[Un]Learning For Tomorrow By Design

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LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN

LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN LEARN

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For Lucas, Nicholas, and Genevieve.

OF A SPECIES

Eyes peeled, nose to the ground, ears perked. With the lift of one leg, the sidewalk is claimed.

Man’s best friend has officially descended upon the masses. Seas of pe destrians will actually part as these coddled balls of fur prance around the block. We love them. And for good reason, or more appropriately, for the love of all that is possible—our hopes, our dreams have joined forces to perfect form and function. To create the canine.

Consider form: Perched delicately at one end of the spectrum is the Continental Toy Spaniel, more affectionately known as the Papillon. Exaggerated ears that mimic the shape and majestic movements of butterflies' wings frame the Papillion’s charismatic face, shrouding its delicate frame in a cloak of long silken locks. Dainty. Compact. And portable. This five-pound bundle of adorable begs for your embrace.

Towering above the other end of the spectrum is the Great Dane, a.k.a. the grande dame of canines. To the untrained eye, this gentle giant is a seemingly formidable force. Every inch of the Dane's four foot frame is coated with a thick layer of muscle over which is draped a silky coat. Its wide chest gives rise to angled shoulders, well-sprung ribs, and arched loins. The Great Dane exudes dignity, elegance, and force.

Which brings us to function. The canine satisfies the majority of our basic needs. Once we've have ensured the physiological needs necessary for survival—water, air, food, and sleep—our focus shifts to secu rity. Nestled behind the white picket fences framing suburbia,

lies the American Pit Bull Terrier, trained to pounce at the first hint of intrusion. Perpetrators will flee immediately upon confronting this forty pound mound of might. The same pup, when offered the neces sary attention (and adulation), melts into a loving companion. Every step you take will be monitored, if not mimicked, by your furry friend. If you sit, she sits. If you sleep, she sleep. Complete synchronicity.

Or dependency. When the Pit Bull Terrier was introduced to the United States in the mid-1800s, American breeders made slight modifications to its form increasing the mass and size of its cranium. These design modifications proved enormously successful. Pit bull sales flourished in the American market. Businesses even capitalized on the commod ity. In 1898, RCA purchased a painting of a pit bull seated before the phonograph. Nipper, an advertising icon, was born.

Years later, on the dawn of World War I, America embraced its allies, including the Pit Bull Terrier. Now bigger and better, the mighty pup became the face of a Nation plastered on publications and propagan da around the globe. When the benefits of personification waned, the American Armed Forces introduced Sergeant Stubby to the battlefields. America’s watchdog was no longer mere fiction. For 18 months, Ser geant Stubby carried himself on all fours into the trenches, warning his fellow soldiers of noxious gases and incoming artillery.

On November 11, 1918, Sergeant Stubby was liberated from his military duties and returned to the States a decorated civilian. The American Pit Bull Terrier resumed its role as an essential amenity of domestic

life. Notable figures such as Theodore Roosevelt featured the pups prominently in their homes. But the pit bull didn’t suit everyone’s dé cor. Recognizing that there was a growing demand for diversity, many breeders returned to the drawing boards. The result?

America’s mutt. Handcrafted and genetically engineered. Puggles, labradoodles, chiweenies, cavachons, chorkies—each one designed to look and act according to our specifications…

SEMBLING

EMPIRE

F OR TOMORROW BY DESIGN

A WAY: THEORIES OF ACTION,

It is about time that…design as we know it should cease to exist.

Victor Papenak Designer and Educator

Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. New York: Bantem Books, 1973: 15.

We eat, sleep, dream, fuck, fight, play, and even perish by design. To design is to affect and ⁄ or effect change. "Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones." 1 The present work navigates this expanded field of design in attempt to understand its culpabilities, capabilities, and ca pacities as a political, social, economic, and environmental practice.

Biologist E.O. Wilson traced the birth of “modern humanity,” to a mo ment “about ten thousand years ago with the invention of agriculture… the economic history that followed," he wrote "can be summarized very succinctly as follows: people used every means they could devise to con vert the resources of Earth into wealth.”2 Today, the migration, alloca tion, and accumulation of wealth is transforming our Earth.

And fundamentally altering our lives. However, the transactional costs and relational complexities of this phenomenon affectionately referred to as development are often cloaked in our everyday. In my perspec tive, there are few places where this paradox is more pronounced than in New York.

Following the development and distribution of resources, this inquiry, both historic and theoretic, traverses a vast terrain (perhaps too vast) —from the hollowed hinterlands of upstate New York to the concrete jungle of New York City. It spans a multitude of scales, from munici pal to molecular. Occasionally, however, the relative complexities that characterize our contemporary context lead me beyond these borders to contemplate national and international correlations and contingencies.

The point of departure is Governor Andrew Cuomo's crusade to manufacture a "New New York." Analysis of Cuomo's socio-spatial strategies to transform prevailing perceptions of the Empire State reveals the formidable interdependence that exists between politics, culture, and identity. At this intersection, I'm particularly interested in the [in]visible infrastructures that masquerade as everyday practices. How might such an elusive apparatus foster meaning, making, and memory, or learning?

1 Simon, Herbert Alexander. The Sciences of the Artifical. 3rd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996: 11. Web. <http:⁄⁄m.friendfeed-media.com⁄092e5a73c91e0838ee b11e0fe90edaf9e9afc065>. Note: When possible, I have tried to cite resources available online.

2 Wilson, E.O. "Foreward." Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet. By Jeffrey Sachs. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

From there, I explore how The New School a New York City-based institution for higher education , employs similar strategies that manifest architecturally, administratively, and organizationally as a pedagogical practice. By tracing the contours of identity formation, I hope to expose the transformative capabilities of design strategies to radically alter the historiographies, geographies, and psychologies of our everyday.

This is a journey into the Empire States of […]

The trajectory of this journey is guided by an inverted analytic framework that regards solutions as problems and questions as solutions. In this context, doubt becomes the primary vector for critical thinking capable of interrogating the legitimacy, author ity, and ethics of the cultural status quo. Throughout the develop ment of this thesis, I have come to refer to this praxis of explication that aligns theories of action, in action as [un]learning. Behavioral theorist, Chris Argyris and Urban Studies and Education Professor, Donald Schön identify a similar process as double-loop learning or thinking in action through which governing variables —i.e. the [in] visible infrastructures that shroud our environment, automate our everyday, and impact our perception, conception, and mobility—can be critically confronted and challenged. Within this moral milieu, 3 I begin to [dis]assemble the prevailing lexicon, discourse, and practices of design, including my own. To this end, I employ several tactics that contribute to the aesthetic of this thesis as a text.

ON AESTHETIC

Words are privileged as my primary means of visual communication. Words, like the environments we inhabit, are best understood in context. In the context of other words. In the context of the author. As well as that of the interpreter. In the tradition of Raymond Williams, I interrogate many words in attempt to better understand the intended denotation, connotation, and signification of their author including,

3

My precarious position within this moral milieu is compliments of Clive Dilnot. I am grateful to Clive for expanding my understanding of design and holding me accountable within this expanded field. Dilnot, Clive. "Ethics In

at times, myself. 4 Keywords are highlighted with a boldface ' ° ' and explicated in the margin of the corresponding page. As you will note, I'm particularly suspect of words that migrate across cultures. This is by no means an exhaustive analysis; there are many aspects of this thesis that warrant further attention.

Brackets '[ ]' indicate instances when the thesis and antithesis of a word seem equally valid. For example, [un]learning, as referenced above, is intended to mean as learning and unlearning. [Dis]assemble assemble and disassemble; [in]visible visible and invisible; and so on. More often than not, I've found that privileging one aspect of the dialectic over the other ( s ) , proves too easy.

Footnotes manifest as literary references, personal acknowledgments, and reflections. Similar to the keywords called out in the margins, I embrace footnotes as opportunities to dig into the minutiae specu late and, occasionally, pontificate. The informal nature of this process is reflected in the tone and tenor that characterize this portion of the text.

Italics are used to highlight key concepts, such as theories of action that are inspired by or extracted from the investigations of other practitioners. In either case, the original context is footnoted when the concept is initially introduced.

Tactics for Everyday [Dis]Engagement or TEDs are theories of action that manifest in action as critical environments and objects. By [re] framing the governing variables that characterize various contexts, each tactic aims to: expose latent environmental assumptions; unveil the structure, operations, and context of their corresponding infrastructures; and, ultimately, disrupt the dominant order rendering it as one possibil ity, amongst many. This section is essential to my development of [un] learning as a praxis of explication. While tactics are by nature situated within the strategic strictures from which they seek to emerge, for the purposes of this text, they are detached. However, each is referenced throughout with boldface capital letters and number that corresponds to the page on which the tactic appears: TED N o 12345.

