Brohwyn Brennan

What comes to mind when you think of collapse? Perhaps you imagine sudden downfall or total destruction? Informed by ecofeminist theories, I define collapse as an ongoing process of systemic and infrastructural breakdown. It is a condition occurring at different speeds, one that is unevenly experienced and shaped by factors such as geography and class.

My degree project explores two contrasting design perspectives in a speculative 2080 southern Sweden: “STAY” and “ESCAPE”. “STAY” embodies interdependence and relational care; it is materialised through a modular repair raft, supporting collective labour to maintain life within ruins. Conversely, the “ESCAPE” perspective embodies distance and individualised survival. Represented by a glass cabinet containing a collection of objects, they frame collapse as an event to be abstracted and commodified, rather than lived.

Together, these provocations ask how might we inhabit the future; through the shared labour of staying, or the curated disengagement of escape?