Urban Hub 29 : Worlds within Worlds 1 - Entangled Cosmos

IntegralUrbanHub
Urban
Hub
29 Paul van Schaik
integralMENTORS
a meta-pragmatic approach
Thriveable Worlds
Entangled Cosmos
Entangled Kosmos
Worlds within Worlds: 1

Urban Hub
Worlds within Worlds
Paul van Schaik
Founder Creator
Integral UrbanHub
29
Thriveable Worlds
Entangled Cosmos

Cosmic Entanglement
Copyright ©©integralMENTORS– March 2023
‘In fullness and Freedom’
A graphic series of integralMENTORS integral UrbanHub co-lab on Thriveable Cities-Worlds.
Founder & Managing Editor Paul van Schaik
“Gate keeper of dreams”
Irrupting consciousness

Folding Back the Future
"It is not that we aren’t doing anything in our
organisations to influence our future. We are.
We do what everybody does. We know that
our actions have implications for the future
and we act accordingly. But what we fail to do
is fold our future back into our present with
any real creativity or power in the course of
our day-to-day activities - and day-to-day
activities are where the future occurs."
"Our future emerges from the interplay of
today’s actions. Enough of the ‘right’ actions
and we will survive and prosper. Too many of
the ‘wrong’ ones and we will disappear.
Enough of a fuzzy mixture and we will take a
little longer to disappear, with a few of us
waking up to discover what path we are on
and working out a recovery.”
Mike McMasters
AI generated by Dalli E

Content
Context
An Mental Mutation Integral Theory ‘Exterior’
Entangled Worlds
Bioregionalism
Critical Zone
Terra Forma
The Planet: After Geoengineering
3rd Person perspective
Books
Notes

This book is ‘tastes’ of ideas,
theories, graphics, praxis,
quotes, to spark interest for
further explorations
Best explored with the next volume in the series:
Urban Hub 30 – Worlds within Worlds : Entangled Kosmic
(& earlier 28 volumes in the series)

What is this series?
A collection of visions, ideas, ideas, theories, actions, etc. that give rise to a
taste of the many visions in our world.
How we use all the best elements of the many worldviews, modern and
ancient, visible and still hidden, together and in collaboration, will define how
successful we are.
It is the morphogenetic pull of caring that will determine how we succeed as a
human race. It is the ability and need to generate an equitable, fair, resilient
and regenerative ‘system’ that must drive us forward.
The means will be a combination of many of the ideas showcased here but
many more still to be discovered on our exciting journey into the future. Held
together through a syngeneic Integral Mythological Pluralistic approach.
Sharing and listening to stories, philosophies, cosmologies and metaphysical
understanding of each other and through experimentation, research and
archology developing theories, praxis, and activities/interventions to move
towards a more caring world of people, cultures, caring for the planet and
systems of which are all a part.
People do not perceive worlds but enact them. Different mindsets bring forth different worlds.
Too little courage and we will fail – too much certainty and we will fail. But with
care and collaboration we have a chance of success. Bringing forth emergent
impact through innovation, syngeneic enfoldment & collaborative effort.
A deeper understanding of a broader framework will be required – this would
be more that an integral vision and beyond the Eurocentric AQAL & SDI.
Explore and enjoy – use as many of the ideas as possible (from the whole series)
enfolding each into an emergent whole that grows generatively.
At each step testing – reformulating – regrouping – recreating.
Moving beyond, participating, through stake-holding, through share-holding, to
becoming thrive-holders.
In the desire to be collaborative,
don’t forget leadership. Don’t be
embarrassed to lead. There are
too many efforts where it’s all
about ‘getting everyone to the
table.’ Everyone goes away feeling
good, but no one’s doing
anything.
Frank Beal

Other Worlds
Walking in the world not talking of the world
No one vision is sufficient in and of itself – visions can guide
but only by collaborative action in a creative generative
process can visions grow and become part of an ongoing
positive sociocultural reality.
Without taking into account the many worldviews that
currently co-exist and crafting ways of including them in a
positive and healthy form we will continue to alienate vast
sections of all communities and humankind.
It is through the cultivation of healthy versions of all the
different worldviews that we can attempt to move towards
an equitable, regenerative and caring world living within
the planetary boundaries.
Through action we will move forward – through only
ongoing talk we will stagnate and fail.
These curation are to be dipped into – explored and used
to generate ideas and discussion.
A catalyst for collaboration and action.
And most importantly grown, modified in a generative
form.
For more detail of integral theory and Framework see
earlier books in this series.
This is a living series - any suggestions for inclusion in the next
volume send to: Paul,vanschaik@integralmentors.org

Definition of cosmology (R-HQ)
: branch of metaphysics that
deals with the nature of the
universe
: a theory or doctrine
describing the natural order of
the universe
Cosmology - Kosmology
Definition of kosmology (AllQ)
: Kosmos refers to the
traditional and pre-scientific
worldview which
acknowledges not only matter,
but also life, mind, soul and
spirit.

