UPCOMING DATES

WORLD BUILDING READING SESSION #5
WAYS OF BEING. BEYOND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
Wednesday May 7, 2025, 5–7pm
Introducing & reading excepts from the book by James Bridle: Ways of Being, Beyond Human Intelligence
hosted by Vik Bayer
location Klasse für Alle, Heiligenkreuzerhof

EXHIBITION VISITS

Together, we visit exhibitions that are related to our compost practice, irregularly. “Reading” includes learning to see, to talking about and becoming attentive to different practices.

WORLD BUILDING READING SESSIONS

In monthly WORLD BUILDING READING SESSIONS, we turn to science fiction and speculative fiction (SF) to imagine alternative futures that counter the exploitative reality of racial capitalism. We encounter narratives that can help us rethink our human perspective on Earth, to break down binaries between dystopia and utopia, real and fictional, self and world. With SF we are looking for tools to test other forms of storytelling, which in turn will be the basis of our walking, working, material explorations and compost care.

We are reading all of the texts collectively and will create enough time for questions and clarifications. No prior text knowledge is required.

ARCHIVE

ARTISTS TALKS
EXHIBITION VISIT ANGELIKA LODERER: CITY BODY
BRENNESSEL PROJEKT GESPRÄCH KARL MICHAEL LANGE
Thursday March 27, 2025, 4–6 pm
hosted by Andrea Lumplecker
meeting point Galerie Sophie Tappeiner, An der Hülben 3, 1010 Wien
afterwards from around 5 pm studio at Heiligenkreuzerhof

WORLD BUILDING READING SESSION #4
Thursday January 16, 2025, 5–7 pm
hosted by Iketina Danso
Location Klasse für Alle, Heiligenkreuzerhof

Embrace diversity. Unite—
Or be divided,
robbed,
ruled,
killed
By those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity
Or be destroyed*
*Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower (1993)

WORLD BUILDING READING SESSION #3
Thursday 12.12.2024, 5–7 pm
Beyond Borders: Exploring Middle Eastern Dystopian Fiction 
hosted by Arwa Elabd
Location biblio box

This workshop explored the intersection of dystopian and fantasy storytelling in Middle Eastern literature, focusing on We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal and The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz. Participants examined how these authors use speculative fiction to address themes such as identity, oppression, resilience, and societal change, drawing on the rich cultural and historical backdrop of the Middle East. Through group discussions and text analysis, the workshop offered a deeper understanding of how these narratives connect to real-world issues and inspire new ways of thinking about literature and society.

WORLD BUILDING READING SESSION #2
Thursday 14.11.2024, 5–7 pm
Science fiction in times of ecological crises: Rethinking our being-in-the-world
hosted by Vik Bayer
Location Klasse für Alle, Heiligenkreuzerhof

After a short recap of our first session, we will start reading N.K. Jemisin’s “The Fifth Season” together. A novel that examines social inequality and resilience in the face of planetary disaster. Besides thinking about ecological crises in Science Fiction, the book will also help us understand the idea of world building better.

WORLD BUILDING READING SESSION #1
Thursday 17.10.2024, 5–7pm
One of many possible entry points into Science and Speculative Fiction: Tools and Methods to unravel dominant narratives
hosted by Vik Bayer
Location Klasse für Alle, Heiligenkreuzerhof

We started the reading session with excerpts from Slyvia Wynter’s “On Being Human as a Praxis” to question and critique the dominant Western idea of the “human” and concepts of modernity. This also involved reflecting on how narratives and forms of storytelling create realities and how we can – in dialogue with the texts we will read – experiment with methods of world-building and speculation in order to create alternatives to hegemonic ways of storytelling.

We read excerpts from these texts in dialogue with each other and in an associative manner.
Sylvia Wynter: On being human as a praxis
Kathryn Yusoff: A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None
Stefanie Hessler: A condensed Modern History of Distance
Elvia Wilk: Death by Landscape
Octavia E. Butler: Parable of the Sower
Gary Zhexi Zhang: Catastrophe Time!
Indigenous Action Media: Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto

The reader ist still available in the library of Klasse für Alle in print.