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Environmental and Climate History: The Role of History in Society
I’m teaching a PhD course at the University of Oslo for the Norwegian Graduate School in History: “Environmental and Climate History: The Role of History in Society”, December 16-18, 2019.
Read the report from the course here.
Collapse: Climate, Cities & Culture Berlin
The COLLAPSE: CLIMATE, CITIES and CULTURE exhibition focuses on the design/artist community’s response to environmental urgency, using architectural models, design prototypes, drawings, and art to frame and advance this vitally important conversation. We will contrast and compare examples of design from central Europe to show efforts to find solutions for our current state of planetary peril. The practices and projects selected for this exhibition come from different disciplines and operate at multiple scales, in a range of forms—constructed works, materials and systems research, community development, and speculation. These diverse projects are joined by their shared focus on improving the health and well-being of our fragile planet and all of its occupants. Design will help to determine how we face our current and future collapse.
Berlin NYU at St. Agnes, Alexandrinenstraße 118
June 6-July 11, 2019.
My review of Images of Egypt
Mari Lending, Eirik Arff Gulseth Bøhn, Tim Anstey (eds.), Images of Egypt, (Oslo: Pax, 2018).
Arkitketur N, 101 (2019), 112.
Download PDF (in Norwegian)
My review of Malarial Subjects
Rohan Deb Roy, Malarial Subjects: Empire, Medicine and Nonhumans in British India, 1820–1909. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017).Bauhaus Centenary Interview
Bauhaus Centenary interview for Deutsche Welle (DW News), Jan 2nd 2019.
My review of National Park Science: A Century of Research in South Africa
Jane Carruthers, National Park Science: A Century of Research in South Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Collapse: Climate, Cities & Culture
COLLAPSE: CLIMATE, CITIES & CULTURE focuses on the design community’s response to environmental urgency, using architectural models, design prototypes, drawings, and videos to frame and advance this vitally important conversation. COLLAPSE is not a dystopian future-scape, but is in fact our “right now.” The Directors of Global Design NYU believe that designers must join or initiate interdisciplinary efforts to find solutions for our current state of planetary peril.
COLLAPSE estimates that one species goes extinct every seven minutes and this rate may be up to 1000 times faster than evolutionary norms. In our exhibit design, the empty cages represent loss, or voids, in our natural world. They are like coffins for species whose graves we will never know, whose lives we will never learn about. The exhibit design also features over a ton and a half of e-waste, lent to us by environmental waste management company. E-waste (products with batteries or cords) contain poisonous heavy metals, chemical flame retardants, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). As our world becomes more interconnected, our production of e-waste is skyrocketing. Interconnectivity may save the planet in some ways, but its harm is already evident.
The practices and projects selected for this exhibition come from a myriad of disciplines and operate at multiple scales, in a range of forms—constructed works, materials and systems research, community development, speculation, and philosophy. These diverse projects are joined by their shared focus on improving the health and well-being of our fragile planet and all of its occupants. Design will help to determine how we face our current and future collapse.
The show featured contributions from more than thirty designers, including AGENCY, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Alexander Felson, Anna Bokov, Anna Dyson, Archi-Tectonics, Architecture and Urban Design Lab, Axel Kilian, BiotA Lab, Carl Skelton, DESIGN EARTH, Experimental Architecture Group, Fernanda Canales, Forrest Meggers, Ghiora Aharoni Design Studio, Harrison Atelier, Jenny Sabin Studio, Julia Watson Studio REDE, Karen Holmberg, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Mark Foster Gage Architects, Mark Shepard and Moritz Stefaner, MASS Design Group, Mathur/Da Cunha, Mitch McEwen, NADAAA, nea studio, Nurhan Gokturk, Patrick Nash, pneumastudio/Cathryn Dwyre + Chris Perry, Rhett Russo, School of the Earth, SITE @ Princeton University, SO-IL, Terreform ONE, WXY, and Young & Ayata
Global Design NYU, Collapse: Climate, Cities & Culture, directed and curated by Peder Anker, Louise Harpman, Mitchell Joachim, The Gallatin Galleries NYC, June 12-29, 2018.
Seminar, Center for Architecture, 6-8pm, Oct. 3, 2018,
Anthropocene Architecture: Design Earth’s Geostories
“Anthropocene Architecture: Design Earth’s Geostories” with Nina Edwards Anker, The Avery Review 29 (Feb. 2018). [PDF]
Republished in: Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, (Barcelona: Actar, 2018), 206-213.
A review of the exhibition Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, created by Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, which was on display at the Cooper Union School of Architecture in New York, October 17, 2017–December 2, 2017.
Human Heliostat NYU
Producers: Louise Harpman, Peder Anker, Keith Miller, Mitchell Joachim. Director: Keith Miller. Actor: Priya Patel. Camera: Adam Golfer, Thomas Lau. Editor: Charles Chintzer Lai. Photography: Ivan Specht. Music: DJ Spooky. Production Assistants: Louisa Nolte, Rachel Stern. Participants: Cynthia Allen, Liz Appel, Jamie Berthe, Honor Bishop, Michelle Boukhover, Colin F Brett Nina R Demeo, Pasan Dharmasena, Jacob Ford, Hallie M Franks, Hannah Fullerton, Jason Gabaee, Aaron Gartenberg, Vince Gaudio, Subhankar Ghosh, Celine Rose Gruenberg, Georgina Hahn-Griffiths, Michael Hirschorn, Kristin Horton, Gisela Humphreys, William Kammler, Zoe A Kennedy, Sage Mastakouras, Stacie McDonald, Louisa Nolte, Celeste Orangers, Brennan O’Rourke, Annie Pluimer, Caroline Porter, Alejandro Ribadeneira, Kyle Richard, Arielle Ross, Henry Sheeran, Ivan Specht, Rachel N Stern, Luke Thurmond, Greg Vargo, Aleksei Waddington, John Wedge, Jen Weitsen.
Untangling Intentions: Teaching the History of Climate Politics
“Untangling Intentions: Teaching the History of Climate Politics,” in Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities, Stephen Siperstein, Shane Hall and Stephanie LeMenager (eds.), (New York: Routledge, 2016), 272-278
Peder Anker 