4 Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society . New York: Oxford UP, 1976. Web. <http:⁄⁄www. graduateglobalissues.files.word press.com⁄2012⁄08⁄raymond-williams-keywords.pdf>.

Images are relegated to the appendix and catalogued by page number. This thesis was constructed upon many assumptions, one of which posits that sight has been privileged as the arbiter of truth, knowl edge, and reality since the days of Aristotle. In my 'perspective,' our infatuation with aesthetic form has severely limited our capacity to understand our multiple modalities of communication and hence design and [un]learning.5

[Un]learning engages design as a means to interrogate or question the foundations and aesthetics of what has come to be known and ⁄or accepted as common sense. The resulting aesthetic may seem like an unnecessarily convoluted strategy designed to obfuscate intent. It may be unnecessarily convoluted. However, I can assure you that my intent is to explicate, rather than obfuscate, my interests. By highlighting keywords and bracketing others, I offer opportunities to reflect on their context and corresponding connotations, denota tions, and significations. By following a curiosity down the rabbit hole otherwise known as the internet, I am allowing intuition and chance to momentarily command circumstance (as well as admittedly indulging my amazing propensity for digression ). By subordinating pictures to words, I am challenging my capacity to communicate. I am thinking in action…and asking you to do the same. That said, I recom mend viewing two videos The New New York6 and Yes We Can7 prior to digging further into this thesis, so that you might begin to form your own theories of action that will undoubtedly be challenged in action

In order to advance the capacities of design to serve as a redirective practice toward alternative modes of being, unfettered by the 'free'market, the practice of design itself must be transformed, by design.

5 That said, I find the resulting index to be an interesting analytic tool.

6 The New New York, A Whole New Approach to Business. Dir. Spike Lee and Linda Honan. Screenplay by Nick Sonderup and Kurt Lenard. Perf. Featuring the Voice of Robert DeNiro, with Contributing Music by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys. YouTube. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.youtube.com⁄watch?v=aQgILlGg1E8>.

7 Yes We Can: Barack Obama Music Video. Dir. Will.i.am. Perf. Barack Obama. YouTube. Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, 02 Feb. 2008. Web. <http:⁄⁄ www.youtube.com⁄watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY>.

ON THE AUTHOR

Considering I have resided in New York State for 24 out of the 37 years of my life, called NYC home for the last 6, been employed as a designer on and off for the last 10, and am currently enrolled in Parsons The New School for Design's School of Design Strategies, this project could be framed as one of radical proximity 8 that works within a context to problematize political, social, and economic interdependencies from the inside, out. Or, it could be perceived as an insular investigation advanced from a privileged perch with relatively minimal risk. It is undeniably both.

8 Cruz, Teddy. Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else. Ed. Esther Choi and Marrikka Trotter. Cambridge, MA: Work, 2010: 81.

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.

Charles A. Beard Co-founding Father, The New School

ASSEMBLING THE EMPIRE STATES OF […]

“New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, There’s noth ing you can’t do " Alicia Keys' rasp reverberates through the bar.

“…Now you're in New York" echoes in my mind as I scroll through the morning headlines.

Walking down 2nd Ave, the rhythm of Keys' refrain intercepts my stride: "These streets will make you feel brand new. Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York..."

Earworms. 99% of us have been host to these invasive invertebrates at some point in our lives.1 Each cunning microbe, "micro-riff or audioinstantiation seeps into our ears and taps out mnemonics on its drum. It smirks, stated—because as soon as you drop the needle on the track, you're in its domain," explains Kodwo Eshun in his book, More Brilliant

Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction.2

Empire State of Mind —Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' ode to all things New York—debuted at the height of the economic crisis in 2009. Ironically, as Wall Street was buckling under the weight of its own greed, Empire State of Mind was infiltrating bars, bistros, and earbuds throughout the concrete jungle and around the globe.

1 Kellaris, J.J. Dissecting Earworms: Further evidence on the song-stuck-in-yourhead phenomenon. Paper presented at the Proceedings of Society for Consumer Psychology, New Orleans, LA, American Psychological Society, 2003.

2 Eshun, Kodwo. More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction. London: Quartet, 1998. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.autistici.org⁄2000-maniax⁄texts⁄Kodwo-EshunMore-Brilliant-Than-The-Sun-Adventures-in-Sonic-Fiction.pdf>.

As the bass drops to the melody of the iconic anthem, DeNiro's bari tone consumes my living room,"This is New York State."

I'm hooked.

DeNiro "We built the first railway, and the first trade route to the west. We built the tallest sky scrapers, the greatest Empires. We pushed the country forward," DeNiro boasts as black and white images parade across the television. "Then some said we lost our edge (shop window showcases closed for business ) . We couldn't match the pace of the business world ( fly-through streetscape from vacant lots to financial district). Well, today there’s a New New York State: (pause while blanket of warm yellows wash over the horizon and wake the metropolis ) one that’s working to attract businesses and create jobs ( pan to SUNY Albany's College of Nanoscience and Engineering); build energy high ways and high-tech centers (enter Intel); nurture start-ups (close-up of semi-conductor wafer ) and small businesses ( cue the Mast Brothers and their comrades in craft the urban beekeepers ) ; reduce tax burdens ( enter Joe the Plumber's brother, Dave the Delivery Driver ) and provide the lowest middle class tax rate in 58 years ( cut to florist peddling bountiful bouquet ) . Once again, New York is a place where innovation meets determination ( descend on Montauk lighthouse keeping watch over the Atlantic ) . Where businesses lead the world ( prolonged pause on 'Ground Zero'……then pan to our beacon One World Trade Center ) .” See Appendix 116-119:1-45.

Keys In New York...

DeNiro The New New York works for business. Find out how it can work for your's at TheNewNewYork.com. 3

Roll out the red carpet, turn on your television, and logon to your life! This carefully curated portrait of our past, present, and future

3

The New New York, A Whole New Approach to Business. Dir. Spike Lee and Linda Honan. Screenplay by Nick Sonderup and Kurt Lenard. Perf. Featuring the Voice of Robert DeNiro, with Contributing Music by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys. YouTube. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.youtube.com⁄watch?v=aQgILlGg1E8>.

4

provides a provocative example of the power inherent in design as a political, economic, social, and environmental practice.

Upon assuming office in January 2011, Governor Andrew Cuomo inherited ( in addition to many privileges ) a polis partially para lyzed by an economic recession,4 a city budget drained by tax-exempt institutions, 5 and a legislature plagued by corruption. 6 I n true Fried man fashion, 7 Cuomo immediately began manufacturing "a New New York." His modus operandi? Competition ( of the free-market variety ) ; control ( of the capital kind ) ; communication ( raw, at times even ripe, rhetoric capable of antagonizing enemies as well as allies ) ; and a dash of Fear for good measure. However, prior “to redesign ing the way the state government works in order to drive economic growth…and foster greater private investment," 8 Cuomo needed "to change the way people perceive the Empire State." 9 Cue DeNiro, Jay-Z, and Keys.

46% of New Yorkers were making less than 150% of the poverty threshold. Roberts, Sam. "City Report Shows More Were Near Poverty in 2011." New York Times. 21 Apr. 2013.

5 Nearly 60% of property within Albany's city limits is occupied by government offices, schools, and churches and, therefore, "off the tax rolls." Sichko, Adam. "Albany Legislators Seek Payment for State-owned Harriman Campus." The Busi ness Review. Bizjounals.com, 11 Feb. 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.bizjournals.com⁄alba ny⁄blog⁄insider⁄2013⁄02⁄harriman-campus-money-for-albany.html?page=all>.

6 In his campaign announcement, Cuomo confessed, "…Manhattan’s Wall Street debacle is matched only by Albany’s State Street debacle. Our State govern ment in Albany is disreputable and discredited.” The Plan: Official Campaign Announcement for Governor of the State of New York. Perf. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, 2010. Vimeo. <https:⁄⁄vimeo. com⁄11939612#at=0>.

7 Thanks to Milton Friedman and his Chicago (and Chilean) comrades, the shock doctrine is one of "contemporary capitalism's core nostrums." Freedman's strategy for capitalizing on crises requires harnessing the advantages of [dis]orientation characteristic within the first six to nine months, prior to "the tyranny of the status quo." Carpe diem! Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1962.

8 New York State. Governor's Press Office. "Governor Cuomo Launches "New York Open for Business" Marketing Initiative." Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. New York State, 24 Aug. 2011. Web. <https:⁄⁄www.governor.ny.gov⁄press⁄08242011>.

