Applied Fictions Unit

Just a quick note that I'll be speaking Thursday afternoon down at the UC-Irvine School of Humanities, part of an event called "Design Fictions." Charlie Hailey, author of Camps: A Guide to 21st-Century Space, and graphic designer Sean Adams will also be on the bill.

The overall agenda for the day is to ask, in the organizers' words: "How do designed objects and environments tell stories, and what genres do they favor (science fiction, fantasy, romance, satire)? How do branding, anti-branding, and corporate identity programs insert their products into narrative scenarios and fictional worlds, and how do consumers find their own place as characters within those worlds? How do fiction writers and literary journalists incorporate designed things and designed landscapes into their stories?"

I'll be giving a talk called "Applied Fictions Unit," about the role of architecture in speculative fiction and the utility of speculative fiction as a tool for architectural criticism, with examples taken from urban legends, conspiracy theories, film, classical mythology, the petroleum industry, and more, with a spot of horror fiction thrown in for good measure.

The event is free and open to the public, and you can find out more over at the UC-Irvine site.