Michaela Büsse

This has been my office view for the past month at @ari.nus it’s been a pleasure and privilege to share and expand my research on the politics of land reclamation, granular configurations, and emerging offshore infrastructure with colleagues, old and new friends at the STS and Urbanism Cluster, the architecture, sociology, and geography departments. Now, back to book and grant writing …

𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁: 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆 | Michaela Büsse, Dresden University of Technology What happens when a futuristic eco-city stalls mid-vision? Join us on 24 March 2026 (4–5.30pm) for a screening and discussion of Overcast, a short film set in Forest City — a near-abandoned eco-smart development in the Johor Strait. The film explores suspended futures, unintended ecologies, and everyday practices that reshape speculative urban landscapes. Chaired by Prof Tim Bunnell, @ari.nus NUS Geography @fassnus 📍 AS8-04-04, @nus_singapore (Kent Ridge Campus) 🎟 Free admission (in-person only, registration required) Jointly organised by the Asian Urbanisms and Science, Technology and Society clusters at ARI. Register to attend. Link in bio

FRAUD: EURO—VISION: Undergrounding the Critical Mineral — Processing Process. Edited by Francisco Gallardo & Audrey Samson (FRAUD) in collaboration with Michaela Büsse. Lithium, copper, uranium, child labor, and the bed of the deep sea—the mining sector is one of the most contested and problematic arenas of consumer complicity today. EURO—VISION: Undergrounding the Critical Mineral begins not with a location or a specific resource, but with a fundamental question: what counts as extraction today? While we might picture drills and quarries, the deeper story unfolds across financial markets, trade policies, legal frameworks, and the metrics used to define what is “critical” in the first place. Taking the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act as a point of departure, this richly layered volume traces the hidden infrastructures and governing logics that shape how the mining industry moves substances from and across the Earth—and what these minerals, in turn, move with them. Developed by the artist duo FRAUD (Francisco Gallardo & Audrey Samson) in close collaboration with environmental humanities scholar Michaela Büsse, the book gathers a wide range of voices—artists, scholars, economists, activists, lawyers, and journalists—to reflect on the long genealogies of resource extraction, the valuation paradigms that uphold them, and the terminologies that give them legitimacy. But the story doesn’t stop there. In the context of EURO–VISION, “undergrounding” becomes a tactic: a means of unsettling the structural violence concealed behind seemingly neutral data, and of turning toward the mineral itself—its material presence, its histories, its speculative potential. Published in K. Verlag’s Processing Process series, EURO—VISION draws on FRAUD’s ongoing, research-led inquiry into critical mineral governance. Combining interviews, visual essays, and commissioned texts, it opens new pathways for thinking about the entanglements between geology, economy, and power. At once analytical and imaginative, the book invites us to see the subterranean anew—not simply as a resource, but as a site of resistance, relation, and possible futures. ▶▶▶▶ kverlag.com/collections/all/products

Two new mineral-related publications from @k_verlag are available in our shop Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization, edited by Michaela Büsse @mchliaea This book explores the world’s most used—yet often overlooked—building material: sand. Bringing together voices from geography, geology, social sciences, art, and the humanities, the book traces how sand moves and transforms, resisting easy capture by political and ecological systems. From extractive practices and colonial legacies to fragile infrastructures and grassroots struggles, sand emerges here not just as a resource, but as an unstable force shaping the planetary urban condition. EURO-VISION: Undergrounding the Critical Mineral, by Francisco Gallardo & Audrey Samson aka FRAUD and Michaela Büsse @la_fraud @mchliaea This title draws on FRAUD’s ongoing, research-led inquiry into critical mineral governance. Combining interviews, visual essays, and commissioned texts, it opens new pathways for thinking about the entanglements between geology, economy, and power. At once analytical and imaginative, the book invites us to see the subterranean anew—not simply as a resource, but as a site of resistance, relation, and possible futures. #granularconfigurations #criticalmineral #zabriskiebuchladen #zabriskiebookshop

This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Migrant Journal. While the journal is no longer active, we’ll be looking back at each issue over the coming months to revisit its themes and contributions. Later this year, we’ll launch the long-in-progress online archive. @migrant_journal @justi @mchliaea @damasorandulfe @isabel___seiffert

• Michaela Büsse @mchliaea in Conversation with Metamorphic Zone on Granularity [1] On the beach in Forest City. Film still Overcast, 2025, Michaela Büsse [2] Left-over piles of sand in Forest City. Michaela Büsse, 2020. [3] Ongoing land reclamation in Malacca. Film still, White Elephant, 2022. [4] Ongoing land reclamation in Malacca. Film still, White Elephant, 2022.

