The Extraction Infrastructure Web / J. Meejin Yoon’s Response to Curatorial Statement at Shenzhen Biennale (UABB) 2019


The Extraction Infrastructure Web. Image © J. Meejin Yoon, Alexander Kobald, Borislav Angelov, Valeria Rivera

The Extraction Infrastructure Web. Image © J. Meejin Yoon, Alexander Kobald, Borislav Angelov, Valeria Rivera

What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled “Urban Interactions”. Archdaily is working with the curators of the “Eyes of the City” section at UABB 2019 to set up a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the “Eyes of the City” curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, Politecnico di Torino, and SCUT. If you are interested in taking part in the exhibition at UABB 2019, submit your proposal to the “Eyes of the City” open call until May 31st, 2019: www.eyesofthecity.net

Urban development has intensified the development of a national landscape of energy production – a territory that could be called the ‘extraction infrastructure web’. This landscape exists out of sight; obfuscated by a complex distribution of corporate, government and environmental databases. The city benefits from the energy network, while averting its gaze from the social and environmental consequences of the flow of energy from the territories of extraction to the metropolis. 

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