Publications

Using waveform LiDAR data to measure the three-dimensional nature of the urban greenspace, we explore different ways of virtually, and tangibly engaging with volumetric models describing the 3D distribution of urban vegetation.

The Ephemeral Garden evokes the sense of convivial gatherings under a pergola. The murmur of conversation, complemented with the sound of animate matter. Recorded and composed in Istria during May 2018, this piece is part of FoAM’s sound installation presented at the Croatian pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018.

In this paper we present a cross-section of FoAM and Time’s Up’s work with physical narratives (PNs), which draw upon experiential futures and experience design. We introduce PNs as explorable, multisensory spaces before discussing the importance of enabling social interaction. We describe a series of creative experiments with PNs to illustrate our approach to futures in an artistic context, including installations, exhibitions and festivals. We do not intend to provide a critical analysis of the design process, methods or implications, rather, the article offers a reflection on our motivations and insights. As an invitation to further dialogue between transdisciplinary fields, we conclude with a call for futurecrafting at a human scale.

The work of care in the Anthropocene is a struggle with scale and scope and sentience. Maybe in order to care across spatial and temporal scales — to care for a loved one as much as for an eroding hill or decaying infrastructure — we need alternatives to the current cultural imaginaries. We need new stories to live by. New or alternative myths, drawn from ever more diverse mythologies. Terraforming, for example, can be understood as planetary engineering, composting or home making. Humankind has been terraforming earth for millennia, and before leaving the planet to terraform the solar system and beyond, it might be wise to focus on terraforming our internal landscapes first...

We describe a system we have developed called Mongoose 2000 for the study of multiple individuals in the wild over many years.

A commonplace book about living in the desert. The Dust & Shadow Readers are self-published collections of writings and bibliographic wandering designed to accompany our speculative experiments with the Laboratory for Critical Technics in and around the deserts of Arizona.

This paper shows for the first time that Ranavirus truncates the age structure of amphibian populations, and that this increase in adult mortality could heighten the vulnerability of frog populations to stochastic environmental challenges.

We compared gene expression of frogs with and without epidemic disease, and by chance also find differences in the frog microbiomes indicating an interaction between the microbiome and disease.

The Dust & Shadow soundwalk is an experiment in attunement to an urban desert environment through diverse forms of listening. Walking in silence through the Sonoran dust in the shadow of civilisation, the walkers may begin to hear the murmur of matter, uncover desert refugia amidst urban life, and forge new connections with the unexpected.

FoAM's views on futures, uncertainty, attunement and transformation. This article is adapted from FoAM's lecture-performance at the "Anticipation 2017".