 Lexie, how are you doing? Good. How are you? I'm good too. Will you recover from your midterm this morning? Are we recovering from your midterm this morning? Yeah, I don't know. Lexie came to my midterm today. And it was really gracious. I just realized it on the same day of the lecture, which is a lot. And I may come to your house after for like a barbecue. So it's just basically like all digital. A lot of fika, Lexie for sure. Yeah, I see people popping in. If you do want to turn your camera on. That's awesome. Just cause otherwise we feel a little lonely, but if you also prefer to be undercover. In your personal space, that's fine too. But it's just, it's just nice to see some, some faces. So today, you know, it's really more of a salon. Lexie calls it a picnic for some reason. I'm not sure why. I don't want everybody to bring like their drinks or bring like, you know, like, like a glass of wine or something. It just feels like a, I don't know. It's not appropriate for people with students who have midterms, but Well, whatever relaxes you. Right. And yeah, we've prepared a massive presentation for you, which I'll share with you right now. It has too many slides. All right. So I'll just post that into the zoom chat right now. One second, and then we'll start the presentation. All right, so here, so this is a working document that, you know, you have access to that you can edit and look at and basically we're going to be working with that through the next hour or so. And I kind of contains my slides and under presentation, Texas presentation as well. All right. So I'm already sharing my screen. I'll move all of you to my second screen. Oh my God. I'm so glad that our choice that is back. Very grateful. All right. So what do we talk about today? Activism. As some of you know, part of a full part series, there's actually only one left after this, which is now we have basically a month break, which is going to be about hybrid practice. So talking about the future of, you know, practice kind of after COVID and how it affects us. But today, it's just like a lot of things that we've seen on the GISA page. And there's two already. So if you missed them, there's, but they are recorded. I think they're not online yet on the page on the GISA page, but they should come come on there in the near future, hopefully. They're for sure documented. But for today, so we'll basically have a meeting introduction by me. Lex is going to present about her work. And then I have sort of another kind of like presentation where I talk about, you know, I've been thinking a lot about this sort of activism from a bit of a meta perspective over the last few months and, you know, especially for this presentation. So I kind of break it down into six types of activism within architecture, and we can, we can discuss that and kind of think about moving forward with that. So, just to start, you know, this is, this is one, there's many definitions of what accession, what activism within architecture means, but this is one that I found kind of useful maybe as a starting point. Typically defined as one who designs a tool for political change. An activist architect can be more simply described as the one who takes architecture practice with with him or her commits to a community and engages with that community is building needs. We'll see that that's not a full definition that think they're it goes way way beyond that but I kind of like the idea of taking taking these tools on a journey with you wherever you go. And so, one thing I noticed, which I just want to put out there I'm not really sure what to make of it but the term activism has really exploded very recently, like, in the, you know, in the 80s there was basically a fifth of that term. So this is how often it appears in books that are accessible by Google for this kind of like, you know, probably even more extreme if you consider all the articles and all the internet based search so this is really just within, within actual books so you can imagine that this this term, you know, is really just very widely used. And I want to actually start off with a short video talking about what activism maybe it's not. Thank you. You can't hear it. Not really. Oh, okay. How do we. You may want to reshare or I can share and make sure that to share with the audio clicked on. That might be a way to do it. Do you want to share the screen? Yeah, I can try to do that. Do you want me to. Maybe if you stop sharing for a second. To show the link again. Okay, can you guys see that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let me see. Let's get to the rescue. We'll see. I don't know. You know, this, this idea of purity and you're never compromised and you're always politically woke and all that stuff. You should get over that quickly. The world, the world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff. Have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids. And, you know, share certain things with you. And I think that one danger I see among young people, particularly on college camps is Malia and I talk about this. Yeah, it goes to school with my daughter. But I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people and this is accelerated by social media. There is this sense sometimes of the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people. And that's enough. Like if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right or used the word wrong verb or then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself. Man, you see how woke I was? I called you out. I'm going to get on TV. Watch my show. Watch Gronich. You know, that's not, that's not activism. That's not bringing about change. You know, if all you're doing is casting stones, you know, you're probably not going to get that far. That's easy to do. I think that's a really good transition actually. Yeah, you should just keep the slide on. So this is, this is what I'll be talking about in the second part. So yeah, like she just, just take over. But I wanted to, you know, in a way start by a negative definition at least for tonight in terms of what maybe activism is not. I like that, that Barack Obama is kind of like setting the stage for me to be like, I don't always have to be correct because I think that that is part of what figuring out how to do activism is about that about kind of like trying to be from a certain place and figuring out how to, to, you know, really build, build an idea a set of ideas but also build a community around a set of ideas. And that just really started for me recently and writing. Lexi, sorry, can I introduce you really quick before you go? Sure. So just want to say, you know, Lexi is an architect has her own firm called soft firm and based in New York City, you know, building really cool things in New York and beyond and just finishing a big project very soon. And also, an educator and has graduated from Yale has been teaching there has been teaching at Cooper Union, really all the good schools around around the area that we're in. And, but she has also, you know, I think throughout her practice but I will say especially in the last few months worked what I would kind of like build an activist practice and it's funny because when I invited her to speak today she was like, well, am I, am I qualified for this? Am I an activist, you know, and so again this definition is so it's vague right and people maybe don't necessarily feel it's never enough and it's not but it's sort of hard to really define yourself as that. But, you know, as you will see in her presentation she has actually participated in lots of different ways and activist practice and I think it's a really interesting thing that she's doing so just wanted to say that and just take it away. You've introved me twice today and both times have been really complimentary, thanks Vika. Anyway, so yeah just just kind of how this thing started was that I went to Yale and Yale didn't really acknowledge the George Floyd. Yeah, the murder of George Floyd and so we all kind of got together and wrote a letter and this is just like showing that they're like 241 edits and there's just so much kind of writing about this and it was super exciting to do and also really exciting to also pull like the, we actually got 700 signatures in like 12 hours and a lot of this also was like the letter came out from Columbia, like all these letters were coming out and it was just like this momentous kind of feeling of also banding together with different schools. So we definitely had conversations with other schools as well and, you know, the jury's still out on how what these letters really did, you know, they did hold schools accountable and they had to schools had to respond and, you know, in some ways like the schools kind of like a corporation and so there's a little bit of corporate like mitigation strategy that happens in terms of how the school responds but it definitely raises a conversation that I think was really important. So we did a lot of kind of research for ourselves and in terms of creating kind of anti racist, you know, an anti racist self guided syllabi and also thinking about other organizations that were active. And also, I think one thing for me was that I started to look into Yale's history and, you know, and like in the 19 late 1968, and, and a few years prior to that there were different architecture groups that were really kind of gaining momentum including protests where they were like protesting tuition and they actually like created a casket for, you know, an imaginary art and architecture student to protest how much the tuition cost and there was also like the Black Panther and Black Power movement that was that was kind of around. And what was interesting was that there was a group of architects and students that were brought to Yale and they actually formed their own workshop on that was had its own storefront outside of the architecture school and it was called the black workshop. And the interesting thing about the black workshop is that they actually work with the community so there were a lot of, you know, community design councils that were part of these black power movements so the idea that you could be part of a black power movement would also have architects and designers that were really working with your community really directly and that's not really how our, you know, our activist groups work in the current day but it was just really refreshing to think about like New Haven and Yale, which, you know, has the building project but at a certain time they were really actually proposing real projects that were quite successful within the community. And what was so contentious about this is that at a certain point they demanded 50% people of color in terms of their admission. And they actually sent out their own letters of admission like without approval from from like the the main school, even though they had an alliance with the Urban Design Department. So there was a fire at the building and that black workshop also dissolved for a couple of other reasons as well. So, but just knowing that in 1968 there was really this call of what does architecture do with racism, like what is the relationship between the built environment, what is the relationship between our responsibility to the communities that are around us and also designing, you know, within communities and looking like the people we're designing for, which I think is still an open question today. So we wrote this article that was hyper critical of Yale and basically said 52 years later like it's exactly the same and there's only one student who's graduating from Yale that's black. This was really hard for me because I was a professor at Yale, I had been a professor had been a student, you know, there was, there's part of it where like do I want to stick my neck out and should I be worried about whether they're going to invite me back but, you know, it's just started to get to a point where I felt like they weren't responding. You know, as, as forthrightly as they could, and we're had a lot of excuses about not having enough money which I think is I still I'm still really critical of that viewpoint. And I think that in general just like my path to teaching has really been, you know, kind of fortuitous in terms