9 New York State. Urban Development Corporation D.B.A. Empire State Develop ment. Full-Service Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Media and Communications Agency for Business Marketing Campaign Request for Proposal, Part 1. New York State, 25 Aug. 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.esd.ny.gov⁄corporateinformation⁄Data⁄R FPs⁄082511_BusinessMarketingRFP_PartI.pdf>.

WAYSHOWING: EFFECTING AFFECT

Cuomo, a.k.a. the Machiavelli of Albany, and his cadre of media mavens, 10 crafted a cunning campaign to reconstruct the Empire State[s] of [...] the historiography, geography, and psychology of the Capital Region. This comprehensive plan manifest as a dis tributed socio-spatial ideology or wayshowing system of affec tive pathways designed to foster the flow of "intellectual, financial, and human capital." 11

Wayshowing, a term I'm borrowing from Swinburne University of Technology Communications Professor Per Mollerup, is the prac tice of "identifying, claiming, defining, and circumscribing space." 12 Each macro- and micro-level strategy is constructed upon a litany theories of action 13—espoused responses to environmental stimuli intended to [dis]orient someone or something. These assumptions are dependent upon the designer's capacity to investigate, [dis] assemble, and [re]frame the existing context as a dynamic dialectic of theories of action, in action—actual behaviors exhibited in response to environmental stimuli. Consequently, as we traverse our every day lives, we are in constant dialogue with a "mix of philosophical fragments and cultural myths, images and symbols, ideas and beliefs, rituals, institutions, and practices." 14 Whether standing in a bar or in your kitchen, strolling down the sidewalk or excavating the inter webs, each action is a conversation with the [in]visible infrastruc tures—complex, often contradictory, and inherently incomplete that frame our perception of the world, and, consequently, ourselves.

TED

10 Including NYC-based global advertising network, BBDO; Kathy Bloomgarden, CEO of Ruder Finn; Deutsch chairman, Donny Deutsch; and Ogilvy & Mather chairman, Shelly Lazarus.

11 Moss Kanter, Rosabeth. "Enriching the Ecosystem." Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Publishing, Mar. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄hbr.org⁄2012⁄03⁄enrichingthe-ecosystem⁄ar⁄1>.

12 Hunt, Jamer. "Just Re-do It: Tactical Formlessness and Everyday Consumption." Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2003: 61.

13 Smith, M. K. "Chris Argyris: Theories of Action, Double-loop Learning and Organizational Learning," The Encyclopedia of Informal Education, 2001, 2013. <http:⁄⁄infed.org⁄thinkers⁄argyris.htm>.

14 Gunster, Shane. " 'Second Nature': Advertising, Metaphor and the Production of Space." Fast Capitalism 2.1 : 2006. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.uta.edu⁄huma⁄agger⁄fastcap italism⁄2_1⁄gunster.html>.

Precisely how this process of meaning, making, and memory, i.e. learning, unfolds is unknown. However, most environmental design ers, urban planners, geographers, psychologists, sociologists, and even some anthropologists begin with the assertion that individ uals develop cognitive maps that facilitate [dis]orientation and navigation. 15 Each map is an assemblage of signs, symbols, and significations that translate in our minds as the sights, sounds, tastes, and feelings that guide our everyday actions.

For instance, what's the first image that pops into your mind upon hearing the words 'New' and 'York'? Perhaps it's Lady Liberty? Or the Empire State Building? Or maybe you dipped into a diner—air thick with bacon and burnt coffee? Or wandered into a vast under world of commuters, con-artists, and subway cars? Or a few of you might have drifted into a bucolic hinterland covered in evergreen? Whatever the words 'New' and 'York' might conjure in your mind, each 'image' is a map—a network of affective pathways—cognitive, libidinal, and somatic—assembled according to your beliefs, bias, and current context. °

Enter the earworm. As the name suggests, these pesky parasites may nibble on your ear, but the actual feast unfolds in your auditory cortex—the banquet table of perception and memory. Essentially, songs function as cognitive maps of auditory images. A recent study conducted at Dartmouth College demonstrated this neurological phenomena using functional magnetic imaging ( fMRI) tech nology. 16 A team of researchers lead by graduate student David Kraemer illustrated that the left primary auditory cortex—the area of the brain responsible for hearing is activated when a song or fragment of a song is played. Surprisingly, however, the same area of the brain is activated if the song is merely imagined!

Sound is "a pervasive and spontaneous form of 'imagery' that punctuate(s) our everyday lives."17 Consequently, individuals such as

15 Gell, A. "How To Read A Map: Remarks On The Practical Logic Of Navigation." Man. 20, 1985: 272.

16 Kraemer, David J.M., C. Neil Macrae, Adam E. Green, and William M. Kelley. “Musical Imagery: Sound of Silence Activates Auditory Cortex : Nature.” Nature. Publishing Group : Science Journals, Jobs, and Information. Nature Publishing Group, 9 Mar. 2005. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. <http:⁄⁄www.nature.com⁄nature⁄journal ⁄v434⁄n7030⁄full⁄434158a.html>.

17 Ibid.

Context is a confluence of time, space, and being that defines words as well as an environments and everything in between.

As a dynamic dialectic designed and performed in flux, context provides a means to understand perceived, conceived, and lived realities.

James Kellaris, consumer psychologist and marketing professor at University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration, have taken considerable interest in understanding ( and often exploit ing ) the mnemonic capacity of music as a means of communica tion. For the past decade, Kellaris has delved into the mechanical make-up of earworms which he refers to as "stuck tune syndrome." This investigation lead him to the temporal lobe—the area of the brain responsible for verbal short-term memory which, not-so-inci dently also houses the auditory cortex. 18 Songs unlike the majority of data that we consume which is either forgotten or stored in our long-term memory reside in our short-term memory for (relatively) long periods of time. This helps to explain why a catchy chorus or hook, has the capacity to reel you in and days, months, even years later, keep you coming back for more. Whether a pop song, adver tising jingle, or political campaign, the hook is what musicians, brand strategists, politicians, i.e. designers, bank on.

Politics is dependent upon the consumption of such normative design strategies as a means to secure the legitimacy and power necessary to garner consensus. "The workings of the political system are staged for the media so as to obtain the support, or at least the lesser hostility, of citizens who become the consum ers in the political market."19 This is the art of political rhetoric. And consequently the design of complex mnemonic networks or wayshowing systems that seek to co-opt individual's wayfinding capacities in attempt to cultivate a collective ideology.

From existing to preferred, design affects and effects change. Just ask Scott Thomas, Design Director of Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential (print and web) campaign. In a presentation delivered to aspiring designers at the 2010 99U Conference in New York City, Thomas unveiled the underlying 'missions' of the Obama brand: 20

Establish consistency and balance to exemplify stability and experience "We knew an Achilles' heel early on was going to be that Barack was

18 Milner, Brenda. “Memory and the Medial Temporal Regions of the Brain.” Biology of Memory. New York and London: Academic, 1970: 30-31.

19 Castells, Manuel. "Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society." International Journal of Communication 1, Copenhagen: IT University, 2007: 240.

20 Thomas, Scott. "Scott Thomas: Designing the Obama Campaign." Vimeo Bechance: 99U, 2010. Web. <http:⁄⁄vimeo.com⁄5943199>.

a junior Senator. We knew experience was going to be a problem... but one thing that design can solve through consistency is a cer tain sense of balance. It can give the visual impression (illusion) that he is incredibly experienced,"21 explains Thomas.

Symbolic power is a tour de force in the production and consump tion of [re]presentation particularly when paired with celebrity and politics—the nucleic acids of our cultural DNA. Cultural theorist David Marshall defines celebrity "as a system for valorizing mean ing and communication…a voice above others that is channeled into the media systems as being legitimately significant." 22 This privileged, albeit tenuous and, quite often, temporary status that em bodies our ideals simultaneously eludes our grasp—the ol' bait and switch. The celebrated individual's legitimacy is contingent upon popular agreement; yet once the negotiation is confirmed, realities are transformed—time, space, and being are radically altered within the consecrated circle of fandome. 23 The world becomes a stage and every media channel, a mic for the celebrity to sustain the adoration of fans—be they a million or one.

Thus the allure for a political candidate such as Cuomo looking to shed the stigma of the State. Familiar symbols ( such as DeNiro, Jay-Z, and Keys ) are employed to communicate meaning when signs ( like a semi-conductor wafer ) have no logical connection with the signi fied ( in this case, Cuomo and New York State ) . As a result, attributes and values of the symbol are relayed to the signified via the signs.

The trust and legitimacy embodied by DeNiro, Jay-Z, and Keys is transferred to Cuomo. Consequently, the credibility of his narrative interpretation of the New New York as the intersection of "innova tion and determination" is enhanced. "By embedding ideological fragments as cultural symbols in the social and material practices

22

Marshall, P. David. Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture. Minne apolis, MN: University of Minnesota, 1997.

