Geopolitics of Materials

Abstract
Throughout history, bodies, territories, organisms, the organic and the inorganic have been designed and managed for efficient extraction and manipulation of materials and data, embedded in technologies which relentlessly scan matter in search of new forms of intervention, unveiling different forms of possession, property, rights, and conflicts. Considerations and interpretations about what is alive and what is not, what is organic and what is not, imply the potential to perpetuate multiple forms of intervention and manipulation, artificially modifying organisms and territories and adapting them to our cultural desires through, for example, processes of Terraforming or Geoengineering Earth: the techno-scientific management of the environment and our bodies. Materials imply waste not only at the time of their disposal, but throughout their production chain, on territories, communities, and ecosystems, which often involves distant places and remote temporalities, and they are active actors in planetary geopolitics.

Bio
Blanca Pujals is an architect, spatial researcher, writer, and filmmaker. Her cross-disciplinary practice uses spatial research and critical analysis to engage with questions around the geopolitical configurations of contemporary techno-scientific infrastructures, the geographies of power on bodies and territories, and the geopolitics of materials. She holds a GArq and MArq in Architecture from ETSAB (UPC) Barcelona, an MA in Critical Theory and Museum Studies from the Independent Studies Programme of MACBA Museum, tutored by the philosopher Paul B.Preciado and an MA with distinction from the Centre for Research Architecture (Visual Cultures Department) at Goldsmiths, University of London, directed by Susan Schuppli and Eyal Weizman. In 2024, she completed her practice-based PhD in Art and Science (Philosophy, Visual, and Material Cultures) at BxNu (Northumbria University in collaboration with the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, UK).

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The event is part of a lecture series on architectural research organized by the PhD Program at the School of Architecture that will continue in the Spring of 2025. Spanning a broad range of topics, scales, and methodologies, the series features practitioners and scholars who advance research as a leading component of their practices