KOSMOS
Wilber's concept of "Kosmos" (with a capital "K")
differs from the scientific view of the cosmos.
Where cosmos is by definition a physical reality
(which pronounces physics as the perfect and only
real science), Kosmos refers to the traditional and
pre-scientific worldview which acknowledges not
only matter, but also life, mind, soul and spirit.
In a real sense, the Kosmic worldview offers us a
map of our own inner world -- the world that can
never be seen with the physical senses.
Huston Smith has argued all religions teach at least
four levels of being, worlds or spheres:
1.INFINITE WORLD
2.HEAVEN WORLD
3.INTERMEDIATE WORLD
4.PHYSICAL WORLD (Worlds within Worlds vol 1)
"Science only takes the lowest world to be real, but
a wider view of science can handle all four of them.
The fact that science has found no proof for heaven
should not worry us in the least. It is exactly what
we should expect! Science, basing itself on the
physical senses, can only reveal a physical world.
But our inner senses reveal an inner world, or more
to the point, worlds within worlds, which are as
real, or even more so, as the world that can be
touched and seen outwardly.” What is Real? Cape Town street art Salt River

Integral
theory
Thisvolumedealswiththepredominately
‘exterior’ -thatwhich canbemeasuredor
seen. ‘Behaviour’and‘Systems’.quadrants.
TheCosmos
Volume2addspredominatelythe‘interior’–
thatwhichisfelt.‘Psycho’and‘Cultural’
quadrants–makingthe‘whole’
TheKosmos
Exterior perspectives R-HQ
Objective(empiricaldata)
Interobjective(systems)
A
Mental
mutation
exterior
Quadrants

Bio-region viewed from each.
‘BR’ viewed from a
personal perspective
–
through personal
mindsets & values
‘’BR’’ viewed from a
social & systems
perspective –
(data and observation
driven)
‘BR’ viewed from an
empirical perspective –
(data and observation
driven)
‘’BR’’ viewed from a
cultural perspective –
through group
culture & worldviews
AQAL Quadrivia
All tetra-meshed
Right-hand quadrants perspectives
External perspectives are important but partial

Right-hand quadrants perspectives - External
Upper right quadrant
Objective, empirical
BEHAVIOR
Individual-Exterior: Brain and Organism
The visible, objective, external reality of an individual
Context: empirically measurable individual qualities;
physical boundaries or surfaces; biological features; brain
chemistry; bodily states; physical health; behaviors; skills;
capabilities; actions; etc.
Examples of areas addressed: energy level of a
practitioner; nutritional intake; conduct toward
environment or opposite sex; response to rules and
regulations; money management; computer
skills; acidity;
Tools for transformation: e.g., diet; hygiene; exercise;
skill-building; clear rules, regulations, and guidance from a
respected authority; use of litigation to enforce regulations
SYSTEMS
Collective-Exterior: Social Systems
& Environments
The visible, inter-objective, external realities of groups
Context: visible societal structures; systems & modes
of production (economic, political, social,
informational, educational, technological); strategies;
policies; work processes; technologies; natural
systems, processes & interactions in the environment
Examples of areas addressed: stability &
effectiveness of economic & political systems; legal
frameworks; strength of tech., educational &
healthcare infrastructure; poverty alleviation; actual
power, class, race & gender inequities; job creation &
trade; corporate regulation; organizational structure;
food security; health of local biota or global
biosphere; climate change; restoration, protection &
sustainable use of natural resources;
Tools for transformation: e.g., policy-making;
capacity building; systems thinking; "upstream"
strategies; organizational reengineering; micro-credit
& micro-enterprise;

Integral compared with Integrated
Integrated
Balance, equilibrium and harmony -
minimise tension and reduce chaos
Strives for:
• certainty
• order
• sureness
Places a lot of emphasis on harmony
within systems
Integrated strives for uniformity of
similar things
Leads to a constrained sense of reality
Tends to concentrate on The exterior
perspectives (RHQ)
Integral
Emergent and healthy tension that holds
things together as they evolve
These tensions provide order in the chaos
Respects:
• uncertainty
• disorder
• insecurity
Respects creative, dynamic and evolving
nature of human and natural processes
Integral strives for a sense of unity in
differences (emphasises unity as much as
diversity)
Leads to a fuller sense of reality
Tends to concentrate on The exterior
and Interior perspectives (AllQs)

Time is an illusion
“Time is not linear, it is
simultaneous. Everything,
including the past and future,
all are happening right now.
Past lives are actually parallel
lives. Time is a manmade 3D
construct . In higher
dimensions, there’s no such
thing as time because we
experience everything
happening simultaneously in
the NOW as ONE.”

