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# The Met and Hyperallergic Present 'In Our Time: Radical Design Geographies with Liam Young'
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/the-met-and-hyperallergic-present-in-our-time-radical-design-geographies-with-liam-young/
- Published: 2015-10-20T16:00:40.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:30:32.000Z
- Description: We're very excited to announce our new two-part fall collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Modern and Contemporary Art!
- Author: Hyperallergic
- Tags: Art, Events, Metropolitan Museum of Art, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/rare_earthenware_film_stills-3502.jpg)

Film still from “Rare Earthenware” a film, developed with photographer Toby Smith, shows Liam Young, collecting radioactive mud from the tailings lake at the outflow of Baogang Iron and Steel Corporation. (photo credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields)

We’re excited to announce our new fall event collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art!

Addressing “radical design geographies,” the series of two talks — part of the Met’s *In Our Time* lectures on architecture and design — will explore the new global realities generated by changes in technology, human migration, and the environment.

This Friday, October 23, at 6pm, join us to hear architect and founder of UK-based think tank [Tomorrows Thoughts Today](http://www.tomorrowsthoughtstoday.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) Liam Young. A cutting-edge architect who operates in the undefined spaces between design, fiction, and futures, Young also co-runs the Unknown Fields Division, a nomadic research studio that travels to the ends of the earth to document emerging trends and uncover the weak signals of possible futures. Some of Unknown Fields’ expeditions have lead to the Ecuadoran Amazon, the Galapagos Islands, the mining landscapes of the Australia Outback, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Most recently, Unknown Fields [explored a little-known corner of Inner Mongolia](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth?ref=hyperallergic.com) that contains a toxic, nightmarish lake created and polluted by the mining of rare earth minerals that quench the contemporary world’s thirst for smartphones, consumer gadgets, and green tech.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/20150317-unknown_fields-03993-2.jpg)

Three mud vessels crafted from radioactive mud from the tailings lake at the outflow of Baogang Iron and Steel Corporation. (photo credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields)

Young’s talk will be followed by a conversation with Beatrice Galilee, the museum’s Daniel Brodsky Associate Curator of Architecture and Design.

Part two of the series will take place on November 13 and will feature writer and editor Shumon Basar, who recently co-authored *The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present* withHans Ulrich Obrist and Douglas Coupland. This will be followed by a discussion with our editor-in-chief, Hrag Vartanian. More details to come.

*In Our Time* is an architecture and design lecture series presenting the best thinkers, makers, and builders of today.

**EVENT DETAILS**

**In Our Time: Radical Design Geographies with Liam Young, Founder of Tomorrows Thoughts Today and Unknown Fields Division**

**Friday, October 23, 6–7:30pm** 
**The Metropolitan Museum of Art**  
[Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education](http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/museum-map?mli=uris-center&ref=hyperallergic.com)

This event is part of [MetFridays: New York’s Night Out](http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-fridays?ref=hyperallergic.com).  
Free with museum admission, but space is limited; entry to program is not guaranteed.  
View details for this event on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/events/1031487916884421/)  
Refreshments will be served before and after the talk.