Current Students and Staff

A Rebellion Against Despair: Ecology, Feelings and the Future

• 10 June 2025
• 2pm-4pm
• International House
• Event website

About this event

To mark the first installation of Studio Hyte’s broadcast sculpture Infrequent Frequencies, this discussion will interrogate how we feel about the future in the face of ecological crisis.

Taking a quote from 'Infrequent Frequencies' as its title and starting point, it will draw on speculative design, artistic labour, activism and research into the political power of feelings to explore connections between how we feel and what we do, and interrogate whether doing differently might change our emotional orientation to the future for better.

All attendees will be able to contribute to the discussion and will be given a free publication, which forms part of 'Infrequent Frequencies'.

Free refreshments will be served.

Panellists

Ben Cain is a graphic designer who produces functional and speculative works oriented towards a socially and ecologically just future. He was a Creative Director and Co-Founder of the speculative Design Agency Studio Hyte.

Marianna Coulentianos is a mechanical engineer turned design researcher who leverages principles of socially-engaged design, front-end prototyping, and participatory methods for equitable sustainable development. She is interested in post-growth futures and in the role of low techs in an equitable and ecological transition.

Dani Admiss and Luiza Prado are both members of Sunlight Liberation Network, a community-driven learning project for creating ‘greener’, fairer and more regenerative art practices of all kinds.

David Bell is Curator of Loughborough University's Arts Collection. He was a member of Out of the Woods, a writing collective exploring theory and struggle within, against and beyond ecological crisis.

Infrequent Frequencies

Commissioned by LU Arts, Infrequent Frequencies is an installation by the design collective Studio Hyte. Drawing on workshops with undergraduate students from the University’s School of Design and Creative Arts, it speculates on what daily life and broadcasting technologies might be like in a future of degrowth and intermittent energy. Rejecting despair without denying the scale of the ecological crisis, it encourages an engaged hope in response to the challenges our world faces. The work is powered by solar technology developed by the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology at Loughborough University.

Accessibility

International House is a single story building with step-free access into the building and an accessible toilet. If you have any access requirements, please let LU Arts know via the booking form or email LUArts@lboro.ac.uk in advance of booking.