Towards an Ethic of Driving
Catherine Larrère is a philosopher. She has been investigating environmental issues since 1992. We asked her about the Anthropocene to better understand how this concept is heralding new awareness of anthropogenic change.
Catherine Larrère
Catherine Larrère is a philosopher and professor emeritus at the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. A specialist in political philosophy, she has been working on environmental issues since the 1990s.Catherine et Raphaël Larrère are the authors of Thinking and acting with nature, a philosophical inquiry (Penser et agir avec la nature, une enquête philosophique) ; The right use of nature, for a philosophy of the environment (Du bon usage de la nature, pour une philosophie de l’environnement) and Technological Bubbles (Bulles technologiques).
Towards an Ethic of Driving
The space occupied by man in the evolution of the planet raises urgent questions of ethics and responsibility. Through their work on environmental philosophy, Catherine and Raphaël Larrère challenge the notion of the Anthropocene as a geological era, which is driven by a fascination for the power of mankind. More symbolic than scientific, the notion is first of all a platform for developing conflicting narratives, from seeking to encourage further manipulation of nature to a cataclysmic vision of collapse. In opposition to a sense of control, they develop thinking around the main paradigms of technology, advocating the exploration of possibilities via “piloting,” an approach of “making do with” that involves initiating, using, and guiding natural processes. It is a matter of possessing the humility of the pilot and the breeder rather than the arrogance of the engineer and the manufacturer. Approaching nature not as a substance, outside of man, but in a relational manner, allows them to develop an ethic of caring for that which is not us, that which is other, while avoiding participation in any kind of radical exteriority. Catherine Larrère is a philosopher and Professor Emeritus at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. A specialist in political philosophy, she has been working on environmental issues since 1992. Raphaël Larrère is an agronomist and a sociologist. A former director of research at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), he examines the human relationship with nature and technology. They co-wrote Penser et agir avec la nature, une enquête philosophique, Du bon usage de la nature, pour une philosophie de l’environnement and Bulles technologiques.
Training Citizen Architects to Serve a Community
Designing an inclusive city implies involving their residents in urban projects, but what is the role of architects and urban planners in this process? For Andrew Freear, the head of the Rural Studio program, they both have the ethical responsibility of getting locally involved via concrete projects. Architectural schools must thus take on training citizen architects by engaging them in learning by doing, and thus have them redevelop a deep connection with context and places, acting as neighbors and activists within communities in order to collectively carry out experimental projects that tangibly improve society and the environment.
Collaborating with situations
The two Lebanese artists and filmmakers were awarded the 2017 Marcel Duchamp Award for Unconformities, a project currently on display at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. This artwork, like their approach, is based on a methodology of investigation and excavation and aims to offer another reading of history and the traces of the past.
Design: Reparation
Nicolas Nova is a social anthropologist. Inspired by New Media Studies and design fiction, he contends that the future of design lies in recycling and reparation as well as reinventing forms and functions. Did you know that a used flip-flop could serve as a lighter?
From "Mediance" to Places
The geographer and orientalist Augustin Berque revisits the polysemic dimension of the term “milieu,” and explains the distinction made by mesology—“the area of biology that deals with the relationships between the environments and organisms”—between “environment” and “milieu.” The reality of things differs depending on the environment of each species or culture, the object doesn’t exist in itself but according to its relationship with the subject. In this way, mesology goes much further than the subject/object dualism of modern science. Ontologically “trajective,” the environment is neither objective nor subjective, but firmly between the two theoretical subject/object centers. Berque takes the term “mediance,” meaning the dynamic coupling of the individual and their surroundings, from the Japanese “fūdo,” to which he adds “trajection,” a process that results in the “mediance” of human existence in its concrete surroundings. Taken as a whole, all human environments, distinct from the biosphere through their eco-techno-symbolic dimension, form the ecumene. For architecture, this implies a respect for history and the environment, without mimicking ancient forms, creating from the “mediance” of each place.
An Attempt to Drain Places
Larissa Fassler is a “Neo-Situationist” artist. By exploring places over the course of many hours, she gleans their ephemeral essence, which she then superimposes on the fixed urban master plan. The subjective maps thus generated highlight both urban narratives and history.
Maximizing reuse, minimizing transformation
Maximum is a design studio that maximizes the value of waste; its material, its form and its engineering. Some materials are transformed in a semi-industrial process while others give birth to unique pieces, such as the glass walls of the Centre Pompidou caterpillar.
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