A collaboration between artist Sophie Warren, architect Jonathan Mosley
and writer Robin Wilson, Beyond Utopia looks at the practicalities of
utopian thinking in urban planning and administrative culture.
Submitting a utopian architectural proposal for a real site in London to
city officials, the trio enacted a form of playful provocation as a
basis for exploring the systems and languages of planning, architecture
and city development. Though fictive, the utopian proposal gained
credence as it was discussed and shared among planning officials and
reviewers, ultimately becoming a springboard for dialogue about
possibilities and even actualities in the sphere of public space.
Centered on a screenplay for an unrealized film, which restages the
process and exchanges of the original proposal, Surface Tension
Supplement No. 5 also includes texts and projects by leading theorists,
artists and academics who debate the roles of spatial practice and
politics today.