of just, you know, getting a actually I think that Yolanda Daniels who has taught at a bunch of different schools she's a very prominent black female architect and I think that she asked me if I would do it in a way also supporting me as a young architect, but also because I'm a woman of color I think. So just this kind of idea of a network of people who are really supporting each other in this but also supporting, you know, this question of, and this was at Cooper Union this was posted on the wall. I love Cooper Union because they're like super, you know, vocal about tuition and about everything they kind of just have us a tradition of protest, but somebody wrote not enough female professors and then there were like what about blacks what about other races like, while we're complaining not enough work either, somebody wrote irrelevant her fall and men talking to men about other men. So it's definitely like I think, you know, when you're within a power structure of either being faculty and trying to write a letter to a dean or student trying to write a letter to a professor. There's part of this activist, you know, pause that that requires you to really think about your position of power and privilege and also like what how you've gotten there but also how you leverage that other people. So I did this for the the office hours, which is a, you know, another kind of forum for BIPOC students but thought about a little bit about what getting becoming a licensed architect means like what does it mean to become an associate of the farm and what what are the pros and cons of becoming an adjunct professor. And like the thing about the, I found the license architect and the associate it was just, you know, like when you think about and carbon now, like, you know, there's just, there's just a real lack of representation. And I think within my own teaching this happened during ADR to but because of COVID we kind of had to adapt to, you know, just a challenging learning environment and so we would ask the students to make things live and Google slide they had to make their own kind of final assignment which we did a lot of fun things in zoom and I feel like they responded well and we also had a lot of fun but it also felt like we were challenging the idea of the teacher as kind of the authority figure and really trying to collectively come up with something that that we could give each other And the other thing that I teach at at Columbia is ADR one, which is where we kind of study canonical buildings and this is the list on the left is like the list of the canonical buildings that were happening last year. And on the right is the new list that we've created and I just underlined and read like all the women with the people of color that we were teaching so I mean I think that speaks to Obama's point of kind of being like, you know, there are times when you're actually within this problem like that you're part of the problem. And realizing that and doing something about it is super important. So yeah, we just changed the list to really include like borders and you know, mosques, like at the logic like the deep water horizon drilling rig or the princess diamond free ship, you know, lots of kind of different impacts on coven for example so just really thinking about how architecture like radical ways of living and different kinds of politicized architectures like exist outside of the western canon so just rethinking this idea of what do you teach in the first year what does that mean and how is teaching a form of activism in terms of just, you know, introducing people to the idea that there isn't the canonical version of architecture that a lot of people say. Another thing that's been going on that's really exciting is the office hours kind of initiative and this has been really great because it's really giving students like hands on, you know, very like didactic like how do you do this. And it's an hour and it's five o'clock only, which I think is an interesting, you know, stance and what makes office hours powerful is that it is five o'clock only. And I think that a lot of, you know, it's been really amazing to be on some calls where like five like black, I mean black architecture students for example are like there's a sea of architecture students here that look like me. And I'm not siloed in my school by myself, you know, that there are other people out there that kind of look more like me which I think has been really exciting for people. I just wanted to plug this to is that on October and I know that Danielle smaller sent out an email earlier today about harassment and discrimination so I feel like this is the perfectly timed thing but we're doing a office hour where that's that's really a workshop about responding to discriminatory incidents and I think that in general, a lot of a lot of people have faced discrimination, you know, for a whole host of different reasons and how do you actually respond to that like while it's happening and actually do something about it, you know. So, this is being led by this person, namely men law who's read who actually directed the color of fear which is a super influential educational video that I would highly recommend everybody to watch. And I just put some of these things in here because they were part of office hours but it's really kind of about my own, you know, my own training as a as a young architect like getting out of school and working for different architecture firms and really feeling like I wanted to challenge just the idea of what like the, you know, signature architect really meant having worked for some famous people and some people who had small kind of shops and I feel like at a certain point I just decided that working for an office was not, and working for somebody else and doing iterations wasn't what I wanted to do so part of it was kind of turning to friends and starting to work with them while I was teaching and calling it soft burn the idea that like firm, like the idea of having a firm is really kind of actually a nebulous thing. And we said software and because it kind of reminds us of tofu and mattresses and you know a bunch of other different things. So, the formation of that like I think was really part of also thinking about a practice that was where it was three of us were all graduates of Yale and we're all Chinese American and thinking about how we kind of like look at all the spatial practices that are within our own culture that are vernacular and that create, you know, different formats and different ways of valuing, you know, spatial practice. And we did this seminar we've actually maybe just also through Instagram and the internet, like somebody reached out to me who's been really interested in supermarkets in Argentina Chinese supermarkets in Argentina. And asked me to come to their seminar that they call non domestic and this is another project we did where we had, we thought of this empty parking lot and reimagined it with affordable housing with a garden on the top and a plant shop and supermarket on the ground floor. Just with the idea that like, you know, buildings can kind of be activists and in and of themselves in terms of creating an economy for the inhabitants within it and also just thinking about like, you know, a space that you know you could sell plants to hipsters and a neighborhood also provide like a beautiful garden on the roof for for senior citizens, for example. And I think this collaboration in terms of just also thinking about design objects as movable and not necessarily like fixed kind of monolithic buildings is also part of our practice. So in this seminar we actually asked all the students to draw their rooms during coven and then we tried to fit them all into the glass house. So just this idea of like messing up the master's house. And so, some of these collages are a little bit about that about challenging the perfection of what canonical buildings are and who actually gets to inhabit them. After their birthday or a family. And these were all sold as part of the design yard sale, which is actually started by one of my former students, super proud that they did that there is a lot of money. But another thing that was going on during the last couple months is that there have been kind of new collectives that have formed so this is a group that was formed called by pop bosses. And this is another group on the right. This is called women in practice and it's kind of they formed actually before kind of George Floyd and all that stuff but I think that in general, one hard thing about architecture is that all of us are competing against each other. And in turn for a lot of competitions it's like a lot of people that are peers are actually put into the same space of competition and also, you know, there, there are incentives in order for for the, like, the city gives us, you know, more opportunities if you do qualify to be a minority and women, women business enterprise. And I think that a lot of us were thinking about like what would happen if we all banded together as one team. Like what would happen if we were no longer competing against each other to be like the only singular, you know, person of color within the competition but that together we kind of made it like an organization that was greater than, you know, any of us alone. And, yeah, we thought it started to think about it like what could it be like an agency model where you get a job and there are certain people who group together in order to work on it, while they still run their own practices at the same time. And now kind of the last thing that I've been working on and thinking about is this thing called dark matter university. And this, this forms. Justin Garrett Moore has been teaching this class at Yale but at the same time he's been teaching it at Tuskegee. And the idea is kind of like with a zoom format you can have like teach twice as many students and they can also be in the same space together. So super powerful in terms of like what does it mean to like teach in this zoom format and how can, you know, like teachers from different schools kind of band together and part of it is to say that like forming our own university outside of the universities that we're siloed in is a way to kind of create and leverage power. So this is, we just had our open house on October 4, but we're really talking about how to reimagine the institution with new forms of knowledge and knowledge production. New forms of institution new forms of flexibility and practice new forms of community and culture and new forms of design. So we have a couple different groups that are working on things including broadcasting curriculum and campus. And it's been just been super exciting to think about how like you could take the campus plan and like rethink of it in a virtual space so it's no longer kind of a, you know, a formalized Columbia but it's thinking about like the broadcast tower as like, you know, a radio station that is starting or the cafeteria as the WhatsApp that has like 45 people on it and is constantly like chatting and being super sassy, you know, like it thinking about what does the university do and what are the ways that you can kind of create a university outside of the normal confines of what it means to go to like an Ivy League school, and also thinking about like traditions that you know I think that we are in some ways at Columbia siloed into the idea of the Ivy League education and are missing out on like a lot of things that are historically black colleges and universities like like Howard or, you know, the idea of like having a homecoming or having kind of like these different types of rights and rituals are things that I feel like we're getting more exposed to because like the DMU is a collection of people. And we also created Zotero which is like a new form of organizing, you know, readings and stuff and so we are using meta tags which is kind of like our own like dark matter university decimal system so like collecting all of the readings into a new library online is also something that we've been working on. Another cool thing that we've been doing is using Adobe com, which is a way that you can use graphic design on your phone, and so you can create a library of assets and then for those assets into