Royal Academy of Art: FLUX

The Mad Max series was not the only source for inspiration. One could think as well about the epoxy taped world of science fiction writer William Gibson who describes a city as a bricolage of junk held together by rough epoxy joints, taped to the rafters of Technotopia, jury rigged and jerry-built from scraps that even Nighttown didn’t want. And we did not forget to pay attention to the original inventors of these worlds of flux: the 1960s London architects collective Archigram who completely overturned the preexisting concept of how design operates. A practice of deconstruction gains all its force by challenging the very values of harmony, unity and stability. The Lab’s theme gravitates around the research question how an artist can achieve a state of independence using strategies of adaptation and Nomad Thinking; applying tactics to ignore institutions but instead work around these fossilized structures. During the Lab we tried to avoid dwelling too long on high minded debates on Art and Culture. Instead we hope to prepare a new generation of artists for the dark forecasts that predict an unstable future. The Lab functions as a toolkit to survive the rough crossing that lies ahead of us.