As part of my work with UCL Urban Laboratory, I co-hosted a dialogue and collaboration with artist collective Fourthland at Somerset House on 29 June 2016. Employing an experimental pedagogy – using performance as research – we unpicked narratives of London’s regeneration. The Storm: A Utopian Forecast for London? weaved together layers of narratives within regeneration, urban planning and grassroots movements into a participatory re-enactment.

The Storm brews in response to the increasing privatisation of public spaces and the sanitisation of interaction; and the potent viewpoints of human interaction, collective action and the activities that stabilise the local people economy. Reflecting on Ruth Levitas’ notions of utopia as method rather than a distant goal, The Storm produces a method of utopia constructed through the imaginary reconstruction of society through architecture, archaeology and ontology. Seeking, in its aftermath, to create a new atmosphere of conversing and questioning across disciplines. The multi-media experience fused together a collection of various public enquiries, consultations, publications and planning meetings. Set alongside observations of social engaged processes, land acts and collected sounds.

Textual contributions were partially sought through an open call, as part of our work to produce a cacophony of sound that would frame an interdisciplinary discussion after the re-enactment.

The event took place as part of the UTOPIA season at Somerset House and as part of the London Festival of Architecture programme.The Storm emerged from Fourthland’s social practice on various London estates and two years of research attendance at public enquiry and developer led consultations. The work also developed in response to enquiries within the Urban Laboratory, including questions on education for the future city, the cultural representations of urban life through the Cities Imaginaries strand, and concepts emerging from the Cities Methodologies exhibition series.

Alongside Fourthland, I selected participants through a ballot that was determined through a process of ensuring a range of voices and dialogues were present in the storm.

Visitors could experience the ephemera from the performance in the Utopia Treasury for a week from 27 June 2016, whilst After the Storm on Sunday 3 July was an opportunity for a wider audience to learn and discuss the event within the archaeology and archive of the re-enactment.

Further information: ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/events/2016/jun/storm-utopian-forecast-london