paper space and upload it for other people to see. So that's been super fun is that we've been, and our role is kind of like nobody designs the poster by themselves at least two people have to touch the poster before it goes out so kind of forcing this idea of collective design. And also we've been doing stuff with the election to so design is protest has been also organizing their own kind of roll out of asking people to make slogans and signs and thinking about how we could actually make that into like almost like a physical monument or barricade. You know closer to the election and we've been teaming up with different organizations like New York review of architecture has been doing something similar and then also a 83 which is a new gallery is interested in printing a lot of them. I'm just showing some of the, you know, like, you know we're making some pretty stuff but we're also doing like deep deep organization and trying to figure out how we as an organization bring more people on and also have hierarchy but then also can like fluctuate between bottom up and top down. And so a lot of it is really kind of these open forums where also thinking about how the group makes decisions together. And I think that that has been super exciting to see how something like a Google form that is like do you have a class that you'd like to teach for dnu and putting it into a survey and then thinking about how we're creating kind of our own universe of courses and our own, you know connections between different professors. And I think the thing that we're working on now or we're going to be working on is creating a course catalog that I think is taking after the whole earth catalog, kind of precedent of, you know, a compendium of things where it's just an access to tools and an access to information. So, I think we may work with a 83 and they have a riso graph printer but I'm super excited to be doing that so that's pretty much it. Yeah, how's that. Awesome. Thank you. That was really, really exciting. I mean, you know, I think you're pretty clear that you're very qualified to talk about this. So, I would love for everyone to go to talk and actually spend a few minutes filling out these two questions. I'm kind of thinking a little bit about, you know, if we're talking about activism. I guess the first, the first thing is to identify an issue right like what's the problem, what are some problems that you could see at the moment that, you know, or or in general and just remember you're, you are anonymous in the dark like we know who's writing one. But so basically the first question on page 46. Is that possible 46. Oh, wow. On page 46 is what are some issues that you see a G stop and beyond sorry if you're not, you know, I just have currently or just sort of, but I think thinking sort of locally about like actual current level things within your community could be a helpful thing but don't, you know, those issues are not necessarily don't have to be something you're thinking about changing at the moment but just sort of what are some issues and then the second question is how can you imagine some of these issues being addressed from in a bottom up way so in a kind of self organized or organized way that isn't so not not in a way where well the issue can only be addressed if the director does that right but like how could you start thinking about any kind of organizing that would help build movement towards changing these issues. So, let's take some thinking time, really, for next five minutes. And then we'll reconvene and talk about the six types of activism that I mentioned before. I don't know, let's see if you have some good music to play. I think I have to share in order well. You may have to share maybe maybe somebody can play I can play it on my phone. No, no, it's fine. I could find something. And it's always play calming calming music for these things. So we'd have to get go share and then. I guess I can only share my music now to share my screen anyway. Good stuff in here for sure. I think because gone. You don't see her. This has happened to me on a review where I was on somebody's review and their computer froze and they were gone. Well that happened the last time actually her. Oh yeah, because she passed on the host to someone else and Jean is the host. Oh, she's probably going to come back in. Yeah, I don't see her. I think this is there's a lot of stuff about the administration. It's I mean I would be curious to know from you guys I mean just if you guys want to turn your mics off or whatever about how you felt the activism has been at you set like, I mean, the letter that was written the kind of unlearning whiteness like there's a lot of integration of that into studios it seems like you know I mean, I think that the kind of the line between what is performative and then what is like real is like always kind of in question here but I would love to hear from you guys. I mean, we're making a really good list but I'd love to hear from you guys more about what you think about that. Or so last if you could, you could also talk about anything that's been going on at your institution slash, you know, workplace or whatever to. Let me think. I've been kind of isolated down here since the beginning of the year so you're like I'm at home and everything here is great. Literally, and like suburbs in Georgia and I've been in this red room for since like April 1. Everything I see I see for zoom. Yeah. Yeah does anybody have any thoughts. I feel like I might just end up calling on some of my former students who are on this call. You guys must have thoughts about how kind of, you know that you guys all read that letter from the students at Columbia to. Yeah. And are all of your studios like trying to integrate like unlearning whiteness. Is that happening or I know the first year students are, but I was going to say, I taught a public interest technology seminar over the summer. And I think that the timing is very interesting because we would be definitely, it was top of mind as we, it was only three weeks long so it was definitely top of mind as we proceeded through the course, but this the workshop turned into a seminar this fall. And since the topic is public interest technology, you know, it is you know, leading us to like have some of those more challenging conversations and then it's trying to help the students kind of like recognize the dynamics in some of the communities that that they, you know, like we have to reach out to that engagement, like you said, I think someone said very much extractive and empowering so thinking about how to, you know, empower and lift and not just kind of like take and discard. Totally. I mean, there, I mean, Camille just put this in here but that the I think that one thing that happened was they created a kind of way to track the response of the school and like whether the demands had really been met and you know, different things along the timeline of what was going on which, you know, is an interesting way to kind of use technology to hold people accountable. Yeah, I feel like everybody's being shy right now, but if you guys have thoughts about it, like, you know, do you feel like it made a difference. I mean obviously, you know there's you can't ask, and institutions are kind of funky, which I think is and like kind of slow and, you know, and there's definitely, I think that I was trying to show and like the thing that I was talking about was like the, you know, I think that I started working with the institution and then kind of just got frustrated and was kind of like I should just do something outside of it. So, yeah, but I feel like what's nice right now is that, like, all the students are also being hyper critical of what their education is and like what what people are telling them and like, you know, I think that unfortunately a year ago we like we all were putting Scandinavian scale figures in every single thing. You know, so, um, yeah. So maybe moving on to the slide 47 in terms of what how can some of this be addressed from the bottom up. Actually, oh my God, I don't know what's happening with those sessions. Maybe because I in the evening I was. But I'm back. You were just chatting. Yeah, we had it. All the different times that my computer could decide to overheat this was probably the best one. I wanted to hang in. Yeah, I was also a writer of one of the student letters this summer. We kind of have, we're still in the middle of this process but we've sort of had many opportunities to meet with. So I wrote the urban planning action plan and letter. And so we've actually continued to meet with faculty and with way paying who's the program director. And I think we actually just got invited to speak with the dean but I think through these, all these conversations. I think we're very grateful that they're happening right and that these people who have very busy schedules, especially with everything else going on. They're giving us their time and having these conversations but at the same time, the conversations have not been very fruitful in that I think so the first reaction we got was sort of an anger but like frustration at the way that we were proposing these things. And I think there was a sense that we had overstepped our bounds as students by demanding that like professors review their syllabi and make sure that you're incorporating anti racism. Because I think in planning, especially and also in architecture in general at GSAP like rate if you're building in America it's impossible not to engage with race and the effects of racism on the, on the people that you're building for. And so I think as a group of students we really, we were, we felt that and we were very convicted. We just, we wanted the faculty to kind of be on our side and instead of the response was kind of like, well, it's not really like there's this idea of academic freedom when zero tenured professor, right, get to teach whatever you want. And no one can really tell you otherwise including your students and, and I think because we kind of came out strong, there's still this resistance to kind of like play on the same side. And so that's been incredibly frustrating and I think like what you said earlier about Columbia being this like slow, slow turning institution. We've definitely felt that and I think we're still as a group struggling to kind of figure out where our place is in this moment because I think, like, for once it seems like the message has hit home and on the higher levels like, you know, we see them all talking about this and there is an anti racism committee and like those things and exist before. Yeah, exactly. But at the same time like I so I'm in Mario Gooden studio. And so obviously we are talking about race it pervades like every class and, and for that I'm grateful because I think after the summer if that weren't the case I would have been incredibly frustrated. But at the same time I have other classmates who have told me it's kind of like business as usual and I think the MR program is particularly guilty of this where you just get like funneled into production mode where you're kind of expected to produce things and like stop thinking, because you're just rushing to meet that deadline and you don't have space to like think things through fully. So, sorry, long to be long. No, that was great. Yeah, I feel like like getting really angry on zooms is like really cathartic for people and also I feel like I, you know, like that's that's that's my jam for sure is just to go off but I think that you're right like there's like, I think that's the hard part about it is like, you know, there's always like the dean is always also talking about like getting money also from like, you know, the whole university like there's always a kind of, you know, a line of culpability and like in like that, or a lack of culpability culpability that is kind of similar to blaming the pipeline you know what I mean in the opposite direction of like, you know, so I think that finding other outlets to kind of and it's been really interesting to be like also Asian American and be thinking about like Black Lives Matter as an Asian American and also thinking about how like, as a minority in schools there's a like kind of an over representation of Asian people in in the schools as well. And so I think that, you know, a lot of the kind of work that I've been really trying to do more is like also thinking about myself and my own person as it relates to race, you know, and so I feel like I've been talking to a lot of other Asian American architects as well. And, you know, like so I think that figuring out what like how to pick your battles in terms of your own education, and also not to say that like, the school shouldn't continue to get resistance from you guys but that, you know, the that don't be don't be too down off of that's what's going on because I think that like a lot I think that there is going to be a thing where it's like new grounds for design education where a lot of people got together like because I guess, I mean, letters were written at like basically every architecture school, and I think a lot of us are are checking in with each other and seeing what like what happened, but I predict that like the that the response to it is kind of like it's just been too slow. Yeah, anyways, Vika, and we're going into your time. No, no, I mean this is actually perfect. I'm happy to have I think this is exactly the discussions that we want to be having. Anybody wants to add anything before we move on. There's some really. Yeah, I could just reading a slide there's some really good. Serious stuff, you know, interesting that the lack of transparency is something that keeps coming up here. Which is something that even as faculty, I can agree with and then at the same time, you know, what's interesting is that this that's also over over too much transparency in terms of everything being recorded right this is being recorded. They say my friend actually, I think that that discussion got even much more intensified over zoom where in a way that transparency up if hasn't improved but then they see much more of what we're doing. This is also being recorded. I mean, you know, I think that that's the whole in the end in education you'll never get away in, especially American education, which, you know, privatized to some degree or schools like Columbia that are private schools in the end that that, you know, you'll be on the paradox that you're in the end paying all the money to be critical or that you're that you're that you're part of this system that itself is exploitative and even if you're radical and activists or whatever you want to call it within that you're, you're part of it right you're part of that system of a student as an educator all these things and I think sometimes when you're in it you, it's also, it's also easy to forget but I think that's where the bias combinations often are. Yeah, kind of fraud or feel feel not genuine but I think that that's, that's something that you also grapple with and it is interesting and that in the end is still ends up being one of the most fruitful places that I've encountered to talk about these things and, and, and, you know, I guess in defense of Jesus, I find that just Jesus is, and has been in my in my experience, very open and the fact that we can do this panel, you know, like, what is this, this picnic is. It's good and very freeing as an educator because other schools have encountered, you know, there's a culture like Lexi mentioned Cooper has a tradition of questioning things of what was like activist student body and again that has to do with the financials of the school as well right the students they're done pay tuition. So from the outset there's a very different kind of expectation of the relationship between the student and and the system. And that actually is nicely into into I guess my six points, which, you know, is essentially really an expansive big picture and incomplete research on current activism and architecture. And it's a wormhole like once you get into it, it just keeps going and there's more and, and, you know, it's just a glimpse into it. And I wanted to share some of these projects because, you know, again with this working doc, it allows you to go in and and check them out and a lot of them have their current programming and events. And so, yeah, let's let's just maybe kind of run through these and hopefully, you know, just continue discussion so please feel free to keep on posting into the chat any further ideas about the ongoing discussion about these two questions and slides and then also anything you see here that you find interesting or that you want to talk about if you want to talk more about a certain topic or theme I'll basically browse with them super quickly. And so we can the ideas that I, you know, run through it and then we can come back to them if you want to talk about any individual organization a little bit longer. So the first group that I identify is, you know, activism within a profession so I guess this this conversation could be classified as that sort of people, people who are within the profession trying to change the profession. And, you know, also, just a footnote I mean all these classifications, a lot of organizations and people and could be in various classifications they're not strict at all. Like most of them are actually kind of hybrid but I find it's always helpful to kind of break things down into groups and then just to make it a little bit easier to kind of understand the whole field of what is out there. So the first one actually is pretty decent related. It was founded in 2011. And it's called who builds your architecture and that was a discussion I remember vividly because it was the reason I came to decide really I'm not I didn't know about organization but it was sort of this idea. You know, I was working for big, not big actually it was kind of boutique but they were, they were basically, our work was entirely disconnected from the construction site and it was always. I didn't, I didn't know who was building my architecture and when I was asking these questions in the office it didn't seem like an accepted question. And so, you know, I felt I needed some, some more insight into the whole process of architecture which includes the building of it and so this group, you know, has been asking the whole, the whole purpose of this is to ask these questions whether there are people responsibilities towards those corrective buildings around the world so, you know, thinking about that, that end of the process and they have a series of guidelines here's just to that took out on the website so kind of like a graphical very representation, kind of like guiding people through, through, let's say, an ethical way of thinking about them. Another example of, you know, activism, and again using activism very broadly within the profession is the architecture lobby and specifically actually this month to have an event series on architecture labor. You know, here, I think what's interesting about sort of activism is also that there's a, there's a certain terminology that comes with it. So here, you know, that often comes from actually Marxist or sort of leftist leftist terminology precarious workers, these are our demands that sort of, sort of a unionized organizing language that that is being applied to these and that also identifies it as activism to me right like they could phrase it in a different way that would make it sound more like, I don't know, a type of organization but not necessarily kind of grounds up organization that work kind of labor or that side that that tries to help a particular profession. So the architecture lobby is, you know, pretty established force within that. And then there's other forces within profession. This is Q space. They kind of undercut, I don't know, haven't been doing too much in the last few years but they're just a really good example of a G-sub group that, I think, I don't know, Q-sub still exists. They were founded a few years ago at G-sub and I know that now there's like a whole ecology of different groups which is great but I think Q-sub was maybe the first one and maybe I'm wrong about that but at least when I was a student they were kind of very prominent, they were hosting happy hours and for the end of the year show that this really beautiful institution where they basically marked up the bathrooms at Avery and you know how now there's the gender neutral bathroom on Avery. So that's basically thanks to them because they called the school out for that and they did this physical installation where they marked down how the building code is sort of segregating or reinforcing gender roles within the bathrooms for the end. It's honestly still the best end of year show I've ever seen. And so, you know, it's activist but in a way very much within an organization, you know, I mean funded by an organization and working within it but actually creating change. Another, you know, form of activism within the profession was the architecture, the architecture man list and I'm pointing that out because I mean Lexie showed a lot of really cool and sophisticated tools that are being used now but it can be as simple as Google Doc or just a list of things like explaining what has happened and putting that into format and I think in the context of blended learning and, you know, our online situation, this is really interesting too because this is a kind of activism that wouldn't have been possible before people got together in collaborative documents on the internet. So, or it would have been possible, imagine they would have had to write letters and stuff, it would be complicated. So, so these formats are really effective and I think in terms of, you know, Obama's comment in the beginning, I think this is different because it is they it's not called culture for for the sake of you know, feeling bad about oneself is probably the opposite and also it's anonymous so the architecture man this was not, you know, undersigned by particular person so it's it's definitely pointing out or criticizing a situation but sort of doing it from, yeah, you know, for to basically not even noted at the time there was a lot of discussion about the individual people and so on and that's it is problematic in many ways but it was more about the systemic change and about a way that culture that architecture cultural functions and that that needs to be changed and about, you know, individual individual people that are there. And actually, I think Lexi is on that list there was another list of BIPOC studios, which, you know, lists the simplest. Lexi correct me if I wrong but basically just lists all like every student of BIPOC that so and press access to it so that people, you know, often when when people talk about architecture they're like well but there's no people of color or I can't invite a person of color to my panel because I don't know anybody or something and well, it's not that hard right and there is and there's a list that you can refer people to also as a kind of working list to help them to help them, you know, for students maybe to find employers or or or just for any situation where you would might where that could be a factor in or to find for clients to find architects and so on so it's again list as a effective mode and then this is a British organization, London based new architecture writers. It's a free program that is for emerging design writers and architecture writers and kind of focused on like a minority ethnic emerging writers. And they're actually hosting an event I think like a bunch of events to speak to check out their web page. They're really great as well. So, oh my God, what's happening? Okay. So the next the sub chapter of the within education. Oh God, is this flickering for you guys as well? It's just for me. You see my screen flickering like crazy. Okay, I'm going to just reload this. I think it's up to me to find a new computer. I'm having too many problems. Okay. So the next, you know, basically, I see it as a sub chapter, even though it could also potentially be its own chapter is education based activism within architecture. So here there's one by public works. It's called the school for civic action. And this is interesting because this is actually educational experiment that is started by an individual studio by an office. Rather than by a school itself or, or, you know, a group of organizations is a few years old. And I think the recent examples have been a lot more. You know, collaborative