“The opaque is not the obscure.. it is that which cannot be reduced, which is the most perennial guarantee of participation and confluence” “We clamour for the right to opacity for everyone” Édouart Glissant

When asked to describe the Floating University, as members of this multifaceted venture are often asked to do, the answer starts with an exhale and a pause, followed by a highly personal interpretation – the description of a shared experience as seen from a set of highly individualised viewpoints. That the Floating University allows for that level of complex communication of itself the fact there is no corporate script, that it is a deeply opaque infrastructure for each visitor to project onto, is the political essence of the project.

The Floating University requires a new language of practice and perhaps a new practice all together. A practice that negates the institutional way of doing things, challenges the need for unified transparencies of meaning, elaborates on processes of making and thinking together and frees spaces in the city to do so collectively. image © Lena Giovanazzi Drawing by Jade Dreyfuss 2022

Source main image: ©Jean-Marie Dhur, Zabrieski Buchladen

Source text: Floating University