It has become clearer and clearer to me that the work I am engaged in involves building our
capacities to cope with phenomena—that is, the mess of the world, “the swamp,” the heat, the smell,
the emotionality, the conflict and all the things that come from engaging as whole people with whole
people.
This means leaving our desks, holding our models lightly and engaging our senses.
The reward being work that is deeply rooted in the complexity of the world, owned by the people
who are affected by them instead of opaque, unaccountable agencies.
Slouching Towards Flatland, Zaid Hassan

INTERVENTIONS
'Whatever plan of action we adopt in our attempt to remake the world, our
usual first step it to pin a laudatory label on what we are doing. We may call
it development, cure, correction, improvement, help, or progress. We load
untested conclusions onto ill-stated premises. But every intervention in an
existing system is, for certain, only an intervention. We will make progress
faster if we honestly call the changes “interventions” only, until an audit
shows what we have actually done. Needless to say, such honesty will be
resisted by most promoters of change.
The point isn’t to avoid risk or even intervention. But rather to be humble
about our knowledge, or lack of it. To know when we should avoid small,
immediate, and visible benefits that introduce the possibility for large (and
possibly invisible) side effects. Less is more.’
Garrett Hardin
How to Survive Despite Economists, Ecologists, and the Merely Eloquent

Bio-
regionalism
Simply put, [bioregionalism] means learning
to become native to place, fitting ourselves
to a particular place, not fitting a place to
our pre-determined tastes. It is living within
the limits and the gifts provided by a place,
creating a way of life that can be passed on
to future generations.
—Judith Plant

From two pioneers of bioregionalism, Peter Berg &
Raymond Dasmann bioregions exist as bio-cultural
regions that are
"a geographical terrain and
a terrain of consciousness—
to a place and the ideas
that have developed about
how to live in that place"
with particular attributes of
flora, fauna, water, climate,
soils, and landforms, and
by the "human settlements
and cultures those
attributes have given rise
to."
Bio-
regionalism

Key Policy Points:
• Develop and use a bioregional framework for
decision making.
• Take into account cultural and ecological
realities such as watersheds, fire sheds, fiber
sheds, food sheds, air sheds, growth
management, transportation, urban planning.
• Use data driven and peer reviewed information
that is transparently funded.
• Watershed administrative districts and
commons.
• Let natural borders and cultural realities help
define political administration.
• Every community impacted by a decision
deserves to be a part of that decision.
• Culture stems from place. Different areas will
have different needs based on the realities of
that place.
• Explore place appropriate technologies and
indigenous ways of living.
• Use a bioregional assessment model for
carrying capacities in each region and to
develop benchmarks for emissions and growth.
• Support economic systems which are local,
sustainable and ethical.
Bioregionalism

Simply put, [bioregionalism]
means learning to become
native to place, fitting ourselves
to a particular place, not fitting a
place to our pre-determined
tastes. It is living within the limits
and the gifts provided by a
place, creating a way of life that
can be passed on to future
generations.
—Judith Plant
Bioregionalism is a movement, an ethic and idea
that has been growing for more than four decades
which seeks to do just that, by using natural
features such as mountain ranges, and rivers as the
basis for political and cultural units, rather than
arbitrary lines on a map. Together, it is
a political, cultural, and ecological set of views
based on naturally defined areas called bioregions.
At it roots it is a way to restructure society to work
within each given region, rather than transforming
each to human needs.
Bioregionalism
Bioregionalism

It is taking the time to learn the possibilities of
place. It is mindfulness of local environment,
history, and community aspirations that lead to a
sustainable future.
It relies on safe and renewable sources of food and
energy. It ensures employment by supplying a rich
diversity of services within the community, by
recycling our resources, and by exchanging
prudent surpluses with other regions.
Bioregionalism is working to satisfy basic needs
locally, such as education, health care, and self-
government.
Bioregionalism is an age-old way of viewing the
world. Regions are not delineated by imaginary,
straight lines as scribed by humans, but by the
climate and land forms which make that part of the
planet uniquely distinct. Local life-forms, cultures,
traditions and hopes for the future reflect that
particular place on the planet in which they’re
rooted.
Bioregionalism interprets the world through a
variety of regional value systems which reflect the
parameters of the regions from which they are
born. These value systems cannot be superficially
based on prejudices and presumptions but must
be fitted to the ecology of their place.
Bioregionalism

Bioregionalism recognizes, nurtures, sustains,
and celebrates our local connections with:
• Land
• Plants and Animals
• Springs, Rivers, Lakes, Groundwater, & Oceans
• Air
• Families, Friends, Neighbours
• Community
• Native Traditions
• Indigenous Systems of Production & Trade
The bioregional perspective recreates a widely-
shared sense of regional identity founded upon a
renewed critical awareness of and respect for the
integrity of our ecological communities. People are
joining with their neighbours to discuss ways we
can work together to:
1. Learn what our special local resources are
2. Plan how to best protect and use those natural
and cultural resources
3. Exchange our time and energy to best meet
our daily and long-term needs
4. Enrich our children’s local and planetary
knowledge
Bioregionalism

A key principle in bioregionalism is re-inhabitation,
which means building healthier ways of living that
are responsible, ethical, that not only maintain but
regenerative our local ecosystems, and working
with our natural ecosystems, aligning human
activity with our bioregions, rather than for human
habitation. This is both on a societal level, and a
personal one - which starts with every person
developing a sense of place.
Of rooting ourselves into the history, the things
that make each region special - the plants, the
animals, the types of soils, the mountains and
rivers. How things change over time - why different
areas get different rainfall - and how agriculture,
energy production, buildings can all best tie into
that in well thought out ways.
Bioregionalism acts in two ways
• Short Term & Pragmatic. Works within our
system to adopt policies and changes that
move us in the right direction of bioregionalism,
and away from systems which are actively
harming our planet and communities
• Long Term & Visionary. Works outside of our
system in ways that are utopian, visionary and
long term.
Bioregionalism

Bioregional movements work to connect these to
ideas together. To shift our borders, governing
models, and ways of living from non-bioregional
ones - to bioregional ones.
One government, or nation, or many governments
and nations doesn't ultimately matter, so much as
every community large or small, that is impacted by
a decision has a voice in that matter.
Bioregion is short for “bio-cultural” region, and at
it’s root simply means “life-place”. Bioregions are
defined through physical and environmental
features, including watershed boundaries, soil,
rainfall, forests, animals and terrain characteristics,
as well as the human cultures living within them.
At their smallest, a bioregion is the smallest unit it
takes to be self-reliant, and at it’s largest the full
extent of a regions watersheds from where a
raindrop falls, to it’s ultimate terminus.
It is the largest sense of scale in which connections
based on physical realities will make sense, and is
rooted in the idea that those who live in an area will
have shared concerns and values based on that
area, and that each community must be able to
have a voice in the issues that may impact them, no
matter how tangentially.
all above from https://cascadiabioregion.org/what-is-bioregionalism
Bioregionalism

The 185 bioregions are organized by the world's major
biogeographical realms, the broadest division of the
Earth's land surface within which groupings of
organisms share a common evolutionary history.
The 844 terrestrial ecoregions of the Earth (Dinerstein et
al. 2017) overlayed with Bioregions 2020 polygons. A
finite number of ecoregions are contained within the
perimeter of each bioregion.
The 62 marine provinces from “Marine Ecoregions of the
World” (Spalding et al. 2007) overlayed with Bioregions
2020 polygons.
Credit: Karl Burkart, One Earth.
The 14 biogeographical realms of the Earth
corresponding with commonly held regional divisions. A
finite number of bioregions are contained within the
perimeter of each realm.
Nearctic, Neotropic, Palearctic, Afrotropic, Indomalayan,
Australasian, Oceanian, and Antarctic.

I think what we in the clearing of the modern have named "climate change"
is a crisis of rectilinearity, a matter of the postures we have assumed as part
of the partitioning, terraforming, subjectivity-shaping logic of Whiteness.
This Whiteness is not reducible to identification but is how specific
sociomaterial worlding practices flatten the world to make room for the
isolated 'individual.'
Something more is asked of us during these transversal moments of world
spillages, swelling oceans, and geophilosophical errancy. Something that
calls into question the presumptuous primacy of the citizen, names the risk
of staying human too long, and invites a politics of roaming. Of exile. And
departures. All we can do within the colonial clearing of modernity is throw
'solutions' at the gaping maw at the edges of the city, the tide that threatens
our precious projects of permanence.
Perhaps the 'depth' that yawns its protest at the edge of what we know is an
invitation to become different, to sprout new feet, grow antennae, cultivate
gills and wings, and eat the crossroads we now insist must behave like a
highway.
Bayo Akomolafe

Critical Zones. The Science &
Politics of Landing on Earth
Bruno Latour
You want me to land on Earth? Why?
• Because you’re hanging in mid-air, headed for a
crash.
• How is it down there?
• Pretty tense.
• A war zone?
• Close: a Critical Zone, a few kilometres thick,
where everything happens.
• Is it habitable?
• Depends on your chosen science.
• Will I survive down there?
• Depends on your politics.
Critical
zone

The critical zone (CZ) is the near-
surface environment where rock, soil,
water, air, and life interact.
The exploded view on the inset top
right represents both the vertically
deeper and longer time scale foci of
CZ science relative to most
hydrological or ecological research.
The four transects from mountains to
sea illustrates the multiscale nature of
CZ processes [
.. the analysis of the Critical Zone
Observatories, humanity is seen as
part of the stocks and flows of matter
and energy occurring in and flowing
through particular places (see figure)
Processes such as biomass harvest
and export (e.g., agriculture), surface
runoff (e.g., tillage-induced erosion),
CO 2 emissions (e.g., from burning
peat), and others imply human
activity, as humans can be part of
these processes, especially in land-
use-intensive forms such as
agriculture. ...
Critical
zone

As everybody learned at school, when the position
of the Earth in the cosmos is modified, a revolution
in social order might ensue. Remember Galileo:
when astronomers made the Earth move around
the sun, the whole fabric of society felt under
attack.
Today, again, four centuries later, the role and the
position of the Earth is being revolutionized by new
disciplines: it appears that human behaviour has
pushed the Earth to react in unexpected ways. And
once again, the whole organization of society is
being subverted.
Shake the cosmic order and the order of politics
will be shaken as well. Except that, this time, the
question is not to make the Earth move around the
sun, but to move it somewhere else altogether! As
if we had to learn anew how to land on it.
Bruno Latour

Bruno Latour
humans have modified more than half of Earth's
land surface, that the current rate of land
transformation is unsustainable, and that
"changes that human activities have wrought on
Earth's life support system have worried many
people".
To many scientists and citizens, these threats to
an essential component, i.e. the Critical Zone, of
our life support system, have reached an acute
level, yet the science of understanding and
managing these threats mostly remains
embedded within individual disciplines, and the
science has largely remained qualitative - there
has never been a more important time for a truly
international and interdisciplinary approach to
accelerate our understanding of Critical Zone
processes and how to intervene positively to
mitigate threats and sustain and enhance Critical
Zone function.
All life on Earth relies on humanity embracing
balance and sustainability on a global scale.

humans have modified more than
half of Earth's land surface, that the
current rate of land transformation is
unsustainable, and that "changes that
human activities have wrought on
Earth's life support system have
worried many people".
To many scientists and citizens, these
threats to an essential component,
i.e. the Critical Zone, of our life
support system, have reached an
acute level, yet the science of
understanding and managing these
threats mostly remains embedded
within individual disciplines, and the
science has largely remained
qualitative - there has never been a
more important time for a truly
international and interdisciplinary
approach to accelerate our
understanding of Critical Zone
processes and how to intervene
positively to mitigate threats and
sustain and enhance Critical Zone
function.
All life on Earth relies on humanity
embracing balance and sustainability
on a global scale.
The critical zone

The critical zone
Since the field’s inception, critical zone
scientists have shown how altering
Earth’s surface and vegetation leads to
subsurface impacts—changing water flow,
minerals, and microbial life at surprising
depths. Subsurface imaging and drilling
have also shown considerable
belowground variation and the ways in
which that alteration influences surface
conditions. These discoveries opened the
door to more applied research and better
land management practices.

Critical Zone
Critical Zone science would be
too dispersive and complicated
to understand if we outline
recent CZ results by each
discipline involved. Instead, we
advocate a framework of
“deep” science to help organize
and comprehend research
done in CZ science with a more
synergistic perspective.
Three foci are included in this
perceived “deep” science
framework: deep time, deep
depth, and deep coupling. This
“deep” science concept
highlights the essence of
integrating Earth surface
processes at multiple spatial
and temporal scales and
signifies the unique
contributions of CZ science to
environmental and ecological
research.

A healthy body is full of parasites and viruses – their
ecosystems conspiring ironically to strengthen our
immune responses. Here lies the paradox: the way to
solve our problems today isn’t to provide ‘solutions’ (for
they perpetuate the same logic they attempt to nullify),
but to engage a different problem altogether – a new
paradigm. The imperative is not so much to ask the hard
questions as opposed to the convenient ones – as it is to
ask ‘different’ questions, which disrupt the linearity of the
former. The imperative is not to tell the same story with a
new accent or enhanced vocabularies; the imperative is
to tell another story – totally different in subtext,
assumptions, plot and pace
Turning to the Wilds Bayo Akomolafe

