#future ecologies

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts lately, old favorites and new ones that I'm just giving a try, and I recently tried again to listen to a podcast about pseudoscience and fringe spirituality that I liked in some ways and hated in others.

I had the same issues with it this time and I'm definitely not going to be listening to it again, but I restarted Future Ecologies to feel a bit better and the contrast is jarring.

The pseudoscience podcast hosts are cheerful and "kind" but also anti-theists with fundamentalist Christian backgrounds who refuse to understand the difference between religion and extremism and switching over to Future Ecologies, where religion and spirituality and culture are treated as fundamental and vital aspects of communities and sciences and especially ecology and indigenous people speak openly about their own experiences with their spirituality, genuinely has left me reeling.

It's not even just the topics themselves, but also the way that the people in the podcasts (both hosts and guests) approach them. The pseudoscience podcast was fun, when it didn't make me uncomfortable, but also pretty patronizing. Future Ecologies though is. . . gentle, I guess. It's quieter and softer and involves a lot of thoughtful discussions and questions without solid answers instead of final judgements.

[architectuul]

Can Fiction Become a Planning Tool?

Galeria a Bregdetit launched the Albanian edition of Future Ecologies with an online discussion about the future of our planet. They opened topic like what role can art can play in it and which stories are shaping our world?

Histories and visions of the future are often bound to strong storytelling, and as we begin to understand the importance of these stories in shaping our environments, can we make their narratives more strategic? Can fiction become a planning tool? 

Our habitat has not missed the opportunity to become the protagonist of visionary narratives since the early days of speculative fiction, with Metropolis the first feature length science-fiction film being produced in 1927. The plot and spectacular scenography for its time, warned of a dystopian future built on the class struggle of an endless city; and as our post-truth reality approaches these centennial nightmares of oppression, vertigo, and mirror facades, could there be a way to envision aspirations that will fuel our common future instead of crafting warnings which end up being our contemporary dystopia? 

The discussion Using Narrative as a Design Tool is built on an informal conversation, integrating short presentations from four contemporary practices are active at the intersection of art and design, with an emphasis on investigating the visionary and ephemeral. 

Driant Zeneli: It would not be possible to leave planet earth unless gravity existed, 2017

Driant Zeneli,: No wise fish would escape without flying, 2019

Driant Zeneli: And then I found some meteorites in my room, 2018

Driant Zeneli is a contemporary artist working primarily in film, giving a glimpse into his research on the redefinition of the idea of failure, utopia and dream as the elements that open possible alternatives. 

Speaking architecture includes a series of objects and possible architectures inspired by what artists defined as “architecture novel”. | Photo © Parasite 2.0

Parasite 2.0 is an interdisciplinary collective based in Milan and London, which investigates the status of human habitats, acting within a hybrid of architecture, design and scenography. 

Natalija Paunić is an independent curator from Belgrade and one of the founders of the nomadic curatorial platform Voždovačka galerija, which explores the notions of fiction and trust. 

Moderated by Elian Stefa, a fellow of the Future Architecture Platform

***

Using Narrative as a Design Tool curated by Elian Stefa is part of FUTURE ECOLOGIES, a programme from WE ARE HERE: Artists’ Moving Image from the British Council Collection and LUX developed by Tendai John Mutambu, British Council and LUX. Link to the discussion here.

[lisamarieblair]

FE4.10 - Geopoetics // Future Ecologies

“We need geopoetics because geopolitics necessitate other ways of being…Proposing alternate narratives to the hegemonic ones we are caught in is the work and play of geopoetics.” — Erin Robinsong

[bupardeecenter-blog-blog]

Pardee Center House Seminar Clips: Invasive Species and Future Ecologies

Watch this video on YouTube

Disturbed environments are prime environments for invasive species according to Boston University Biology Professor Richard Primack in segment from the Pardee Center House Seminar, 'Invasive Species and Future Ecologies: Bugs, Viruses, Mussels, and Weeds.'

Watch this video on YouTube

Professor Les Kaufman from the BU Marine Program and Conservation International at BU explains no-analog communities and the “take home lesson” from Lake Victoria. 

Footage of the complete seminar which will also feature remarks by BU entomologist Richard Pollock is available on Pardee Center multimedia page. 

@BUPardeeCenter

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