• Michaela Büsse in Conversation with Metamorphic Zone Across shifting coastal frontiers and engineered eco-smart cities, this interview traces how emerging planetary urbanisation is assembled through granular processes of extraction, displacement and speculation. Michaela Büsse examines sand as both a material condition and an analytic lens for reading the instability in the built environment. Her approach reveals the entanglement of infrastructure, geology, ecology and political economy, showing built environments as temporarily stabilised configurations rather than enduring systems. Through granularity, she proposes a mode of thought attuned to friction, transformation, and incompleteness, where matter and imagination continually reconfigure the spatial and material conditions of contemporary urbanisation. Michaela Büsse @mchliaea is an interdisciplinary researcher and postdoctoral fellow at TU Dresden. Her work explores environmental speculations and emerging material and territorial configurations in the context of planetary urbanization and the climate crisis. Drawing on visual ethnography and field-based inquiry, she investigates how future imaginaries are materialized – and often unsettled – through material, ecological, and technological interventions. Büsse’s work has been presented internationally in academic, artistic, and curatorial contexts. She is the editor of Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization (2025). For the full interview, please visit our website. #anthropocene #architecture #urbanism #infrastructure #geology

Excited to celebrate the launch of Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization @domushaus_eg ! Editor Michaela Büsse will be joined by Kim Förster for a conversation about material politics and environmental transformations. Join us for a drink and get your copy! 🍷 📚✨ 📍 27 November 7PM at Domushaus, Pfluggässlein 3 in Basel Granular Configurations explores the world’s most used—yet often overlooked—building material: sand. Bringing together voices from geography, geology, social sciences, art, and the humanities, the book traces how sand moves and transforms, resisting easy capture by political and ecological systems. From extractive practices and colonial legacies to fragile infrastructures and grassroots struggles, sand emerges here not just as a resource, but as an unstable force shaping the planetary urban condition. Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization, edited by Michaela Büsse. With contributions by Lara Almarcegui, Darin Barney, Arpita Bisht, Yus Budiyono, Michaela Büsse, Jingru (Cyan) Cheng, Katherine Dawson, Jeff Diamanti, FRAUD (Francisco Gallardo & Audrey Samson), Muhammad Soufi Cahya Gemilang, Dingeman L.H. van der Haven, William Jamison, Lukas Ley, Michiel J. van der Meulen, Hannah Tollefson, Ian The, Chester K. Wentworth, Jerry Zee, Chen Zhan, and Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa. Book design by K. Verlag with Wolfgang Hückel and Katharina Tauer. Published by @k_verlag , 2025.

Join us this Thursday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. for the book launch of 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙧 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨: 𝙎𝙖𝙣𝙙, 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙐𝙧𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙯𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 with Michaela Büsse (editor) and Francisco Gallardo/FRAUD (contributor). This event marks the closing of the exhibition 𝘝𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴: 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, which runs through Saturday, Nov. 15. Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization (K.Verlag, Berlin, 2025) explores the world’s most used—yet often overlooked—building material: sand. Bringing together voices from geography, geology, social sciences, art, and the humanities, the book traces how sand moves and transforms, resisting easy capture by political and ecological systems. From extractive practices and colonial legacies to fragile infrastructures and grassroots struggles, sand emerges here not just as a resource, but as an unstable force shaping the planetary urban condition. Michaela Büsse is an interdisciplinary researcher and practitioner based in Berlin. Her research explores environmental speculation and emerging material and territorial configurations shaped by planetary urbanization and the climate crisis. FRAUD (Audrey Samson, Francisco Gallardo) is an undisciplinary pack whose practice interrogates UK and European legal systems that perpetuate resource- and commodity-oriented relations. English, 304 pages, 17 x 22.5 cm, ISBN: 978-3-947858-82-8 (print). #booklaunch #granularconfigurations #sand #materiality #planetaryurbanization #MichaelaBüsse #kverlag #vipergalleryprague #vipergallery #krestknihy

