GEO—DESIGN brings the agency of the “geo—” to bear on design at a moment when the planet—Earth, Gaîa—is a matter for thought and action.
In landscape architecture, regional land use and planning, and other environmental design fields, the term geodesign, as framed by Jack Dangermond and Carl Steinitz, has come to describe the application of computational tools, and in particular geographic information sciences, to model, visualize, and analyze ecological systems within design workflows. This course is a quest for a more material and situated context for geo—design, one that requires a more expansive and differentiated toolbox. The seminar distinguishes between the “globe” (the abstract, computational, anthropocentric view of the Earth) and the “planet” (complex Earth systems, and even cosmic forces, shared with other living beings and shaped by historical processes—geologic, ecological and political). A global perspective, also known as a God’s eye view, has often privileged a response from outside, maybe akin to geoengineering, in the form of promissory technologies and design solutioneering, at the risk of perpetuating the depleting forces and extractivist values that underpin the present climate crisis.
Where might and design touch down to counter such spatial abstraction? From a “planet-centered” perspective, geo-design focuses both on planetary-scale relations as well as on grounded places and situated practices. Such ability to respond (or response-ability) proposes a diffraction of the “global” viewpoint into a series of planetary portals or core samples, that look into a section of the Earth—its stories, matters, practices. The portal in speculative writing and science-fiction represents is an opening into time and space that connects seemingly unconnected geographies, and in this seminar, offers a theoretical framework for unearthing the systemic and situated logics of the climate crisis. The spatial framing of the Earth into such planetary portals is a lens to unearth the entanglements of climate, design, and politics and to speculate with different media on how to compose “Earths” that are worth living.
The course introduces theories and practices that seek to make (common) sense of the planet. The introduces voices from the humanities on the topic of Earth, planet, planetarity and planetarium (Spivak, Chakrabarty, Latour, Mbembe), along with allied practices of geohumanities, geo–philosophy, geopower, gerontology, geoaesthetics and geotrauma (Deleuze and Guattari, Grosz, Povinelli, Gabrys, Haraway, Tsing). The course then examines a series of planetary portals, many of which are iconic to the imagination of global commons, through practices that have addressed related climate controversies through design and architecture. Some such sites and practices include the Arctic and Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt (Susan Schuppli, Kathryn Yusoff, Olafur Eliasson, Design Earth), Amazonia deforestation (Ursula Biemann, Paolo Tavares), Oceans and Tidal Zones (Cooking Sections, TAB21, Ant Farm), the Great Coral Reef bleach (Karrabing Film Collective, Institute for Figuring), the atmosphere (Nerea Calvillo, Liam Young, Office for Political Innovation), the Caribbean (WAI Think Thank), as well as in planetary ruptures and geo-traumas in the form of disasters like plantations, landslides, heatwaves, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.
Throughout, the course explores the range of representational and discursive practices— emphasizes the roots of geo-graphy as “earth writing” or “earth drawing”—be it visual description, material sensors, computational processes, forensic reports, community activism, speculative narratives, institution building or unbuilding, and various combinations thereof. Collectively, we inquire into geo—design as a practice of life-support, and how it may be embodied, enacted, and imagined.
Note for MArch students: Serves as an Urbanism elective
