Floating Worlds

We don’t draft designs in a void and cities don’t spring straight from our imaginations. Architecture is itself a designed object, circumscribed and delimited by the social, political, and economic conditions of the era. But, likewise, these conditions aren’t exactly natural—they’re designed by a host of actors and forces. In a way, the most-pressing design challenge today isn’t to create new forms, but to re-design the architecture of architecture, itself. And the first step in this process, like with any project, is visualization.

Floating Worlds comprises a series of lectures and live-conducted interviews centering oriented around potential roles for architecture in the contemporary neoliberal political economy, with a focus on issues pertaining to gender and identity. In a sense, what we’re looking at is how architecture is itself designed—and, specifically, how we can redesign the systems in which it is enmeshed. In what ways are people challenging these systems from within? How can we find loopholes in the current economic framework to create a more equitable world? How can we design support systems for those most affected by an unjust political economy? By examining a series of case studies, spatial aspects of contemporary socioeconomics are exposed, and potential strategies for movement are revealed.

Floating Worlds serves as the Los Angeles launch of (On the Floating World of) the FX Beauties, a multifaceted website and book project edited by Christine Bjerke. Each participant will give a brief presentation of their research, followed by a short interview in Archinect’s Next Up format, which will be released later as a podcast. The participants include: Bjerke, Jack Self (Real Foundation), support.fm, and f-architecture. The event will be followed by the Los Angeles premiere of Sun King, a performance piece by artist Robbie Trocchia. Floating Worlds is curated by Adjustments Agency.