BK Talks: Apocalypse?

An agenda for a world in crisis

07 April 2022 18:00 till 20:00 - Location: OOSTSERRE & ONLINE - By: Communication BK | Add to my calendar

On 7 April, the BK Talks 'Apocalypse? An agenda for a World in Crisis' will take place.

The secular use of the metaphor of ‘Apocalypse’ refers to the total destruction and end of the World, and originates in the last biblical book, ‘The Book of Revelation’. Whether the end of the World is coming is difficult to predict. However, when we read the newspapers or watch the news, the term ‘Apocalypse’ helps to describe the situation in which our Planet is at the beginning of the Anthropocene: climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, societal inequity, political unrest - to name just a few of the urgencies - can make us feel the fear of impending doom.

However, and no matter how despairing the news can be, this edition of the BK Talks is an invitation to address these urgencies from the belief that humankind will prevail. Moderated by Lisa Doeland, BK Talk’s Apocalypse will gather a panel of experts from different disciplines to discuss the emergencies and the agendas to tackle climate, justice or biodiversity emergency.

Can we speed-up the official agendas? Can we as citizens do more and faster? How to reach true social and ecological justice? How to address rampant urbanisation, overpopulation, migrations, aggressive misogyny, imperialism, white supremacism, capitalist exploitation of the Earth or an artificial intelligence takeover?

Can we refer to the actual meaning of ‘Apocalypse’ (from the Greek apokálupsis: “uncover, disclose, reveal”) and elaborate on the guidelines of actions to follow?

We need to do so. We are running out of time.

Moderator

Lisa Doeland
Philosopher and Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Amsterdam

Lisa Doeland (1982) is a philosopher with a soft spot for the unwanted, the unpleasant, the excluded. She teaches at the Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Amsterdam. In her PhD-research she explores the ontology of waste and the ways in which we are haunted by it. Her interests lie in hauntology, the uncanny, the monstruous, critique of capitalism, (dark) ecology, the Anthropocene and apocalyptic thought. She co-authored Onszelf voorbij. Kijken naar wat we liever niet zien (2018), a philosophical triptych in which she delves into waste as the dark side of our consumerist culture.

Speakers

Roy Bendor
Assistant Professor of Critical Design, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft

Dr. Roy Bendor explores the capacity of design to disclose alternative social, political and environmental futures. He is Assistant Professor of Critical Design in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology, Fellow of the Urban Futures Studio at Utrecht University, and author of Interactive Media for Sustainability (Palgrave, 2018). He is cautiously hopeful that humanity will find a way to avoid climate breakdown. Find out more about him on his website: www.digitalsustainability.com.

Stavros Kousoulas
Assistant Professor of Architecture Philosophy and Theory, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft

Stavros Kousoulas is assistant professor of architecture philosophy and theory at the Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft. He studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and at TU Delft. He received his PhD cum laude from IUAV Venice. He has published and lectured in Europe and abroad and is a member of the editorial board of Footprint Delft Architecture Theory Journal. He is the author of the book Architectural Technicities (Routledge, 2022) and the edited volumes Architectures of Life and Death with Andrej Radman (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021) and Design Commons with Gerhard Bruyns (Springer, 2022).

Felix Madrazo
Founding Partner at IND [Inter.National.Design]

Félix Madrazo (Saltillo, Mexico 1972) is an architect, researcher and lecturer. He is a founding partner of the architecture studio IND [Inter.National.Design], co-founder of the research collective Supersudaca and lecturer in various universities including TU Delft /The Why Factory. Competitions since an early stage of his education have drastically changed the course of his career and ultimately of his firm. He is co-author with Prof. Winy Maas of the books City Shocks and Copy Paste done at The Why Factory and published by Nai010 Press.

Pinar Sefkatli
Architect and PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam

Pinar Sefkatli is an architect and PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam. Her research develops new methodologies for using rhythms as a lens to understand and design urban spaces, services, and practices. In 2020, Pinar was part of the editorial team of Values for Survival; a research programme around the Dutch contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale chaired by Prof. Caroline Nevejan, focusing on the integration of social and ecological realities. The outcome of the programme can be an inspiration for the apocalypse theme, where tuning into and sharing rhythms become core values to consider during times of crises.

Naomi Stead
Professor of Architecture at RMIT, Melbourne

Naomi Stead is Professor of Architecture at RMIT, Melbourne, as well as being Director of the RMIT Design and Creative Practice research platform – working with researchers across and beyond the creative fields to engage in high-impact interdisciplinary research for the benefit of people and planet. Over a career of twenty years, Stead has been committed to research-based advocacy - into gender equity and work-related wellbeing in creative workplaces - and ways in which creative practice and education can respond to the climate and biodiversity crisis. Stead has a high profile in her native Australia as a critic and commentator – including as architecture critic for The Saturday Paper. 

Practical information

This BK Talks will be streamed live from the Oostserre and can be followed via this link.