Counter World-building in Speculative Capitalism

Aris Komprozos-Athanasiou’s forthcoming book Real Fake (MIT Press) reclaims the qualities of distortion (and alchemy) in the progressive vocabulary and in our political arsenal as a response to capitalism’s ‘crisis of truth.’ Building on the theoretical foundations of his successful Speculative Communities (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Komporozos-Athanasiou assesses how finance distorts extremely effectively through forging new alliances with the populist far-right and what it would mean to fight fire with fire.

Following a presentation on this work, Komporozos-Athanasiou and Nicholas Simcik Arese will hold a speculative dialogue on how these texts can nurture design, as well as on broader collaborative possibilities between the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies and the AA. The conversation is framed as a method for ‘counter-world building,’ converging on empirically-grounded, ‘tidying’ and operative theoretical positions to re-limit and empower an ideologically transcendent architectural imagination.

This is the first in a new format of AA-HTS Propositions, an extension of the AA History and Theory Studies Open Seminar collaborations: bringing Bloomsbury hubs into propositional dialogue and encouraging non-architects to freely reflect on what architecture means to them. Existing architecture is treated as means for cultural analysis to inform new theories of political change, which, in turn, frame the conditions of possibility for a new architecture as means for cultural transformation.

Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou is Professor of Economy and Society at University College London and Founding Director of the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies. His books include Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World (University of Chicago Press, 2022) and Real Fake: The Truth Crisis of Capitalism (forthcoming with MIT Press). His work has been featured in international media such as The New Yorker, The Guardian, DIE ZEIT, EL PAIS, elDiario, London Review of Books and Bookforum, and has been showcased on platforms such as Whitechapel Gallery, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, and the Locarno Film Festival. In 2024/25 Aris was Research Chair of the programme Futures of Capitalism at The New Institute in Hamburg.

Nicholas Simcik Arese is Chair of History and Theory at the AA. This year’s conversation with University College London Centre for Capitalism Studies (AAxCCS: Verum Ipsum Factum, 2025-26) is the third edition of AA Open Seminar collaborations. Previous editions were held with the Warburg Institute (AAxWarburg: Bauatlas Mnemosyne, 2023-24) and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art (AAxSotheby’s: Criminal Values (in Art and Architecture), 2024-25).

Image: Giambattista Vico, Principj di Scienza Nuova (frontispiece from the 1744 edition), modified by Google generative AI to include 'Architect' and 'Capitalist'.

Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to participate in the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk