Design Agency within Earth Systems – Architectural Association, London, 26 October 2018

I’ll be involved in this event, in conversation with Neil Brenner and other speakers include Marti French, El Hadi Jazairy and Rania Ghosn.

8,000 meters above sea level exists what climbers call the ‘death zone’. This altitude marks the limit for human habitation, above which our species cannot survive. We thrive in the ‘life zone’ – the earth’s land surfaces and oceans, its geological layers beneath, the dynamic atmosphere above – all affected by gravitational and magnetic forces beyond. This living world is constantly being transformed by our social, economic and political interactions revealing our intricate dependencies on the the earth and its systems. Terms such as ‘Anthropocene’ and ‘Capitalocene’ have drawn attention to the role of political economy in transforming these earth systems and positioned design as a major geological force shaping the planet.

The ‘Design Agency within Earth Systems’ symposium invites submissions to look through these planetary lenses to reflect upon the complicity of design in the destruction of the planet; to question the two dimensional, land based political technologies, by which we order our lives and our relations to the earth; to explore the material dimensions of air, ground and ocean as inter-twinings of socio-political and earth systems; and to imagine relations between socio-political and earth systems differently through design.

The aim of this call is for proposals to present projects/papers in a format of 10-minute slide presentation alongside main speakers and as part of a one-day symposium at the Architectural Association 26th October 2018.

Call for Projects (deadline 7 July 2018) and further details here.