Science Fictionality

From speculative futures to possible presents.

Photo: Pixabay

About the project

In today's world, the relationship between humans and nature is increasingly viewed as antagonistic, due to concerns about global warming, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and so on.

The future continuously appears as a closed horizon in popular culture, where we have passed the point of no return, our actions in the present have no greater purpose, and change seems impossible.

Science Fiction uses science fiction as the starting point for an inquiry into the cultural pre-requisites underlying societal imaginaries of possible change. The appeal of science fiction is that it enables us to speculate on, imagine, and anticipate possible futures, including future societies, future technologies, and future knowledge.

Yet, because this link between science fiction and the future is taken for granted, perhaps we are less conscious of how these imagined futures affect how we live and act in the present.

Objectives

The societal challenge is to find pathways to possible presents: In other words, use the cultural imaginary of multiple possible futures to be able to see, live and act in an open-ended, multiplicity of presents.

By means of studying a global corpus of climate fiction, from the Global North, Anglophone Literature, as well as the Global South, the project seeks to find these pathways. This is the aim of Science Fictionality.

Work packages for the project include:

WP1: Theory and Methods

WP2: Ideaweb

WP3 & 4: Comparative Studies

WP5: Environmental Humanities Integrations

Connect

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Cooperation

CoFutures: Pathways to Possible Presents

Financing

The Research Council of Norway , Fripro Young Research Talent (300931)

Duration

01.09.2020 - 31.08.2024

Publications

Other

Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva; Thorsson, Bergsveinn; Kanyu Wang, Regina & Larose, Tricia Lynn Lois (2021). Speculative Space Futures .
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2021). Framing Sustainability: How can museums navigate the complexities of sustainable development? .
Tveit, Marta (2021). Ytringsfrihet og akademisk frihet: Debatt om rasisme og sexisme.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2021). Speculative Futures of Love.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2021). Museums assembling Anthropocene(s).
Tveit, Marta (2021). Ordstyrer panel om ny norsk science fiction og deltager panel om klimafiksjon.
Tveit, Marta (2021). Makeshift Modernity: The rise of African Speculative Fiction . Africa Is A Country (Blog). Show summary
The rise of African Speculative Fiction and other exciting cultural production indicates that modernity is not an exercise in “catching up” with Europe, but an entirely new condition.
Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva & Tveit, Marta (2021). Africanfuturism with Dilman Dila.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2021). Future of love.
Tveit, Marta (2021). Gravøl for Olje-eventyret. Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839. Show summary
Fremtidsfiksjon om slutten på norsk oljetid
Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva (2021). “Jagadish Chandra Bose and the anticolonial politics of science fiction.” Podcast by Christin Höne. Journal of Commonwealth Literature Podcast Series. .
Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva (2021). Writing Weird Fiction.” TV Panel Discussion. Coffee Table with Mina Malik-Hussain. Indus News. [TV]. TV.
Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva; Thorsson, Bergsveinn; Brock, Patrick; Wang, Kanyu & Tveit, Marta (2021). Imagination Workshop.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2021). Curating Climate: Designing a polycentric approach to the climate crisis for museums. Show summary
How can museums navigate the incredibly complex phenomenon that the climate crisis is? Is it fair to expect museums to become experts in climate science, the multifarious impacts and implications of climate change and be leading figures in sustainable development? At the same time as they have their hands full with core responsibilities. While the task might seem insurmountable, museums have potentials to contribute in diverse ways. Adopting a polycentric approach to the crisis enables us to reexamine the idea that solutions to a global challenge needs to be global in scale. Rather we could assemble multiple actions and raise awareness on different scales, from the global, national to the local level. In this presentation I will argue that museums can play an important role in a polycentric approach of coping with climate change. I will introduce 5 interconnected pathways that draw from museums’ capacities and are intended to build up competences to become relevant actors in climate action. The pathways are Conceptualisations of Climate Change, Strategy and Futuring, Networking and Collaboration, Climate related Heritage, and Responsibility. The presented work is situated in the growing field of climate related museum studies, and is based on collaborations, conversations and research in Iceland and Norway.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2021). Assembling Anthropocenes.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2020). Curating Climate - Museums as contact zones of climate research, education and activism. Nordisk Museologi. ISSN 1103-8152. 30(3), p. 4–13. doi: 10.5617/nm.8625.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2020). Fatbergs as museum objects.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2020). Museums in the Anthropocene.
Thorsson, Bergsveinn (2020). More than a Review: On the role of museology in climate change communication and environmental humanities .
Chattopadhyay, Bodhisattva (2020). Afrofuturism.

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Published Mar. 19, 2020 3:23 PM - Last modified Aug. 31, 2020 1:27 PM

Contact

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

Head of project

Participants

Detailed list of participants