5th January 2021 – The Warren Oracle

The Speculative Landscapes collective are developing new ways (and rediscovering old ones) of reading and learning with the landscape of the Folkestone Warren. Associate artist Rubiane Maia introduced the idea of the Oracle card through an informal workshop. Oracle cards – sometimes called divination cards or decks – are sets of cards with pictures and meanings that are specific to the vision of the creator(s) of the deck. For the collective, this became a potential tool for translation and sharing, where multiple voices and stories could co-exist and relate to one another and the landscape. This methodology for untethered, changeable readings of the site and our existence in it has been central to the collective’s work together around “The Imaginary Museum” and the identification of a landslide methodology which has had a major impact on the developing structure of Custom Food Lab’s collectivised practices.

Speculative Landscapes is a collective research project emerging from Custom Food Lab that explores the potential for being otherwise in landscapes. It is sited in the unique coastal landslides of The Warren in Folkestone (UK) which we speculatively occupy as a place for collectively imagining a regenerative institution.