Ahora
What happens when the mine closes? Envisioning autonomy through post-extractive economies
¿Qué pasa cuando la mina cierra? La posibilidad de autonomía a través de las economías post-extractivas
AHORA is a research and design practice lead by Linda Schilling Cuellar (BArch UTFSM 11`, MSAUD GSAPP 18`) and Claudio Astudillo Barra (BArch UTFSM 09`), based in Santiago, Chile. Formed in 2020, it looks at extraction economies, with particular attention to the ones that take place in Chile and asks what will happen after it's all gone. To realize possible futures led by local communities, we must understand the transformed landscapes inherited by our current economic value-ways through the lens of what was and what could be.
AHORA es un estudio de investigación y diseño dirigido por Linda Schilling Cuellar (BArch UTFSM 11’, MSAUD GSAPP 18’) y Claudio Astudillo Barra (BArch UTFSM 09’) situado en Santiago, Chile. Creado en 2020, se centra en las economías extractivas con una atención particular en aquellas que tienen lugar en Chile, y se pregunta qué sucederá una vez que todo se termine. Para concretar posibles futuros encabezados por las comunidades locales, debemos comprender los paisajes transformados que son heredados por nuestra visión del valor económico actual a través de la lente de lo que fue y de lo que podría ser.
Yet whenever I see a frog’s eye low in the water warily ogling the shoreward landscape, I always think inconsequentially of those twiddling mechanical eyes that mankind manipulates nightly from a thousand observatories. Someday, with a telescopic lens an acre in extent, we are going to see something not to out liking, some looming shape outside there across the great pond of space.
Whenever I catch a frog’s eye I am aware of this, but I do not find it depressing. I stand quite still and try hard not to move or lift a hand since it would only frighten him. And standing thus it finally comes to me that this is the most enormous extension of vision of which life is capable: the projection of itself into other lives. This is the lonely magnificent power of humanity. It is, far more than any spatial adventure, the supreme epitome of the reaching out.