Among the most complex and fragile ecosystems, waterways also comprise the sites of greatest urban development. Due to their importance and vulnerability, urban estuaries have increasingly become a setting of close study in the face of a changing climate. As methods for the measurement of ecological systems mature, so too have views regarding what constitute healthy anthropogenic relationships. However, the standards of measurement that accompany the growth of environmental sensing technology often presume a position of human naturalization within the ecology of the urban waterway.

In contrast to this view, Avant.org invites a conversation anticipating a regime of design rather than conservation as the imminent outcome of advanced urban sensing. What does a future of ecological engineering entail for the development of New York City’s waterways? Emphasizing discussion of methods for engaging in systemically responsible design and the opportunities for biological and ecological engineering to cope with shifting climates, Avant.org and the LES Ecology Center will host a picnic and conversation speculating on the anthropogenic condition of New York City’s estuaries in an impending age of ecological design.

Invited guests

• Tega Brain (CUNY)
• Tony Dunne & Fiona Raby (Parsons / New School)
• Elizabeth Henaff (Cornell)
• Ellie Irons (Brown)
• Natalie Jeremijenko (NYU)
• Gavin Schmidt (NASA)
• Alice Shay (Bloomberg Associates)
• Karolina Sobecka

Tickets