Surface Tension Supplement No. 5: Beyond Utopia

A collaboration between artist Sophie Warren, architect Jonathan Mosley and writer Robin Wilson, Beyond Utopia looks at the practicalities of utopian thinking in urban planning and administrative culture. Submitting a utopian architectural proposal for a real site in London to city officials, the trio enacted a form of playful provocation as a basis for exploring the systems and languages of planning, architecture and city development. Though fictive, the utopian proposal gained credence as it was discussed and shared among planning officials and reviewers, ultimately becoming a springboard for dialogue about possibilities and even actualities in the sphere of public space. Centered on a screenplay for an unrealized film, which restages the process and exchanges of the original proposal, Surface Tension Supplement No. 5 also includes texts and projects by leading theorists, artists and academics who debate the roles of spatial practice and politics today.