The technosphere operates in a paradoxical condition of invisibility, in spit of its effects being in the face of every living being. From within, it appears as the connection and sum of designed elements, of which humans are a main component. Yet the technosphere operates as a self-organising system with emerging properties, where its component act to support the system, not the human goals associated with proximity. This causes humans to be only alert to subsets of the technosphere, not its planetary operations. The technosphere is thus a system that eludes its image, and operates through the multiplication of images aimed at sustaining its own activity.
Petroleum and Concrete Atlantis
Year produced: Flight on 19 August 2025
Media: Projected photos
Iwan Baan
Dutch photographer Iwan Baan is known primarily for images that narrate the life and interactions that occur within architecture. Born in 1975, Iwan grew up outside Amsterdam, studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and worked in publishing and documentary photography in New York and Europe. With his combined passion for documentary and space, Baan’s photographs reveal our innate ability to re-appropriate our available objects and materials, in order to find a place we can call our own. Examples of this can be seen in his work on informal communities where vernacular architecture and placemaking serve as examples of human ingenuity, such as his images of the Torre David in Caracas – a series that won Baan the Golden Lion for Best Installation at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. As the inaugural recipient of the Julius Shulman award for photography, today, architects such as Rem Kool-haas, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Diller Scofidio & Renfro, Toyo Ito, SANAA and Morphosis turn to Baan to give their work a sense of place and narrative within their environments. Iwan Baan was named one of the 100 most influential people in contemporary architecture world by the magazine Il Magazine dell’Architettura on occasion of their 100th issue. Iwan Baan is recipient of the AIA Stephen A. Kliment Oculus Award.