Tatum L. Hands - Böcker

Our epoch has been dubbed the Anthropocene Era to mark the significance of human activities as the greatest force of environmental change. The distinctions between biology/technology, organic/synthetic, and natural/artificial are increasingly impossible to maintain. Cloned sheep, climate models, digitally-printed tissue and lab-grown meat this is not the nature of our predecessors. This issue of LA+ addresses the theme of SIMULATION in terms of how recent technologies have changed how we understand the nature of nature. From Plato's Cave to Baudrillard's "Simulacrum," simulations were historically understood as counterfeits or facsimiles and were based on the distinction between a model and its copy. Simulations remain central to mediations between reality and its representation; however, the latest forms of simulation - whether genetic manipulation or computer modelling - are not seen as impediments to truth and knowledge but as tools to uncover the complexities of nature. A diverse list of contributors critically investigates the theme through a myriad of lenses including biology, computer sciences, engineering, environmental science, industrial design, philosophy, and planning, among other fields. LA+ Simulation is guest-edited by Karen M'Closkey and Keith VanDerSys.

LA+ (Landscape Architecture Plus) from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design is the first truly interdisciplinary journal of landscape architecture. Within its pages you will hear not only from designers, but also from historians, artists, lawyers, psychologists, ecologists, planners, scientists, philosophers, and many more besides. Our a

LA+ PLEASURE has an exciting line-up of global writers from architecture, planning, environmental psychology, philosophy, history, marketing and tourism, cultural studies, geography, sociology, art and landscape architecture.

From the first utopian impulse of Plato's Republic to today's global border controls and public space surveillance systems, there has always been a tyrannical aspect to the organisation of society and the regulation of its spaces. Tyranny takes many forms, from the rigid barriers of military zones to the subtle ways in which landscape is used to 'naturalise' power. What are these forms and how do they function at different scales, in different cultures, and at different times in history? How are designers and other disciplines complicit in the manifestation of these varying forms of tyranny and how have they been able to subvert such political and ideological structures?

Vitality is liveliness, to be alive.To be alive is to have the ability to harvest energy for movement, growth, and self-replication. But without health, vitality is just mechanistic. In this issue of LA+ we explore the notion of vitality as aproxy for the health of all things. We explore how design can improve the vitality of people, cities, systems, and landscapes.Articles include:- Sara Jensen-Carr explores the intertwined epidemiology of ecosystems, cities, and human bodies.-Through the intimate case study of a 15th century Roman noblewoman, historian Mirka Benes reveals the role of gardens in maintaining physical and mental health in the early modern era.- Design anthropologist Chuan Hao Chen reflects on vitality through the metaphor of the medical emergency.- Experimental psychologist Colin Ellard explores questions about the roots of our perceptions of life and agency.- Urban designer Julian Bolleter shines a light on the practice of placemaking in contemporary Dubai.-Public health scientists Billie Giles Corti, Jonathan Arundel, and LucyGunn explain why urban design is important in creating livable cities.-Landscape architect Clay Gruber captures a case study of the potential for renewal of a rural American landscape drained of socio-economic vitality.- Designer Colin Curley surveys the beautiful ugliness of Newtown Creek, New York's most-polluted waterway.-Biodiversity conservation scientist Andrew Gonzalez explains his multi-year research into designing a comprehensive and practicable greennetwork for the city of Montreal and its hinterlands.- Landscape architect Jake Boswell offers a wide-ranging rumination on ecology and aesthetics.-Psychiatrist and urban health scholar Mindy Thompson Fullilove reflectsupon the vitality of main streets in small-town America.- Philosopher Mark Kingwell takes on artificial intelligence in a series of provocative propositions dealing with notions of life and vitality.-Architect and urban designer Christopher Marcinkoski considers Tokyo's landscape future in the face of significant population decline.- Also includes interviews with the celebrated author of Vibrant Matter, Jane Bennett, MASS Design Group's Sierra Bainbridge, and The Nature Conservancy's lead scientist for global cities Rob MacDonald.