Inspired by the publication of the book Architecture Follows Fish, the panel discussion “Wet Urbanisms” brought André Tavares to MoMA for a conversation with a group of thinkers—including interdisciplinary artist Susan Blight, architects Tei Carpenter and Jesse LeCavalier, environmental historian Connie Y. Chiang, digital artist and media scholar Nettrice Gaskins, artist Daniel Keller, architectural historian Anna Renken, art historian James Merle Thomas, and architect and researcher Zhi Ray Wang—whose work examined architectural designs and environmental stewardship practices that bridged the marine-terrestrial border.

“Wet Urbanisms” continued a line of research initiated by the Ambasz Institute with its exhibition Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism, which showcased projects by Ant Farm, Carolyn Dry, and Wolf Hilbertz that envisioned constructing human and interspecies habitats in aquatic environments. These designers explored territory largely overlooked by the field of architecture, despite over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface being covered by water. The panelists discussed diverse ways in which architects and other thinkers have reimagined the relationship between terrestrial lives and aquatic environments—ranging from neoliberal Seasteading fantasies and underwater Afrofuturist mythologies to public aquariums and extractive fishing industries.

For further details on the Architecture Follows Fish book see the publisher’s website: mitpress.mit.edu