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Contemporary global challenges—environmental degradation, urbanization pressures, intellectual class mobility, and social inequities—demand interdisciplinary solutions that bridge art, urbanism, academia, and activism. The Sharjah Biennial’s Farm Project exemplifies how art engages ecological memory. For instance, Hauptmeier and Recker’s artwork Palms of Speculative Memories (2025) uses sound installations to reanimate desert landscapes. Such works align with T.J. Demos’ assertion that ecological art fosters “critical reflection on the Anthropocene’s socio-environmental crises” (Demos, 2017, p. 12), while merging aesthetics with environmental consciousness.
Similarly, Malik Nejmi’s Ter-Ter retrospective interrogates architecture’s role in collective care, echoing Beatriz Colomina’s argument that built spaces shape “social practices and collective identities” (Colomina, 2007, p. 6). Meanwhile, urban innovations like Culdesac, the U.S.’s first car-free neighborhood, reflect Jan Gehl’s principles of human-centered design, prioritizing “cities for people, not cars” (Gehl, 2010, p. 3). Parallelly, geopolitical shifts in academia, such as China’s recruitment of Western researchers, underscore the “global auction for talent” (Brown et al., 2011, p. 74), reshaping knowledge economies.
Finally, feminist movements in the Americas, led by eight women challenging systemic sexism, resonate with bell hooks’ vision of intersectional activism as a “practice of freedom” (hooks, 2000, p. 7). This newsletter explores how these diverse initiatives collectively reimagine futures rooted in sustainability, equity, and care.
“Aqueous, rippling sounds echo through the Al Dhaid desert, where wilting palm trees with missing crowns stand like monuments. The reverberating compositions, by sound artists Hauptmeier | Recker, emanate from metal rod speakers standing sentinel alongside the trunks. Titled Palms of Speculative Memories (2025), the work forms part of Sharjah Biennial's 'Farm Project', which comprises six sound installations that engage with the living forms and historical irrigation systems of the desert. Here, Hauptmeier | Recker's reflective sounding poles merge with the sterile landscape while reimagining a parallel ecosystem under the roots.”
Shanyu Zhong (12 March 2025). Sound and Voice Animate the Landscape of Sharjah Biennial 16. Ocula Magazine. Retrieved 13 March 2025 from https://ocula.com/magazine/features/sound-voice-animate-landscape-sharjah-biennial-16/.
“Malik Nejmi’s ambitious retrospective, co-curated with Louise Bras and presented in a deconsecrated twelfth-century church, poses a fundamental question: can architecture be a tool for collective and individual care? At the heart of this exhibition of photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, archival documents, and architectural ephemera is the neighborhood of La Source, on the outskirts of Orléans, where the Franco-Moroccan artist grew up. For more than three years, he carried out meticulous fieldwork in the area. In doing so, he combined autobiography with socio-historical research, the small story with the big picture. The planned demolition of Tower 17, an emblematic building in the area, was the catalyst for the project. Under the artist’s gaze, this disappearance becomes a symbol of a collective memory threatened with erasure.”
Océane Ragoucy (March 12, 2025). Malik Nejmi’s “Ter-Ter (Caring for the neighborhood)”. E-Flux Criticism. Retrieved March 13, 2025 from https://www.e-flux.com/criticism/659730/malik-nejmi-s-ter-ter-caring-for-the-neighborhood.
“Culdesac is “the first car-free neighbourhood built from scratch in the US”, according to Ryan Johnson, the development’s CEO and first resident. Located in the Tempe suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, Culdesac opened in 2023 and is quickly becoming not only a proper community but also a prominent case study for a style of living that is desirable among buyers but is still rare in the US market..”
Monocle (March 12, 2025). Wednesday. 12/3/2025. The Monocle Minute. Retrieved March 10, 2025 from https://monocle.com/minute/2025/03/12/.
“Chinese universities are recruiting top researchers away from Western institutions as an intellectual arms race heats up. The South China Morning Post found a number of acclaimed academics of Chinese origin who have decades of combined experience working in the US in physics, semiconductors, and mathematics, who have now returned to China. Other countries are “much more serious about attracting the highly skilled,” than the US, The Economist noted, and Washington has alienated Chinese researchers through a now-disbanded program scrutinizing scholars with links to China, ostensibly to fight economic espionage. But Beijing, too, “has made clear that recruiting is a priority,” The Wall Street Journal noted.”
Semafor (March 12, 2025). The World Today. Semafor Flagship. Retrieved March 13, 2025 from https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/03/12/2025/semafor-flagship-classic-tunes-and-new-homes.
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“The Americas approached International Women’s Day on March 8 with a sense of urgency. On Saturday, thousands of women took to the streets to demand their right to live free from violence, to be free from discrimination, to have control over their own bodies, and to close the gaps of poverty and inequality.
EL PAÍS shares the stories of eight inspiring women who call on us not only to defend the present rights, but also the future of girls and adolescents across the region. They are facing a rising reactionary wave that aims to roll them back. The right to abortion, the classification of femicide, and policies for equality are once again under threat.”
Mar Centenera et al. (March 10, 2025). Eight women take on sexism in the Americas. El País. Retrieved March 13, 2025 from https://english.elpais.com/international/women-leaders-of-latin-america/2025-03-10/eight-women-take-on-sexism-in-the-americas.html.
The projects highlighted here—from sound art reviving arid ecosystems to car-free neighborhoods redefining urban life—demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary approaches to address interconnected global challenges. Hauptmeier and Recker’s desert installations and Nejmi’s architectural retrospects illustrate how art and design can preserve memory while fostering ecological and social resilience, aligning with Demos’ (2017) call for “creative solutions to planetary crises” (p. 15).
Culdesac’s success, grounded in Gehl’s (2010) sustainable urbanism, offers a blueprint for post-carbon cities. Meanwhile, academic talent migrations reflect shifting geopolitical dynamics, urging nations to adopt inclusive policies to retain intellectual capital (Brown et al., 2011). Crucially, the activism of women across the Americas reaffirms hooks’ (2000) assertion that intersectional solidarity is vital to dismantling systemic oppression.
Together, these narratives underscore the necessity of integrating artistic innovation, equitable urbanism, academic collaboration, and grassroots activism to forge inclusive, sustainable futures.
References
Brown, P., Lauder, H., & Ashton, D. (2011). The global auction: The broken promises of education, jobs, and incomes. Oxford University Press.
Colomina, B. (2007). Domesticity at war. MIT Press.
Demos, T. J. (2017). Against the Anthropocene: Visual culture and environment today. Sternberg Press.
Gehl, J. (2010). Cities for people. Island Press.
hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. South End Press.
[Written, Researched, and Edited by Pablo Markin. Some parts of the text have been produced with the aid of DeepSeek tools (March 13, 2025).]
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Pablo B. Markin
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