Future Garden

Future Garden let individuals explore Sneinton Market in Nottingham to discover the effects of city planning, alternative futures, lost histories and individual dreams. A handheld computer presented participants with a structured self-guided tour. At nine different physical locations, the screen showed images of the existing market overlaid with new architectural designs. These drawings, collages and animations – inspired by the dreams of current market users – were interspersed with archive photographs, documentary film footage and a short dance film, inviting people to reflect on the urban space that they inhabit and the ways in which it might be transformed.

Future Garden was part of Future, which was commissioned by Dance4, the National Dance Agency in the UK (Nottingham), for nottdance06. Future Garden was staged between Wednesday 3 May to Friday 5 May 2006 between 3 and 7 pm at Sneinton Market in Nottingham, UK

Future Garden was developed in collaboration with Willi Dorner with dancers Suzie Firth, Satu Herrala and Sonja Pregrad. Working with Jonathan Hale, Ben Bedwell and Steve Benford. Film makers: Adam Robertson & Juels Winter. Market visions by: James Alexander, Sheldon Brown, Sarah Elmusrati, Matthew Parr, Bhavna Solanki, James Spencer, Rafid Sulaiman, Charlotte Thornton & Elizabeth Webster. Special thanks to: Tom Huggon and Steve the market manager

Associated Publications:

Hale, J., Schnädelbach, H., Moving City: Curating Architecture on Site, in Curating Architecture and the City, edited by Sarah Chaplin and Alexandra Stara, (Vol 4 in the series AHRA Critiques), London: Routledge, 2009

Schnädelbach, H., Hale, J., Dorner, W., Bedwell, B., Benford, S., Mardell, J., Future Garden, in proceedings of TIDSE 2006, Darmstadt, December 2006, pp. 346-351, Springer, short paper

Part-funded by the INSCAPE integrated Project (EU RTD contract IST-2004-004150)