23 "All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as there is no formal difference between play and ritual, so the ‘consecrated spot’ cannot be formally distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice, etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e. forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed, within which special rules obtain. All are temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart." Huiz inga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture Boston: The Beacon Press, 1955: 10.

that interpellate individuals, the designer ( in this case, Cuomo and his media mavens ) succeeds in coordinating the cognitive and emotional ( and, most importantly for Cuomo, capital ) investments solicited by these practices and linking them back to itself⁄himself⁄herself."

2425

The capacity of referential power to propel the associative chain of affection forward was put to the test in 2008 after George Dawuh's failed attempt to 're-brand' America as a superpower. 26 Once again, prior to tackling the economy (as well as a myriad of other 'misunderstandings'), 27 the U.S. Government needed to restore legitimacy. Enter Barack Obama and his inner circle of communication elites. 28 Together, they "marshaled every tool in the modern marketing arsenal" 29 to restore 'Hope'. Scale up Cuomo's campaign to include a cadre of cultural icons; 30 add MLK's cadence; harmonize; and hit repeat:

YES WE CAN!

24 Adapted from Gunster's explanation of the affective strategies employed by the Nazi regime. Gunster, Shane. Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory for Cultural Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2004: 219.

25 Lefebvre describes the interdependencies of individual and society as that of far order and near order in which "this far order projects itself into the practico-ma terial reality and becomes visible by writing itself within this reality. It persuades through and by the near order, which confirms its compelling power." Lefebvre, Henri, Eleonore Kofman, and Elizabeth Lebas. "The Specificity of the City." Writ ing on Cities. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1999: 101.

26 Jameson, Fredric. 1990. "Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture" in Signatures of the Visible. New York: Routledge.

27 Kaplan, Fred. "The Administration Believes Public Relations Is a Synonym for Diplomacy." Slate Magazine. The Washington Post Company, 30 May 2007. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.slate.com⁄articles⁄news_and_politics⁄war_stories⁄2007⁄05⁄bushs_ failed_campaign_to_rebrand_america.html>.

28 Including David Axelrod, founder of Chicago-based AKP Media; David Plouffe, Washington contingent of AKP Media; Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secre tary; Anita Dunn, Principal at Squier, Knapp, Dunn Communications.

29 Klein, Naomi. "Naomi Klein on How Corporate Branding Has Taken over Amer ica." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 15 Jan. 2010. Web. <http:⁄⁄www. guardian.co.uk⁄books⁄2010⁄jan⁄16⁄naomi-klein-branding-obama-america>. 30 34 to be exact: Black-Eyed Peas' front man, will.i.am 0:01; Scarlett Johansson 0:05; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 0:21; Common 0:23; John Legend 0:32; Bryan Greenberg 0:37; Kate Walsh 0:44; Tatyana Ali 0:44; Harold Perrineau, Jr. 0:49; Aisha Tyler 1:01; Samuel Page 1:03; Enrique Murciano 1:07; Maya Rubin 1:08; Esthero 1:10; Eric Balfour 1:23; Nicole Scherzinger 1:30; Taryn Manning 1:40; Amber Valletta and Auden McCaw 1:52; Kelly Hu 1:52; Adam Rodríguez 1:56; Eric Christian Olsen 2:02; Sarah Wright 2:02; Shoshannah Stern 2:05; Ed Kowalczyk 2:19; Fonzworth Bentley 2:38; Amaury Nolasco 3:24; Hill Harper 3:27; Nick Cannon 3:36; Herbie Hancock 3:41; Johnathon Schaech 3:45; Austin Nichols 3:50; Tracee Ellis Ross 4:00; and Fred Goldring 4:03. See Appendix 120-125:1-44.

Within weeks, Obama transformed three simple words—Yes We Can 31—into a National Anthem. The 'Yes We Can' video was garner ing approximately 1 million hits per day on YouTube debut a week after its debut. 32 33 "Easily the most ubiquitous cultural phenomenon in late capitalist society ( and, arguably, the master-narrative for all texts produced by a culture industry that increasingly conceives of itself first and foremost as a marketing device ) , advertising expresses and influences our socio-spatial consciousness and imagina tion in a variety of ways."34 "Most people (74%) get caught up on songs with lyrics, but commercial jingles (15%) and instrumental songs (11%) can also be hard to shake."35 Kellaris actually equates the mnemonics of an earworm to a "mental mosquito bite"—a physical impression, that can be scratched only by playing a particular tune. As you can imagine or, according to statistics, have more than likely experienced: the more you scratch, the more you itch. Consequently, when celebrities are employed to repeat a refrain such as 'New York'36 or 'Yes We Can'37 (in exchange for their symbolic power or social capital), it tends to stick. Sociologist Manuel Castells refers to this process as "power making by mind framing."38 When celebrity, politics, and the polis converge, the production of meaning, making, and memory is almost immediately instantiated. Brand begets brand....begets brand.

31 Fortunately for the marketing team, the affective capacity of this catchy slogan had been prototyped by Chavez and the United Farm Workers of America in 1966: "¡Sí Se Puede!".

32 This particular Sunday, not-so-incidently, happened to be the Sunday of all Sun days for NFL fans and advertising aficionados Superbowl XLII.

33 Yes We Can: Barack Obama Music Video. Dir. Will.i.am. Perf. Barack Obama. YouTube. Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, 02 Feb. 2008. Web. <http:⁄⁄www. youtube.com⁄watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY>.

34 Gunster, Shane. "'Second Nature': Advertising, Metaphor and the Production of Space." Fast Capitalism 2.1 (2006): n. pag. 2006. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.uta.edu⁄huma⁄a gger⁄fastcapitalism⁄2_1⁄gunster.html>.

35 DeNoon, Daniel J. "Songs Stick in Everyone's Head." WebMD, 27 Feb. 2003. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.webmd.com⁄mental-health⁄news⁄20030227⁄songs-stick-ineveryones-head>.

36 DeNiro, JayZ, Keys, Lee,the Erie Canal, a semi-conductor wafer, urban beekeepers like letters of the alphabet, these seemingly disparate symbols are transformed into a powerful associative chain of signifiers which align to reify the New New York State.

37 The Simple Math of Political Persuasion: (1 charismatic Presidential candidate + 1 chorus of 34 celebrities) + 1 famous director + ( 'Yes We Can' x 35) + YouTube = 1 DayTime Emmy Award, 1 Marketer of the Year Award by the Association of National Advertisers, and most importantly, 10,0000 hits (i.e. possible chorus members⁄voters) within the first month.

38 Castells, Manuel. "Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society." International Journal of Communication 1, Copenhagen: IT University, 2007: 238-66.

20

Communicate historic atmosphere by pulling imagery of the past Standing behind a lectern on stage, Scott Thomas points to an image of Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech cast in ye ol' linotype and contests, "Instead of saying, 'Hey, this is an historic campaign;' we were able to do it by designing it—do it visually." 39

I refer to this particular communication strategy as the Instagram Affect . It's easy to achieve. Simply, desaturate an image or overlay one of the myriad distressed filters available online, et voila : sud denly you've transported yourself to another time and place—to a land far, far away from any [un]certainties that might lay claim to your present or fracture your future. Instant nostalgia —"the disease of an afflicted imagination, incapacitated by the body." 40

Since the days of Aristotle, western culture has privileged sight as the arbiter of knowledge, truth, and reality. The invention of perspec tival representation made the eye the centre point of the world and, consequently, one's self. Seeing is believing.

Both campaigns project meticulously manicured portraits of a past. 41 A collective past. Our past. The black and white images of celebrity faces in conjunction with Obama's cadence affectively cloak the 'Yes We Can' campaign in an atmosphere more akin to the '60s Civil Rights Movement than the contemporary American context. Whether you agree or not, it is difficult to resist the fervor of such a revolution (particularly if your current reality is falling short of your expectations or failing to meet even your most basic needs ) °

Cuomo's video also foregrounds the past the legacy of 'the Empire.' "This is New York State…" Black and white images of parade across the screen in harmony with DeNiro's familiar and formidable baritone:

40 Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic, 2001. Google Books.

41 It is worth reiterating that each campaign presents only one interpretation of the past amongst many. The foundation of collective identity is constructed

"We built the first railway42 (a train barrels through the Hudson Valley) and the first trade route to the West (a boat navigates the Erie Canal). We built the tallest sky scrapers (aerial of the Chrysler Building ) , 43 the greatest Empires ( breeze through Moses' Meadowlands) 44 We pushed the country forward (still frame focuses on One World Trade Center)."

As the narrative transitions from days of yore to yesterday, this visual charade continues affectively anchoring yesterday in the yore.46 Svet lana Boym refers to this strategy as restorative nostalgia in which "the past is not a duration but a perfect snapshot."

