Proseminar in ECOLOGIES: Interrelated, In-between, Dynamic

Our aim in the proseminar is to explore the inherent inventedness of ecology as a field of inquiry, its distinctly relational nature, and the potential breadth of it social, cultural, political, environmental, economic, and urbanistic implications.  The work will draw on the social sciences, design research, material culture, urban theory, climate and energy studies, and public policy. Through reading, presentation, and discussion, we will explore various situated understandings of and attitudes toward nature and environment, across cultures and including inter-species and non-human lenses.  We will touch on issues of planetary and atmospheric change and dynamics; resource cultivation and extraction technologies; production, distribution, and consumption networks, and their regulatory frameworks; forms of collective living at the scale of the city, region, and territory; and questions of to whom and for whom these networks, policies, and regulations are established (and who they exclude).  Case studies will embody contemporary discourses and research methods, including reading and writing, visualization, simulation, projection, and communication.

ECOLOGIES + Cultures
–    Land, Landscape, Environment, Nature
–    Non-Human Lenses

ECOLOGIES + Atmospheres
–    Climate
–    Energy

ECOLOGIES + Resources
–    Cultivation Techniques and Technologies
–    Extraction, Production and Distribution Networks
–    Material Culture

ECOLOGIES + Collective Society
–    Territory, Infrastructure, Urbanism
–    Regulatory and Policy Frameworks

ECOLOGIES + Social Life
–    Public Health, Equity, Justice
–    Human Behavior

Prerequisites: Enrollment in the MDes ECOLOGIES program.

The first class meeting will be on Wednesday, September 1st. The rest of the semester, classes will meet during the official scheduled time.