Smartification of the Earth: Social Designs for Planetary Observation
Smartification of the Earth: Social Designs for Planetary Observation
How do satellites reshape our relationship with Earthly phenomena? An interdisciplinary project on the social life of earth observation.
From the navigation apps on our phones to the climate data that informs national policies and helps monitor protected species, our world is increasingly shaped by the eyes watching us from above. Environmental monitoring satellites are at the heart of what is becoming a ‘Smart Earth’: a planet observed, managed and experienced through smart technologies. But as these technologies create new forms of distance and proximity,how do they transform our capacities to understand, become aware of, engage with and intervene in the environments in which we live?
Project Description
The project “The Smartification of the Earth: Social Designs for Planetary Observation” is a collaboration between the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, School of Design and the University of Warwick’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, which investigates this critical question. By focusing on the "social life" of earth observation satellites, we aim to make visible the often-invisible infrastructures that are reshaping environmental governance, everyday awareness, and our relationship with the planet.
Through preliminary conversations and pilot studies in the UK and Chile, we are developing ideas and approaches for understanding how satellite data mediates our interactions with the world and informs decisions about earthly phenomena across scales, from individual citizens to international governing bodies to the planetary condition.
The Smartification of the Earth is funded by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) while “Social Designs for Planetary Observation” received seed funding from the University of Warwick’s Faculty of Social Science Research Development Fund. Our collaboration will lay the groundwork for an international research programme dedicated to fostering critical awareness and public engagement with the infrastructures of planetary observation.