Living infrastructures: Reworlding urban environments

Originally presented at the closing keynote MIT Worlding on October 4th, 2022.

The MIT Co-Creation Studio focuses on the intersection of climate futurism, land use planning, technology and narrative, each of which plays a powerful role in our work at Spherical. While projects have evolved rapidly since then, this talk provided a decent early-morning tour through some of the ideas driving us.

Our work is obviously a product of co-creation as well. This talk was crafted alongside David McConville, and features explorations by our team and partners. A bow of thanks to Kat Cizek for the invitation.

Abstract: In some countries, legislation to address climate is only politically viable under the auspices of infrastructure. But why is this? Infrastructure is commonly understood as the technical armature of industrial civilization, something that requires investment and maintenance. However, climate change requires radically transforming this limited view of infrastructure. The scaffolding of human society is embedded within and dependent upon vast webs of relations permeating human and more-than-human worlds. Dawn Danby will explore how increasing familiarity with the nested scales of planetary infrastructures challenges overly-simplified narratives of climate solutions, requiring new ways of being in reciprocal relationship with the living Earth.