Held in Common, Held on the Common

How can science fiction help us imagine and enact practices of commoning?

In this creative workshop we will gather on Well Street Common to discuss what common space has been and what it might be, asking what it means to dismantle systems of land ownership and what might be possible when we hold places in common.

The worlds of science fiction offer us imagined futures of collective ownership. Through these fictions we visit anarcho-communist moons and future cities where ownership has been abolished, share stories of queer communes and insurrectionist collectives, expanding the edges of what we believe possible.

This is a creative workshop which invites participation. We will be reading extracts together, using our picnic blankets to enact models of common space, and sharing responses to the texts by annotating, pinning and patch-working onto shared fabric.

There is no need to have prior knowledge related to common spaces or familiarity with science fiction stories or any design skills. It will be outdoors and will involve sitting on the ground.

Please bring along a picnic blanket to sit on!