Examine the past to fix the present

  • Publish On 24 April 2022
  • Éric Klinenberg
  • 5 minutes

Professor of Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at the University of New York, Eric Klinenberg looks back into the impact of the Chicago Health Wave of 1995. By using a social and urban autopsy, he reveals that it is the lack of social infrastructure that underlies the effects of the disaster.

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Podcast transcription: Raphaëlle Guidée

Raphaëlle Guidée is a specialist in narrative representations of economic, environmental and societal collapse. For over 10 years, she has analyzed the narratives surrounding Detroit’s bankruptcy in order to understand how an apparent ruin of capitalism can inspire discourses of domination or resistance. In La ville d’après : Détroit, une enquête narrative [The Aftermath City: Detroit, a narrative investigation] (Flammarion), rather than focusing on fictions, she seeks out testimonies and concrete stories, believing that modern times don’t need new narratives. We simply need alternative narratives. Read the transcription of her podcast below.

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Using AI to tell history — podcast transcription

Read our discussion on the subject of generative AI with Raphaël Doan, a specialist in the sciences of Antiquity and author of the uchronia Si Rome n’avait pas chuté (If Rome hadn’t fallen), an essay imagining, with the help of AI, what might have happened if the Industrial Revolution had taken place under the Roman Empire. Through this experiment, fascinating possibilities for historical and archaeological research are outlined, as AI facilitates the processing of archives, the translation of lost languages and the deciphering of burnt texts.

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Beautiful like an encounter on the glass roof of colored clouds

For Daniel Buren, architecture is an open-air studio. In an exclusive interview with architect Philippe Chiambaretta, he talks about his site-specific work, where art and architecture meet, just like the Nuages Colorés that cover the scales of the 175 Haussmann glass roof.

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“ En architecture, le sonore demeure une dimension à la fois floue et insaisissable. Il échappe au dessin et au plan, et pourtant, c’est lui qui fait vibrer l’espace, qui le rend habitable et mémorable.  ”

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“ En architecture, le sonore demeure une dimension à la fois floue et insaisissable. Il échappe au dessin et au plan, et pourtant, c’est lui qui fait vibrer l’espace, qui le rend habitable et mémorable.  ”


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Carlotta Daro co-led, together with Nicolas Tixier, the Radio Utopia project that animated the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2023. She is now part of the Gramazio Kohler research group, which focuses on the contribution of digital technologies and new materials to architectural design. There, she leads a research project dedicated to developing virtual reality tools enriched with acoustic simulations, designed to support architects throughout their creative process. This work paves the way for a constructive approach in which sound—too often considered primarily as a nuisance—moves beyond measurement and mitigation to become a perceptual and experiential factor.

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“ A catastrophe is when a belief or certitude suddenly collapses. From its ruins, narrative, political, economic and ecological utopias can be reborn. ”

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“ A catastrophe is when a belief or certitude suddenly collapses. From its ruins, narrative, political, economic and ecological utopias can be reborn. ”


Can new narratives arise from ruins?

Raphaëlle Guidée is a specialist in narrative representations of economic, environmental and societal collapse. For over 10 years, she has analyzed the narratives surrounding Detroit’s bankruptcy in order to understand how an apparent ruin of capitalism can inspire discourses of domination or resistance. In La ville d’après : Détroit, une enquête narrative [The Aftermath City: Detroit, a narrative investigation] (Flammarion), rather than focusing on fictions, she seeks out testimonies and concrete stories, believing that modern times don’t need new narratives. We simply need alternative narratives. Read the transcription of the podcast.

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