Negotiating Spaces is a new nine-month investigation on themes emerging from over a year of collaborative workshops in London, New York, Frankfurt and Copenhagen. The project will convene a working group of 30 practitioners from backgrounds as diverse as architecture, urban planning, choreography, music, software design, performance, acoustic engineering, sociology, literature, activism, geography and contemporary art to consider the divergent tools these practices hold to create and negotiate spaces in the contemporary city.
At the core of the investigation is the question of ‘Negotiation’ as a central tenet of the contemporary city in two senses: First to negotiate as in the practice of deliberation, dialogue, contestation and compromise. Second to negotiate is also to overcome, to find a way over or through. ‘Negotiating Spaces’ reflects these two tactics for navigating the urban. This collaborative investigation is a first step to uncover the tools and experiences from a wide range of disciplines in the spatial practices, visual and performance arts, in an effort to ask questions about how we negotiate spaces today.
Four salons centred on the themes of Time, Knowledge, Place and Material build up to a public symposium in the Spring of 2014. The first salon ‘Negotiating Time: Can the temporary leave a trace?’ launched on 25 June 2013 at The Shed, National Theatre.
For more information about this collaboration and other Theatrum Mundi projects, visit the project website.
