Current Research Projects
Against Catastrophe
The aim of this project is to interrogate the concept of catastrophe – how it is defined, analyzed, and deployed – and anti-catastrophic practices in an attempt to envision alternatives to our present. It does so through an edited volume, art and design commissions, and offline and online exhibitions that explore catastrophe and anti-catastrophe in practice around the globe. The focus throughout is on how novel thinking and practice in design, architecture, and technology can open possibilities for more equitably, democratically, and sustainably surviving a catastrophic world, but also expanding epistemic horizons beyond such apocalyptic thinking. The collaborators on the project include international scholars, artists, and journalists , and the project is committed to open collaboration and new partners and participants.
www.againstcatastrophe.net
Governing through Design
Governing through Design is a collaborative research project that investigates how design impacts society. We use history and ethnography to develop new narratives of how the practices and epistemologies of design reconceive global politics and everyday lifeworlds, and invest in pedagogies that seek to intervene in contemporary practices of design. We are an interdisciplinary collective of researchers based at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design, the University of Basel, and Concordia University Montréal, with backgrounds in design history, urban studies, media studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, and science & technology studies. Governing through Design is a collaborative research project by the FHNW Academy of Art and Design, the University of Basel, and Concordia University Montréal, supported by a Sinergia Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation. www.governingthrough.design
Geopolitics of Automation
This collaboration with University of Western Sydney examines how artificially intelligent infrastructures, such as procurement centers and data centers are transforming territory and impacting labor in China, Germany, Canada, and Malaysia. For example, we are examining current labor struggles over Amazon procurement centers in Germany, and how indigenous groups are being affected by Alibaba and Amazon’s labor practices in Malaysia. We are also working on digital methods, including simulating supply chains and automation systems with computer scientists and artists. Our goals are to both study territorial transformations due to technology and rethink how we represent and gather data about these infrastructures. At TU Dresden developing digital methods and new forms of visualization would be a key component of any research program.
Automating the Logistical City: Space, Algorithms, Speculation
This project is a collaboration with Leuphana University, Germany funded by Volkswagen Stiftung (2021-2024). The research examines rapidly changing urban environments in Germany, the United States, Australia, and China. We are particularly examining how AI and automation are changing financial, labor, and real estate markets and how this is impacting life, geography, and land use.
Reclaiming the Planet:
This project examines the impact of Industry 4.0 and new big data and artificial intelligence technologies on older extraction, forestry, and agricultural industries in Northern Quebec. It is funded by FQRSC, and I am the Primary Investigator. The research asks: How are new technologies transforming extraction industries and impacting indigenous groups in the area? How might these same technologies also impact the future of these territories? And aid in creating circular economies and reclaiming toxic industrial sites? How might we also address historical wrongs and repatriate dispossessed indigenous groups and knowledges at these sites? It is a collaboration between anthropologists and literature students at Concordia University, landscape architects at the school of architecture at Université de Montréal and reclamation geo-engineers and ecologists at Université du Quebec en Abitibi- Témiscamingue. We are simultaneously documenting current changes to the landscape and speculating on future designs for soon to be abandoned mining and forestry installations. You can view the first part this project at: www.reclaimingtheplanet.net