As the influence of technology, heightened by rapid innovation in the space of computational optimization enabled by phenomena such as Machine Learning and other forms of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ on society continues to manifest, societal changes are bound to outpace the readiness of humanity to grasp and make accommodations for such changes. Speculative scenarios present a valuable opportunity to build mental models through which such changes, amongst others, can be grappled with – a meta process to which artistic research and practice is quite well suited.
This project will, by taking advantage of the unique affordances offered by the process of envisioning speculative future scenarios through artistic, creative, technological and socio-political explorations, attempt to create a context, and the social architecture, for collaborative co-creation and exploration of different concepts of utopia.
Ayodele Arigbabu is a writer, architect and creative technologist. His creative output over the years in architecture, design, theatre, film, digital media, publishing, and event curation, has been informed by his multidisciplinary background, and his work is currently geared towards creating interfaces and experiences that straddle design, the arts and evolving technologies. He is the publisher and editor of LAGOS_2060, an anthology of science fiction from Africa, published in 2013 and was curator of African Futures: Lagos, the Lagos edition of a festival on diverse future perspectives of the African continent, produced by Goethe Institut in three African Cities in 2015. He is currently a PhD candidate in Artistic Research at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art.
