Planetary Design: Reclaiming Futures

Today, many people are experiencing the uneven impacts of climate change, pandemics, wars, market crashes, biodiversity loss, and supply chain disruptions on a global scale. That a shared planetary future is, at best, uncertain is widely accepted. Governments, corporations, consultancies, and design firms are trying to tackle this uncertainty by envisioning various future scenarios and ways to get there. They are developing policies, strategies, and cutting-edge technologies to anticipate and prepare for potential future challenges while minimizing damage and maximizing profits. In response, a growing number of activists and intellectuals invest hope in design to foster political alternatives grounded in radically different ways of being and speculating on futures.

The conference »Planetary Design: Reclaiming Futures« brought together critical thinking and doing around the role of design in making, unmaking and remaking worlds. Starting from the intersection of design, infrastructure, and the planetary environment, it offered a generative platform open to artists, academics, and activists for rethinking design’s role in producing the present and for developing alternative planetary futures. The conference gathered artists, academics, and activists to rethink design's role in producing our present and developing alternative planetary futures.

The program includes a panel on »Framing Planetary Design« by Claudia Mareis, Orit Halpern and Kenny Cupers, as well as a panel on »Design and Democracy? Political Collectivities and Participation« with Anke Gründel and a roundtable on »Designed Dispossession and Reclaiming the Commons« with Michaela Büsse. Find the full program here:
https://www.ici-berlin.org/events/planetary-design-reclaiming-futures/

Organized by

Governing Through Design project team (Claudia Mareis, Kenny Cupers, Orit Halpern, Laura Nkula-Wenz, Özgün Eylül İşcen, Nadia Christidi, Sudipto Basu, Anke Gründel, Tania Messell), in cooperation with the ICI Berlin

The conference marks the culmination of »Governing Through Design«, a collaborative research project supported by a Sinergia Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Partners

Humboldt Universität Berlin zu Berlin, Technische Universität Dresden, Universität Basel, Concordia University, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW)

Audio Series

The conference contributions, including those from Claudia Mareis and Anke Gruendel, have now been uploaded as an audio series by the independent publication platform Koozarch.

Find out more here:
https://koozarch.com/interviews/planetary-design-reclaiming-futures