Symposia
J. Irwin Miller Symposium
A Constructed World
The world is constructed. However, it is not only the product of material realities, but also of philosophical concepts and imaginary ideals. No part of the world remains unaffected by the cumulative impact of human activity. Through complex processes of exploration, habitation, cultivation, transportation, consumption, and surveillance, the world has become increasingly interconnected. According to ongoing scientific research, the world appears to have crossed the threshold of a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. Scientists, geologists, and environmentalists acknowledge that humans are transforming the world at an unprecedented scale. This assertion begs the questions: How is the world constructed? What is the role of design? This symposium, convened by Joyce Hsiang (’99 B.A, ’03 M.Arch) and Bimal Mendis (’98 B.A, ’02 M.Arch), will explore how the contemporary world is being constructed both physically and conceptually. Leading voices from diverse fields such as architecture, anthropology, economics, geography, planning and philosophy will address how humans are playing an increasingly decisive role in shaping the world and interrogate the implications of these actions. Using terms of construction as a framework for discussion, panels will ask what it means to survey, excavate, demolish, scaffold, frame or assemble the world. This dialogue provides the opportunity to enrich our understanding of the world and establish common terms of engagement in relation to dramatically changing conditions. As crises and opportunities transcend both municipal and national borders, the need to operate at the scale of the world has never been more urgent.
Symposium program
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Evening Session, 6:30 p.m.
Joyce Hsiang and Bimal Mendis, Yale University: “City of 7 Billion”
Friday, October 2, 2015
Morning Session, 10:30 a.m.
Surveys
William Rankin, Yale University: “Coordinating the World: Graticule, Grid, and GPS”
Kathryn Sullivan, NOAA: “Resilient by Design: The Role of Environmental Intelligence”
Aleh Tsyvinski, Yale University
Dana Tomlin, Yale University
Afternoon Session, 1:30 p.m.
Demolition
Lucia Allais, Princeton University: “Designs of Destruction”
Pierre Bélanger, Harvard University: “Deterritorialization: Postmodern Ecology and the Emergence of Urbanism after 1993”
Elihu Rubin, Yale University
Excavation
Mark Williams, University of Leicester: “Cities Considered as Trace Fossil Systems”
Mark Wigley, Columbia University: “Excavating the Future”
Liam Young, Architect: “City Everywhere: Kim Kardashian and the Dark Side of the Screen”
Todd Reisz, Yale University
Evening Session, 6:30 p.m.
Peter Sloterdijk, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design: “Spheres”
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Morning Session, 9:00 a.m.
Scaffolding
Nicholas de Monchaux, University of California, Berkeley: “Local Code: 3,659 Proposals about Data, Design, and the Nature of Cities”
Clara Irazábal, Columbia University: “Transbordering Planning”
Annabel Wharton, Duke University: “Modeling the Scaffold”
Phillip Bernstein, Yale University
Framing
John Palmesino, Architect: “The Coast of Europe: Architecture Between Polity and Space”
Neil Brenner, Harvard University: “Worlds of Urbanization”
Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen: “Above, Below, and In-Between: Of Surfaces, Grounds, and the Interstitiality of Things”
Ariane Lourie Harrison, Yale University
Afternoon Session, 2:30 p.m.
Assemblies
Adam Lowe, Artist: “Re-Projecting, Re-Visioning, and Re-Thinking Our Point of View”
Aihwa Ong, University of California, Berkeley: “City of 1 Billion”
Benjamin H. Bratton, University of California, San Diego: “On Platform Sovereignties: The City Layer of the Stack”
Michelle Addington, Yale University
Hashim Sarkis, MIT: “The World According to Architecture”
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