Joana Rafael is an architect practitioner and Postdoctoral Researcher, specializing in ecological concerns related to pollution and contamination, both indoors and in urban planning. Her research explores the intersections of architecture and urbanism with human geography, environmental studies, and power dynamics, encompassing contemporary culture, media studies, art, and technology. She investigates the materiality and limits of physical infrastructures in relation to Earth's systems and the reciprocal relationships between humans and nature, with a particular focus on radiologically contaminated environments. Joana has taught Contextual Studies and Contemporary Culture-related courses at institutions including ESAP in Porto, ISCE Douro in Penafiel, Central Saint Martins in London, and the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury. She is a member of CEGOT (Center for Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning) and CEAA (Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo), and a co-founder of REFINERY BOARD. Joana holds a Master of Architecture and Urban Cultures from Metropolis, Barcelona, as well as a Master of Research Architecture and a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London. She also earned a Healthier Materials and Sustainable Building Specialization certificate from Parsons School of Design, The New School. In addition to her academic pursuits, Joana is a certified farmer.
On the Techno-Sublime
Self-published zine compiling MA thesis DISSERTATION, Metropolis, CCCB + UPC, Barcelona
Entitled On the Techno-Sublime, the zine explores the enduring art-historical and philosophical notion of the sublime in the light of the new technologies, in order to manifest the intangible rupture between conscience and material world. Under three problematic around the same thematic, this essay is structured in three rounds, flights or challenges, trying to relate concepts, its roots on history, effect on context and change in stage. Following the Aristotelean perspective of pathos, ethos and logos, the present research is trying to explore the notion of the sublime, in our contemporary society, through those concepts. The present thesis make a specific and thorough analysis on the limit that separates the material world and the technologies that are capable to construct new virtual realities, which interact and condition the human conscience. That limit, a flexible and porous limit, is been mapped through different and interrelated readings of various aspects of our contemporary society.
