Workshop and lecture by Alejandro Haiek

Friday April 26th 2024 | 14h30 - 17h30 | workshop:

"Engaging with Agents: From Planetary to Molecular"

The seminar will begin with the presentation of The Laboratory of Planetary Diplomacy as a collaborative platform for territorial research and geopolitical advocacy. The research features a series of intersectional cartographies exposing cases of territorial injustice and infrastructural violence in the Amazon as well as in Nordic-Arctic socio-geographical scenarios, following a multiscale methodological approach from planetary networks to molecular evidence. The research methodology encompasses the mapping of complex geo-spatial data to study disruptive phenomena while denouncing the agents of disturbance and the exhaustion of exceptional ecological resources in vulnerable lands and communities.

During the session, we will revisit the cases of study, unfolding agents of social and environmental disturbance, revealing hidden forces and disruptions from traces and scars of extractive practices and industrial technoscapes. The seminar will seek new forms of correlation between social landscapes, ecosystem services, and post-industrial geographies, engaging with the agents as artistic translations. We will interrogate the agency of translating data into the artistic domain, continuing with an ecosophical position and perspective.

The session will conclude by experiencing nature as a complex multiscale entity. The goal is to envision mediating forms and biopolitical structures evolving from the scars of these urgent ecological challenges. We will speculate around future post-industrial edens of high natural and cultural capital, revisiting the ecosystemic values and violations of the boundaries of human and nature's rights, as well as concepts of new wealth economy, ecological literacy, and planetary governance. Through art, science, and craftsmanship, the seminar invites the development of forms of agency contesting the multiple externalities and engaging in the renegotiation of sufficiency and autonomy for those injured and harmed territories.

Friday April 26th 2024 | 19h00 - 20h20 | lecture (open for all):

"A Story of Failures and Beautiful Architecture"

The Dynamic Interplay Architecture is not merely about static structures but a dynamic interplay between experimentation, adaptation, and the pursuit of inclusivity. Public infrastructures represent an organized form of living, not solely confined to the perimeter of the building but extending into the process itself. The collective construction of cultural infrastructure serves as a tool for community engagement as well as a pedagogical methodology to create open classrooms within site constructions for free experimentation and subjectivation of labor practices.

It is in the test and error moments of experimentation, and the willingness to embrace failure that sparks the fundamental feeling of emancipation that emerges in self- initiate, self-support, self-organized creative spaces. In this narrative, the processes pre, during, and post-construction drive the reflection of lecture, moving through communal aspirations and the eyes with diverse perspectives of participants.

The story of failures unfolds as a celebration of the resilience and adaptability inherent in the field. It embraces imperfection, evolution, and inclusivity, recognizing that the purpose of architecture is to mediate, generating spaces of hospitality, but also to enhance life for both human and non-human species bounding networks of cooperation and entanglements.

About Alejandro Haiek Coll

Alejandro Haiek Coll is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Genova, Man-made Geographies MA Studio Leader at Umeå School of Architecture (UMA), and Affiliate Researcher at RISE and the Arctic Research Center of Umeå University. He is the founder of the Laboratory of Experimental Applied Arts Lab-Pro-Fab and the Laboratory for Planetary Diplomacy.

His research explores planetary ecosystem services for the future, aiming to reorient life-existence within established geopolitical territorial control. His project-based practice focuses on social and environmental re-engineering, investigating human geographies and
self-governance as political forms of environmental diplomacy and territorial justice. With projects ranging from performances to large-scale public eco infrastructures, Haiek and his laboratory work cooperatively alongside an international and interdisciplinary research network, exploring infrastructural ecosystems and material excess. Their landscape interventions are transformative both socially and politically, from micro to macro scale. The projects open feedback loops between the different levels of knowledge, from designer to
builder.

His area of expertise revolves around regenerative projects in fragile natural and social ecosystems, addressing civic deficits, including unrest, poverty, and inequality. His work straddles art, architecture, design, geography, engineering, and performance.

Date and location:

• Friday April 26th 2024
• 14h30 - 17h30: Workshop (for PhD students)
• 17h30 - 19h00: collective light dinner
• 19h00 - 20h20: Lecture (open for all)
• 20h20... drinks
• location: De Pastorie, Helzoldstraat 5, 3530 Helchteren

Registration

• Participation is free, but registration (before April 19th) is obligatory.
• The event is live, not digital.
  
  
• Doctoral school requirements
  In case you would like to have the participation acknowledged into your portfolio, please send a request to DSrequirements@uhasselt.be mentioning the specificity of your PhD. We would like to draw your attention to the  cancellation and no-show policy of UHasselt.

More information

• Research Group ArcK
• Research domain Spatial Capacity Building
• Lab-Pro-Fab