Faras Gallery, adapted photo, original taken by Adrian GrycukClimate Cartographies is committed to exploring the longue durée of climate change at heritage sites by deploying cartographic thinking to create new maps that capture unexplored relationships within our environment through different modes of representation. The program in Warsaw explores spaces of heritage as constructed worlds through gamification, not merely as neutral and passive archives of environmental changes. It examines the agency of these sites as contributors and agitators within the climate change discourse.
The site of Faras serves as a point of departure for the Polish archaeological excavations in Sudan in the early 1960s, as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. The discovery of the cathedral and its vibrant wall paintings was celebrated from Khartoum to Warsaw, where they were relocated and became intertwined with narratives of nationalism.
The paintings also reveal the value assigned to these objects and the evolution of heritage discourse in relation to the infrastructure, both visible and invisible, that is required to maintain heritage. Drawing from sites of memory and sites of history, the participants are invited to collapse this divide whilst thinking about climate in different timelines and the different agents that contribute to its production.
KEY FEATURES OF THE WORKSHOP AND LEARNING GOALS
Applications for this programme will open soon.
The workshop is open to current students in the fields of architecture, design, curating, art history and related subjects in the humanities, phd candidates and young professionals.
All participants travelling from abroad are responsible for securing any visa required, and are advised to contact their home embassy early. After full payment of course fees, the AA School can provide a letter confirming participation in the workshop.
All participants are responsible for securing their own travel and health insurance. Please ensure that your travel insurance also covers your personal belongings i.e. laptop, equipment, tools, passport etc. The AA takes no responsibility for lost/ stolen property.
Suha Hasan
Suha Hasan is an architect and founder of ASH, an architecture practice based in Stockholm, Sweden. Her research explores obscure histories, material conditions and environmental impacts connected to the built environment. She has lectured and taught in universities in Bahrain, Egypt, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Sudan, and UK. Before completing an architecture degree, she trained and worked as a journalist. Suha is the founder of Mawane, a platform for urban research based in Bahrain and a founding member of the MSc [Modern Sudan collective]. She is the head of the program Climate Cartographies at the AA School which explores the intersection of architecture history and the environment. Suha served as a consultant for UNDP Sudan, the Sharjah Architecture Triennale, and the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. She completed her PhD from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Joanna Lalowska
Joanna Lalowska is originally Polish, grew up in Africa and has lived globally, gaining diverse cultural and artistic insights. A Fine Arts Academy in Warsaw graduate, she has exhibited internationally and has engaged in urban research across Europe. She is a researcher at the Royal College of Art in London’s School of Architecture. Her design approach is holistic, with extensive work in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. She explores space through a three- dimensional language, merging heritage studies and anthropology to create innovative spatial interventions. Her research focuses on the relationship between architecture and social phenomena, specializing in immersive spatial experiences, conceptual-strategic thinking, and experimental design. She combines academia with practical work to explore critical, speculative, and meaningful projects that interpret the interplay between architecture, technology, media, and society. She aims to offer fresh, radical perspectives on the built and unbuilt environment, addressing future challenges with innovation and insight.
Aakarsh Singh
Aakarsh Singh is an Abu Dhabi-based creative technologist and new media artist mediating game engines and video alteration systems, as vehicles of alternate worldbuilding and worlding. He sees emerging technologies as underutilized lenses to dissect extant post-colonial truths and falsehoods, while simultaneously exploring the fabrication of new ones. Photogrammetry scans, simulated ecologies, archival footage and internet imagery are all actors in his reflection on (faulty) personal memory, communal mythmaking, and cybernetic constructivism. He recently graduated with a B.A. in Interactive Media from New York University Abu Dhabi.