focus and thinking about sort of ways that people can join forces to create this kind of new syllabi, new forms of education rather than sort of one group coming in and sort of creating, you know, a mini public school and about in a setting. So here, race based in architecture and I'm sorry. Something's happening. Oh my God. Yeah. Um, because I could also share and then share the screen. Sure. We don't have to worry about it. Oh, yeah. Maybe you stop sharing. I can share. Um, but yeah, race based in architecture is, um, a curriculum that's been actually developed over, you know, a few, like multiple years, but really got a lot of attention. I think during, um, the protests of this summer and they basically developed a whole on free online curriculum that you can go through and educate yourself about. Um, You know, these topics that it's really, it's really, again, is it activism? It's education. It's, it's, it's something in between. Um, then, um, this was a conference hosted at Harvard actually student organized, which I think is really interesting. And it's been, I think, hosted in 2017 and 2019 again. And I mean, it's, um, again, sort of, you know, bridging the institutional, the educational, um, But yeah, definitely sort of, sort of with, with an undertone of like, this is something that's missing and we need to bring it in. And this is a form of doing it through, through the conference. And then the next one, um, it's called that's actually not strictly architectures actually, uh, a new online program that was funded, founded this year. So just this summer. And it was, um, It's interesting because it's, it's maybe one of the more direct examples of COVID, um, you know, kind of bringing out new formats, because I mean, you know, it could have happened maybe before or after, but I don't think it's a complete coincidence that it has happened now. And it's essentially an online only, uh, school that addresses specific things we talked about earlier. So it's, it's meant to be for, you know, it's meant to be for people who don't have access to regular education, but we provide an open experimental format and really, you know, there's no RKAN is in it. There's just really, really amazing scholars who have that kind of background, but are coming together to really experiment and create a new kind of format in school. So if you're interested in kind of stuff, definitely check out there. Okay, so next section is what I call it cost-based organization. So these are, you know, groups that have a specific kind of cost and try to advocate for it through specific action. So, and it goes kind of beyond the profession itself. So this is really kind of out into the world. One of them is Black space. So a kind of group of planners, architects, artists, activists who are really, you know, trying to affect change in the world at large. Let's go to the next one. Yeah. So just actually, you mentioned designs for dyslexia, I think, right? This is one of the groups that you talked about. Yeah, I don't know what that means. Yes. So that, you know, again, the question of the terminology of like demanding something so that they're not asking for it. They're not like, can we have that? They're like, we want this. All right, let's go. We're actually a subsidiary of Design as Protests. So DMU is part and affiliated with Design as Protests. Okay. Yeah. At Architectural Labor, there's an interesting one. It's actually G-subgrats. There are three women who were in the CCCP program, and they built a practice based on, you know, partially I would definitely say based on activism. So they did a really interesting project. You can check out on their website that is called iCalled and basically just asks people to call their representatives. So they did it in 2016 after Trump got elected and have been continued over the past few years. And, you know, a lot of the work is more exhibition based, but this is one that I would say is very particularly activist in terms of like a call for action and then creating kind of a plan involving other people and then demand and then sharing that, you know, as part of their work. So it's a beautiful, basically comic book, which is called Undocumented Actions of Migrant Intention. So basically, you know, through a visual storybook telling a narrative, again, sort of an idea of reaching out beyond the profession with the tool of the profession. So there's, you know, another, and again, there's a lot of interconnections, but this idea of mutual aid, I think it's really interesting in terms of, I think, when we think of activism, we often think of like, well, you know, we talked about anger before. We think of like, there's an issue and we have to rally around it and kind of protect something hierarchical, something above us that we have to, where we have to affect change. Community based and mutual aid, and this is a really good article if you're interested more in mutual aid by Gia Tonantino, it's linked on the left hand image. So she talked about how doing COVID and specifically New York, you know, this type of mutual aid just became something everybody did, everybody was trying to help their neighbors, it kind of activated people's needs to actually feel connected to their community and help them and that's as strong as an example that she gives where, you know, thousands of people signed up and I think that is a form of activist practice for sure. It's sort of, you know, it comes from sort of, I would say, extreme political position and has kind of found mainstream this year. And so it's really interesting what's going to happen when the urgency of COVID is over. I mean, is there something that is going to stay or is there something that's going to move away but it's definitely a tool set, right, like activism doesn't have to necessarily be involved in the organization reaching out. It can literally just be like helping your neighbors. But, yeah, let's go, let's get going. So, in terms of this kind of community based activism, there's this really great comic book, Dick and Rich, Dick and Rick, and it's about these two characters that try to approach community based activism in their own way and it's always like, you know, Dick does it the wrong way. So here you see how he's like doing pro bono projects for community and Indian kind of wants to push his design through and then Rick is really working with the community. So, again, this and basically gets their opinions, you know, works with them isn't really concerned so much if that project gets published but actually genuinely wants to help them but then because it's successful what he makes gets hired again and so and so check it out. It's like super short and really fun. And it's by the Center for Urban Pedagogy and they have published a bunch of different tools and ways of, you know, really working with community based practice. And then this was launched very recently by Van Allen Institute. It's called Neighborhoods Now and it's a civic, you know, New York City local guide in a way or local resource actually again a tool set that is made by the community for the community. And if you go to the next slide. Yeah, that's basically simple things like diagrams helping to explain how, you know, the new city restaurant code to work how people can follow the rules and so on. And if you go to the next one, there's also specifically, you know, schemes for outer city ceiling. This is I think by soil together with some other architects. So there's basically pages full of different kinds of resources that architects have created for the city during specifically during this time. And design advocates is part of that and you'll recognize there's a bunch of different faculty on that image. So design advocates is actually advocates is, you know, another one of these platforms. But each of them is unique and different. But they are there, you know, really, I think strong and that kind of community based practice. They're all New Yorkers they're doing local work for for New York, at least in this in this instance. And, and that gives the strength of that kind of practice it's sort of not coming from the outside in but it actually tries to do things from within. And here, an example that's a little older from Tukati Park. So this is actually Greta Hansen with common practice, kind of coming up with, you know, kind of inflatable scheme in terms of making Tukati Park at the time occupied Wall Street more occupiable. And that is something that Gia Zodin kind of mentions in her article that people who have been at some point sort of mobilized to become part of a mutual aid network or to become part of the kind of community based practice are much more likely to come back to that. So once you awaken the spirit in somebody there, you know, that is kind of like once you're an activist, you're an activist forever. And I think this is quite, quite interesting in that context. So here, this is a another one of these sort of resource based practices. It's called tools for action foundation. And then you go on to the website to have basically a bunch of guides of how to build your own inflatables for people. And there's really, there's a bunch of different blueprints you can be using. And, yeah, again, you know, a hybrid case, but definitely they've started doing that for communities, but then are making that share that beyond that. If you go next. Yeah. Okay, this is this is the same page you see another installation that they did. This is an exhibition fairly recently two or three years ago at the BNA in London called this obedient objects and they basically documented a lot of different ways of that that people have created protesting gear and strategies and here's some of the manuals from that. So another form of architecture activism, which is actually maybe, you know, funny enough, maybe one of the most popular ones called support basis, like the idea that you are from outside coming into a community and trying to help them. So yeah, I think design yourself is in a way an example of that where, you know, somebody's like, Okay, how can we, we're going to raise money for that specific cause and do it through a method that is in a way this connection from the cause but it's, it's, you know, totally. It is activism and they raised a ton of money and I think Lexi was in that too. She's involved in so many ways but and they're definitely social media, you know, pro COVID case where they, they basically mostly existed on Instagram and that's how and they had a pretty simple web page and that's how they were able to raise all that money. Oh, and the idea was that basically, you know, architects are creating work and then donating that to the organization and then sending that basically selling this auction so they're selling that to, yeah, interested individuals all over the world and they were basically managing the shipping and, and, you know, the kind of work, the communication between these, these forces so yeah, I think I really, really positive example of that. Here's just a classic thing. This is 20 years old. This is called parasite and, you know, a structure for homeless people. There's like endless variations on that effect. Every architecture school has made something along these lines but it's definitely sort of clearly some an actual trying to solve a problem and sort of thinking, like, how can I make it better for homeless person and creating some kind of prototype and then building it and also deploying it. But yeah, anyway, that we can, but I think, yeah, so here, here's a more extreme example maybe the urban think tank, building essentially better slums and calling it, they call it empower shack and yeah, you know, again, sort of an outside force coming in here's on the right and then definitely using that also to exhibit and to show their work, you know, they've been out there, they're really widely exhibited practice and Yeah, I'll refrain from commenting too much on that but I think it's just a different way of doing support and activism. Okay. So, you know, another form of activism I would say it's analysis and research based so these are practices go to the next slide. I think forensic architecture is there in every single one of my lectures because they just cover so many. I've seen those before. They cover