Keller Easterling: ‘Extrastatecraft – The Logistics of the Next Economy’
Infrastructure space is not an infrastructure of pipes and wires under the ground, but something like an operating system for shaping the city. It is coded with laws, econometrics, informatics, global standards and formulas for making spatial products. Everybody has seen it: the cartoon of skyscrapers, malls, resorts, franchises, parking lots, golf courses, airports and airport lounges, free zones. Not an infrastructure that is hidden – far from it – it is pressing into view and everywhere looking the same, whether it is in Texas or in Taiwan. Some of the world’s most radical changes are being written in the language of this matrix space, so much so that is has become a de facto medium of polity. It is the secret weapon of some of the world’s most powerful players.
In this Next Talk, writer, urbanist and architect at Yale, Keller Easterling addresses infrastructure space as a structuring element in the Next Economy. How can we connect the digital infrastructure to the physical infrastructure? How can we reconfigure this generic operating system to develop socially inclusive and environmentally sound urban economies?
Respondent for the lecture is Reinier de Graaf, architect and partner at AMO/OMA.
Keller Easterling is an American architect, urbanist, writer, teacher and currently Professor of Architecture at Yale University. She has written extensively on organization space and infrastructure space. Her book ‘Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space’ serves as the starting point for her Next Talk.
From the digital archives of the IABR: CORPORATE CITIES, an interview with Keller Easterling in the context of the 3rd IABR, POWER - PRODUCING THE CONTEMPORARY CITY (2007).
WARNING: this is a low res video
FRIDAY 6 MAY
Time: 5.30 - 7 p.m.
Location: Fenixloods II, Paul Nijghkade 19, Rotterdam
Language: English
Admission fee: none, provided you can produce a valid exhibition ticket.
Making a reservation in advance is highly recommended. Please go to our our online ticketshop here.
Every Friday afternoon, a Next Talk will take place in the auditorium of THE NEXT ECONOMY-exhibition. Radical and provocative ideas for the future of the city are given a platform. International speakers stimulate and intensify the debate about the Next Economy.
Quick bite after a Next Talk? Tasty vegetarian soups are served with bread, beer, wine and water until 10 p.m. at Gallery Robert van Oosterom. Gallery Robert van Oosterom is situated at the ground floor of the Fenixloods II, next to the IABR–2016.