Perfection is the provenance of popular culture. Perfection is palatable. Privileged for its seeming simplicity, perfection perpetuates norma tive beliefs and biases. Like celebrity, it is also inherently abstract. Perfection frequently necessitates the decoupling of content from

42 Unless you ask residents of Pennsylvania, home of the Leiper Railroad which debuted in 1810—16 years prior to the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad. Regardless, if you happen to be in the company of a Brit, I'd refrain from boasting about our technological achievements considering the Surrey Iron, the world's first public railway, began conveying goods through south London in 1803. <http:⁄⁄en.wikipedia.org⁄wiki⁄History_of_rail_transport>.

43 Not yet: <http:⁄⁄en.wikipedia.org⁄wiki⁄List_of_tallest_buildings_by_U.S._state>.

Really?

45 The New New York, a Whole New Approach to Business. Dir. Spike Lee and Linda Honan. Screenplay by Nick Sonderup and Kurt Lenard. Prod. Ashley Sferro Henderson. Perf. Featuring the Voice of Robert DeNiro, with Contributing Music by Jay-Z & Alicia Keys. YouTube. 20 Jan. 2012. Web.<https:⁄⁄www.youtube. com⁄watch?v=aQgILlGg1E8>.

46 Askegaard, Soren. "Toward a Semiotic Structure of Cultural Identity." Marketing and Semiotics: Selected Papers from the Copenhagen Symposium. Ed. Hanne Hart vig Larsen, David Glen. Mick, and Christian Alsted. Copenhagen: Handelshøjs kolens Forlag, 1991: 16.

47 Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic, 2001. Google Books. 01 Jan. 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄books.google.com⁄books?id=7BbTJ6qVPMcC>.

context.48 "All signifiers can lend themselves to myth, but the violence of the mythical appropriation differs with the distance they have from politics. The political quality of a national identity is stronger than that of a name such as ‘tree’ or ‘the sea’ ( or a train, canal, skyscrap er, and fairground ) , but the latter are also, ultimately, political—they come from people’s ways of relating to and experiencing things." 49 Consequently, the ability to interpret the 'images', objects, and in frastructures that surround us is critical to the development of our mental maps how we perceive, conceive, and live in the world. 50

Deliver clear and concise messaging, focusing on 'We' rather than ‘He' According to Thomas, "We wanted to make sure that no matter what form of communication we were doing, 'we' rather than 'he' was really the embodiment of the campaign."51

E pluribus unum —out of many, one. The maxim flies straight from the bald eagle's beak into our ears and then finds its way back up the affec tive chain of 'democracy' via [re]presentation and [re]production. 52 "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union," pledge allegiance. We assemble. We assimilate. We—the prover bial political pronoun functions as a mnemonic device to relay ideologi cal affection: Obama et al Yes We Can. Interpretation: (If) We can. (And) We did. ( And we are just like you or, at least for the purposes of this video, we're dressed just like you ) You can and you will too. 53 Or, in

48 "All signifiers can lend themselves to myth, but the violence of the mythical ap propriation differs with the distance they have from politics. The political quality of a national identity is stronger than that of a name such as ‘tree’ or ‘the sea’ (or a train, canal, skyscraper, and fairground), but the latter are also ultimately politi cal—they come from people’s ways of relating to and experiencing things." Robinson, Andrew. "Roland Barthes : The War against Myth." Ceasefire. 21 Oct. 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄ceasefiremagazine.co.uk⁄in-theory-barthes-5⁄>.

49 Robinson, Andrew. "Roland Barthes : The War against Myth." Ceasefire. 21 Oct. 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄ceasefiremagazine.co.uk⁄in-theory-barthes-5⁄>.

50 Scott Thomas even crafted a creation myth for the creation of his myth that attributes the campaign's magic to 'Click-Thru' and 'Conversion Rate'—two stuffed unicorns about the size of the average tabby

51 Thomas, Scott. "Scott Thomas: Designing the Obama Campaign." Vimeo. Be chance: 99U, 2010. Web. <https:⁄⁄vimeo.com⁄5943199>.

52 Ironically, Annuit Coeptis— 'He approves of the undertaking'—appears on the reverse side of the U.S. Seal.

53 What exactly can, did, will they do? All important questions to which we'll return.

Cuomo's case: DeNiro This is New York State: We built the first railway, and the first trade route to the west. We built the tallest sky scrapers, the greatest Empires. Interpretation: (If) New York State built the greatest Empires... ( And ) We live in New York State. ( Than ) We are part of the greatest Empire.

Enacting 'we' is a time-honored tradition in the [re]presentation and [re]production of national identity that affirms our democratic believes and bias. Our constitution, our politic, our society 'we' are constructed on the formation of consensus. ° The foundation of this collective identity is built upon shared interpretations—real and imag ined—of the past, present, and future. 54 Obama and Cuomo's campaigns navigate landscape, psyche, and soma assembling affective pathways—cognitive, libidinal, somatic—out of ideological fragments that masquerade as cultural symbols to foster the migration, accumula tion, and allocation of capital, affectively branding our national identity.

THE NEW NEW SCHOOL

In the fall of 2009, a strange confluence of events unfolded in Up state New York. Two weeks after President Barack Obama's speech on Innovation and Sustainable ° Growth at Hudson Valley Com munity College, 55 GlobalFoundries Chairman, Hector Ruiz, and State University of New York Chancellor, Nancy Zimpher, convened to an nounce the arrival of the Capital Region's latest resident—a 300 mm semiconductor wafer.56

The merger of politics, industry, and education under the auspice of sustainable ° development would probably not surprise today's leading design strategists. According to design strategist and Har

54 Or as Benedict Anderson suggests, a Nation "is imagined because the members of even the smallest Nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion." Anderson, Benedict R. Imagined Communities: Reflections On The Origin And Spread Of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991: 224.

55 Obama, Barack. "Remarks By The President On Innovation And Sustainable Growth." Address. Hudson Valley Community College, Troy. 21 Sept. 2009. White House.gov. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.whitehouse.gov⁄the-press-office⁄remarks-president-inn ovation-and-sustainable-growth-hudson-valley-community-college>.

56 Rulison, Larry. "Region Also Bested Russia, Brazil for Fab." The Times Union, TimesUnion.com. Hearst Communications Inc., 06 Oct. 2009. Web. <http:⁄⁄www. timesunion.com⁄business⁄article⁄Region-also-bested-Russia-Brazil-for-fab-547972.php>.

Consensus Since the mid-twentieth century, as Raymond Williams notes, consensus has been an important politi cal term meaning "in a general sense, policies undertaken on the basis of an existing body of agreed opinions." Like language. However, "it can also mean, and in practice has more often meant a policy of avoiding or evading differences or divisions of opinion in an attempt to 'secure the centre' or 'occupy the middle ground."

Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976: 77. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.gradu ateglobalissues.files.wordpresscom⁄2012⁄08⁄ raymond-williams-keywords.pdf>.

Sustainable Sustaining.Sustainability. Sustainment. One of the most ubiquitous keywords in our society.According to Merriam-Webster, to sustain is to keep or prolong. Considering our current state of the union and beyond, I am rather suspect of initiatives that seek to sustain growth along a similar trajectory. Consequently, this thesis repeatedly begs the question: What are we sustaining?

Need is a relative concept that is difficult to qualify and quantify particularly, as Ben Lee stated, “in a world where the challenges…are increasingly non-linear, socially complex, and riddled with feed back loops that change the nature of the problem even as solutions are enacted.”

In his book, Social Justice and The City, David Harvey presents a fairly nu anced assessment of need relative to food, housing, medical care, educa tion, social and environmental service, consumer goods, recreational oppor tunities, neighborhood amenities, and transport facilities.

Harvey, David. Social Justice and the City. Athens: University of Georgia, 2009: 101-105. <http:⁄⁄dialecticalinvestigations.files.word press.com⁄2013⁄01⁄david-harvey-socialjustice-and-the-city.pdf>.

Ecosystem is a biological term often embraced to suggest a complex network of interdependent human and non-human agents. Here, I believe, Moss Kanter is referring to the 'free' market ecosystem.

vard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, collaboration provides the "fertile soil to grow, seed, and renew enterprises" by fostering the flow of "intellectual, financial, and human capital."57 This process of enriching the ecosystem, ° Moss Kanter posits, necessi tates the alignment of education with industrial needs. °

Over a decade ago, when members of the Albany-County Chamber of Commerce began courting the computer chip industry 58 only the most optimistic could have fathomed the results: In 2000, the cam paign successfully lured SEMATECH—a network of semi-conductor manufacturers, universities, and the United States Department of Defense—to the State University of Albany ( SUNY ) . Two years later, with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates, Tech Valley High School opened its doors across the creek, i.e. Hudson River, in Rensselaer. And last year, the Global450 Consortium was spawned—a $4.8 bil lion collaboration between New York State, CNSE, IBM, Intel, Glo balFoundries Inc., Samsung, TSMC, and the College of Nanoscience and Engineering ( CNSE ) at SUNY—all dedicated to developing the next generation…of computer chips. 59

EDUCATION IS INSTRUMENTAL IN THE EVOLUTION

57 Moss Kanter, Rosabeth. "Enriching the Ecosystem." Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Publishing, Mar. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄hbr.org⁄2012⁄03⁄enrichingthe-ecosystem⁄ar⁄1>.