so many different different ways of looking at architecture. Except for maybe a conventional one, but the day. It's a British London based studio by your advisement and you know what they do is essentially use technology like 3D scanning and you know, really, they're really advanced technologies that they're using to basically uncover history, recent histories are sort of often military applications or ways that, you know, I think this is from from an incident where, you know, 4040 students died and that nobody knew what had actually happened and they came in and helped to reconstruct the narrative of that particular event and through architectural tools. And I think that's a really interesting thing that they're, you know, using three dimensional thinking and the way, you know, tools and education that we're changing as architects. And, you know, again, not sure this is activism in a classic sense, but it is definitely trying to in a way rather than maybe identifying the cause kind of cause and trying to find a solution and it's sort of helping, they definitely have an agenda and ideology and then they're helping to basically uncover certain truth through research and through analysis. Yeah, and then Dark Matter Labs is another really interesting organization, so they're basically working also kind of a high tech team, high tech tools, you know, working with sort of a strong social mission and I think that's actually quite rare and unique and really interesting and yeah, another project to dive in. This is a little bit older project but just wanted to put it in there as a sort of archive that, you know, again a research archive for, you know, how, as you've seen that this presentation was very current, very historic examples. And so this is one where, you know, you want to, you want to kind of, it's more like a reference book and sort of, again, is it activism, I don't know, but sort of, again, gathering information for that particular purpose with trying to find that kind of architectural knowledge, you know, I think at least counts in that category. And then finally the last category is, you know, I think something maybe that I think is the most familiar with in some ways is sort of thinking about the future, imagine the future, drawing the future and projecting the future. And so, so, you know, I think a lot of architecture could fall into that. I here have just one example because it's so incredibly beautiful if you go to the next slide. Yeah, so this artist, Alec and Jeff, who creates, you know, visions of, do you know him? Yeah, so he's just creating this after-futurist visions of Brooklyn. And I think what's fascinating, you know, if you live in New York is how you know these buildings. And I think sometimes when you watch Black Panther, it's cool, but it's also fantasy world, like it's kind of disconnected from reality in many ways. And so, so these are very kind of, you know, their collages, like very sophisticated collages in a way that allow for us to dream of a different future. Yeah, and that's those are my six points. This is so amazing. Yeah, his work is, so I attended a talk that he did about a few weeks ago, where he like talked about his process and stuff. What did he say he makes these images in? Does he also do all those 3D models? Or is he? Yeah, he didn't really talk about like the tools. I think he, I don't even think he talked about the tools that he may use. I think like a lot of this stuff is like Photoshop, and then he does make some of the 3D models. Yeah. But I don't think he talked about like what he made them in. Yeah, interesting. They have this really strange quality of the kind of thing, like comic in a way, like there's something about them that feels like that, and then hyper realistic too, you know. Yeah. And then I could like totally see myself. Yeah, just like walking, like in between these spaces. Yeah, I guess just, you know, general question, if you guys have any thoughts on these, if your definition of activism has in any way changed, or if there's any of these that you want to talk about more that we've seen. This is cool. Yeah, I mean, I think that there's like the one of one thing that kind of stood out to me was like the certain forms of activism that can be more easily criticized than others for sure. Like I guess there was one that was about, I mean, I guess mutual aid is not going to be criticized as easily as the one where you're from the outside and kind of reaching a lending hand and to, you know, to kind of help the community. You know, for example, I feel like the building project at Yale gets that kind of criticism and that it's kind of an institution that's coming in and making an architecture that's like not really contextual at all, but is actually helps the school. It's like a virtual, like, you could argue in some ways that there's virtue signaling there, you know, so. Right. Yeah. I think the mutual aid networks are not beyond criticism either. I mean, one of the criticisms is that they in a way solve issues that shouldn't be solved by people necessarily, you know, that that kind of should be solved by state and therefore kind of take responsibility away from the state, I think applies in a crisis situations, but I think is, is definitely something I think there was this one of the mutual aid organizations after COVID and Fox News was all over them because it's a bit this, you know, it's a bit this Christian Christian think of generosity where help your neighbor. And that, you know, is often temporary and often in a way an act of, even if it's your neighbor doesn't have to be somebody very far away that you're coming from outside and could still be based on the idea of volunteering. I think it's maybe more about are you volunteering, you know, to make yourself feel better, which also is okay, but or are you doing it, because you, it really becomes part of your practice. And I think that's the crux for me in a way looking at all this different modes is sort of like how, you know, how can these become just part of you instead of something you do as an extra hour in your free time. Right. Right. My personal takeaway, you know, I'm not again, this is not a judgment of how people are doing it is just something where I'm like, okay. Hi, hi everybody. Also, who's out there. Oops, I just clicked on the wrong thing. Is there more stuff that you wanted to talk about the gun here. No, those are just some stuff that is not architectural but that I thought was interesting in terms of the way they're doing it so this is a Kickstarter for black lives matter that was selling stickers and this made like tons of money and just just in terms of like modes and that sort of techniques of organizing, I think, you know, funding schemes like Kickstarter are really effective and then the other side was a virtual protest so, you know, the the earth protests, basically when they, they were all what are called around Fridays by basically teenagers that they, they, after COVID they couldn't do it anymore on the street and so they created an online protest. So just, I think the image itself is just suggestive. I mean, I'm not sure, you know, I think that there was an article about it and I think the general outcome was like, well, this kind of protest is in the end. It's not the same right like you need to be on the street to really achieve something with the kind of put us a little bit funny in terms of like, holding up that sign in virtual space I think there's, and we've seen a lot of examples today of people using the intent and really smart ways to protest right and to organize so I think that's more just but it's kind of something going viral or something you know they mean almost has more silence power and a zoom where everybody shouting like with it from there. You know, so yeah, for sure. Maybe we should just open it up to the people here. Yeah, thoughts and questions and comments about things that we kind of went through today. I love to talk about they I appreciate your both of your talks. Hi, let's see. And I actually love to talk about mutual aid specifically in the lens of GSAP. It's something interesting that has sort of come up with the urban planning action plan and letter that Jean was talking about earlier. And so like an initiative that kind of came out of kind of the covert response that we strongly suggested to GSAP was the creation of an emergency fund and then it was no surprise when, you know, just a couple weeks later that's exactly what they did it was kind of taking from the students after we initiated a student one for the urban planning community and it's interesting because, you know, obviously this is stuff that we have I have no idea obviously none of the people in the GSAP community know what folded out with their emergency fund. So I think like aid, like aid still hasn't been distributed from my understanding. It's taking a while. I don't know if the cat like I don't know what how much was like asked by them, but something that we learned from doing ours was was the fact that the amount of money that we had, which was about like 2000, you know, just a small amount like pennies compared to what it costs to the education here at GSAP but then the actual amount of what people were asking for was like far beyond what we could even begin to provide to the community, which started to just like open up a question for ourselves that the planning students where we were asking like, Okay, like, Wow, like we had no idea even in the small pool that like the thing that the thing to help our fellow classmate and peer right now is actually like support with with rent support with groceries, right, like, I think like a theme that is underlying and what I learned, helping write some of the letters is that like, no one talks about the intersections of it's not just about race but it's also about like the class divisions at GSAP and, you know, the spaces that you can't even begin to engage in the curriculum in a critical way, if you can even like support yourself right like you're doing it for sustenance you're not doing it just to work for the experience like that's a privileged position that not everyone can kind of come at but then yet at GSAP what happens is that there's no stakes right the stakes are felt by the people who experience it the most no one gives a shit if it doesn't happen to them. And that's what it feels like from faculty and admin and we understand I think as students that like, you know, faculty care they they're trying to care. And it's, there's no coordination from people who actually have the longevity and institutional memory at the school to like actually champion it like they're looking at students like oh you change your culture you change your student culture if you think this is a problem. Okay fine we'll do it but I feel like there's not enough like like real critical questioning of what does mutual aid actually helping students across different programs not just the architecture student all students across all the programs that are like also not represented properly in some of these anti racism action plans that are being rolled out that are coming down from a very top level. Right you can look at that anti racism action plan and a very simple question you can ask is like where are the students right and no one's kind of engaging in that and yet we're constantly being like in these meetings we're just like talking we're supposed like the dean sent a message to like every single student group and is like, okay we'll listen to each of you sure. But what it like there's, we just feel like it's like these emotional, at least for me personally, it's like just this emotionally exhausting conversation that like still doesn't go anywhere. And I know that like some of my peers on this call, like maybe feel the same way that like it takes so much out of you to like prep over prepare for like one of these meetings, like you're terrified because that's a thing there's like real repercussions for like putting yourself out there and constantly being the student that like cries in front of everyone and this is emotional when it comes to talking about this stuff but like if for whatever reason like, if you don't show how it's actually affecting you and being vulnerable and like putting yourself in front of people like this like faculty have no idea what's going on, and how it's really impacting people I don't know sorry this is a bit rambly now but I just like I don't think that conversation is like really important and maybe like a meaningful way to actually push this conversation forward at GSAP is like, but what does true mutual aid look like beyond monetary beyond like, like, all of, all of the, like, but also satisfying that base need for like, so that it is an equitable learning environment for students participating, you know, and then it filters back to the pipeline access to like these spaces and that's where I think we really, at least like I really appreciate the examples you're sharing with how people are starting it's just hopeful, is what I'll say but I mean, I just wanted to, like, really, I really appreciate like your, your candor and all of us and I have to, I mean, your, your, it brings tears to my eyes too because I definitely had a moment when I was on a call with Deborah Burke and I just started crying for sure, like, you know, and I, she was just like what are you guys actually doing and I was like we're doing so much and you have no, like you have no appreciation for it, you know, and she just kind of saw us as being kind of annoying, pesky, you know, I feel like I really hear you on that and I hear how it's also like the people who are doing the most work or the people who feel it the most, and it's really important that the mutual aid is, and I think that that is a thing where it's kind of like you guys are doing so much stuff and it has to be with like people who like also aren't bearing the brunt of a lot of the work where you can tap out and be like I'm tired, and like I don't want to do this for my own kind of, you know, self preservation too I mean I think that there are times where it's kind of like, you don't want to give up that fight, but it's also the fight that you're kind of up against is like the list of demands of how to make architecture school equitable and the industry that is not very equitable, you know, give, you know, better hours, like more financial aid more help, like, you know, like all these things that you that people really deserve in order to be able to be educated right in their home environment, right, they're they're it's to me it's like figuring out places where you can be empowered is really important. You know, and I definitely feel like getting involved in dark matter university where like totally open to anybody being like coming and being a part of it and that feels great because you're part of the conversations that you're part of are other people who are doing the exact same thing in their schools or and basically like being like here's an opportunity like come be part of this opportunity like somebody speak at NOMA who wants to do it like, you know, and there's something about that that feels like you're around so many people and it's about building your skills and and the network of doing that just also feels really natural so you know, like, I guess I kind of brought that up at the beginning and I, I, like, am as frustrated and, you know, like, I read you back an email when you told me about all the stuff and I was like, I really hate that as somebody who's an adjunct professor that doesn't get any healthcare that I'm like passing along the baton and saying I kind of totally feel your pain. And, you know, and I think that that's kind of unacceptable like that, you know, that just keeps happening. And I don't have I wish I had a better answer for that, you know, other than to keep doing what you're doing, you know, but also take care of yourself. Yeah, you guys have other thoughts to other people have thoughts to my unsatisfactory answer. Well, I think that's a big struggle. Like, so Camille and I obviously have been in a lot of the same things. So yeah, second and to everything Camille said, but I think the problem we've been having is like, no one seems to really know or understand who is making these decisions. So, you know, in our in the action plan we released we got very specific in terms of we were like, provide fun, like, seed grants for faculty who are working with local community organizations or recruit more actively at public schools with black colleges or, you know, start a summer program for high school students in the city at public schools. And so we had all these specific ideas but essentially every everybody that we had a meeting with that we talked to, they said, we don't control this, we don't control it because of money, or some organizational like I don't have the authority to prove this. But, and we got that response both from faculty and the program director and I'm sure we will hear it from them all if we meet with her and so it just seems like is there is there a way for faculty who agree with some of these things and students who are on board to like make GSAP stop because I feel like that's that's the that's the attitude that GSAP has is like GSAP must go on. In fact, it must go on. And so they're like raising tuition and doing all these things just to like make the semester happen, calling it hybrid but you know it's not really And, and they just continue to ignore all these voices. And so I feel like we have, and this was something at the new grounds for design education and Dr Sutton who wrote that amazing book was on that call and she basically was like you guys need to make more noise. And like, I forget the term she is she's like where's the juice behind the saying. Yeah. Yeah. And she she's gonna I'm, we're also hosting a DMU is hosting a call that she's on on Thursday about like about public education and just like I think that a lot of the same things are going to be discussed about public education and the difficulties of like privatized, you know, and all this stuff is basically being like where where's the teeth, if, you know, like, all the students kind of have similar demands. You know, it's about like doing something outside of the school. It's also the tuition. It's also like support networks for for younger professors that are doing stuff and I think that like, there should be more juice there should be people getting more angry, and there should be people who are, you know, I mean, I after I started crying with Deborah Burke, I was like, embarrassed, but then I was really glad that I, it happened is it was a way for her to understand things. And I think that, you know, one, one thing that we as faculty could do, you know, is to because they're more agile faculty than any, you know, you know, more permanent faculty is like banding together for that. And I think that one thing that did happen at GSAP, which makes me, you know, hopeful compared to other schools is the faculty banding together to write the unlearning whiteness thing which didn't happen at other schools like no, no, you know, faculty members at other schools were also kind of, you know, leaning out to do that. So I feel like there are a lot of those people who are on on that were part of DMU. I definitely think that I could bring a lot of these concerns to DMU because, you know, it's interesting because a lot of us are the, you know, minority teachers that are our teaching at GSAP or our teaching at different schools and so like there is leverage there, like we should definitely be talking to you guys about that. Thank you. Thank you both and all of you for, for sharing and make really moving and happy. Happy this is happening and the space for that to talk about it seems like we need more of it. I'm curious, actually I have a question for you, for you guys for the students is like, how, how do you feel has this last, you know, this, that, I guess, COVID or the situation changed your level of engagement in that sense or how has it kind of radicalized you in a sense or do you feel like those issues were there before and just weren't talked about or, you know, it feels like right now a moment where so many things are bubbling up and so many organizations are happening and schools are scrambling to respond and, you know, so just curious how that has changed from your perspective. I can jump in but I, I'm like a specific case because I actually grew up in Morningside Heights. So I've always sort of been around Columbia and I, and I was aware. I also did my undergraduate there and so I've always been aware of this relationship was very contentious relationships that Columbia has with its neighbors and that's always been very like forefront in my mind and I've always I've always wondered why more people at Columbia, especially in undergrad don't talk about it more or sometimes are just wholly unaware of it. And it's and then when I got to GSAP, I think like more people knew maybe because it's slightly older crowd but still for people who are studying the built environment like sometimes I'd be shocked that they didn't know the relationship of their own school to the city at large. And so I think for me this summer felt really like an opportunity for us to like come out strong and and really say like what does it mean for Columbia to confront this relationship that they have like we cannot build a time machine. We cannot go back and undo things like they happened you have to acknowledge it and I think Columbia is not even really there yet. I don't really feel the sense that they've fully acknowledged or like even understand the impact that they've had throughout the years on Harlem, Washington Heights like all these surrounding neighborhoods. And, and then also then to like do something about it because, and, and the fact that you don't have more people from Harlem which is literally our neighbor at the school at GSAP, I think is really, really problematic and I'm not saying that there, it's not like in some ways it is also a reflection of how New York City is New York City is really segregated and like those boundaries between between neighborhoods is hard to bridge but you know I think Columbia because we sit on that boundary like in some ways it's our responsibility to address that but it doesn't seem like the school the university is ready to go there. Yeah, I was going to say they must know they've been so many articles written in the New York Times about it but yeah like you said like you said they're just not. Yeah, it's like how you can see something but she's not to like internalize it and I feel like that's where we're at. And so I this summer I felt like it was a chance to really try to get that heard. I mean I think that one thing, you know, in terms of even like proposing that like, you know, students could get credit and get, you know, there could be a like a funded seminar to do things that were actually in, you know, in Harlem and like going to high schools and doing stuff with, you know, like architecture students and just trying to kind of integrate that into a course, you know, because I think that the university becomes overwhelmed with how to address that in like a kind of larger to address that you know like the university, you know, is been really exploited the community, you know, I mean I think that they, it's one of those things where it's like that they probably know that, but nobody actually wants to say it. You know, so how are there, like I think that's the thing about like, you know, at least at Yale was like, we couldn't get anybody to admit the wrongdoings that Yale has done to their community and like the things where we started to get them in the budge where where we're like there needs to be a liaison that does this and so they were like let's fund it like almost like a TA position and then that TA position becomes important enough that it becomes a full time position and like, you know, like that kind of thing is and unfortunately it's not maddening but it's like the kind of small incremental changes do make a really big difference, you know, longer term. Yeah, I think that that one thing that is hard about it is that the, you know, the kind of rush and about even doing the new grounds for design education where I think that we are all on that call and all got like super fired up, I feel like as it goes on it's kind of like, like the stamina to maintain it like is is is difficult, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I would say that