Surplus

Surplus signifies an excess beyond immediate function or necessity, a remainder that generates value, tension, and transformation. In Marxian terms, surplus value drives capitalist exploitation, extracted from labor beyond subsistence. Psychoanalytic theory (Lacan, Žižek) refigures surplus as jouissance—an excessive enjoyment or drive that resists assimilation into utility. In landscapes, surplus appears as features without function, aesthetic excess, or ecological proliferation: elements that cannot be reduced to purpose yet shape experience and meaning. Surplus resists closure; it produces ambiguity, conflict, and possibility. Far from waste, it is the unstable core through which new orders emerge. Surplus is the reminder that systems, whether ecological or social, always generate more than they can contain.

/ Gaia Radić

As part of the broader philosophical movement of speculative realism, OOO (Object-Oriented Ontology) directly challenges the long-established belief that reality is always determined solely through human perception. Instead, the father of OOO, philosopher Graham Harman, argues that all objects—human and non-human, natural and artificial—exist independently of our subjective conceptualizations. To understand the radical nature and […]

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BASE is a France-based studio known for its out-of-the-box thinking and unexpected design choices, often introducing challenges that can be overcome through play. Encountering an obstacle in a public space—one that invites engagement and risk-taking—creates a tension that can lead to moments of joyful liberation. A key aspect of BASE’s approach is putting trust in […]

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