In Conversation: Risk, Simulation and the Catastrophe Industry
Friday 13 November, 6 – 8pm
Online (via Zoom)
Free & open to all
Accompanied by BSL interpretation
Join us for a conversation between artists Gary Zhexi Zhang, Agnes Cameron, Bahar Noorizadeh as well as researcher Ian Gray, environmental/civil engineer Liz Lund and real estate developer, professional engineer, and founding member of Biosphere(x) Acre Qiu.
The conversation is inspired by The First 10,000 Years, a new digital work by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Agnes Cameron commissioned by Arts Catalyst and Bloc Projects as part of the larger body of work fud. Taking the work as a starting point, the speakers will disentangle existing links between the climate crises, the financialisation of risk prediction and the speculative fictions underlying finance and the wider ‘catastrophe industry’.
Screenshot from The First 10,000 Years by Gary Zhexi Zhang & Agnes Cameron
About the speakers
Ian Gray is finishing a PhD in the Department of Sociology at University of California - Los Angeles and is a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His research focuses on institutional responses to coping with climate change and the social consequences of these responses. He also holds a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BA in European intellectual history from Brown University.
Bahar Noorizadeh is a filmmaker, writer, and platform designer. Her current research examines the notion of “Weird Economies” to precipitate a transdisciplinary approach to economic futurism and post-financialization imaginaries. Her work has appeared in the Tate Modern Artists’ Cinema Program, DIS Art platform, Transmediale Festival, Berlinale Forum Expanded, and Geneva Biennale of Moving Images among others. Upcoming engagements include participation at the German Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennial 2020 and solo exhibition at Museum Folkwang, Essen. She is pursuing her work as a PhD candidate in Art at Goldsmiths, University of London where she holds a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.
Gary Zhexi Zhang is an artist interested in concepts that interface between concrete and abstract worlds, such as ecology, finance and information. Recent group exhibitions and screenings include Participation Mystique at Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai; the Swamp School at the Venice Architecture Biennale; Cross-feed at Glasgow International 2018, vdrome.org (online) and All Channels Open at Wysing Arts Centre. Recent residencies include Delfina Foundation, Schloss Web (with Agnes Cameron), SPACE Art & Technology, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Praksis Oslo, CCA Glasgow and Wysing Arts Centre. He is a Transformations of the Human Researcher at the Berggruen Institute, where he studies non-human networks and markets.
Agnes Cameron is an artist and technologist interested in experimental simulation and modelling. She works as a registry co-ordinator for the Knowledge Futures Group, developing tools for open data curation, and sometimes makes technology for artists. She is a co-founder of New York-based design studio Foreign Objects, and has taught at Parsons School of Design and Hunter College. In 2019 she was a fellow at Sakiya: Art Science Agriculture, a Toolmaker-in-Residence at Signal Culture and a web resident at Akademie Schloss Solitude/ZKM.
Liz Lund is an environmental/civil engineer working as a construction consultant in the insurance industry. Her work has brought her to the forefront of catastrophe, witnessing the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and poor construction on the built environment. Currently spearheading a new environmental department in her firm, her work, which necessitates long periods of "boots on the ground," has made the impact risk and climate have on our current societal paradigm no longer an abstraction. She is one of the founding members of Biosphere(x), and leads the reproductive sovereignty and mushroom efforts within the group.
Acre Qiu is a real estate developer, professional engineer, and founding member of Biosphere(x). Their primary focus is developing physical and cultural infrastructure to both incubate ideas and execute projects that create value for the collective. Operating at the intersection between deep history, permaculture, and cyberpunk, Acre collaborates with the b(x) cadre and other affinity groups to future proof their investments.
Bloc Projects is proud to maintain a public programme that is free for everyone. However, attendees are encouraged to donate to the S2 Foodbank, who are carrying out essential work during this time. To donate either follow the link on our homepage or click the button below.