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  4. Size, Scale and the Physical: How to Represent the Anthropocene as a Model?
 
conference presentation

Size, Scale and the Physical: How to Represent the Anthropocene as a Model?

Bruckmann, Ziu  
•
Moutal, Marion  
2023
Histories of Earth Sciences: Visual and Interdisciplinary Approaches Amid an Environmental Crisis

Humanity has fundamentally transformed Earth, making the creation of a new geological era: the Anthropocene. If we wanted to physically document the Anthropocene, we could take the sum of human material interventions and divide them over the surface of Earth. By extracting one averaged square meter of Earth’s surface, we could model the impact of the Anthropocene. Following this method, first proposed by the renown geologist and paleontologist Jan Zalasiewicz, we at THEMA have created a pilot model of this Anthropocene square meter for the first time. The representational power of this model is based on three characteristics: size, scale, and the physical. The universal size of one square meter and the precise scale of 1:1 provides a visual reference that we can imagine and understand. The physical, that is the use of real materials, like one kilogram of concrete that humanity produced for each square meter of Earth, gives a tactile sensation that we can feel and comprehend. This model offers the opportunity to discuss how multidisciplinary approaches to the Anthropocene can be explained and represented. Its concept relies on a comprehensive collection of data through an interdisciplinary collaboration involving different sciences, such as political and economical, but also visual and material studies. For the contribution to this conference, we would like to elaborate on the issue of communication and representation of the Anthropocene through this square meter model and how this can involve various disciplines and sciences to create a multilayered and diverse physical model of the Anthropocene. As architects, we have a unique position between design, technology, and the social, and we have a critical role in influencing policy makers, citizens, and students to initiate a discussion that can evolve the way we view our built environment. Using the tools of architects, such as modeling, we contribute to the representation of Earth that is changing drastically through the way we shape and form our environment. Our goal is to question these images and to reflect our responsibility in the context of the crisis our planet is in.

  • Details
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Type
conference presentation
Author(s)
Bruckmann, Ziu  
Moutal, Marion  
Date Issued

2023

Subjects

Anthropocene

•

Anthropogenic Impact

•

Earth

•

Material

•

Model

•

Square Meter

•

Representation Method

•

Visual Method

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
THEMA  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Histories of Earth Sciences: Visual and Interdisciplinary Approaches Amid an Environmental Crisis

Varese, Italy

June 6,2023

Available on Infoscience
October 19, 2023
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/201667
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