Terra Forma
A Book of Speculative Maps
By Frédérique Aït-Touati, Alexandra Arènes and Axelle
Grégoire
Foreword by Bruno Latour
… the exploration of an unknown world: our own. Just as
Renaissance travellers set out to map the terra incognito of
the New World, the mapmakers of Terra Forma have set
out to rediscover the world that we think we know.
They do this with a new kind of cartography that maps
living things rather than space emptied of life and
available to be conquered or colonized.
The maps in Terra Forma lead us inward, not off into the
distance, moving from the horizon line of conventional
cartography to the thickness of the ground, from the
global to the local.
Each map in Terra Forma is based on a specific territory or
territories, and each tool, or model, creates a new focal
point through which the territory is redrawn. The maps are
“living maps,” always under construction, spaces where
stories and situations unfold.
They may map the Earth's underside rather than its
surface, suggest turning the layers of the Earth inside out,
link the biological physiology of living inhabitants and the
physiology of the land, or trace a journey oriented not by
the Euclidean space of GPS but by points of life. These
speculative visualizations can constitute the foundation for
a new kind of atlas.

Terra Forma
Terra Forma tells about the
exploration of an unknown
land: ours.
Five centuries after the
Renaissance travellers who
left to map the terra
incognita of the New World,
this work proposes to
rediscover differently this
Earth that we think we know
so well.
By redefining, or rather by
extending the traditional
cartographic vocabulary, it
offers a manifesto for the
foundation of a new
geographic and, in so doing,
political imagination. "

Terra Forma
Cartogenesis offers a frame of reference
and a language of signs or notations in
order to present not an administrative
territory where the borders and edges of
the landscape prevail, but conversely the
shifting and sometimes unpredictable
territory of the living.
A six-month ‘etho-ethnographic’ survey of
the territory enabled the recording of
interactions between humans and non-
humans occupying this portion of the
Ardennes forest.
The analysis of the interviews and the
observation of the practices of several key
actors revealed life journeys that mingle
with those of other non-human living
beings, composing crossed trajectories
which are traced in the map: the forest
ranger, the wild boars, foxes, scientists
studying forest animals, martens, GPS, the
creator of the newspaper La Hulotte,
teasel seeds, owls, bees and beekeepers,
crows, hunters, the hydraulic network,
migratory birds, ornithologist, the brother
breeders, woodworms, badgers, bats,
woodpeckers, deer, hunting dogs, ….

Map of the Life Point of a
Sediment in Venice Lagoon
Venice Lagoon
Artist Residency STARTS4WATER x
TBA21 The Future of High Waters
Feb – June 2022. Alexandra Arènes
We wanted to see how Terra Forma
mapping methods react to Venice
situation and allow us to see better
the lagoon substratum in its
complexity.
How to become sensitive to the
unstable soils of Venice?
What is soil? “It is water”?
How to see the lagoon from below,
from inside this world, and not from
above, so as to better understand
what and who populates the
subaquatic, subsurface world?
How to describe this soil-water-mud
matter, neither water nor earth ?
Sub-aquaterrestrial? So how to be
within the “hydro-mudology” of the
lagoon, In the Mud, particles of
different sizes, currents in different
directions, water, moving depths
(rising or deepening)
To start to draw the map we relied on
scientific documents mixed with
informants from the ground, from the
work carried on by Sonia and

Map of the Life Point of a
Sediment in Venice Lagoon
Meredith and their encounters, who
gave them precious information on
sediments and the melting of waters.
We had to understand the various
depths of the lagoon, and its
increasingly dramatic deepening
over the years, as well as the nature
of the sediments and their changes
from clay to sand that could
destabilise the grounds.
We looked at the residence time of
water to understand the water
regime of the lagoon and the
composition of its soil layers, as well
as the new grounds, new islands that
have been built and those which
have disappeared.
The soil map thus explores the
shifting structure of the lagoon, its
different parts, with the movements
of sediments and waters.
The challenge was to understand
these variations of sea levels and
depths levels.
So the map is really first about the
understanding of these “lines” never
resting because of acqua alta,
erosion, deepening, dragging,
creation of new islands, et

“We live in a culture entirely
hypnotised by the illusion of time, in
which so-called present moment is
felt as nothing bur infinitesimal
hairline between a causative past and
a absorbingly important future.
We have no present. Our
consciousness is almost completely
preoccupied with memory and
expectation.
We do not realise that there never
was, is, nor will be any other
experience than the present. We are
therefore out of touch with reality”
Alan Watts

the title ‘the earth is architecture’ is deliberately ambiguous,
connecting the two terms in order to try to consider them together
and thus take note of a new state of the world. ‘the earth is no
longer the fixed and natural setting of human architecture, but
continually formed and transformed by the actions and reactions
of those who, living or non-living, animate it. humans are one of
the major powers that participate in the vast site of construction
common to all material elements and living organisms,’ TVK
shares. ‘architecture must be considered from this position of
interdependence: it is no longer simply placed on earth, it is the
perpetual shaping of the world,’ the team adds
‘the earth is an architecture’ installation, a colorful
piece that explores the dynamic relationship
between the planet’s history and human
architectural activity. conceived as the result of a
research that the office initiated in 2015, the
project showcases a distinctive form, representing
that the earth is an ever-changing assemblage
shaped by all the elements — both animate and
inanimate — that inhabit it.

TVK’s installation differs from traditional architectural
models by its monumental dimensions (3.5 x 7 meters)
and is made into 5 continents characterized by specific
pieces with reference inspired by real places (china, the
mediterranean sea, the paris basin, the american
continent, the pacific islands, etc). the installation looks to
the future of planet earth, by representing a fictional world
where the entanglement of infrastructures with the
ground is made visible. the architecture of this fictitious
earth emerges from this sedimentary complex where
rocks, earth, organic residues, and human artefacts
intermingle.
the fictitious environment of the installation is actually
based on a homonymous book, born from TVK’s research
and published by spector books. built like an epic, it
explores the complex and extraordinary relationships of
architecture and planet earth, through the concept of
infrastructure understood as a mediation between human
projects and earth itself. myths intertwine with history
through five continental intrigues where human societies
are linked with five earthly powers: sky, sea, materials/soil,
living, and energy.

The
Planet
After
Geoengineering

The Planet After Geoengineering is a graphic novel in five
speculative fictions that imagine the worlds of climate
modification technologies and their controversies. The
term “geoengineering” refers to technologies that
counteract the effects of anthropogenic climate change by
deliberately intervening in Earth systems.
In the midst of a climate crisis, and with disparate views on
whether planetary-scale design is the appropriate response
at all, The Planet After Geoengineering employs a
speculative fiction approach to think with and against
geoengineering as a form of planetary management.
The graphic novel makes climate engineering and its
controversies visible in a series of five stories that are
collectively assembled into a planetary section from the
deep underground to outer space.
Each geostory —Petrified Carbon, Arctic Albedo, Sky River,
Sulfur Storm, and Dust Cloud— depicts possible future
Earths that we come to inhabit on the heels of a
geoengineering intervention all while situating such
promisory visions within a genealogy of climate-control
projects from nineteenth-century rainmaking machines and
volcanic eruptions to Cold War military plans.
Such fabrications of an engineerable earth open a space to
forge a new geo-politics that includes the actual Earth —its
dimensions, processes, and lifeforms— as constitutive of
design and the planet.
With Contributions of Benjamin Bratton, Holly Jean Buck,
Kathryn Yusoff
The Planet After Geoengineering

Naturalcultural Wonders to Anthropocene Disasters
“Artificial” derives from Latin: artificialis, “of, or
belonging to, art.” Language is one of many ways that
the long-standing opposition between art and nature
in Western thinking manifests.
It is part of an abiding assumption about how we
distinguish the cultural, as a human domain, from the
nonhuman matrix of material—the natural world, a
physical backdrop for human autonomy and agency.
However, humanity is now the predominant
biogeochemical force on the planet.
Whether viewed through the lens of global warming,
the rates of carbon and nitrogen cycling, or the
demise of innumerable species—by almost any
measure, our artificialis has now become Earth’s
second nature.
Scientists have proposed the “Anthropocene” as a
novel geological epoch to mark these dramatic
changes, as a designation for how human ingenuity
generally—and the logic of extractive capitalism
specifically—has transformed the face of the planet.
If Earth is a collective lifescape, then the question is
how we will contribute to its resilience or to its decay,
and what kinds of imaginaries will function as
mediums for either path Andrew Yang

These aesthetics, as models, implicitly take a position
on the shape of a future in which cultural and
planetary histories have now irrevocably woven into
one another.
I would argue that the proposal for a new geological
epoch, the Anthropocene, urges an expansive
recalibration of our scales of perception: from single
lifetimes to multigenerational deep time, from human
autonomy to creaturely mutuality, from inertness of
substance to the vibrancy of matter.
Put in the context of geological time, our human-
scale notions of past, present, and future blur into a
shared continuum in which science fiction and
u/dystopian thinking begins to make its way into
everyday life. “How did we get here?” and “where we
going?” form a common query that, in turn, forces
fresh scrutiny on precisely who the collective “we”
even is, or could be. Which we is responsible, or most
at risk?
What sorts of people, organisms, and entities does
we invite or exclude? In the age of climate change,
reimagining Earth’s econo-ecology is an exercise in
how the aesthetics of possibility can propose
something less simplistic than the “natural” or the
“artificial,” and more sustainable than business as
usual.

