Every being on Earth – human and non-human – breathes the same air. Yet air is shared unevenly: we pollute it with our factories and lights at night, claim it with our airplanes, and even capitalize on it through our wind turbines. In a world of climate disaster and rapidly vanishing habitats, an urgent question arises: who gets to claim air, who suffocates?
Despite all of our differences we have at least one thing in common: breath is universal. Shared breath could form the basis of a different kind of politics. One that reminds us of our connection with all living beings. This politics also opens a space for existential reflection: to sense how our lives are intertwined with all that breathes.
At this event, philosopher Sophie van Balen (EUR) explores air, wind, and breath as our shared space. Can we reimagine the use of it? Van Balen investigates how shared breath and wind shape space for everyone. After that we will investigate how to be sensitive to the needs of animals, plants, and landscapes with designer and philosopher Virginia Tassinari (TU Delft) – how can we learn to listen and respond?
One of our speakers tonight is a strandbeest. Strandbeesten – created by artist Theo Jansen – feed on wind energy. They are meant to roam beaches independently and were created to survive on nothing more than the wind. Tonight, the strandbeest in the Library Hall will come to life. From its perspective it reflects on us, the humans who divide air and occupy space. Together with the audience, we explore what it means to truly share breath, life, and the Earth. The audience will be given the opportunity to ask the strandbeest questions, which it will answer.
Sophie van Balen is PhD candidate in environmental philosophy at the Erasmus School of Philosophy in Rotterdam. Her research project, funded by NWO, concerns a feminist and decolonial rethinking of the ‘catastrophic atmospheric troubles’ of climate change and air pollution through breath. She recently published ‘Breathable Futures’ and co-authored ‘Composing climate change as a matter of everyday living’. Aside from her research, Sophie is chair of the board at Stichting Maand van de Filosofie.
Harpo ‘t Hart is a sound artist and artistic director of The Embassy of the North Sea. Through his work he questions the ways in which we listen to our world. How should we listen to our rapidly changing world? A world of climate change, where electronic devices listen to us. In his work, Harpo searches for ways to make the more than human voices heard in the civic debate.
Virginia Tassinari is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Human-Centered Design at University of Technology Delft. Virginia Tassinari’s research focuses on how philosophy can contribute to the contemporary design research discourse, and particularly to address the (cosmo) politics of designing facing the Anthropocene.
Explore SG’s related events this quarter on the theme: (Re)Claiming Space
How does design—of streets, campuses, digital platforms, or lecture halls—shape who belongs and who does not? And what happens when we use these spaces to speak out, resist and make ourselves seen? When presence turns into protest, these spaces become political.
In this series, we explore how political spaces come into being: why they matter, how they are designed, and how they might be redesigned. SG invites designers, philosophers, activists, and students to explore how we might design for difference.
9 September 12:45 | Existential Tuesday: Is everything political for Gen Z? @ TUD Library, The Nook
23 September 17:00 | Is a campus designed for protest? @ TUD Library Hall
8 October 16:00 | Driving societal change through inclusive STEM research processes and outcomes @ TUD Library Hall
9 October 12:45 | Current Affairs Lunch Lecture: Male Violence Against Women @ TUD Library, Orange Room
13 October 19:00 | Critical Mass: Woke Design @ Theater de Veste
15 October 16:00 | ‘Flying Solo’ Opening Reception @ TUD Library Hall
13 November 12:45 | Kiting Huddle: Write for the Wind @ TUD Library, The Nook & the Greenroof
