Event
J. Irwin Miller Symposium
World Ecologies in Formation
Engaging contemporary framings of our climate and economic crises, World Ecologies in Formation investigates the social and environmental dialectics that have given rise to both historical and emerging twenty-first-century built cultures, including material ecologies, building technologies, energy regimes, landscapes, waterscapes, atmospheres, labor systems, and data infrastructures. Departing from a dual framing of human and non-human systems as discrete processes, the symposium investigates the complex internalization and externalization of socioecological transformations within contemporary built ecologies as active constituents in shaping each other.
By framing “world-ecology” as a system in formation, the symposium engages how transdisciplinary and cross-cultural socioecological concepts are deconstructing, enriching and reconstituting the fundamentals of future design. We will commit to an investigation of emerging and novel relational models, and how they might alter power dynamics in the shaping of environments. The three-day event brings together an interdisciplinary group of anthropologists, architects, artists, scientists, activists, historians, economists, engineers, philosophers, and scientists to investigate how historical, contemporary and emerging world ecological paradigms continue to shape existing built ecosystems and material artefacts.
Symposium Schedule
Thursday, October 29
9:30 a.m., Fourth Floor Pit, Paul Rudolph Hall
Biogenic Material Value Chains, Just Labor, and Climate Adaptation: Planetary Heutagogies in the West African Afrotropics
Telesilla Bristogianni, Glenn DeRoche, Mamadou Dia, Ernest Dione, Nebyu Haile, Nzinga Mboup, Ibrahim Niang, Faidra Oikonomopoulou, Igazeuma Okoroba, John Oschendorf, Liz Ricketts, and Samuel Siaw
2:00 p.m., BEEM Lab, Paul Rudolph Hall
Built Ecologies and Information Flows: International Drought Resilience Observatory
Anthony Acciavatti, Flavio de Andrade Silva, Dana Cupkova, Jefferson Ellinger, Carla Leitao, Peter Osborne, Anthony Titus, and Andrea Toreti
6:00 p.m., Hastings Hall
Keynote: World Ecologies in Formation
Anna Dyson and Mae-ling Lokko
Friday, October 30
9:30 a.m., Hastings Hall
Introduction
Dean Deborah Berke
9:45 a.m., Hastings Hall
Metabolic Invention and the Synthetic Commons
Ron Eglash, Ariane Harrison, Lydia Kallipoliti, Kiel Moe, and Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen. Moderated by Anna Dyson
11:45 a.m., Hastings Hall
Towards New Design Paradigms for Biodiversity
Keller Easterling, Jane Mah Hutton, Fernando La Posse, Paul Lewis, Peter Osborne, and Katie Ulrich. Moderated by Mae-ling Lokko
2:30 p.m., Hastings Hall
Towards New Networks for Reading, Making, and Co-Evolving World Ecologies
Laurens Bekemans, Christian Benimana, Issa Diabaté, Ana María Durán Calisto, and Elihu Rubin. Moderated by Paola Antonelli
Saturday, October 31
9:00 a.m.
The Listening Room: A Collective Reflection Session
Organized by Mouad Nadzi, Hind Wildman, Mae-ling Lokko, and Mustapha Zaouini
Exhibitions
Yale CEA’s symposium team has invited early-career researchers, postdoctoral researchers, PhD candidates, and master’s students to submit posters showcasing innovative research that advances critical understanding of socioecological systems, material flows, design paradigms, and world ecologies. Selected posters will be exhibited alongside the symposium’s panels and workshops.
An exhibition of work by the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture will be on display at the Yale CEA lab space (73 Howe Street) during the symposium.
World Ecologies in Formation is supported in part by the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund at the Yale MacMillan Center, the J. Irwin Miller Endowment at the Yale School of Architecture, and the re:arc Institute.