Cosmograms - Narrating as Worlding in Speculative Fiction

Explore a two-hour lecture on cosmograms - representations of worlds and their various orders and internal coherences - delivered by performing artist, dramaturge, and art critic Sébastien Hendrickx at the Free University of Brussels. Delve into these millennia-old meaning-making devices that prioritize synthetic connections and holistic perspectives over analytical distinctions and specialization. Learn about narrative cosmograms through analyses of significant speculative fiction works, including Ursula K. LeGuin's "Always Coming Home" (1985) and Ben Marcus's "The Age of Wire and String" (1995). Discover various literary strategies of narrative worlding from Hendrickx, who brings his diverse experience as an artist, activist, and academic to the discussion. Gain insights from his work with the Degrowth Propaganda Squad and his artistic research project "Cosmograms Beyond the Capitalocene" at KASK/School of Arts.