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An interdisciplinary exhibit and series of events titled “The Futuring Lab,” led by associate professor of architecture Sandy Litchfield, will run from Nov. 8-9 and Nov. 28-30 in the Olver Design Building Gallery. The timely exhibition seeks to respond to pervading anxieties about climate change, rising social inequity, racism, political division, ecological collapse and the realities of what the near future may hold.

“Architects are future planners,” Litchfield says. “Everything they design is speculative; it’s not what exists right now, but what may exist. I teach at the boundaries between art and architecture and writing, and I’ve always been in my heart a futurist. I can’t help but think of what that future is going to look like, so this project captures that.”

“The Futuring Lab,” located in room 180 of the Olver Design Building, will feature a large interactive wall installation called “Khronika” where visitors can use sticky notes to visually share personal and political events, historic and speculative, known and unknown. “Khronika” is on view all semester during the Design Building Gallery’s regular hours. All programming and events are free and open to the public.

In addition, there will be a series of auxiliary public readings, talks, musical performances, workshops, roundtable discussions, fortune telling, poetry, climate science lectures and more in what Litchfield describes as an “almost carnival-esque series of events” held over five days.

“The Futuring Lab” is sponsored by a UMass Amherst Faculty Research Grant, Architecture Research Collaborative, Design Building Gallery and The Puffin Foundation.

More information on the exhibit and events, including the schedules for Nov. 8-9 and Nov. 28-30, can be found on the College of Humanities and Fine Arts news website and The Futuring Lab website or by contacting Litchfield at [email protected].