Urban and Environmental Theory Session #2 Frédérique Aït-Touati / HCR

Urban and Environmental Theory Session #2
Frédérique Aït-Touati

Mapping a new Earth: cartographic and architectural tools of exploration
 

We are living through a time that in many ways recalls the period of the cosmological revolution: today, as well, our conception of the Earth is undergoing a radical shift. We understand, thanks to contemporary biology and anthropology in particular, that the space we inhabit is not an 'environment', an inert container, but that it is on the contrary constantly produced by various forms of life. We also understand, and this realisation is more tragic, that our relationship to the Earth as an unlimited resource is not sustainable, that we live “on a damaged Planet”, in the words of Anna Tsing. These profound transformations in the way we conceive our relationship with the Earth have considerable philosophical, political and economic consequences. Yet we lack the images to think about them. The projects which I will share participate in this collective endeavor to re-describe the world, to map its new borders and territories.