Turncoats Edinburgh with Architecture Fringe

Turncoats Edinburgh | Sorry About Tomorrow

21 July 2016
Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh

Turncoats is a worldwide debating society founded in London with chapters in Vancouver, Belgrade, Washington DC and New York City. The Architecture Fringe established a chapter for Scotland as part of the inaugural ArchiFringe in 2016.

Architectural debates are rubbish. We've all been there: a panel of similar speakers with similar views taking it in turns to talk at length about their similar work - too polite, too deferential, too dull. At best they're lukewarm love-ins, critically impotent, elitist and stuffy.

Turncoats frames things differently. Through provocative opening gambits these free debates will take on fundamental issues facing contemporary architecture and society with a playful and combative format designed to ferment open and critical discussion, turning conventional concensus on its head.

In Edinburgh the panelists and audience debated whether our built environment was becoming increasingly irrelevant. Modern society is built around digital space and online networks. Edinburgh, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is ‘liked’ more often on Instagram than in damp, chilly reality. Nightclubs are no longer required, when friendship and flirtation is available at a swipe with Tinder, Grindr and Snapchat. Two Edinburghs now exist in parallel, and the relationship between the physical and virtual versions is growing ever-more distant. It's time for us all to step away from the crumbling street and inhabit an instantaneous, clean, energy-rich and aesthetically pleasing augmented reality, all together, online. *Like!* 

Working wth Alex MacLaren, my role included establishing and inviting the panel members, producing artwork, organising ticket sales and on the evening, chairing the event.

You can view the event page here