translations of the future that appeal to our senses and therefore become imaginable. Collaging narratives, spaces and temporalities, creating cuts and ruptures in imagined and physical space as well as highlighting different perspectives and scales, linear narratives that can act as closures of space (Massey, 2005) are interrupted and opened up again. This way it becomes possible to sketch out and anticipate future scenarios that are already unravelling, in small steps, collaboratively. Based on our different methodologies, we aim to make proposals for a situated, process-oriented and collaborative form of spatial futures.