Exercise 1: The World Through Your Senses

Project 4: Critical Perspectives

Earth by Apollo 17 – View of the Earth seen by Apollo 17 – La terre vue par Apollo 17 le I 07/12/1972. View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew travelling towards the moon. Photo © NASA/Novapix / Bridgeman Images.

The back cover blurb for the publication Criti|cal Zones, The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth, describes the content as ‘Artists, scientists, philosophers, and writers portray the disorientation of a world based in climate change. Charting the land they will inhabit, they find not a globe, not the Iconic blue marble, but a series of critical zones – patchy, heterogeneous, discontinuous’.

The critical zone in which we live is a complex place, and the ramifications of climate change are having a deep and potentially catastrophic impact on our way of life. Your perspective on this is important. At this point in the course, you will begin to define and analyse a critical perspective on the world that anchors your creative ideas and processes.

The publication, Critical Zones, was created out of a 2020 exhibition at the ZKM Center for Art and Media, Germany. Including short texts of both fiction and non-fiction, longer essays, photographic works, video installations, research projects and sound pieces. The ‘thought exhibition’ invited the contributors to explore what it means to be ‘on Earth’ – whether the critical zone, the Gaia or the terrestrial – to open space that explores the new climate regime.

For this project, you are to imagine you are a contributor to this project and form a creative research document that explores your critical perspective of what it means to be on Earth. This may sound daunting at first, however, you can build on this document during the forthcoming projects and incorporate and build upon your previous work.

Depending on your disciplines of choice, your Critical Review can be written (1250 words) or take an alternative format, such as a presentation (10 minutes). At this stage of your studies, you should be beginning to define the relationship between your research and practice, so your writing or equivalent should take a creative position that conveys your critical perspective.Begin this project with the following research task and navigate the Critical Zones website for inspiration and ideas about the type of work you could contribute.

• • Research Task: Critical ZonesCritical Zones PadletCreate a summary of your understanding from the reading below in your Learning Log, noting how the ideas relate to your perspective on the world and referring to your past experiences and ideas for future projects.Seven Objections Against Landing on Earth (Introduction) In Bruno Latour (Editor) and Peter Weibel (Editor), Critical Zones – The Science and Politics of Landing on Earth (2020) MIT Press.
  • Exercise 1: The World Through Your SensesThe previous research task should have opened up many possibilities and ideas, some complex, creative and challenging. For this exercise, you are to focus on your critical perspective and how you perceive the world. Begin by drafting your Critical Review ideas. As mentioned, this is open to interpretation and can take many forms. At this stage, start to plot out some initial ideas and collate your materials and any research resources, keeping track of your progress within your Learning Log. The work you produce at this stage will be shared with your tutor for feedback, so keep ideas fluid and open. You do not have to present a completed document but rather a work in progress with enough material to explain the context of your ideas and how you will proceed.

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Inspired by megastructures that make man’s life on planet more prominent, I created a presentation with the way I perceive life in a place having megastructures and a big human presence: Dongguan China.

Firstly, to a get inspiration, I display a few photos of places I have visited with magnificent buildings that have captured my attention because of their size, architecture or their unique design.

Photo a blurry and hazy photo of Guangzhou. A mega city of more than 20 million people. A wonder on planet earth.

the Great Wall of China, a megastructure

China: Dongguan.

London skyline.

Saint Paul’s Cathedral.

Pictures from Edinburgh.

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My trip to China and an inspirational conversation with my tutor motivated me to create the following presentation.

All the images that have been uploaded were captured by myself; even the ones that they look that they were taken from above. I have the privilege to live on the 26th floor of a building in Dongguan in China and I’m able to photograph pictures of the city’s skyline.

The original presentation had a music soundtrack of the song attached: Where The Streets Have No Name. Unfortunately the format does not let me use it so I have uploaded it seperately.

Welcome To The Jungle!