58 An initiative which included re-branding the entire Hudson Valley as Tech Valley. See Appendix 126.

59 Most recently, in a plan that bares considerable resemblance to President Obama's Race To The Top initiative, Governor Cuomo and SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher announced the NYSUNY 2020 Challenge—a $140,000,000 grant program to: "make SUNY a leading catalyst for job growth throughout the State; strengthen the academic programs of University Centers; and demonstrate that New York is open for business." "We have pledged to: educate the most adept workforce in the Nation; discover innovative solutions to some of the most vexing scientific and socioeconomic challenges; improve the business climate in our State; and enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers." On the road to recovery, Chancellor Zimpher declared SUNY "a ready-made asset for New York." Andrew M. Cuomo. Governor's Press Office. Governor Cuomo and SUNY Chancellor Zimpher Unveil Groundbreaking "NYSUNY 2020" Program. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. New York State, 02 May 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.governor. ny.gov⁄press⁄050211suny>.

THE APPARATUS, I MEAN, ECOSYSTEM.

According to President Barack Obama, "We've got to have the best trained, best skilled workforce in the world. That's how we'll ensure that the next Intel, the next Google, or the next Microsoft is created in America, and hires American workers." 60 Translation: That's how the Empire strikes back. ' Winning The Future,' according to the Pres ident, means "winning the global competition to educate." [Un]fortu nately, The New School, a New York City-based academic institu tion, is one step ahead of the curve. In 2010, Joel Towers, Executive Dean of Parsons The New School for Design extended his appreciation to participants in the United Nations Global Pulse Camp and Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon: "First of all Mr. Secretary General (Ban Ki-moon), it is a great pleasure to hear you speak at this event. And as sembled guests, it's a pleasure to be here. We've done so many projects over the years, but this one takes us to a new level. I'd like to begin by thanking. Microsoft and Google, Yahoo, NASA, The World Bank, and, in particular, I'd like to thank U.N. Global Pulse, Robert Kirkpatrick for hosting tonight's event, and for enabling us to host the weekend events. It is more than a pleasure, in fact, it's an honor to do so. And we do it, not simply because it's an honor, but because it becomes a responsi bility for a school of design." 61

As the industry of education becomes increasingly dependent on the 'free'-market for sustainment,° enrollment and retention subordi nate the ontological imperatives of educational institutions both public and private to the [re]presentation and [re]production of the neoliberal apparatus, i.e. the enrichment of the ecosystem ° Visit almost any college toward the end of a semester and you will undoubtedly witness herds of recruits, i.e. consumers and potential producers or prosumers, being escorted around campus while an enthusiastic student⁄salesperson, heralds the unique assets of the institution academic, athletic, etc. The multiplicity of maneuvers involved in branding a school are commensurate with current politi

60 "Weekly Address: Winning The Future at Intel." Perf. President Barack Obama. YouTube. 18 Feb. 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.youtube.com⁄watch?feature=player_ embedded&v=0Muco-mnC3g#!>.

61 Joel Towers, Dean of Parsons the New School for Design. Perf. Joel Towers. YouTube. 08 Dec. 2010. Web. 02 Feb. 2013. <http:⁄⁄www.youtube.com⁄watch?v=fG6v Am94O_w>.

cal administrations (and arguably becoming a means of administra tion ) . Convocation, for example, serves as the political primary of the academic calendar when pomp, circumstance, and celebrity converge on the political stage⁄altar to revel in the past, applaud the present, and relish in the possibilities of the forthcoming semesters. The rhetoric rivals that of the best political advertisements: "This convocation signals a very special moment in our history…We are on the verge of transforming our whole institution into what can only be called The New New School."62 Sound familiar? New year, new school...new you? In 2007, following the style outlined in Cuomo and Keys' 'New New York' script, New School Provost Ben Lee consecrated the dawn of a new era for the academic institution while celebrating its legacy an inspiring tale that's worth taking a moment to recount.

Since its (relatively) humble beginnings in a row of six adjacent brownstones lining West 23rd Street, The New School has embraced a gran diose agenda—to cultivate “an unbiased understanding of the existing order—its genesis, growth, and present working" that is capable of redirecting “the established order of things.” 63 Essentially, to engage in the revolution of democracy. Conceived in direct response to the “exigent circumstances”64 of a post-World War I America paralyzed by the censorship and suppression of the Nationalist agenda, The New School aspired to provide a space from which "new history" could emerge. Emancipated from the academic apparatus of President Nicholas Butler's administration at Columbia University, the founders— Charles Beard, John Dewey, Thorsten Veblen, and James Robinson— believed this new history "would create an awareness of the achieve ments of the past and of the possibility of progress of the future." 65 The project was situated at the margins of higher education, and society, in order to advance "an alternative to conventional Ameri can University education—"a New School." 66 In 1933, Director Alvin Johnson, with financial support from Hiram J. Halle and The Rock

Ben. "The 'New' New School." The New School Convocation. The New School, New York.

School to Open".

New York

Peter M. and William B. Scott. New School: A History of the New School

Social Research. New York: Free Press, 1986:

efeller Foundation, responded to the repression and [re]configura tion of German academia under the National Socialist Revolution by extending “non-quota” visas and appointments to individuals who were "deprived of the opportunity of functioning by the political requirements, real or imaginary, of any country.” Under the auspice of The University in Exile, individuals were afforded “the freedom of intellectual inquiry, the defense of human rights, and the pursuit of international understanding as an avenue toward peace.”

Like Obama's 'Yes We Can' video and Cuomo's 'New New York' video, Provost Ben Lee successfully assembled his convocation address to fold The New School's past into the present, in attempt to frame future possibilities: “What has always differentiated The New School from other institutions of higher learning is our institutional imperative to seek out the most relevant and pressing challenges facing society and our willingness to engage them in ways that structurally transform the institution and how we teach...The New New School will unlock the university’s creativity and intellectual energy by creating a site for pedagogical innovation."67 Lee explained that this ontological pursuit would be advanced through two integrated initiatives: university-wide programs in media studies, management and policy, arts and per formance, urban and environmental studies, and international affairs; and second, "a new New School building to house them."

According to Lee's theory of action, The New New School and its atten dant University Center would: " double total academic space with the addition of 500,000 square feet of performance, learning, library, faculty, and university-wide spaces; create a site for pedagogical innovation that unlocks the university’s creativity and intellectual energy; be the space where the global and local meet; become the space in which design, social science, performance, humanities, and the liberal arts intertwine; adhere to the highest environmental standards; and serve as a teaching tool that functions as the cornerstone of a global environ mental program with a distinctive urban focus." So that, Lee continued, "students…will develop a combination of capacities that allow them to: identify and define problems and analyze their historical, cultural, politi cal, and economic roots; design and plan for solutions, participate in

67 Lee, Ben. "The 'New' New School." The New School Convocation. The New School, New York. 2007. Address.<http:⁄⁄www.newschool.edu⁄admin⁄convocation⁄2007⁄ ben_lee_remarks.html>.

Collaboration Collab is an abbreviation for collaboration. This particular collaboration or, more accurately, business partnership, would undoubtedly delight Moss Kanter. Design and Technology graduate students in conjunction with members of The New School faculty including David Carroll, Director of Design and Technology MFA Program, and staff —notably Assistant Director of Sustainability and Energy, Gwen Kilvert co-author and editor of this course description, in addition to other industry folk such as Skidmore, Owenings, & Mills(SOM), the Durst Organization, and Buro Happold, will work toward developing innovative strategies to 'enrich the (New School) ecosystem.'

their implementation, and assess their impact over time" Lee conclud ed, "The New New School will be a holding environment for pedagogi cal innovation that will not only transform The New School, but also be a model for higher education in a globalizing world."68 See Appendix 127.

