On Simulation: A Cultural Technique for Uncertain Urban Futures.

While tools of prediction and simulation used by climatologists and planners are becoming more and more sophisticated, urban futures are increasingly uncertain. In this context, this conference examines the relations between urban and cultural production and the transforming tools and methods for forecasting and simulating climatic futures. It asks, how can cultural production respond to and use climate simulations, and what is the role of architecture, culture and art in envisioning multiple climatic futures? Although architecture and urban design have turned towards the future as never before, there is a dearth of reflection on this turn, and on the significance of simulation technologies and climate speculation for cultural production that reflects on the climate crisis.

Program:

08:30 – 09:00 Welcome and registration

09:00 – 09:30 Organisers’ Introduction

09:30 – 10:30 Panel 1: Games and Experiments

Prof. Andri Gerber (ZHAW School of Architecture, Design and Civil Engineering Winterthur): How to play CO2: Environmental games as ultimate simulations?

PD Dr. Anne Dippel (Department of Cultural Anthropology, University of Jena): The Depths of Illusion. Knowing Reality Through Computer Simulations

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee

10:45 – 11:45 Panel 2: Simulation as Cultural Technique

Prof. Peter Krapp (Film & Media Studies, University of California, Irvine): Simulation as a cultural technique

Prof. Marco Caracciolo (Department of Literary Studies, Ghent University): Weirded Urban Spaces in Contemporary Fiction and Video Games

11:45 – 12:30 Q&A

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch

13:30 – 14:30 Panel 3: Simulating Architecture Futures

Prof. Dr. Angela Rout (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft): Reimagining Data: New Approaches to Climate-Responsive Architecture

Joshua Silver (School of Environment, Education and Development, The University of
Manchester): Observing the Future: Digital Simulation to Sustain Networks of Design Practice

Coffee 14:30 – 14:45

14:45 – 15:45 Panel 4: Simulating Urban Futures

Dr. Darío Negueruela del Castillo (Center for Digital Visual Studies, Max-Planck Society/ University of Zurich): Simulating Urban Denkstile: Vision-Language Models as Theoretical Lenses for Uncertain Futures

Prof. Orit Halpern (Technische Universität Dresden): Planetary Experiments: Science, Life, and Politics in the Age of the Anthropocene

15:45 – 16:15 Q&A

16:15 – 17:15 Roundtable with all speakers

17:15 – 17:30 Conclusion

Admission free, please register at anmeldungzaz-bellerive.ch.

Organised by Prof. Sascha Roesler and Dr. Noa Levin
The Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies (ISUP) and the Institute for the History and Theory of Art and Architecture (ISA), Accademia di Architettura Mendrisio, Università della svizzera italiana in collaboration with ZAZ Bellerive - Zentrum Architektur Zürich, supported by The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).