This is a recording of a lecture for the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, presenting a design framework developed to explore the discursive practices of design within educational settings. Special thanks to Tim Miller for the invitation.
Abstract:
Imagine, if you will, a world where the narratives we tell ourselves are not truths etched in the firmament but fabrications—fragile, deliberate, and often cruel. Critical fables are a design practice that lays bare these fabrications, exposing the fragile and constructed nature of the realities we inhabit.
Critical fables use the crafted object, the tangible story, to unravel entrenched assumptions and challenge the arbitrary foundations of what we take for granted. They speak through materiality, insisting that the act of making is itself an act of rethinking. In each artefact lies not only a critique but a confrontation with power, with history, and with possibility.
What emerges is not escape but engagement: the slow, deliberate work of reshaping—not just the future, but the present, here and now. These fables do not seek to escape the world; they aim to reconfigure it, to reassemble its pieces into forms that hold hope, resistance, and possibility. And so, they ask us, the makers and the dreamers: what will you craft from the stories you have inherited?
All content for Very Very Far Away is the property of VVFA and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
This is a recording of a lecture for the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, presenting a design framework developed to explore the discursive practices of design within educational settings. Special thanks to Tim Miller for the invitation.
Abstract:
Imagine, if you will, a world where the narratives we tell ourselves are not truths etched in the firmament but fabrications—fragile, deliberate, and often cruel. Critical fables are a design practice that lays bare these fabrications, exposing the fragile and constructed nature of the realities we inhabit.
Critical fables use the crafted object, the tangible story, to unravel entrenched assumptions and challenge the arbitrary foundations of what we take for granted. They speak through materiality, insisting that the act of making is itself an act of rethinking. In each artefact lies not only a critique but a confrontation with power, with history, and with possibility.
What emerges is not escape but engagement: the slow, deliberate work of reshaping—not just the future, but the present, here and now. These fables do not seek to escape the world; they aim to reconfigure it, to reassemble its pieces into forms that hold hope, resistance, and possibility. And so, they ask us, the makers and the dreamers: what will you craft from the stories you have inherited?
Live #9 - "What were you expecting?" and "5 to 9" by Nicholas Mortimer - VVFA at Sugarhouse studios
Very Very Far Away
21 minutes 50 seconds
7 years ago
Live #9 - "What were you expecting?" and "5 to 9" by Nicholas Mortimer - VVFA at Sugarhouse studios
Radio Play - "What Were you expecting" - (an ode of post-work imaginaries) Written the didactic style of past workers-theatre . Featuring the voice of Ruth Urquhart and the Natural Readers ensemble. (14 mins 40 sec)
The embodiment of expectation is joined by a neural network and 3 chat-bots on a journey of transformation and song. In a distant parallel desert reality, a fortune teller working in a job centre suffers a moment of clarity. The arrival of a new piece of hardware begins a process of critical consciousness, examining the expectations and design of future job roles.
Musical Interlude : "5 to 9" - Vocaloid song with Neural Network assisted lyrics derived from job advertisements and proposed network conditions for sustainable lifestyles. Featuring Gno the wet computer. (5 mins 30 secs)
More information at nicholasmortimer.net
Very Very Far Away
This is a recording of a lecture for the Department of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, presenting a design framework developed to explore the discursive practices of design within educational settings. Special thanks to Tim Miller for the invitation.
Abstract:
Imagine, if you will, a world where the narratives we tell ourselves are not truths etched in the firmament but fabrications—fragile, deliberate, and often cruel. Critical fables are a design practice that lays bare these fabrications, exposing the fragile and constructed nature of the realities we inhabit.
Critical fables use the crafted object, the tangible story, to unravel entrenched assumptions and challenge the arbitrary foundations of what we take for granted. They speak through materiality, insisting that the act of making is itself an act of rethinking. In each artefact lies not only a critique but a confrontation with power, with history, and with possibility.
What emerges is not escape but engagement: the slow, deliberate work of reshaping—not just the future, but the present, here and now. These fables do not seek to escape the world; they aim to reconfigure it, to reassemble its pieces into forms that hold hope, resistance, and possibility. And so, they ask us, the makers and the dreamers: what will you craft from the stories you have inherited?
