Utopia Lab: The Understorey

Edinburgh Futures Institute

Part of Edinburgh Futures Institute's, Making Waves event season.

Edinburgh Futures Institute - Room 2.55

Utopia is a ‘no-space’ for contemplation, innovation and collaboration. The term utopia was coined from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. The word comes from Greek: οὐ (“not”) and τόπος (“place”) and means “no-place” and strictly describes any non-existent society ‘described in considerable detail’.Our Utopia Labs are ‘no-spaces’, places where everyone is welcome to join us in dreaming futures that inspire our experience of the present. Our labs curate interactions between academics, artists, entrepreneurs, students and audiences in person and online globally. We are interested in that which is provocative and irreverent as well as that which is nurturing and joyful. Utopia questions are catalysts for inquiry, learning and creativity. With an emphasis on innovative and experimental ways of communicating, we will explore meditation, dialogue and co-creation with the help of a facilitator. Participants consist of University of Edinburgh staff and students, and non-University practitioners.In this Utopia Lab session, artist and writer Anna Chapman Parker will present her understanding of Utopia, looking at how creative practices can respond to feelings of uncertainty, disconnection and powerlessness. We will explore a variety of drawing and reading-drawing activities through which to engage with the everyday wildness of common local plants, or ‘weeds’. We will consider what Utopia means and how it could be a useful crucible in which to explore positive change. 10am-11am: Welcome, Warm Up and Introductions11am-12:30pm: Walking – Seeing – Drawing12:30pm-1:30pm: Lunch1:30pm-3:30pm: Reading – Drawing – Sharing3:30pm-4pm: Integration Lunch and materials for creating will be provided. The lab will also include meditation, poetry reading/listening and simple movement and breathing exercises. All body types and levels of experience welcome. Please wear comfortable clothing and be prepared to go for a walk outdoors, in whatever the weather. <h3>Additional Information</h3>Entry will be via the Edinburgh Futures Institute north entrance on Lauriston Place (clocktower entrance).This event will be photographed/recorded, and may be used for future marketing, promotional or archive purposes. If you would prefer not to be photographed/recorded, please let us know at the event.

<h3>Speaker Biographies</h3> Anna Chapman ParkerAnna Chapman Parker is an artist and writer based in Northumberland. Her work explores relationships between drawing, writing, body and place. She is particularly interested in acts of focused observation; in how we record and report periods of looking within the increasingly mediated culture of the attention economy. She uses a variety of materials and methods from ink drawing to digital media, often navigating uncertain relationships between drawing and text.Recent exhibitions include Sonikebana, commissioned by Edinburgh College of Art for Edinburgh Art Festival; Imprints: Art Edits Modernism at Shandy Hall, Yorkshire; and I sat till I could see no longer at Fife Contemporary Arts, St Andrews. My writing has appeared in Happy Hypocrite, MAP and Rake’s Progress.Understorey, her first book, was published by Duckworth Books in June 2024, and was featured or reviewed in The Observer, The Scotsman and the Daily Mail.Jennifer WilliamsJennifer Williams is the Creative Projects Manager at Edinburgh Futures Institute. She manages a portfolio of creative projects that connect the work of the Institute to communities within the University of Edinburgh and beyond its walls. Utopia Lab, for instance, is a project in which people from many different places gather to dream futures that inspire our experience of the present and allow us to see the world in new ways that enable change.Jennifer is a poet and librettist and her background is in writing, art, collaboration, creative learning and project management. Williams is particularly interested in expanding dialogues across languages, perspectives and cultures and in poetry, cross-form work, music, visual art, dance, opera and theatre. She is concerned with the body, and how slowing down can help busy people to experience their connection to themselves, one another and the world more fully.She holds a BA degree from Wellesley College in English Literature with a Studio Art minor, and an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Recent posts have included Projects &amp; Engagement Coordinator at the Institute for Academic Development, Programme Manager at the Scottish Poetry Library and Literature Officer at the Traverse Theatre.See Jennifer’s website (<a href="http://www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk/" title="http://www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.jlwilliamspoetry.co.uk</a>) for more information about her own creative explorations.Matjaz VidmarDr Matjaz Vidmar is one of the first utopians, joining the pilot project in 2019. He is excited about philosophical, processual and political implications of utopian thinking, but actually enjoys the off-grid, poetry-infused meditative vibe of our labs the most. Matjaz is also an academic in Engineering Management, where he is researching innovation processes, R&amp;D (eco)systems and futures strategies and design, especially within the space industry, artificial intelligence and data-driven economy. He leads interdisciplinary projects spanning arts, science and civil society, he is involved in several start-up companies; and he delivers an extensive public engagement programme. More at <a href="https://www.blogs.ed.ac.uk/vidmar" title="https://www.blogs.ed.ac.uk/vidmar" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.blogs.ed.ac.uk/vidmar</a>

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Utopia Lab: The Understorey

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