From the antique to the romantic tradition, the pastoral has been evoked to imagine a retreat from the civilized world into one seemingly untouched. Yet, as Leo Marx wrote in 1964, the modern pastoral—whether place, ideal, or practice—is not opposed to technology, but dependent upon it. This relationship served as a starting point for the research project Switzerland: A Technological Pastoral, which examined technological and pastoral not as inherently oppositional adjectives in the construction of the built environment, but as two interdependent and mutually mediated imaginaries fundamental to Swiss modernization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The two-day workshop expands upon the Swiss case studies in investigating the technological pastorals of a broader modernity. Contributors include Silvia Berger Ziauddin, Denise Bertschi, Tatiana Carbonell, Edward Eigen, Samaa Elimam, Chase Galis, Ludo Groen, Lisa Kolb, Muneeb Ul Lateef Banday, Metaxia Markaki, Jacqueline Maurer, Lucas Müller, Michael Osman, Vittoria di Palma, Patricia Purtschert, Laila Seewang, Laurent Stalder, Meredith TenHoor, and Milica Topalović.

The workshop allows for a limited number of guests, if you wish to attend, please email professur.stalder@gta.arch.ethz.ch.

This workshop is a collaboration between the chairs of the Professors Laurent Stalder and Milica Topalović, as part of the research project Switzerland: A Technological Pastoral, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.