This project takes the cosmic figure of the planetesimal, a solid object arising during the accumulation of orbiting bodies whose internal strength is dominated by self-gravity, as a central theoretical framework to revise proxemics for the twenty-first century. Guided by social ecologist Murray Bookchin’s concept of prefigurative politics, Designing Planetesimals explores historical and contemporary projects in art, architecture, (Indigenous) living, and design that embody desired social and political values to create microcosms of the future planetary society. This includes forays into more-than-human societies (e.g., animals, plants, fungi, or composite organisms such as lichen) to expand the planetary dimension of proxemics. Extrapolating from their respective limitations and potentials, these transdisciplinary encounters will hone an actionable toolkit of spatial literacy, enacting a prefigurative politics of socioecological change.

*planetesimal

As accumulative fragments of the planetary, planetesimals allow a higher degree of research and development as they are better attuned to local specificity and situated knowledges than their overarching assemblage can be. Theoretically and practically nimble, planetesimals thus quickly deconstruct the cosmopolitanism and dualisms that shape societies’ “planetary” understandings of the world without proposing a totalizing alternative. As prefigurative cells of the planetary, planetesimals skirt stifling definitions of the ultimate ethical and political imperatives that, as Spivak points out, infiltrate the planetary project as challenging complexities of the postcolonial condition. It stands to reason that a thousand modest fragmentary experiments may yield results exponentially faster and more successfully than one unwieldy venture. This potent theoretical component proposes a decentralization of planetary thinking towards a polyamorous entanglement of planetesimal prefigurative politics suited to the earthly multitudes of our planet.