Monumental Wastelands
If each civilization is remembered for the artifacts that they have left behind monumentalized posteriori (the Egyptians for their pyramids, the Romans for their infrastructures, etc…) then what will be the equivalent(s) of contemporary civilization?
‘Monumental Wastelands’ is a bi-annual and bi-lingual (English Spanish) book that was initiated bearing those questions in mind. The contributions are from a constellation of thoughts and experiments from different people in different fields whose work expands upon the scope and the means by which the current state of affairs at local and global scales are examined and engaged with.
The modern project has structured contemporary thought and society which has direct implications on how we conceive order and how knowledge is constructed and validated, which is often executed through top-down structures across socio-economic spheres and that rejects or attempts to tame what is commonly perceived as savage, wild and uncivilized; something that the publication holistically tries to disrupt.
The first issue on Autonomy questions systems of control and the re-evaluation of certain grounds on lands, humans, non-humans, the discipline, emerging technologies and future forms of cohabitation.
The second issue on Logistics examines various scales and relationships between ecology, economy, domesticity and identity from material, human and non-human perspectives.
The lecture will introduce the theme of Monumental Wastelands, tracing the history of moments into present day, and give insights into a few of the articles as well as the work being carried out by the editors from both a practice and pedagogical perspective.
Biographies
Déborah López is a licensed architect in Spain, and Lecturer (teaching) at the Bartlett. She co-leads Research Cluster 1 in the B-Pro program under the title ‘Monumental Wastelands’ with a focus on climate fiction (Cli-Fi), teaches design in Year 2 in the MSci program where she is also the Year 3 Coordinator.
Hadin Charbel is an architectural designer and Lecturer (teaching) at the Bartlett. He co-leads Research Cluster 1 in the B-Pro program under the title ‘Monumental Wastelands’ with a focus on climate fiction (Cli-Fi), teaches design in Year 2 in the MSci program where he is also the Year 3 Skills Coordinator.
Pareid is an interdisciplinary design and research studio led by Déborah López and Hadin Charbel. Through a form of techno-research-bashing, projects are narrative driven while varying in scales and mediums; often positioning themselves within a socio-political discourse and operating at various scales and media through iminent fictions (if). Their work has been widely published and exhibited including at the Venice Biennale, Seoul Biennale, and the Royal Academy of Arts and most recently as part of the 2022 London Design Week. They were the recipients of the Arquia Innova Award in 2020, Premio COAM Emergente in 2020, and awarded Architizer’s 2020 A+ Popular Choice Award. They have just recentlycurated the Bartlett’s Prospectives Issue 3 under the theme of Climate F(r)ictions and are both the founders and directors of Monumental Wastelands Magazine, a recently published bi-lingual and augmented book with guest contributions spanning topics from ecosophy, aesthetics, autonomy, logistics, and technology.
