PCF Talk #55 – Agenda Monthly Meeting – Hybrid
This is a hybrid event, please join in person, or via the zoom link below!
14:00 - 14:15
Introduction of the Day: Maurice Jansen (Erasmus University, PCF)
I Public Event
14:15 - 15:15
Chair: Maurice Jansen (Erasmus University, PCF)
Presenters: Simon Richter (University of Pennsylvania) and Joshua Mosley (University of Pennsylvania)
Simon Richter is the Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of German and Dutch literature and culture. His research focuses on cultural aspects of the climate emergency in Germany, Indonesia, the Netherlands, and the United States. As an environmental humanist, Richter engages in activities that blur distinctions between traditional scholarship, communication, and environmental activism. He was instrumental in establishing the Penn 1.5 Minute Climate Lectures and Climate Week at Penn. With Fine Arts Prof. Joshua Mosley, Richter co-directs the Penn Animation as Research Lab, which produces the popular Project Poldergeist series of videos about climate adaptation in the Netherlands. He co-produced A New Peace of Munster, a documentary film about climate migration along the Dutch-German border. Professor Richter is a faculty fellow of Perry World House and of the Penn Institute of Urban Research; a faculty advisory board member of the Water Center at Penn and the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media; and affiliated with Cinema and Media Studies and the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities.
Joshua Mosley is Professor of Fine Arts in the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Josh co-directs the Penn Animation as Research Lab (PARlab) alongside Simon Richter. PARlab collaborates with experts from the sciences and humanities to create animated artworks that communicate emerging research on climate and the environment. The lab provides a unique opportunity for students interested in science and art to engage impactfully with complex topics in order to advance public understanding. Joshua is a recipient of several fellowships including the Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize, the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award. His animated artworks have exhibited and screened at the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the 2007 Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel, Switzerland, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, the SITE Santa Fe Eighth International Biennial, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Presentation Title: The Method behind Project Poldergeist: Deploying Animation and Digital Humanities to Advance Port Cities Research
Still taken from animation by Poldergeist: "Why is the future of the Netherlands measured in sand?"
Project Poldergeist is a collaborative experiment in using animation to convey complex and critical information in accessible, humorous and media-resonant ways. It combines rigorous research with storytelling, creative reflection, and intercultural awareness. It doesn’t shy away from research-based policy advocacy. In this presentation, Simon Richter and Joshua Mosley, co-directors of the Penn Animation as Research Lab, will use their fifth video, “Why the future of the Netherlands is measured in sand,” which features port-related river and estuary research from the Maarten Kleinhans lab at Utrecht-University, to explain their method and to open a brainstorming session with webinar participants to generate possible angles and storylines for new port-city focused videos.
Recommended viewing before attending!
15:15 - 15:30
Break
II PCF Community Engagement
15:30 - 16:15
Moderator: Maurice Jansen (Erasmus University, PCF)
Presenter Matteo D'Agostino (Researcher, TU Delft)
Matteo D’Agostino is a researcher at Delft University of Technology, a member of the PortCityFutures research group, and is affiliated with the UNESCO Chair for Water, Ports and Historic Cities. Matteo is a cultural anthropologist experienced in the analysis of perceptions and relational dynamics between public and private actors. His research focuses on understanding multiple structural, spatial and socio-economic factors as the basis for spatial planning and social interventions. Other interests include policy implementation for granting access to basic resources, such as water, and strategic reinterpretation of heritage by institutional and activist organizations.
Title: Value Case Approach: Nijmegen Spiegelwaal
The Room for the River created new spaces that people inhabited with new practices which have not been predicted, ultimately causing the mixed use of waterways by many stakeholders with different interests and habits. As a result, Rijkswaterstaat the Municipality of Nijmegen are facing new water-related safety questions:
Instead of forbidding these activities, how can we better understand people’s choices, changing preferences, and needs?
How can we respond to people’s needs in ways that make a safe experience and use of water possible for multiple stakeholders?
The research sparked from the argument that we need a better understanding of people’s use of space, their interests, values, of historic developments and multiple scales, so that we can collectively build a vision and mission for inclusive and sustainable water use. This approach aims to develop replicable methodologies and tools that are also of relevance to the Interreg project Connected River and other attempts to foster water awareness.
16:15 - 16:30
Break
III PCF lighthouse projects and new opportunities
16:30 - 17:00
PhD Maurice Jansen: Ports as a force for positive change?
Ports, port cities and their governing bodies are faced with the challenge of how to become a force for positive change. The research seeks to bridge the gap between distinct discourses on port development, spatial planning, and business-society management. It recognises that there are misconceptions about the potential contribution of ports to sustainable development, due to varied perceptions of ports. The specific conditions for achieving inclusive port development, as well as the strategic intentions, motivations, and actions of port authorities, remain unclear. Various metaphors have been used to conceptualise the function and future of ports in society. With each metaphor, the port governing body plays out a different role. An often used and emerging metaphor is that of the port as a business ecosystem. The ecosystem is the common ground that provides both strength and opportunities for new business models, requiring stakeholders to take collective responsibility for resource use in harmony with the ecosystem, rather than treating it as a public problem or an externality.
In this session, we will explore a new role for the port governing body (the port authority) as steward of the port ecosystem. What do you expect from the port authority in this new role? What makes it different from the existing ones, and what skill sets are required to play out this role effectively?