PLURIVERSAL, BEWILDERED, AND OTHERWISE
Arturo Escobar ft. WAI Think Tank: Pluriversal Designing and the Re-Earthing of Cities
Tuesday, September 28
315F and Zoom | 12:00 PM
This talk is a provisional exploration of the implications of the insights from ontological and pluriversal designing to urban spaces. It outlines the notion of re-earthing cities from the perspective of the multiplicity of others, human and not, that inhabit them, through strategies for the recommunalization, relocalization, and decolonization of urban social life.
The talk will be accompanied by visuals directed by WAI Think Tank and followed by a public discussion moderated by Nora Akawi.
Arturo Escobar is an activist-researcher from Cali, Colombia, working on territorial struggles against extractivism, postdevelopmentalist and post-capitalist transitions, and ontological design. He was professor of anthropology and political ecology at UNC, Chapel Hill, until 2018, and is currently affiliated with PhD Programs in Design and Creation (Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia) and in Environmental Sciences (Universidad del Valle, Cali). Over the past thirty years, he has worked closely with Afro-descendant, environmental and feminist organizations in Colombia. His most well-known book is Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (1995, 2nd Ed. 2011). His most recent books are: Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds (2018); Pluriversal Politics: The Real and the Possible (2020); and Designing Relationally: Making and Restor(y)ing Life, with Michal Osterweil and Kriti Sharma (forthcoming).
This event is free and accessible to the public through Zoom and will be screened in room 315F for Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff. Registration is required, please register in advance here.
