Imagining Transformation: Applied Theater and the Making of Collaborative Future Scenarios

Abstract

A key challenge for geographers today is to enable and develop creative practice that imagines and engenders alternatives to existing political, economic and ecological practices. This paper examines the applied theater project The Factory of the Future. The project used critical creative methodologies wherein collaborative, improvised, speculative, and open-ended future scenarios were imagined. The paper reflects on the facilitation of the project in order to develop a practical understanding of how capacities for transformation can be nurtured through applied theater.

地理学者面临的主要挑战是&#:应用和发展创造性的方法&#，去假想和实现政治、经济和生态方法的替代方法。本文探讨了一个应用剧场项目—“未来工厂”&#（The Factory of the Future&#）。该项目采用批判性和创造性的方法&#，假想了协作、即兴、推测和开放式的未来场景。本文反映了该项目的促进作用&#，切实理解了应用剧场如何培育变革的能力。

Un reto clave para los geógrafos actuales es habilitar y desarrollar una práctica creativa con la cual se puedan concebir y perfeccionar alternativas a las prácticas políticas, económicas y ecológicas existentes. Este escrito examina el proyecto teatral aplicado que se denomina La fábrica del futuro. Este proyecto usó metodologías creativas críticas dentro de las cuales se diseñaron futuros escenarios colaborativos, improvisados, especulativos y abiertos. En el artículo se reflexiona sobre las propiedades del proyecto para desarrollar un entendimiento práctico sobre cómo alimentar las capacidades de transformación por medio del teatro aplicado.

Key Words:

• applied theater
• future scenarios
• improvisation
• transformation

Key Words:

• 应用剧场
• 未来场景
• 即兴创作
• 变革

Key Words:

• escenarios futuros
• improvisación
• teatro aplicado
• transformación

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank Harriet Hawkins for her critical comments that helped develop and ground the arguments presented in this article. I extend my gratitude to Zoe Svendsen for accommodating my research on and with The Factory of the Future in such a generous way. Lastly, a thank you to Oslo Architecture Triennale and the photographer Istvan Virag for giving his permission to use his pictures of the project in this article.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy under Grant R10931.

Notes on contributors

Cecilie Sachs Olsen

CECILIE SACHS OLSEN is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Urban and Regional Research at Oslo Metropolitan University, 0166 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include creative methods for urban research and exploring how artistic practice can be used as a framework to analyse and re-imagine urban planning, space and politics.