Waste of time, waste of money, valuing waste. Your wasted ideas, the discarded projects. The emails in ‘junk,’ the documents in the ‘trash’ folder. Wasted food scraped off plates, wasted potential, being ‘wasted’ through late nights. Wasted energy, wasted resources, nuclear waste as fuel? Wasted opportunities—opportunities for waste.

During autumn 2026, eleven architects, curators, researchers, and artists have gathered at ROM for kunst og arkitektur and the Oslo Architecture Triennale (OAT) as part of Metode’s fifth volume ‘What if Waste’. The participants were selected after an Open Call for experimental essays draft, in which we received 135 essay proposals. The invited participants share an ambitious and risky research attitude that creatively combines theory and artistic/architectural practice.

We are proud to announce the selected writers for ‘What if Waste’ by Metode + OAT:

Lola Cervantes (Mexico/Finland), Johanna Zanon (France/Norway), Maria Fabricius Hansen (Denmark), Simon Mitchell (UK/Norway), Yuliia Melchenko (Ukraine/Norway), Ilse Svortevik Hviding (Norway), Elisabeth Gellein (Denmark), Nancy Couling (New Zealand/Switzerland), Luuk Schroder (The Netherlands), Dordi Strøm (Norway), and Catherine Anabella Lie (Indonesia).

Throughout the fall - in Oslo and online - the group has engaged in an in-depth and transparent peer-review process with Metode’s Editorial Board and affiliated scholars. Through open-ended discussions, the group has explored the different symbolic, functional, and economic values of waste. The key focus of the discussions has been, however, method; how to write with and through waste, and how to write against it.

Keynote writers Karen Pinkus, Jomy Joseph, and Samanta Kajėnaitė have joined the group by sharing and discussing their essays and giving feedback on the participants’ essay drafts.

All contributions to ‘What if Waste’ will be made public on Metode’s website on 11^th February 2027, accompanied an exhibition curated by participant Simon Mitchell and public conversations, including a lecture by Maria Fabricius Hansen.

Metode is run by ROM for kunst og arkitektur: Ingrid Halland (editor-in-chief), Gjertrud Steinsvåg (project leader), Edwina Francis (editorial assistant), and the editorial board, consisting of Armelle Breuil, Andreas Ervik, Nick Walkley, Andrea Pinochet, Line Ramstad, and Thomas Cook.

Metode is generously supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UiT The Arctic University of Tromsø.