Amy Butt - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Amy Butt

Research paper thumbnail of ‘It was quiet’: the radical architectures of understatement in feminist science fiction

cultural geographies, Oct 14, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of On balance: architecture and vertigo <b>On balance: architecture and vertigo</b> , by Davide Deriu, London, Lund Humphrys, 2023, 256 pp, £30

Planning Perspectives, Aug 29, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Narrative arcs

Research paper thumbnail of Made up Ground: Architecture, Science Fiction, and the Surface of Imagined Worlds

Research paper thumbnail of Future Impermanent

Future Impermanent brings together workshops, discussions, performances and talks themed around s... more Future Impermanent brings together workshops, discussions, performances and talks themed around science fiction narratives and science fictional thinking. It aims to explore speculative methods of facilitating engagement, agency and a sense of responsibility regarding the issue of human impact on the natural world, to experiment with science fiction as a method of reading the social and environmental demands of the future. These speculations and experiments emphasise the importance of seeing science fiction as being grounded in the challenges of the present moment, while rendering that present impermanent

Research paper thumbnail of Vicarious vertigo: The emotional experience of height in the science fiction city

Emotion, Space and Society, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Between the image and the building: an architectural tour of High-Rise

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Endless forms, vistas and hues’: why architects should read science fiction

Architectural Research Quarterly, 2018

Most of an architect's life is concerned with that which has not yet taken place, both forese... more Most of an architect's life is concerned with that which has not yet taken place, both foreseeing the near future and expressing an intention of how this future world should be remade. However small the intervention, all design proposals are utopian works. With this in mind, this article is a celebration of the utopian potential of reading science fiction (SF); to make the familiar strange, to reveal fears about the future, to confront us with ourselves, and to shape the world we inhabit. It is an unabashed call from an architect and avid SF reader, for architects to raid the bookshelves for the most lurid cover and glaring font and lose themselves in the exuberant worlds of science fiction.

Research paper thumbnail of The possibility of failure: chasing Utopia

Research paper thumbnail of Concrete utopias: an education in desire

Research paper thumbnail of Control towers: life and limitations in 'The World Inside

Research paper thumbnail of Science fiction aesthetics

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Crowding the Stoop’: Climbing the Mega-Structures of Science Fiction

Research paper thumbnail of Editorial: on concrete utopias

Research paper thumbnail of The Present as Past: Science Fiction and the Museum

Volume!, 2021

This article explores the role that science fiction (sf) texts might play in the museum, offering... more This article explores the role that science fiction (sf) texts might play in the museum, offering a perspective on acts of collection, curation, exhibition, and museum architecture, to ask what the museums of science fiction futures can offer those of us concerned with the role and responsibility of the museum in the present.It draws together methods, content and reflections from a workshop held at the Horniman Museum with art and curation students from University of the Arts London in 2019, which explored the spaces and imaginaries of the museum. Over the course of this workshop, participants were asked to restage the museums described in three science fiction novels: H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895), Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1924), and Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women (1979). By bringing the spaces of science fiction into the museum, these interventions reframed the terms of our engagement with museum objects and provided a site for broader refl...

Research paper thumbnail of City Limits: Boundary Conditions and the Building-Cities of Science Fiction

Open Library of Humanities

This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanitie... more This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanities, which is a journal published by the Open Library of Humanities.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Only one way in and one way out’: Staging Utopian Spaces

Studies in Arts and Humanities

This polyphonic paper draws together methods, content and impressions from a workshop on utopian ... more This polyphonic paper draws together methods, content and impressions from a workshop on utopian spatial practice. It provides a critical reflection on the utopian possibilities inherent in small scale performances of spatial reorganization which restructure existing patterns of behaviour. Over the course of this workshop, held as part of the 'Utopian Acts' conference, the mundane space of a university seminar room was briefly transformed. Participants were asked to read extracts from three works of feminist utopian science fiction (sf):

Research paper thumbnail of As plain as spilt salt: the city as social structure in The Dispossessed

Textual Practice

Set against the soaring skyscrapers of much canonical urban science fiction (sf), the single stor... more Set against the soaring skyscrapers of much canonical urban science fiction (sf), the single storey structures of Abbenay in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed might be easily overlooked. But, as this paper argues, the sparse description of this city 'as plain as spilt salt' offers a rich and complex vision of architectural possibility. This paper dwells within this moment of description, drawing on personal association alongside architectural and literary theory to consider how this image of a city might cast strange new light on embedded aspects of architectural practice. It explores how the sustained consideration of the built spaces of feminist sf can provide designers with an empathetic appreciation of how the built environment reflects and informs social relations.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘It was quiet’: the radical architectures of understatement in feminist science fiction

cultural geographies, Oct 14, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of On balance: architecture and vertigo <b>On balance: architecture and vertigo</b> , by Davide Deriu, London, Lund Humphrys, 2023, 256 pp, £30