In the Fall of 2013, Ben Lee's 69 theory of action will be interpreted in action as Collab:° The New School University Center.70 "In the context of The New School’s newly constructed LEED-Gold University Center, this interdisciplinary graduate studio," according to Parsons' Fall 2013 Course Catalogue, "will draw upon social science analysis and design to study the complexities of the indoor environment and reveal the ways human behavior impacts the sustainability° of a building. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to design, construct, and install within the building objects, environments, and services that provoke more sus tainable° behaviors and attitudes—and in turn policies and practices— that better align operations with intended performance. These interven tions will draw from an exploration of social and behavioral psychology, architecture, art, design, engineering, and technology throughout the semester. Prototypes will be evaluated based on their capacity to: ex pose assumptions about our personal influence as building occupants, unveil invisible systems, mitigate environmental impacts and, in some cases, yield a return on investment. 71

68 Lee, Ben. "The 'New' New School." The New School Convocation. The New School, New York. 2007. Address.<http:⁄⁄www.newschool.edu⁄admin⁄convocation⁄2007⁄ ben_lee_remarks.html>.

69 For fifteen weeks in the Spring of 2011, I was afforded the opportunity to par ticipate in an amazingly magical circle cultivated in part and facilitated by Ben Lee. Exploring the intersections of design and social science, we encountered an incredible cast of characters including Erving Goffman, Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, Friedman and his contemporary quants from The Chicago School, Katie Salen, and Clifford Geertz. This exploration a journey that embraced the peda gogical ethos as outlined in Ben Lee's convocation address contributed greatly to the framing of this thesis. Many thanks Ben.

70 For information regarding the conceptual development and schematic design of the University Center, I recommend reading: Kirkbride, Robert, and Shannon Mat tern. "Chainbuilding: A New Building For A New New School." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 22, 2009: 201-19.

71 The New School. AMT Collab and Current Course Descriptions. Parsons The New School for Design, Fall 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.newschool.edu⁄WorkArea⁄linkit. aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=93422&libID=93432>.

THE NEW NEW SCHOOL: AN[OTHER] THEORY OF ACTION

We produce and consume space. Space produces and consumes us. Like music, architecture is a phenomenal mnemonic device in terms of [re]presentation and [re]production of identity.72 Literally. One need only walk across the National Mall, visit the Empire State Plaza,73 or tour any one of New York City's 345 Housing Authority developments, to begin to sense the psychological and physiological implications of our constructed environments. Philosopher Henri Lefebvre explained this phenomena as a dynamic dialectic between representational space or theories of action —imagination, ideals, desires and representations of space or theories in action 74—plans, maps, advertisements, architec tures; and practice or becoming that unfolds over time.75 Likewise, our government capitols, schools, and our living rooms are dynamic dialec tics assemblages of "philosophical fragments and cultural myths, im ages and symbols, ideas and beliefs, rituals, institutions and practices"76 designed and performed in flux.

In this context, the reification of the Ivory Tower—a theory of action, in action—provides an opportunity to reflect on the prevailing discourse and practices of design, development, and sustainability° (as political, economic, social, and environmental practices). As outlined in Parsons' Art, Media, and Technology Fall 2013 course catalogue, the operational and pedagogical logic of The New School University Center Collab mirrors that of Fredrick Winslow Taylor.

72 For an extensive analysis of various physical and psychological architectures, particularly architectures of control (referenced in this text as infrastructures of power), I recommend Dan Lockton's blog, Architectures: Design and Human Behavior at <http:⁄⁄architectures.danlockton.co.uk

73 If you've not had the occasion nor desire, but are now somewhat intrigued, I recommend this quick (and incredibly biased) tour of The Empire State Plaza: (For a less opinionated introduction, mute volume.) <http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=-UCT6J0u8B4>. I am incredibly grateful to Quilian Riano activist, artist, and advisor for introducing me to the practice of walking and witnessing the physical and psychological implications of space.

74 Adapted from Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schön. Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1974.

75 Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. 41-52.

76 Gunster, Shane. "'Second Nature': Advertising, Metaphor and the Production of Space." Fast Capitalism 2.1, 2006. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.uta.edu⁄huma⁄agger⁄fastcapi talism⁄2_1⁄gunster.html>.

Efficiency can be defined here as the ability to yield maximum output capital with a minimal investment of resources capital.

The word should function as a forewarning discretion advised! Green is not inherently good. How ever, we essentially green-washed very product, service, and city, Why? Sales. Look around you. Un doubtedly there's an entire rainbow of political, economic, social, and environmental pursuits that have infiltrated your life : perhaps a pink kitchen aid adorns your counter top or a red water bottle from last month's AIDS walk or a brown cor rugated card board eco-notebook or maybe there’s a bracelet dangling from your wrist with the aspira tion of our once decorated cycling champion branded in the yellow plastic, 'Livestrong'? The majority of us, at one time or another, have fallen victim to this marketing ploy consume to save the earth, consume to save our neighbors, consume to save ourselves. Green is not merely a color. It signifies environmental consciousness in some circles, in others it [re]pres ents profit. When the two worlds are conflated they [re]produce one another. But what percentage of the proceeds are actually allocated to saving the earth, our neighbors, or ourselves? And do the benefits of our investments actually trickle down to serve the needs of those individuals, organizations, and institutions we intended to benefit?

Claiming the factory as his design studio, Taylor set out on a rigor ous environmental analysis of productivity. Employing a diversity of empirical methods, Taylor attempted to reconcile manual labor and capital. The result? The Principles of Scientific Management. A seminal text that outlines the mechanics of systematic management as a scien tific endeavour toward Efficiency.° Taylor envisioned his management theories manifesting as “laws, rules, and principles” that would apply to “all social activities…from our simplest individual acts to the work of our great corporations…to the management of our homes…our farms… our churches, our philanthropic institutions, our universities, and our governmental departments.”77 Taylor endeavored to cultivate a 'better, more competent man:' “It is only when we fully realize that our duty, as well as our opportunity, lies in the systematic cooperating to train and to make this competent man…that we shall be on the road to national efficiency.”

Similarly, The New School University Center Collab employs a diver sity of strategies—top, down; bottom, up; and inside, out—to cultivate more competent individuals. Or, according to William H. Whyte, orga nization men. Or for Foucault, docile bodies. Or... My point? As Marx observed in his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, “the forming of the five senses is a labor of the entire history of the world down to the present.” Whilst the revolution of our landscape, psyche, and soma might have begun during the Industrial era—with machines replacing nature as the conductor of circadian rhythms—we continue to employ a multiplicity of strategies that seek to automate the beats, tempos, and frequencies of our everyday toward a seamless soundtrack of Efficiency.

The New School 2011 Climate Action Plan defines sustainability ° as “meeting the needs ° of the present without compromising the abil ity of future generations to meet their own needs ° .” In 1998 the U.S. Green ° Building Council elevated a considerable burden in the as sessment of need ° for architectural and engineering communities with the advent of LEED, or the Leadership In Energy and Environmental Design initiative. This “voluntary, consensus-based, ° market-

Frederick Winslow.

Principles of Scientific Management

New York:

driven program” provides a systematic framework 79 for the design, fabrication, operations, and maintenance of "sustainable ° solutions for new construction."80 As a point-based offset program, LEED offers a variety of incentives to build green, ° all of which are predicated on three pillars—people, planet, and profit—otherwise known as The Triple Bottom Line. 81

[Un]fortunately there is a well known, but little spoken of secret within the LEED community—"the ratio of actual-to-predicted energy use and consequent savings varies widely across architectural projects. In 2008, the U.S. Green° Building Council's Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings Final Report revealed the median energy use ( EUI ) for over half of LEED projects deviates more than 25% from the original design projections—30% perform significantly 'better', 25% significantly 'worse'. 82 See Appendix 127

The reconciliation of theory of action, in action ( in this case, design intention and performance) has intrigued philosophers for centuries. Behavioral theorist and Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, Chris Argyris, and his colleague Professor of Urban Studies and Educa tion at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Donald Schön are no exception. Together they devoted decades to understanding the theories of action, in action conundrum. 83 According to Argyris and Schön, theories of action are just that, theories—neither "accepted, good, nor true; only a set of interconnected propositions that have the same referent—the subject of the theory."84 On the other hand, theories in ac

79 Goffman, Erving. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

80 "LEED Is Driving The Green Building Industry." LEED. U.S. Green Building Coun cil, 2013. Web. <https:⁄⁄new.usgbc.org⁄leed>.

81 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. "Part 638: Green Building Tax Credit." NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation. NY.gov. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.dec.ny.gov⁄regs⁄4475.html>.

82 Turner, Cathy, and Mark Frankel. Energy Performance of LEED for New Construction Buildings Final Report . Rep. White Salmon: New Buildings Institute, 2008. 22. Web. <https:⁄⁄wiki.umn.edu⁄pub⁄PA5721_Building_ Policy⁄WebHome⁄LEEDENERGYSTAR_STUDY.pdf>.

