In the upcoming last weeks of the year De Dépendance will host public talks with three distinctive thinkers. Geert Lovink speaks on the idea of reclaiming the internet tonight. Later, on November 24 Davarian Baldwin talks about the effects universities have on their urban environments, or: UniverCity. December 8 Daniël A. Barber, author of ‘After Comfort – On Architecture and Climate’ comes by.
At V2_ Media theorist and internet critic Geert Lovink will tonight talk about his new book: Stuck on the Platform (Valiz, 2022). It’s about our current technological predicament and looks for ways out of the digital slump. Following a presentation of the book, digital anthropologist Payal Arora and Bits of Freedom-director Evelyn Austin will join the conversation. How do we make sense of the rising disaffection with the platform condition, and what can be done about it?
The Rise of the UniverCity
De Dépendance has invited Davarian L. Baldwin for a session at the Independent School on November 24. He is a leading urbanist, historian, cultural critic, and Professor of American Studies at Trinity College in Connecticut. His work largely examines the landscape of global cities through the lens of the African Diasporic experience. He is the author of ‘In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities’ (2021) and is currently finishing ‘Land of Darkness: Chicago and the Making of Race in Modern America’.
During a public talk he discusses the role of higher education in shaping our urban environment. And how do we ensure that they actually contribute to a just and vibrant city? Farid Tabarki leads the debate.
In collaboration with OASE, a journal for architecture, which is publishing an issue on ecology and aesthetics this autumn, De Dépendance organizes an evening in which we explore ways in which the built environment could become less, not more, dependent on sophisticated technological fixes. Daniel A. Barber is a leading guest. This professor of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney and a Research Affiliate at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin focuses on how the architecture practice and pedagogy are changing to address the climate emergency.
