Martín Tironi, Guest Speaker DiPLab Seminar (Nov. 21, 2025, 3PM CET)

Our DiPLab seminar is delighted to welcome on November 21, 2025, at 3:00 PM CET our friend and collaborator Dr. Martín Tironi, of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..

The seminar will be held in person at the Shaker Space of the ISC-PIF (Institut des Systèmes Complexes – Paris Île de France), 113 rue Nationale, 75013 Paris. To register, click on the button below and fill out the form. The seminar is free to attend.

Register here

Grounding Artificial Intelligence in its Planetary Conditions: An Exploration and Intervention on Rare Earths in Chile

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the main socio-technical solutions for tackling the global climate crisis. It is credited with the ability to mitigate its effects through tools for reducing emissions, predictive modeling, and environmental monitoring. However, its expansion is based on a narrative that perpetuates the illusion of an immaterial and deterritorialized technology, capable of emancipating us from the physical world on which it nevertheless depends. This presentation outlines a research-creation program aimed at considering the terrestrial condition of AI, i.e., its material, ecological, and geopolitical anchors. Based on the controversy surrounding rare earth extraction in southern Chile, which places the town of Penco on the map of global extractive tensions, analytical and curatorial operations are explored with the aim of “grounding” AI in its geological, social, and political conditions. Drawing on the notion of “excess” developed by Marisol de la Cadena, the aim is to highlight the need to pay attention to what goes beyond modern classification frameworks. In the intertwining of geological times, mining projects, transformed ecologies, and affected communities, controversies emerge that connect local landscapes to global debates around critical minerals for the digital transition.

Martín Tironi is an associate professor and former director of the School of Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as director of the Núcleo Milenio Futures of Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR). A sociologist trained at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, he holds a master’s degree from Paris Descartes University (Sorbonne V) and a doctorate from the Centre for Sociology of Innovation at the École des Mines de Paris. In 2018, he was a visiting professor at the Centre for Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently leads the Fondecyt project “Digital Technologies for Climate Change” (2024–2028) and is principal investigator of the SEED project (Social and Environmental Effects of Data Connectivity, Chile–France, ECOS-ANID), which examines the hybrid ecologies associated with submarine cables and data centers, essential infrastructures for satellite data processing. His work lies at the intersection of design, technology, and ecology, exploring the links between artificial intelligence, digital materialities, and the planetary limits of innovation. He was part of the team that won the Gold Medal at the London Design Biennale 2023 with the Tectonic Resonance project, and is currently presenting, with Manuela Garretón, the installation Hybrid Ecologies: The Planetary Metabolism of AI at the Venice Biennale 2025.