Posthuman signals a historical condition in which the coordinates of human existence on the planet are altered by profound technological, ecological, biopolitical, and spatial transformations. Engendering new ways of being in the world, this condition challenges long-established definitions of the posthuman, and by extension, of the human environment. Interpreting design as a geographical agent deeply involved in the territorial engravings of contemporary urbanization, New Geographies 09 investigates the urban landscapes shaping the posthuman geographies of the early 21st century, fostering a wide-ranging debate about both the potentials and challenges for design to engage with the complex spatialities, more-than-human ecologies, and diverse forms and habits of life in a post-anthropocentric world.
Mariano Gomez Luque is a practicing architect and urban designer from Argentina, a Doctor of Design candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and research fellow at both the Urban Theory Lab and the Office for Urbanization. His work investigates the complex relations between architecture, planetary urbanization, and the production of space at multiple scales under contemporary capitalism. He holds an March with distinction from Harvard GSD.
Ghazal Jafari is a designer and land researcher. She is currently a Doctor of Design candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a research fellow at the Weather-head Center for International Affairs. Her work is situated at the intersection of the ethnography of infrastructure, geography, and territorial studies. Her current work at Harvard examines the geopolitical and geological nature of global corporations and market-driven territories of (in)mobility. She holds an MDes from Harvard GSD.