Credits: Remote sensing artisanal fishing vessels off the Gambian coast. LIMINAL 2024
From Afar explores the complex world of geo-spatial investigation, focusing on particular instances of violence and disruption across our contemporary grown and built environment. The course will demonstrate and investigate how methods of spatial, geostatistical and data analysis can be used to document, contest, mitigate and design for conditions of instability and injustice within the Anthropocene.
From Afar will ask students to critically reflect upon the infrastructures through which we perceive and investigate the world around us, as observers and actors within an increasingly complex web of media, sensory technologies and evidentiary practices. Through the development of public-facing analytical tools students will construct novel frameworks through which the Anthropocene and its effects can be studied. Topics such as floods, deforestation, sea level rise and wildfires will be situated within a wider context of networked cause and effect. The tools and methodologies developed in these group investigations will evidence the interaction of peoples, cultures, information, capital and ecologies which both shape, and are shaped by, the design of our contemporary world.
We’ll work with satellite imagery, machine learning workflows, and analytical methodologies during this course. In so doing, we’ll uncover geo-spatial trends and transformations that will be documented across various modalities. Introductions to and workshops with required software will form the basis of the course, with lectures and class discussions focusing on the politics of investigative methodologies and their application in real word contexts.
The course will explore the domain of open-source geospatial investigation through an overview of existing investigative methodologies and their practical application and deployment in real-life projects.
At the same time, the lectures will be anchored by a series of group investigations that relate to the themes underlying the course’s curriculum. Each will concern itself with the design and development of emergent open-source tools and methodologies contributing to the study and investigation of social, climatological, and spatial injustice.
Throughout this time, we will:
Unmasking Nile’s Land Grabbed Territories The advanced political economies have shape a world where complexity too often tends to produce elementary brutalities under complex modes of expulsion. Most of the time those dynamics operate at a more subterranean level. The tools driving this phenomenon range from basic policies to complex institutions, systems, and techniques that demand … Read more
“The Amazon rainforest, often called the ‘lungs of the Earth,’ is rapidly disappearing. But this isn’t just an environmental crisis—it’s a geopolitical and economic issue. In the heart of this transformation lies [Mato Grosso], Brazil’s largest soy-producing state. Its key location fuels both economic growth and ecological destruction, leading to tensions over land use, trade … Read more
Informal settlements have become a pressing issue across Latin America, reflecting deep-rooted socioeconomic inequalities and rapid urbanization. In 2014, approximately one-quarter of the urban population in Latin American cities lived in informal housing. By 2017, this number had increased to nearly one-third, and the trend continues to rise. Each country’s informal settlements have unique names … Read more
January brought a challenging start for California, as a series of devastating wildfires swept through the state, endangering lives, destroying homes, and reshaping entire communities. These fires were not only among the most destructive in California’s history but also ranked among the costliest ever recorded in the United States. The scale of destruction was unprecedented, … Read more
