"Hailing all radical interventionists, pedantic correctionists, & mundane reformists: the Futurological Congress is the premier venue for bleeding-edge research into global course correction. Probing the environs of love and care at the end of the world. Our submissions platform is now open for speakers. Please submit and save the world. "

This workshop is hosted by Rilla Khaled and Francis Patrick Brady who will lead you through two different complementary explorations of possible futures framed by the worlding of a fictional conference: the Futurological Congress.

Francis Brady will lead you into the Futurological Congress, a Live Action Role Play where you play the role of academics (“Futurologists”) at a giant conference, all meeting to suggest radical solutions to solve the world’s problems whilst the world outside is in turmoil. Partly based upon the satirical science fiction novel by the Polish author Stanislaw Lem and using the card game DOHL (Divergent Organisation for Hierarchical Labour), each participant will be assigned a new career and job title, as well as the challenge to collectively establish how to save the world whilst the riots and world disasters are getting ever closer, and begin spilling into the conference hall...

Picking up where Brady leaves off, Rilla Khaled will step you through a design process for Speculative Play, which involves embodying and enacting possible futures via contemporary digital interfaces. Participants will begin by brainstorming in groups about personal experiences and contemporary cultural norms, and will then engage in an ideation process that involves science fiction writing and world building, all communicated via highly familiar tools and platforms (Zoom, Tinder, Twitter, etc.)

Dr. Rilla Khaled is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada, where she teaches interaction design, serious game design, and programming, among other subjects. She is the director of the Technoculture, Art, and Games (TAG) Research Centre, Canada's most well-established games research lab, in the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture, and Technology. Dr. Khaled's research is focused on the use of interactive technologies to improve the human condition, a career-long passion that has led to diverse outcomes, including designing award-winning serious games, creating speculative prototypes
of near-future technologies, developing a framework for game design specifically aimed at reflective outcomes, and working with Indigenous communities to use contemporary technologies to imagine new, inclusive futures.

Francis Patrick Brady

Francis Patrick Brady is an Artist, Lecturer & Curator living and working in Malmö, Copenhagen and London. He uses play and participation as strategies for creating installation, performance and workshops that involve handmade objects, sewn fabrics, cards, soundscapes, text, collage. Often these artworks resemble the shape of a game; though they act to explore the everyday practices of worldbuilding in contemporary society; between creating fantasy and maintaining reality.

He is currently in residence at InterArtsCentre (SE) and has presented projects recently at  ALT-CPH (DK), SIGNAL (SE), Moderna Museet (SE), PLX (SE), SØ gallery (DK), Delfi (SE), TURF projects (UK), Turner Contemporary (UK) Vermilion Sands (DK). He has projects upcoming at Roskilde Museet for Samtidskunst (DK)and Copenhagen Contemporary (DK).

He is co-founder and curator at ‘Celsius Projects’ gallery in Malmö and co-organiser of the art collective ‘Union Group’ who have a focus on Roleplay, VR, consent safety, and immersive practices. He is associate lecturer at Chelsea College of Art at University of London and regularly teaches workshops at other art universities and institutions.