Panel 2: Precarious Ecologies (or Welcome to the Last Earth)
This panel examines the present conditions of human and natural life in a global context and how geopolitical realities
SKY FORUM
and climate change transcend borders and threaten the sustainability of existence on our planet. Here the sky stands
as a metaphor for life, sustenance, mobility and universality, in an age when these are being threatened and curtailed. This session reveals the ways in which the sky has become an occupied space of political power, governance, restriction and surveillance–a field of domination–but also a field of scientific emergence, competition and discovery. How are sky and Earth being territorialised and who is policing these borders? Who determines our access to knowledge and the tools of technological development and how might these be turned into shared resources for the protection and advancement of all humanity? And finally, how do anthropogenic changes in our atmosphere portend a dire future, and what can be done to halt it?
Dr. Ilias Fernini – Deputy Director, Research Laboratories and Observatory, Sharjah Centre for Astronomy and Space Science
Dr. Majid Al Qassimi – Adviser to the Minister of Climate Change and Environment, UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment
Dr. Elham Seyedsayamdost – Chair, Department of International & Middle Eastern Studies and Associate Professor of International Studies, American University in Dubai
Moderator: Marta Michalowska – Artistic Director, The Wapping Project
7:15 pm-7:30 pm Music Performance by Azhar Kubba