Dag van Empathie: Practicing Utopia

The talk ‘Practicing Utopia: Queerness as Counter-Methodology’ is a visual and narrative lecture that connects queer theory with everyday practice. Drawing on thinkers such as Muñoz, Bloch and Butler, and on the experiences of The Patchwork Family, queerness is approached as a method: a way of seeing, creating and collaborating. In this context, fashion emerges as a space for exploring possible futures. The talk demonstrates how queer values permeate aesthetics, collaboration, economics and sustainability. The session is partly participatory and invites the audience to explore their own ideas about queerness and to reflect on how they themselves can practise small forms of utopia.

Meet-up Café: Day of Empathy

Over drinks and snacks, we’ll wrap up the programme with a Meet-up Café. Strike up a conversation (speed-date) with ‘the other’ at the Meet-up Café. What do we have in common, and how do our differences complement each other?

We only realise what we have in common with others once we have got to know one another. This starts with a simple ‘hello’ or an outstretched hand. Leave your preconceptions at home and engage in conversation with an open mind. Our Empathy Conversation Cards will get the conversation going straight away.