Stream #04 – Les paradoxes du vivant

Stream #04 explores the figure of the living as a key to contemporary challenges. For us to move beyond simply observing the Anthropocene era requires that we find a position from where to act, one that is above and beyond modern dualisms, by articulating new, paradoxical and sometimes antagonistic, relationships with the living. What appears to be inert reveals itself to be animated, the individual is revealed to be an ecosystem, the living becomes artificial and technology comes to life. In a time of great climatic disruption, repositioning oneself with respect to other forms of existence seems salutary. Our planet is alive; more than ever, to inhabit the world means to cohabit.
Taking the living into consideration, thinking and building with and for nature is our new frontier. Our contemporary condition is paradoxical: we have gained humility as Man, we no longer possess natural right and we fear the consequences of our acts, yet our situation forces us to consider means of intervening on the living.
According to what representation of nature, following which approaches, which methods and to what extent? Points of view and visions diverge, but the issues remain inspiring and the responses complex.
How to overcome modern dualisms? Does a philosophy of objects allow for new interactions? Is post-humanism a dead end? Does data reconfigure our experience of space? Reintegrating nature into the city? What Progress above and beyond technology? How to inhabit the digital city? What dynamics for an architecture of our surroundings? Towards a greater intelligence of the living? What frameworks to provide for the creation of artificial natures? Does technology allow symbiosis with the living? What place should be given to the uses and initiatives of citizens in the development of urban environments? What relays with urban biodiversity? The living as material or inspiration? How to develop concrete processes to give substance to the utopias of the metabolic city?