Planning Perspectives, Aug 29, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Narrative arcs

Research paper thumbnail of Made up Ground: Architecture, Science Fiction, and the Surface of Imagined Worlds

Research paper thumbnail of Future Impermanent

Future Impermanent brings together workshops, discussions, performances and talks themed around s... more Future Impermanent brings together workshops, discussions, performances and talks themed around science fiction narratives and science fictional thinking. It aims to explore speculative methods of facilitating engagement, agency and a sense of responsibility regarding the issue of human impact on the natural world, to experiment with science fiction as a method of reading the social and environmental demands of the future. These speculations and experiments emphasise the importance of seeing science fiction as being grounded in the challenges of the present moment, while rendering that present impermanent

Research paper thumbnail of Vicarious vertigo: The emotional experience of height in the science fiction city

Emotion, Space and Society, 2017

Research paper thumbnail of Between the image and the building: an architectural tour of High-Rise

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Endless forms, vistas and hues’: why architects should read science fiction

Architectural Research Quarterly, 2018

Most of an architect's life is concerned with that which has not yet taken place, both forese... more Most of an architect's life is concerned with that which has not yet taken place, both foreseeing the near future and expressing an intention of how this future world should be remade. However small the intervention, all design proposals are utopian works. With this in mind, this article is a celebration of the utopian potential of reading science fiction (SF); to make the familiar strange, to reveal fears about the future, to confront us with ourselves, and to shape the world we inhabit. It is an unabashed call from an architect and avid SF reader, for architects to raid the bookshelves for the most lurid cover and glaring font and lose themselves in the exuberant worlds of science fiction.

Research paper thumbnail of The possibility of failure: chasing Utopia

Research paper thumbnail of Concrete utopias: an education in desire

Research paper thumbnail of Control towers: life and limitations in 'The World Inside

Research paper thumbnail of Science fiction aesthetics

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Crowding the Stoop’: Climbing the Mega-Structures of Science Fiction

Research paper thumbnail of Editorial: on concrete utopias

Research paper thumbnail of The Present as Past: Science Fiction and the Museum

Volume!, 2021

This article explores the role that science fiction (sf) texts might play in the museum, offering... more This article explores the role that science fiction (sf) texts might play in the museum, offering a perspective on acts of collection, curation, exhibition, and museum architecture, to ask what the museums of science fiction futures can offer those of us concerned with the role and responsibility of the museum in the present.It draws together methods, content and reflections from a workshop held at the Horniman Museum with art and curation students from University of the Arts London in 2019, which explored the spaces and imaginaries of the museum. Over the course of this workshop, participants were asked to restage the museums described in three science fiction novels: H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895), Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1924), and Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women (1979). By bringing the spaces of science fiction into the museum, these interventions reframed the terms of our engagement with museum objects and provided a site for broader refl...

Research paper thumbnail of City Limits: Boundary Conditions and the Building-Cities of Science Fiction

Open Library of Humanities

This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanitie... more This article has been peer reviewed through the double-blind process of Open Library of Humanities, which is a journal published by the Open Library of Humanities.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Only one way in and one way out’: Staging Utopian Spaces

Studies in Arts and Humanities

This polyphonic paper draws together methods, content and impressions from a workshop on utopian ... more This polyphonic paper draws together methods, content and impressions from a workshop on utopian spatial practice. It provides a critical reflection on the utopian possibilities inherent in small scale performances of spatial reorganization which restructure existing patterns of behaviour. Over the course of this workshop, held as part of the 'Utopian Acts' conference, the mundane space of a university seminar room was briefly transformed. Participants were asked to read extracts from three works of feminist utopian science fiction (sf):

Research paper thumbnail of As plain as spilt salt: the city as social structure in The Dispossessed

Textual Practice

Set against the soaring skyscrapers of much canonical urban science fiction (sf), the single stor... more Set against the soaring skyscrapers of much canonical urban science fiction (sf), the single storey structures of Abbenay in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed might be easily overlooked. But, as this paper argues, the sparse description of this city 'as plain as spilt salt' offers a rich and complex vision of architectural possibility. This paper dwells within this moment of description, drawing on personal association alongside architectural and literary theory to consider how this image of a city might cast strange new light on embedded aspects of architectural practice. It explores how the sustained consideration of the built spaces of feminist sf can provide designers with an empathetic appreciation of how the built environment reflects and informs social relations.