Landscape Imagination

Philippe Vandenbroeck

In this course, we will approach a given territory as an invitation to cultivate and apply a practice of imagination. Our aim is to move beyond the commodification of imagination, often viewed as a tool for success in the neoliberal race to the bottom. Nor will we treat imagination merely as a faculty complementary to sensory perception, used to conjure absent or non-existent entities within the ‘theatre of the mind.’ Instead, we will explore a systemic and layered practice of imagination.

This practice is systemic in two senses: first, it engages with the diverse ‘assets’ embedded within a territory; second, it reflexively considers how we, as living beings, are structurally coupled to our Umwelt—our ambient world. This conceptual foundation will guide our development as agents of territorial transformation, or “imaginagents,” (to underline the contrast with corporate “imagineers”).

Practically, we will commit to bringing ‘experimental futures’ to life through what Donna Haraway calls ‘string figuring’—a process of “passing and receiving, making and unmaking, picking up threads and dropping them”. Students will be introduced to a repertoire of agential patterns, nurturing their own unique practice of ‘worlding’ a territory. This repertoire includes mapping, performing, speculating, playing, making, dancing and more.