Augmented Urbanism and Radical Proximity

Photographic serie: Christine Arctander
The photos are documenting one of two walks taking place at the group exhibition 'Radical Technology' (october 2023, Norecco, Prøvestenen, Copenhagen). The walks viewed the site and informed about the material waste and process of recycling. The walk was guided by Kim Gosvig Hansen (Norecco).

Text: Sofie Højgaard - Curators thoughts on the past exhibition 'Radical Technology' (October, 2023) published in the mini-publication alongside textbased works and thoughts from Inge Røpke, Laurie Andersson, Lars Holdhus, Pernille Christensen og Anne Romme.

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Radical Proximity and Augmented Urbanism
- Curating as a framework for inner technology

In 1976, following the new ecological paradigm, a series of articles and manuals concerning a reorganization of technology towards a more humane, rational and ecological world were published by Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper in the book titled ’Radical Technology.’ Boyle and Harper’s publication had a broader focus on both hardware (machines and technical methods) and software (the social and political structures, relationships between people and their environment). Taking its inspiration from the book, the architecture exhibition ’Radical Technology’ in 2023 focused on inner technologies as a strategy for alternative worldbuilding through exposure of the construction industry.

Inner technology is understood as tools and techniques that work inwards and are used to sharpen experience and increase awareness, such as meditation, therapy and visualization. In general inner technology works by enabling one to see.

’Seeing’ allows one to view the internal and external structures that constitute the foundation of our beliefs and to grasp both the material and immaterial components that make up our shared reality.

Architecture, as a cultural product, is in a feedback dynamic with the creation of our reality. Architecture both implicates and reinforces the beliefs on which we construct our world. With overlapping environmental crises and material scarcity in the horizon, it is important to see clearly and reflect on which realities are constructed and which beliefs are supported through the built environment.

’Radical Technology’ examined the relation between reality and construction by creating proximity to overlooked dimensions of the construction industry. The works departed from inner technology and form a temporary environment where both vast immaterial structures and tiny stones comes into close sight.

The curation of the exhibition departed from two self-invented practices of inner technology; ’Augmented Urbanism’ and ’Radical Proximity’.
Curated within the vast landscape of recycled building materials of Norrecco, the exhibition offered a radical proximity to the amount of construction waste produced just within the capital region of Copenhagen, counting 400 incoming trucks a day.

The event of ’Radical technology’ opened up a gated landscape that bears witness to both the current conditions in the construction industry as well as it contains the many potentials of the dynamic piles. By exposing and crowding the hidden and distant dimension of our built environment, my hope is that the vast fields of building materials is incorporated into our conscious cityscape as an augmented urbanism.