BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 13.3//EN BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:CRITICALPRODUCTIVE JOURNAL \;NO. 04FALL / \;WINTER 2026  \;CALL FOR PROJECTS\, OPEN SEPTEMBER 30\, 2025&ndash\;JANUARY 23\, 20 26THEME: AESTHETICS OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE \; \;/ NATURAL ENVIRON MENTMilton S. F. Curry\, \;EditorElena Bellaart\, Editorial Coordinato rWhat does it mean to consider infrastructure as an aesthetic project? How can critical theories on aesthetics inform socially and politically engag ed urban development of cities and adjacent or embedded open lands? Rather than rehearsing old dichotomies between the natural and the urban\, or be tween aesthetic and socio-political analysis\, this issue asks how urbanis m can be productively reoriented by treating these frameworks not as oppos itional but as simultaneous\, hybrid\, or complimentary. Recent United Sta tes federal legislation enacted (The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022\; Inf rastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021) and proposed (Green New Deal of 2021)\, for example\, has aimed to provide substantial funding that wou ld transform infrastructure projects nationally. Grafting urban infrastruc ture and nature together\, various movements in urbanism\, urban design an d landscape architecture have assumed agency over new design protocols to ensure that the aesthetics of the natural environment are preserved and ev en enhanced by manmade systems. Meanwhile\, the expansion of urban infrast ructure into landscapes and ecologies continues to bring the realms of the &ldquo\;urban&rdquo\; and the &ldquo\;natural\,&rdquo\; as well as their human and non-human populations\, into ever-greater proximity. How might t he lens of aesthetic theory help us to analyze the politics of public infr astructure projects\, or assess the distribution of natural resources? How does infrastructure mediate the adjacency between cities and environments like the desert\, the forest\, or the ocean\, and between human and non-h uman inhabitants of these environments? How do these confluences manifest at the scale of the building\, the city\, or the nation?We are looking for rigorous\, culturally informed\, and exploratory creative works and intel lectual offerings from cultural workers\, scholars\, artists\, designers a nd thinkers in fields including but not limited to urban history and urban studies\, architecture and urban design\, urbanism and landscape architec ture\, area studies\, Indigenous studies\, art history\, and philosophy.SU BMISSION DEADLINE: \;JANUARY 23\, 2026Submissions can be texts (2\,000 &ndash\;6\,000-word \;essays with visual accompaniments) or visual sub missions (art\, design\, architecture / urban design\, urbanism / landscap e architecture) accompanied by text (1\,000&ndash\;6\,000 words). \;To submit work\, contributors should: review the full\, detailed Submission Guidelines on CriticalProductive&rsquo\;s MIT Press page (https://direct.m it.edu/cpro/pages/submission-guidelines)\; \;and register as an Author and upload materials to the Journal&rsquo\;s online submission system: (h ttps://www.editorialmanager.com/cpjournal/default2.aspx). \;Access pre vious issues of \;CriticalProductive Journal\, \;subscribe and/or purchase a print copy or pdf files at: \;https://direct.mit.edu/cpro DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260124 DTSTAMP:20251016T191317Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260123 LOCATION:United States SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:CriticalProductive Journal Open Call for Projects: Aesthetics of Ur ban Infrastructure/Natural Environment UID:RFCALITEM638962387975088231 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

CRITICALPRODUCTIVE J OURNAL \;NO. 04

FALL / \;WINTER 2026 \;

CALL FOR PROJECTS\, OPEN SEPTEMBER 30\, 2025&ndash \;JANUARY 23\, 2026

THEME: AESTHETIC S OF URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE \; \;/ NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
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Milton S. F. Curry\, \;Editor

Elena Bellaart\, Editorial Coordinator

What does it mean to consider infra structure as an aesthetic project? How can critical theories on aesthetics inform socially and politically engaged urban development of cities and a djacent or embedded open lands? Rather than rehearsing old dichotomies bet ween the natural and the urban\, or between aesthetic and socio-political analysis\, this issue asks how urbanism can be productively reoriented by treating these frameworks not as oppositional but as simultaneous\, hybrid \, or complimentary. Recent United States federal legislation enacted (The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022\; Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021) and proposed (Green New Deal of 2021)\, for example\, has aimed t o provide substantial funding that would transform infrastructure projects nationally. Grafting urban infrastructure and nature together\, various m ovements in urbanism\, urban design and landscape architecture have assume d agency over new design protocols to ensure that the aesthetics of the na tural environment are preserved and even enhanced by manmade systems. Mean while\, the expansion of urban infrastructure into landscapes and ecologie s continues to bring the realms of the &ldquo\;urban&rdquo\; and the &ldqu o\;natural\,&rdquo\; as well as their human and non-human populations\, in to ever-greater proximity. How might the lens of aesthetic theory help us to analyze the politics of public infrastructure projects\, or assess the distribution of natural resources? How does infrastructure mediate the adj acency between cities and environments like the desert\, the forest\, or t he ocean\, and between human and non-human inhabitants of these environmen ts? How do these confluences manifest at the scale of the building\, the c ity\, or the nation?

We are looking for rigorous\, culturally informed\, and exploratory creative works and in tellectual offerings from cultural workers\, scholars\, artists\, designer s and thinkers in fields including but not limited to urban history and ur ban studies\, architecture and urban design\, urbanism and landscape archi tecture\, area studies\, Indigenous studies\, art history\, and philosophy .

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: \;JANUARY 23\, 2026

Submissions can be texts (2\,000&ndash\;6\,000-w ord \;essays with visual accompaniments) or visual submissions (art\, design\, architecture / urban design\, urbanism / landscape archite cture) accompanied by text (1\,000&ndash\;6\,000 words). \;To su bmit work\, contributors should: review the full\, detailed Submission Gui delines on CriticalProductive&rsquo\;s MIT Press page (https://direct.mit.edu/cpro/pages/submission-guidelines)\; \;and register as an Author and upload materials t o the Journal&rsquo\;s online submission system: ( ). \;Access previous issues of \;Cri ticalProductive Journal\, \;subscribe and/or purchas e a print copy or pdf files at: \;

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