Einstein may have put it most appropriately when he said that we
will never solve our problems with the same kind of intellectual tools
and paradigms that created them. Audre Lorde’s way of saying this
was that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
And while these mystic-poets could not have said it better than they
did, I prefer to listen to, and watch, the madman as he dances
outside the important walls of our long-winded conferences, as he
laughs at our seriousness and logical pyramids, as he mocks our
altars dedicated to shiny-faced innovations, as he in turn watches us
take sides and draw bloodied lines in the sand…casting red-tipped
fingers at the ‘other’s complicity and failure.
When he fades away into the oblivious horizons, I cannot help but
think that somewhere in his preposterous mutterings, somewhere in
his insignificance, somewhere in his crazy dance-steps across the
moorlands of consensual realities is the key, the door, the
portal…the wound we desperately need to be whole again.
Bayo Akomolafe

The Exterior - Third person approaches
"The reason that third-person approaches are so
valuable, and the reason they have always been
considered a cornerstone of sound epistemology, is that
they do not stop inquiry with how “I” or “we” might view
this event.
Rather, if you and I want to make sure that what we just
saw is actually real—and not just a hallucination on our
part, on a prejudice that we are caught in, or a distorted
perception, a mistaken view, an unfair bias, and so on—
then we will call in other people—we will call in numerous
third persons—and we will ask them to look at what we
just saw and find out if they see the same thing.
The more third persons that we bring in, and the more of
them that tell us that they see the same thing, then the
more likely that what we saw was real.
The third-person approaches (or the third-person
components of any approaches) thus attempt to
determine the types of things that any competent person
might see if they approach this particular event with this
particular paradigm. (Which is why they are the
foundation of most sciences—physics, biology, chemistry,
systems theory, and ecology).
The third-person approaches are the great curb to
narcissism (and hence are the first approaches denied by

boomeritis), and they are the approaches most
dedicated to truth for all, not just truth for me or truth for
us.
The only time the third-person approaches run into
trouble is when caught in their own absolutisms—which
is, alas, pretty much all the time (like virtually all the other
major paradigms and zones, each of which is a partial
truth often intent on being the whole).
Still, that is technically called scientism, not science.
The third-person approaches as part of an integral
methodological pluralism are the great anchors of truth;
when used exclusively, they are the great robbers and
destroyers of the interiors—as we have often seen, they
(intentionally or unintentionally) kill culture and
consciousness.
The third-person approaches, as a rightful part of a more
integral embrace, are also useful for the panoramic view
that they can offer, even to an individual’s perception.
I can look at a tree from an objective or third-person
distance, and I can also feel the tree up close in a first-
person touch: both approaches are important.
But the 3p or “looking” approaches become mandatory
when it comes to whole networks and systems—for
example, when it comes to forests and not merely trees—
because you can only see forests, you cannot touch
forests." Ken Wilber

Key to an Integral approach to urban design is the
notion that although other aspects of urban life are
important, people (sentient beings), as individuals and
communities, are the primary ‘purpose’ for making
cities thriveable. All other aspects (technology,
transport & infra-structure, health, education, sustain-
ability, economic development, etc.) although playing
a major part, are secondary.
Urban Hub Series
These books are a series of presentations for the use
of Integral theory or an Integral Meta-framework in
understanding cities and urban Thriveability.
Although each can stand alone, taken together they
give a more rounded appreciation of how this
broader framework can help in the analysis and
design of thriveable urban environments.
Guides for Integrally Informed Practitioners
The Guides for Integrally Informed Practitioners
(adjacent) cover much of the theory behind the
Integral Meta-framework used in these volumes. For
topics covered in other volumes in this series see the
following page.
Pdf versions of all books are
gratis to view & download @:
https://www.slideshare.net/PauljvsSS
Hardcopies can be purchased
from Amazon
Urban
Hub
series

Urban Hub manuals
prepared for C40
Cities Thriving Cities
Initiative and others
published by
vS Publishing

Pub. April 2022
Other books
published by
vS Publishing

Notes

Notes
Digital : Cape Town street art Salt River

Urban
Hub
Integral
UrbanHub
Thriveable
Wprlds
A series of books from integralMENTORS Integral
UrbanHub work on Thriving people & Thriveable Cities
Without taking into account the many worldviews that
currently co-exist and crafting ways of including them in
a positive and healthy form we will continue to alienate
vast sections of all communities of humankind.
No one vision is sufficient in and of itself – visions can
guide but only by collaborative action in a creative
generative process can visions grow and become part
of an ongoing positive sociocultural reality.
Worlds within
Worlds 1
29

Urban Hub 29 : Worlds within Worlds 1 - Entangled Cosmos

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