Neeraj Bhatia will present several of his designs that illustrate how various infrastructural processes can foster new world imaginaries that “expand geologics” through the De-Signing afforded by what he calls “soft infrastructures.” These labile, dynamic “ecosophic” (Guattari 2000) relations amongst social relations, the environment and subjectivities assume spatial form in the dialectics between infrastructure and architecture. “Within this expanded geologics, culture, politics, economics, and ecology find synergetic opportunities that empower new subjects to be agents within what was once an engineered system of global capital” (Bhatia 2016).
Event Readings from Bhatia include: Resilient Infrastructures, Coupling, Workshop
Julie Chu will draw from her ethnographic experience and material for her forthcoming book, The Hinge of Time: Infrastructure and Chronopolitics at China's Global Edge, to discuss the “ambiguous signs” (Chu 2014) that infrastructure materializes and the consequent social processes and political imaginaries of “more distributed forms of agency” (ibid) it makes possible.
Event Readings from Chu include: When Infrastructures Attack, Boxed In
This event is free and open to the public. If you need assistance to attend, please contact jhanchar@uchicago.edu.