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Collective Scenarios: rehearsing, predicting and speculating on climate futures (2019-2022)

• PI Professor Renata Tyszczuk. Major Research Fellowship Leverhulme Trust £177,322

This 3 year research and publication project will produce a cultural history of 'scenarios', revealing the under-acknowledged origins, practices and hence assumptions of scenario building for climate futures. The project will uncover the inter-relations of scenario-based methods in various disciplines, including the calculative technologies of the climate science-policy interface, the narrative processes in science fiction, and anticipation strategies in projects for future ecosystem and urban design. The study will lead to a monograph and an online open access resource of research materials on the past, present and future of scenarios of climate change.

Culture and Climate Change 2009 – ongoing

• PI Professor Renata Tyszczuk (joint) with Professor Joe Smith (RGS with IBG, formerly the Open University)

I lead the programme of work – a framework for a series of research projects, public events and publications. I co-founded Culture and Climate Change with Joe Smith and am also the joint editor of the book series (with Joe Smith, and Robert Butler, OU). The project website holds information about the publications, events and linked research projects.

The four public discussions on cultural dimensions of climate change that launched the project featured leading figures from the arts and journalism, as well as humanities and social science researchers, and were chaired by Quentin Cooper of BBC´s Material World. They took place at the Tipping Point Conference, Oxford University; Eden Project; Open University, Camden; and the National Theatre Studio in 2010 and are available as the ‘Mediating Change’ podcasts on iTunes U.

The first book published in the series was: Butler, Margolies, Smith and Tyszczuk (eds.) Culture and Climate Change: Recordings (Cambridge: Shed, 2011);

In 2013-2014 the group collaborated with TippingPoint and the Free Word Centre in London on a series of events for writers and journalists. The second book published was Smith, Tyszczuk and Butler, Culture and Climate Change: Narratives (Cambridge: Shed, 2014). It features six essays, eleven short stories and an edited transcript from an event held in December 2013 at the Free Word Centre. Over twenty contributors including authors Marina Warner and Caspar Henderson, poet Ruth Padel, journalist Isobel Hilton and neuroscientist Kris De Meyer address the question ‘What Sort Of Story is Climate Change’?

The next book in the series will be Culture and Climate Change: Scenarios (editors: R. Tyszczuk, J. Smith, and R. Butler) and will feature contributions from members of the academic research network on Scenarios of Climate Change (2.) and artists and arts organisations involved in the Climate Change in Residence project (3.).

Scenarios of Climate Change Research Network 2017- 2018

• PI Dr Renata Tyszczuk; Co-I Professor Simon Marvin UoS;
• GO fund (Grantham Opportunities of the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures (£7.8K)

The ‘Scenarios of Climate Change’ Research Network was a Culture and Climate Change project in collaboration with the School of Architecture and Urban Institute, University of ºù«Ӱҵ. The project convened a series of interdisciplinary seminars. The aims were to explore how scenarios are used in the discussion of climate change, but also to examine how and why a range of disciplines use scenarios differently.

Climate Change in Residence: Future Scenarios 2015-2017

• PI Dr Renata Tyszczuk; Co-I Professor Joe Smith (RGS with IBG, formerly The Open University)

This Culture and Climate Change project established a new approach to arts-science residencies for the co-production of novel scenarios of future climate change. The project connected emerging cultural work on climate change directly to research into climate change scenarios by eg. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The project was launched at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in Paris in December 2015. The project was based at the University of ºù«Ӱҵ, working in partnership with the arts organisations Arts Admin and Free Word Centre, both in London, and the Open University Open Space Research Centre. The project was jointly funded by an R&D IIKE grant from the University of ºù«Ӱҵ and The Ashden Trust (£30K April 2015) and the Jerwood Charitable Trust (£30K July 2015).

Updates on the project are available on the 

‘Stories of Change: Exploring energy and community in the past, present and future’ 2014-2017

• PI Professor Joe Smith (RGS with IBG, formerly The Open University); Co-I; PI (UoS) Dr Renata Tyszczuk

The AHRC funded Stories of Change research project set out to challenge the terms of public debates about energy issues. It sought to examine areas of conflict, make space for more diverse voices and support a more open public conversation about energy system transitions. The project explored energy transformations of the past, present and future through an innovative mix of social science and humanities research, digital storytelling, short films, and other creative work. It also generated a publicly accessible collection of ‘stories of change’. I led one of three strands in the project, ‘Future Works’ based at ºù«Ӱҵ, which explored connections between energy, industry and community in the Derwent Valley region at a range of factory sites.

The project was funded by an AHRC Connected Communities: Communities, Cultures, Environment and Sustainability grant (£1.47 M). During the development phase the project team was awarded an AHRC Connected Communities development grant (£15K February – May 2013). The project stemmed from an AHRC Research Development Workshop on Communities, Cultures, Environments and Sustainability (May 2012). The project has received further funding for public engagement activities and events at AHRC Connected Communities Festivals: ‘One Great Workshop’ ºù«Ӱҵ Design Week 2015 (£9.65K) and ‘Utopia Works’ Derby Silk Mill and ‘Utopia Fair’ Somerset House London, 2016 (£20K).

Provisional Cities 2013 – ongoing

• PI Dr Renata Tyszczuk

I have developed and expanded my research on architecture, provisionality and environmental change. This has included accounts of architecture’s relation to global environmental change (Smith et al. 2014, Tyszczuk et al., 2012; Butler et al., 2011).

The research is rooted in investigations of the interactions between natural physical events, philosophical and cultural transitions and dramatic revisions of architectural theory and practice as set out in my book on experimental architectures and cities in the eighteenth century (Tyszczuk, 2007). My recent book Provisional Cities, brings these considerations into dialogue with discussions around the Anthropocene (the ‘age of humans’).

The project has received British Academy funding (Provisional City: Revising the role of architecture in responding to environmental change- book and public communications project British Academy Mid Career Fellowship award £117K; 2013-2014); In the same year I was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge.

Book: R. Tyszczuk, Provisional Cities: Cautionary Tales for the Anthropocene (Routledge, 2018)

The book was launched at the Culture and Climate Change Exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society 12-28 June 2018. The exhibition featured a series of models, or ‘miniature biospheres’ made during the writing of the book.

Interdependence Day 2006 – 2012

• PPI Professor Joe Smith, (RGS with IBG, formerly OU) Co-I Dr Renata Tyszczuk; Co-I Professor Nigel Clark (formerly OU, currently University of Lancaster).

A research and communications project which sought to provoke new thinking about how we should act in, and think about, an interconnected world. The Interdependence Day project has been rooted in a partnership between OU Open Space/Geography, University of ºù«Ӱҵ School of Architecture and nef, the new economics foundation.

Public events, broadcasts and publications have drawn together a range of relevant OpenSpace researchers and worked with policy, artist and media partners, as well as the Geographical Association, to provoke fresh thinking and wide public impact.

The project aimed to refresh jaded debates about sustainable development, globalization and environmental change through an integrated body of activities comprising: academic work, such as the ESRC/NERC funded interdisciplinary seminars and related publications; direct public engagement, e.g. through the Interdependence Day public events and workshops, and a reach to wider publics through broadcast and webcasting.

The project culminated in a sellout event at London's Southbank Centre, a web ATLAS of Interdependence and a printed ATLAS. These concluding publications and events brought together many of the contributors to the project, drawn from the natural and social sciences, arts, media and policy.

The project’s seminar series was funded by the ESRC and NERC. The events, web publication and project book ATLAS were funded by the Frederick Soddy Trust and the Open Space Research Centre.