Categoria: Seminari e Convegni
Stato: Corrente
21 October 2026 at 2.30 pm

AnimalFarm - Opening seminar

The event marks the official kick-off of the ERC research project “AnimalFarm: An Architectural History of Intensive Animal Farming (1570–1992)” led by Sofia Nannini at the Politecnico di Torino.

AnimalFarm explores the architectural history of animal farming in Europe and North America, from sixteenth-century Palladian villas until late-twentieth-century automated factory farms. The project engages with the perspectives of critical animal studies, history of veterinary medicine, and labor history. AnimalFarm ultimately explores the historical roots of a controversial phenomenon of the Anthropocene, and it fosters an alternative gaze on the spatial, material, and ethical implications of the human-animal relationship through time.

PROGRAM
14.30–15.15 – Introduction on AnimalFarm, by Sofia Nannini
15.20–15.40 – Beyond the Serving Suggestion: On the Regulatory Architecture of Dairy Farming, by Víctor Muñoz Sanz (TU Delft)
16.00–17.30 – Keynote lecture: Stocking Density: Time, Space and Bodies in Capitalist Animal Agriculture, by Dinesh Wadiwel (University of Sydney)

“In Animals and Capital (Edinburgh UP) I argue that control over animal labour time is a key vector in considering the distinct form that animal agriculture took in accelerating line speeds and reducing the length of animal life. In this talk, I will consider how space has shaped the form of capitalist animal agriculture. I will firstly discuss the general interconnection between agriculture and the division between the metropole and colony, city and country that shape global histories of food systems. Secondly, I will examine the way in which space operates as a cost to production, and the implication this may have for the type of intensification that has occurred globally, in particular, the rise of industrial scale chicken production. Finally, I will consider the concept of 'stocking density' within animal agriculture and transport systems, as a unique marker of the life and death tensions that shape productivity and profit for capitalist food systems, and simultaneously create the conditions for an antagonistic confrontation between animal resistance and fixed capital.”

THE SPEAKERS
Víctor Muñoz Sanz is an assistant professor of urban design at TU Delft, where he conceptualizes, leads and develops critical research on the architecture and urbanism of the past, present and future of work. His research looks at the interplay of the design of productive landscapes with technology and management, and aims to question the role of urban design in enabling new urban economies and inclusive forms of work.
He is the author of the book Una Rápida Compañera (2024), and co-editor of Habitat: Ecology Thinking in Architecture (2020), Roadside Picnics: Encounters with the Uncanny (2022), and Automated Landscapes (2023).
Víctor qualified as an architect at the School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM, 2006), and holds a master’s of architecture in urban design, with distinction, from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2011), and a PhD cum laude in architecture from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (2016).

Dinesh Wadiwel is an Associate Professor in human rights and socio-legal studies in the School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Sydney. He has a background in social and political theory, and is an expert in human animal studies, and disability rights. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, Dinesh had a career within social justice civil society organisations focused on anti-poverty and disability rights.
Dinesh is author of The War against Animals (Brill, 2015), Animals and Capital (Edinburgh UP, 2023) and co-editor, with Matthew Chrulew, of Foucault and Animals (Brill, 2016). Dinesh has recently co-authored, with Linda Steele and Claire Spivakovsky, two reports for the Australian Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability: Complaint Mechanisms: Reporting Pathways for Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation (2022) and Restrictive Practices: A Pathway to Elimination (2023).

INFO
Seats are limited, and a closing aperitivo is included.
For any additional information, please contact: animal.farm@polito.it