✨ I’m beyond excited to share that next week we’re finally launching Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization! What began as a workshop at @mattersofactivity in early 2023 has evolved into a two-year collaboration with an incredible group of artists and researchers. I’m deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to this volume — a project that’s been close to my heart (and research) for a long time. Huge thanks to @k_verlag for guidance and beautiful design, and to @mattersofactivity and @slubdresden for their generous support. I’m also thrilled and honoured by the endorsements from Samia Henni and @rafico.ruiz — thank you for taking the time to engage so thoughtfully with the book. Granular Configurations: Sand, Materiality, and Planetary Urbanization explores the world’s most used—yet often overlooked—building material: sand. Bringing together voices from geography, geology, social sciences, art, and the humanities, the book traces how sand moves and transforms, resisting easy capture by political and ecological systems. From extractive practices and colonial legacies to fragile infrastructures and grassroots struggles, sand emerges here not just as a resource, but as an unstable force shaping the planetary urban condition. With contributions by Lara Almarcegui, Darin Barney, Arpita Bisht, Yus Budiyono, Michaela Büsse, Jingru (Cyan) Cheng @cyanjingrucheng , Katherine Dawson @rare_earth_kate , Jeff Diamanti @jmdiamanti , FRAUD (Francisco Gallardo & Audrey Samson) @la_fraud , Muhammad Soufi Cahya Gemilang, Dingeman L.H. van der Haven, William Jamison, Lukas Ley @speltlukas , Michiel J. van der Meulen, Hannah Tollefson @podpeat , Ian The @iantehphotography , Chester K. Wentworth, Jerry Zee @jerry_on_leave , Chen Zhan @chen__zhan , and Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa. Book design by K. Verlag with Wolfgang Hückel and Katharina Tauer. Granular Configurations will be launched as the closing event of my exhibition @vipergallery , with more events coming up in Basel, Berlin and London.

Installation views of Michaela Büsse's exhibition Vacant Futures: Architectures of Desire and Abandonment. Vacant Futures explores the disjunction between globalized urban imaginaries and the fragile material worlds they consume and leave behind. Imagined as smart and sustainable, many of these speculative environments stand in eerie suspension: unfinished, abandoned, or repurposed by uninvited forms of life. Through visual and ethnographic research, the exhibition traces how architectural renderings shape, sell, and ultimately abandon imagined futures, revealing a powerful visual language that scripts desire while foreclosing alternative possibilities. Vacant Futures invites you to confront these abandoned landscapes, to sense what grows in their cracks, and to rethink what it means to design, dwell, and desire in a time after the future. Michaela Büsse is an interdisciplinary researcher, filmmaker, and postdoctoral fellow at TU Dresden. Her work explores environmental speculations and emerging material and territorial configurations in the context of planetary urbanization and the climate crisis. Drawing on visual ethnography and field-based inquiry, she investigates how future imaginaries are materialized—and often unsettled—through architectural, ecological, and technological interventions. Büsse’s work has been presented internationally in academic, artistic, and curatorial contexts. @mchliaea The exhibition is open until 15 November 2025. Photos: @peterfabo.name Graphic design: @anezka_ciglerova @publikum.design #exhibition #vacantfutures #architecture #michaelabüsse #vipergallery #vipergalleryprague

Michaela Büsse about our new exhibition Vacant Futures, which explores the disjunction between globalized urban visions and the material realities they leave behind. Once imagined as smart and sustainable, these speculative environments stand in eerie suspension: unfinished, abandoned, or repurposed by uninvited forms of life. Through visual and ethnographic research, the exhibition traces how architectural renderings shape, sell, and ultimately abandon imagined futures, revealing a powerful visual language that scripts desire while foreclosing alternative possibilities. Vacant Futures invites you to confront these abandoned landscapes, to sense what grows in their cracks, and to rethink what it means to design, dwell, and desire in a time after the future. The exhibition is on view until November 15, 2025. Check our website for upcoming program. Video: @kdykolivzmenit Thanks to @mitrokhov @andreaskuhne_ and Nacho The exhibition program is supported by @ministerstvokultury and @mesto_praha.eu #exhibition #vacantfutures #michaelabüsse #vipergallery #vipergalleryprague