In this Neo-Futuristic walk we will immerse into Rivierenhof landscapes that have been changing during the last few hundred years and continue to evolve. During our walk we will pay attention to what is emerging from our observations, memories and active imagination connecting with local water, soil, air, light, plants and other beings. While immersing into sensorial exploration of the local watery landscapes, we will think through and feel the warming climate and extreme weather events.As sentient water and land beings we will explore our inner and outer landscapes in the ecotones along the Schijn river, especially focusing on how local waters and plants are interacting and creating diverse, vital, constantly moving relationships.
At the end we will close our walk with a small tea ceremony and time for sharing lived experiences.
Access info:
- It is recommended participants wear comfortable shoes and clothes. Surfaces are uneven and can be slippery.
- The approximate duration of the walk is 3 hours, including neo-futurist activities and moments.
- Any access concerns or barriers, please email neofuturistic.walks@gmail.com
About Neo-futuristic Walks: Wetlands
This year, Neo-futuristic Walks in the new phase, called Wetlands, invite strolling through London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Antwerp - 4 cities facing the threat of floods. These cities also share one geographical similarity: they all emerged alongside rivers or other water formations. Therefore, water has always been crucial to their existence. By inspecting those sites on foot and creating a laboratory of climate fictions, participants are invited to envision the new relationships between people and water in the urban environments that are at risk of flooding.
Neo-futuristic Walks: Wetlands walk in Antwerp was developed together with a pharmacist and transdisciplinary researcher Vitalija Povilaitytė-Petri.
The project Neo-futuristic Walks: Wetlands is funded by Creative Industries Fund NL.
Vitalija Povilaitytė-Petri
Vitalija Povilaitytė-Petri is a pharmacist and transdisciplinary researcher. She holds a PhD degree in food chemistry. In her practice she explores how relationships with local landscapes and city inhabitants, particularly plants, shape human adaptation to climate change, extreme weather events and unknown futures. Her work methodology is based on transcontextual and transgenerational mutual learning, including learning with humans and other species, storytelling, movement, performance, writing(with)plants, and immersive experiences in urban nature.
Neo-futuristic WalksNeo-futuristic Walks is a series of "walkable" city inspections that shape a community of neo-futurists. Through the act of walking, neo-futurists explore the primal bodily experience's role in unfolding new relationships in and with urban environments. They employ context-sensitive speculative scenarios to prepare for inescapable futures and provoke new urban visions.
Neo-futuristic Walks, as a series of walkshops and performative tours, has been presented in various design festivals and has travelled to multiple cities. The Neo-futuristic Walks project was initiated in 2020 by two spatial designers - Aušra Česnauskytė and Goda Verikaitė, currently based in The Hague.
https://neofuturisticwalks.com/
