Center for Wet Poetic Planning
Pieter Maria Steyaert
Mette Juhl Jessen, landscape architect and researcher with broad experience in dissemination, specifically podcasting. Currently a PhD fellow in regional planning and climate adaptation at the University of Copenhagen, with a focus on coastal zones and oceanic perspectives. BA in Comparative Literature and editorial board member of the journal Landskab. Interested in watery ontologies, holistic planning and the power of poetry.
Pieter Maria Steyaert is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher. His work is characterized by integrative practices between art and science, focusing on how scientific processes can benefit from artistic insights. He is currently pursuing a PhD, incorporating exploratory methodologies into scientific model development. He is a co-founder of the award-winning international collective SEADS.
Water. Solidified, Liquidous, Gaseous. Curiosity, rediscovery and playfulness.
As water related climate change risk increases in complexity and intensity, dynamic adaptation strategies will be high on the societal wishlists. The Center for Wet Poetic Planning explores water and its qualities, supporting a humble rediscovery. The Center for Wet Poetic Planning sets out to be an inspiring resource and creative think partner to the planning practice of tomorrow. Using speculative practices for tangible results.
The project has been developed from within our respective research paths and artistic practice. The start of the project was a fascination with the tidal flats of the Wadden Sea, and the acquiring of a hydrophone. With the hydrophone, we started listening to first the Wadden Sea, then other water bodies, considering what affected them. From little kids peeing, to thermal expansion and to ice caps melting, to tidal pulls of the moon. Fascinated by the tidal pull, so present and so invisible. So one directional it seemed. Did the moon even knew the effect it had on the oceans? Sinking bodies into the water, the sound waves of the acoustic recordings from the Wadden Sea were transformed into a poetic act. A language for the moon by means of waves of light. Sending these lightwaves back to the moon. Closing the gap, paying playful attention to the many ways, is which water works. This first installation was presented at the 2024 POM conference in Aachen, Germany. The second endeavor of the center will be a wandering and watery mapping with students during the Bloom Festival in Søndermarken, Frederiksberg, Denmark. The Center for Wet Poetic Planning will continue to flow towards projects and possibilities guided by a curiosity and an urge to foster a sensitivity to water, crossing between the fields of spatial planning and artistic practices. In the fall 2024 The Center for Wet Poetic Planning will do a four-month research stay in Venice.