Social stratification and resetting ecological baselines. The built (and un-built) environment is tied to speculative cityscapes based in both alternative futures and parallel presents—cities are where architecture, infrastructure, and sculpted landscapes can reflect, reinforce, or transform collective social norms and individual behaviors. In our speculations, spatial considerations expand overhead beyond the troposphere and underfoot to geothermal sources of planetary energy.
Transitional spaces, interfaces, and moments are highlighted throughout the environment, emphasizing both conspicuous and collateral connections between different elements of the social and ecological landscape. Because the airspace inseparable from the motivations and behaviors governing terrestrial activity, initial emphasis on the aerocene is effectively distributed and integrated across the ecosystem to reflect a more integrated worldview.
Speculative anthropology is the lens through which we consider how humans might adapt and respond to new aerocene realities, what role they might inhabit within nature-centric systems, and how the behavior and beliefs fostered during this pandemic might shape the societies of post-COVID futures.
Building upon Spring 2020 inquiries, our group’s work further explores speculative urban ecologies and their integrated ecosystems. Starting with the assumption that different future visions belong to different presents, the research foundations of each scenario are tied to concerns (emergent and recurring) adjacent to the current pandemic. Outcomes and provocations draw attention to the built environment, transitional spaces, and speculative anthropology.
2020