How do you design space for protest in a city that increasingly controls, excludes, and smooths things over? In this four-day workshop by School for the City and Loom, you’ll explore the role of activism in urban space. Dive into the many forms protest can take – from blockades to memes, squatting actions to banners. Join us and discover how to use stories, space, and resistance as tools for change.

Protest has always been an inherent part of democratic processes and urban life, unfolding on the streets, squares, and walls of our cities. From the strikes of harbour workers to the #MeToo movement, and from demonstrations against increasing rents or climate marches, to Black Lives Matter campaigns – people find ways to be heard in public space. But the possibilities for protest are increasingly under pressure. Repression, surveillance, security measures, gentrification and the increasing smoothening of public space are making it harder for people to freely gather, express dissent, and advocate for change.

About the four day workshop

In these four days you will look at the public space of the city as a place for protest together with Rene Boer, Mark Minkjan and Katía Truijen of Loom – practice for cultural transformation. In this workshop activism is regarded as a discipline that involves revealing facts, building narratives and creating real-world impact. Whether it is the fossil fuelled industry or the bankrupt housing system, Rotterdam has plenty of battles to be fought that resonate over the globe. Together we will identify urgent issues, create counter positions and think of design strategies to challenge it, while speculating about alternative solutions.

Drawing inspiration from past and present generations of activists, we will explore how to design the communication of non-conventional narratives and the conditions for disobedient assemblies. This could include blockades, barricades, banners, choreographies, legal tactics, social media memes, squatting operations, consumer strikes or other, more subtle forms of expressing dissent with regard to the status quo—using whatever tools are necessary to drive change.

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