In this talk, which will feature screenings from her film work, Michaela will present her research on a nature-based coastal protection project in the Netherlands, examining both its guiding rationales and unexpected outcomes. Please find a full abstract and biography below.

The event is open to all, but we kindly ask you to register in advance. Registration link in the above.

The talk is organized by May Ee Wong, postdoctoral researcher with the Design and Aesthetics for Environmental Data research project (DAFED) at the Department of Digital Design & Information Studies, AU. It is co-sponsored by DAFED, the Environmental Media and Aesthetics Research Programme, and CEH.

Abstract
The talk will trace the making of Zandmotor (Dutch for “sand engine”), an artificial peninsula and coastal engineering project close to The Hague, Netherlands. Constructed in 2011 using sand dredged from the North Sea, Zandmotor is supposed to be gradually eroded by natural forces, replenishing the retreating coast, and providing a more sustainable alternative to annual coastal nourishments. The project was designed largely by the means of numerical simulation, resulting in unexpected outcomes after it was implemented. Scientific surveillance, beach maintenance, and leisure activities interfere with Zandmotor’s projected trajectory—an interference that becomes recursively mirrored in its dataset. By investigating the iterative modelling process that gave rise to Zandmotor, its material manifestation, and sociocultural uptake, both the basic premises and limitations of its functionalist design will be discussed. The talk will feature excerpts from Michaela’s film work Building with Nature (2022).

Biography
Michaela Büsse is a postdoctoral researcher at Technische Universität Dresden at the chair of Digital Cultures and Associated Investigator at the cluster of excellence “Matters of Activity. Image Space Material” at Humboldt-University zu Berlin. Between 2023-25 she is also a fellow at Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam. In her research she focuses on sociomaterial transformations in the context of speculative urbanism, climate change mitigation, and energy transition. Drawing on elemental anthropology and feminist science and technology studies, she investigates how design practices and technologies govern environments and define who and what is being rendered inhuman.