too I mean I think you know you guys definitely have a lot to deal with but you also have an opportunity, I think here to, you know, to make a change and to go along with that moment that wave of change that is that is happening and I know it feels too slow but it's there and being at the school for a little longer I see how it has changed and it's, it's, you know, that list that oh my God I was teaching it for years and I was trying to change that list. Every year, and it was me and three white men, well actually far isn't that okay but it was, it was just from five years ago I remember having this discussions and, you know, eventually I gave up because I was and I don't know if you knew Lexi but before when I came in there was, you know, there were like a few women when you that you that you put in that you kind of underline it read and I think before I came in it was like one or something and even just the geographical distribution so those are small changes right but then this year. I think with, you know, there was just an opportunity and you guys took it and completely rewarded and it was possible to do it because everyone everyone recognized that there needs to be a change. And so this is the kind of stuff this kind of kind of things that maybe if you're a student you don't see it yet but when you're there for a little bit longer. These are these are the moments and right now is definitely a moment where you can just grab these things and take them and change them and squeeze them and modify them right and. And so I think, yeah, in that sense I feel optimistic and, you know, I think that, and I'm excited to see you guys here and talk about this and I think we should, you know, yeah, I think I think I said that the crucial thing is to keep to keep this time. Keep the stamina but it's also like the reason DMU was formed in the first place was because we were like we cannot make change within these institutions themselves they're already like it's so attractive. And they have such a history of being extracted that there's no way to do anything except outside of it. And so I think that I'm like really hardcore recruiting you guys to become part of DMU because I think that you'll be much more fulfilled by it because it's like, you know, I don't know, like when you start to just be like why don't you get it why don't you get it to a school like and people keep passing you around it's kind of like your efforts are much better spent elsewhere, like to be honest like I do, I feel like they need to hear that and I believe in sharing something like idea about us having more teeth but I'd prefer for that to be in something that we are really building right like the idea that historically black colleges and Ivy League schools can develop curriculum together like I can create a course with Curry Hackett and make amazing graphic design with somebody that you know like I've only met once, you know, and but that we like now just super get along and see how we're sharing syllabi and all these different things you know it's like finding those opportunities but then also like, you know, becoming I think that's part of why becoming a teacher I think is like really powerful as well as to like, you know, figure out how you can make your you know, in whatever way and I know that like, being a student right now feels frustrating because you're in this system that is unfair and there are a lot of things especially this semester that are really messed up about your access to education resources, you know, like what you're paying for your teachers all that stuff and I think that you know the this experience that you're having in terms of building like even the coalition between you guys as students is like finding like minded people and like the solidarity that you build out of that community is like super important. And I think that like flagging all this stuff and realizing that you know institutions are super slow and like, you know, unwieldy and, you know, they, like a mall doesn't want to apologize for like 300 years of, I don't know, I mean I don't, it's less than that of when Columbia was founded but like, she doesn't want to apologize for that she won't, you know, so to me it's kind of like saying I've I know that and I can be critical of that, you know, as, as, you know, after school, for instance, and during school, you know, so like, I'm not saying to like, you know, give up on it, I'm just saying that it's, it's about kind of picking the models and the ones that you feel like are where, you know, the changes that you're making, even in like leading a discussion, for example, in your, in your section, or calling something out as being like racist or misogynist by one of your professors that's super important. Like, I've, I've called out other people that I've taught with I've called out, you know, friends, you know, like, you know, doing that to me feels like having those hard conversations feels like that's, that's a change that happens right away. You know, the person getting that so. Yeah, I really commend the efforts to be doing, you know, this kind of change and I wonder if, you know, the hard thing about Columbia to me is that like, there's not organization amongst the adjuncts and there's not organization like in terms of how we're kind of a collective body like people being at Columbia to like being a teacher that's at an airport, like you people are coming and going and you, you know, like you don't really know what everybody's doing, but it's busy, you know, so like I think for that reason. Have you guys figured out a way to have you found your allies and faculty members and stuff. Yeah. Sorry, I'm really honest and I don't know Camille if this is like where your heads up but for me it feels a little like it was, I think we had this one very discouraging meeting last week, which kind of put like a nail in this coffin with this letter was kind of it was a meeting with all the planning faculty, all the full time planning faculty and weight paying is the program director and it just it kind of they were just they shut it down essentially and and I definitely agree that, or I'm at a place where I'm like so on board for dark matter university like yes please sign me up but it's also that like the students that are that wrote this letter the students that are invested in this stuff, like in a way. We're invested in it because it matters like to our day to day as well like the things that create barriers for other people to be at this school are the barriers that like students face day to day and I know like I work multiple jobs. Camille works multiple jobs like me and because in grad school you know the assumption is you're an adult and you pay tuition you pay rent and pay bills and you find a way to make it work and, and I think the point and a lot of our letter was that, like, apart from the admissions issue of people not applying here getting in here it's like once you're here even as like as a person of color as someone who's from even a slightly disadvantaged background you're like you're amongst so much privilege. And I think it's like really hard to get your bearings sometimes and because you feel like you're alone and like having to figure out just how to make it work. And, and what like when the school doesn't provide the support you need for that like I feel like it really affects your ability to like do school because school is still necessary right if you're thinking about I want to be an architect to support myself later in life you kind of have to go through these official channels. And so while I would like love to throw all the energy I throw into school into dark matter university like there are still some stakes there, where I have to consider like, what does it mean if I low past studio, because I don't agree you know, like the pedagogy of GSAP and I decide to do this other thing. And, and even with the urban planning action group, you know, some people in our group has have been asked like, Are you going to be able to focus on, you know, this T a ship because you know you have all this other stuff on your plate. And I think like it is a real concern you know they're only 24 hours in a day and I just feel that the students who put the time in, whether it's into dark matter university or, you know, the urban planning action plan like those are the students who are there because it matters and they're being affected by all these other things that we're like trying to change at the same time. And that's like not acceptable that, you know, I mean, I think that they must be having a hard time figuring out how to have, you know, it's, it does seem like it's a systemic thing for them to kind of address and to fix and I think that that's partly why they're really passing it off but I mean I'm upset by that, you know, I'm really upset that this is something where, you know, it's, it just seems like the, and I don't know the urban planning department and that well, you know, but if there are things that I can do and you know people that I can write letters to and you know, like non powerful situation I'm happy to to ban with you guys on that you know so it's it's super real you know and it's like I think that that like, you know, crusading for this thing and really getting it to happen and also the like obviously you guys are our takes a lot of energy to do all of that, you know, and I really commend you guys for putting that and putting that time and it's important, you know, so Yeah, I don't have, I don't have, I don't have answers unfortunately, but Sorry to bring it so down. What'd you say? Sorry to bring it so down. No, not at all. Just want to really feel that kind of like brought us from here. No, but I think this whole thing about activism and labor and like putting all the time into doing it and just the amount of organization that is like really required to like make meaningful change happen. It's like, you guys are doing, that's a job, you're doing like another job on top of all the other jobs you have to deal and so it's just like, I hear how it's just so mad at me. I mean, and I think that if we can distribute that and find coalitions like I really think that dark Maddie University should try to do some stuff and talk to you guys like that. Maybe we can set up a separate call or something with Justin Garrett Moore who's also teaching at Columbia and I know that these are people who are also well versed in doing this kind of work. And I think that we should, you guys should email me or I'll email you because I have your email, but let's figure out a way to get on a call and put some pressure on them. Thank you so much. Yeah. The workshop on activism just leads to like more concrete activism, which I think is correct. That's the right thing. Oh. But I think that once you once you get into it, it's kind of like, I don't know, can be exhilarating to have a community and and really be like, what are we standing for and what are we doing and it's in some ways. I feel like it's kind of one of the most powerful things to get out of an education is doing this too. And also, I mean, I think it's like, a lot of things that during being a just generalizing probably hard, but I think this extracurricular or outside of these things that are still related to the profession. You know, I think you'll take them with you and they might be part of your practice and I think that's also going to be really exciting how these practices are going to look like in a few years from now that that were founded funded in your in your being in your in your activity right now so I think that's, anyway, but that's, you know, something that I think looking at all these different angles and practice I think it's going to come out of that. Yeah. Yeah, an urgency. I mean like it's clear, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So anyways, the support network is is growing and is trying to be there for you. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, super. Thank you so much. And all of you. And no, let's keep talking you have, you have our contacts and again, I mean at the very least, then you're getting an email tomorrow that there's some stuff you have to talk about. All right, have a good night. Okay, relax. We're going to get a drink. You should do. Okay.