1. Project Review: ‘Making Room for Abolition’, by Lauren Williams.
- Author
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Toppins, Aggie
- Subjects
ABOLITIONISTS ,IMAGINATION ,IDEOLOGY ,STRUGGLE - Abstract
This review positions Lauren Williams’ installation ‘Making Room for Abolition’, shown in ‘Monolith’ at Red Bull Arts in Detroit, as a speculative design project that presents a two-fold critique: one directed at US society and the other, at speculative design itself. As a discourse and practice, speculative design offers a model for designing in sociallyoriented, post-capitalist contexts, but it has yet to fully unmoor itself from colonialist ideology. I present common critiques of speculative design—specifically: the lack of attention to race- and class-based struggles, the assumption that time is absolute, and its stance that preferable futures must be plausible—to show how Williams addresses these shortcomings while centering Black experiences and imagination in a dream of abolitionist futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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