Didactics

The “NeoRural Futures” experience has started

After the short summer break, RUFA Pastificio Cerere headquarters reopens its doors for a prestigious training event that sees the interest of cultural operators from all over the world converge. The heart of the San Lorenzo district is where the NeoRural Futures project, SpeculativeEdu’s international summer school, is hosted. Specifically, it is a deepening plan financed by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ programme. Important training institutions converge on this initiative: Arts Academy Split (Croatia), Goldsmith College (United Kingdom), Madeira Interactive Technology Institute (Portugal), Edinburgh Napier University (Scotland), HER – Human Ecosystems Relazioni (Italy), Institute for Transmedia Design (Slovenia). SpeculativeEdu has a double objective: on one side to investigate practices and emerging approaches of fiction design, near future, speculative and critical design; on the other side to create a textbook and an online toolkit that makes research accessible and consultable to lecturers, professionals and communities.

“Overall – explains the director RUFA, arch. Fabio Mongelli – Rome will ideally embrace students and lecturers from Europe, United States, China, Palestine, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Turkey, India, Israel and South Africa. Forty selected participants will attend the different working sessions that will take place in five intensive days of workshops, from 2 to 6 September. The participants, led by an interdisciplinary team of ten members, including tutors and coordinators, will investigate the transformations of rurality in relation to global phenomena to create future scenarios, using and experimenting with the methods and approaches that emerged from the research. The concepts developed during the five days of the workshop will be transformed into an exhibition open to the public, which will conclude the summer school and will allow visitors to immerse themselves in the near future, touching the effects of transformation. Friday 6th September, starting from 17.30 at RUFA Space in via degli Ausoni 7, in addition to the exhibit, there will be a conference and a round table on the subject. NeoRural Futures is perfectly in line with the international vocation that RUFA has always pursued and that in recent years has undergone a strong acceleration, with the launch of courses in English and with the expansion of training courses to be carried out abroad.

RUFA, as host institution and academic partner, together with the organizers has structured a program that will allow participants to interface with realities active in the field of design, art and rural life: Mercato Generale, NONE Collective, Ultravioletto, Fondazione RomaEuropa Festival, Digitalive. The conference on Friday, September 6, in addition to the director RUFA, will be attended by Salvatore Iaconesi, president of the research center HER, Ivica Mitrović of the Arts Academy Split, Sara Božanić, CEO of the Institute for Transmedia Design.

For more information about the project visit the dedicated page.

SEPTEMBER 6 PROGRAMME – RUFA Space
H 17,30
Neorural Futures – The exhibition: opening, with guided tour of the exhibition with participants, coordinators and tutors of the project
H 18,00
Speculative Edu – The Conference
Institutional greetings: Fabio Mongelli, Director of RUFA – Rome Academy of Fine Arts – Salvatore Iaconesi, President of HER Research Centre
Speculative Edu – The project: Ivica Mitrović, Arts Academy Split – Sara Božanić, CEO of the Institute for Transmedia Design
The rurality in transition: Alex Giordano, founder of Rural Hack
Introduction at Speculative Design: Matt Ward, Goldsmith College
The narratives and results of the workshop: Salvatore Iaconesi, artist and founder of HER research centre
The results of the Speculative Edu project: Ivica Mitrović, Arts Academy Split – Ingi Helgason, Edinburgh Napier University
The Round Table – Social Transformations: how speculative and critical design can help communities, institutions, companies to imagine and build future scenarios. Matt Ward, Goldsmith College – Julian Hanna, Madeira Interactive Technology Institute – Jimmy Loizeau, Goldsmith College – Michael Smith, Edinburgh Napier University
Q&A
Closing remarques: Salvatore Iaconesi, artist and founder of HER research centre – Ivica Mitrović, Arts Academy Split