83 Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schön. Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1974: 4.

84 Ibid.

structures—assumptions of time, space, and being—which govern actual behavior. The New School University Center Collab stu dio seeks to 'employ' the creativity of New School students⁄'subsidized' labor to design a diversity of strategies that seek to modulate the every day behaviors theories in action of the University [Center] according to the operational and ideologic dictates theories of action of the design team, stewards of the U.S. Green° Building Council. In short, to close the system. Or enrich the ecosystem ° Or as Milton Friedman asserted, to make "the politically impossible become politically inevitable."

TOP,DOWN STRATEGIES: CENTRALIZED DISCIPLINE

An interesting, albeit unexpected, precedent for this type of psycho logical and physiological modulation is Muzak. Yes, that seemingly banal backdrop intended to alleviate those awkward moments you experience in the elevator. Actually, Thomas Edison was one of the first to enter this playground in 1915. Using tinfoil and his trusty phonograph, Edison conducted a series of experiments or 'mood tests' in an effort to understand which musical compositions could veil 'noise' and boost morale. Edison charted emotional fluctuations of individuals as they listened to a diversity of compilations. 86 But, it was U.S. Army technocrat, George Owen Squier that revolution ized the mechanization of sound and, ultimately, the world of telecommunications with his innovations “in the art of electronic signalling.” 87 Squier's reign as Chief Signal officer was dedicated to increasing office productivity. To this end, he endeavored to mimic the soothing benefits of the pre-industrial 'song.' Essentially, Squier simulated the sonic virus we've come to affectionately refer to as the earworm. However, Squier wasn't content with merely composing the 'song,' he wanted to deliver the message. From Squier's drafting table to offices around the nation, the multiplexing system effectively “centralized transmissions within a … system of stimulus codes.”88

85 Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1962.

Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, & Other Moodsong. New York: St. Martin's, 1994.

Mauborgne,

Louis Cohen. Electrical Signaling.

In 1922, the North American Company, a Cleveland-based utilities conglomerate purchased the rights to Squier’s patents. Together they formed Muzak (originally Wired Radio, Incorporated) 89 to expand electronic transmission via ‘canned music.’90 With the development of this new technology (essentially the Muzak radio station) prolific band leader Ben Selvin began prototyping the Hawthorne Effect. In attempt to actively engage workers' attention, Selvin distributed familiar scores according to the ebb and flow of productivity in each work space. "In in dustrial settings, where loud noises make traditional background music hard to hear, Muzak turned to sounds with a greater penetration, favor ing percussion instruments and melodies with more distinct timbres.”91 The result? An 88% reduction in absenteeism.

Muzak then proceeded to combine the Hawthorne effect with another popular theory developed by two 19th century scholars, William James and Carl Lange. After two decades of researching environmental mediation and biofeedback, the James-Lange theory confirmed that music does affect human physiology. It stimulates human breathing, metabolism, muscular energy, pulse, blood pressure, as well as internal secretions.92 This research led to the production of Muzak's most elabo rate program, Stimulus Progression or Earworm: The Album. Designed

89 This venture was initially targeted to entice homeowners across Lakeland, Ohio. But abundant interference and wireless innovations thwarted the venture and redirected Wired Radio’s focus back to the workplace. The goal? “To supply its clients with a program of tunes segmented by mood as a tonic for the times of day when the human spirit sags.” And to whom can we attribute the commodification of this design? Muzak President Waddill Catchings aka “Golden Boy of Wall Street.” Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, & Other Moodsong. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994: 41.

90 Interesting side note: Squier had a difficult time transitioning his communica tion endeavors from the public to private realm. Squier sued AT&T after the conglomerate acquired his patents and inaugurated the electronic revolution, claiming that a portion of the proceeds should be allocated to the public. After an initial decision, the case was overturned. A list of private benefactors was amended to include the National Academy of Sciences.

91 Sumrell, Robert, and Kazys Varnelis. "Stimulus Progression." Blue Monday: Stories of Absurd Realities and Natural Philosophies. Barcelona: Actar Editorial, 2007. Asounder: Sonic Tactics to Radicalize Everyday Life. Web. <http:⁄⁄asounder. org⁄resources⁄bluemonday_muzak.pdf>.

92 A precursor to David Rudrauf and Antonio Damasio's studies.

Muzak executive Don O’Neil and implemented by Burris-Meyer and Cardinell, Stimulus Progression composed music in order to offset worker fatigue, also known as the industrial efficiency curve. Research ers distributed surveys charting individual mood on a scale ranging from “gloomy, minus three” to “ecstatic, plus eight.”93 Moods were charted to reveal the median temperament amongst workers. This data was then plotted and incorporated into a larger program which segmented the average workday into fifteen-minute increments throughout which tailored melodies were employed to counterbalance workers’ mood swings and peak productivity periods.94 The capacity of Muzak’s trade mark innovation to “combat monotony and offset boredom at precisely those times when people are most subject to such onslaughts” was meticulously measured and charted by the Lever Brothers, Fairfield University’s language laboratory, and the U.S. Army Engineering Lab.95 This research illustrated that Muzak's Stimulus Progression program affectively “increased office output, reduced stress, lessened costs, enhanced worker concentration, and improved personnel morale.”

DISTRIBUTED CONTROL

By the mid-90s Muzak's strategy shifted from stimulus progression to "audio architecture." 98 In attempt to immerse individuals in a vari ous contexts, site-specific soundtracks were designed according to topology 99—tempo, color, rhythm, popularity, etc. "The sonic discipline

Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, & Other Moodsong. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994: 49.

Ibid.

Another collaboration that would please Moss Kanter.

Lanza, Joseph. Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-listening, and Other Moodsong. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994: 49.

Sounds suspiciously similar to the design intentions outlined in the author’s Talk With Me Studio Green° Fund Proposal. Should elaborate on the occupational hazards of working on a project of radical proximity (Cruz) : Over time there is an increased propensity for practitioners to subconsciously embody the language and mission of the institution which one is attempting to redirect. Resisting this procliv ity is crucial to the advancement of the project and can be monitored through constant⁄routine reflection that aligns theories of action, in action the framework for [un]learning. We'll return to this later.

Owen, David. "The Soundtrack of Your Life." The New Yorker: Conde Nast, 10 Apr. 2006. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.newyorker.com⁄archive⁄2006⁄04⁄10⁄060410fa_fact>.

of stimulus progression gave way to the atmospheric control of quan tum modulation," Kazys Varnelis and Robert Sumrell point out in Blue Monday , "ensuring that intensity can be maintained even as the music appears to have changed.…Atmospherics address individuals as they traverse different ambiances through their everyday lives." 100 From background to foreground and from here and now to every where and nowhere, Muzak meandered through restaurants, banks, and shopping centers of all shapes and sizes into our psyche and soma. According to innovator of audio architecture, Alvin Collis, the moment of eureka greeted him at the entrance of a popular retailer: "The company built a set, they've hired actors, given them costumes, and taught them their lines, and everyday they open their doors and say, "Let's put on a show." …I realized then that Muzak's business wasn't really about selling music, it was about selling emotion—about finding the soundtrack that would make this store or that restaurant feel like something, rather than being just an intellectual proposition." 101 Ev erything old is new again quantum modulation supplanted Edison's mood tests from one end of the assembly line to the other, in order to quell the 'noise' of consumption, so as not to disrupt the spectacle. And the band plays on!

Affective modulation via sonic branding employs an operative logic identical to that found in Cuomo's advertising campaigns: When signs have no logical connection with their meaning ( signifier ) , fa miliar songs ( symbols ) are employed to convey meaning ( tbd ) . Con sequently, the attributes and values of the symbol are transferred to the signified via the sign. "By embedding ideological fragments as cultural symbols in the social and material practices…the designer succeeds in coordinating the cognitive and emotional ( and capital ) investments solicited by these practices and linking them back to

Calibrate is a politically correct way of saying control.

100Sumrell, Robert, and Kazys Varnelis. Blue Monday: Stories of Absurd Realities and Natural Philosophies. Barcelona: Actar Editorial, 2007. 101Owen, David. "The Soundtrack of Your Life." The New Yorker: Conde Nast, 10 Apr. 2006. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.newyorker.com⁄archive⁄2006⁄04⁄10⁄060410fa_fact>.

102 In this brandscape, the [sub]politics of frequency is merely one part of "full-spectrum dominance …operat ing in the gaps between sound, sight, touch, taste, and smell...or the fabrication of branded memory, a second skin channeling process es of desiring production." 103 As Steve Goodman, electronic-based musician and author of Sonic Warfare , points out "Muzak in this sense provides a sonic microcosm of what Deleuze described as the shift from disciplinary societies to societies of control." 104 "With the Stimulus Progression abandoned for Atmospherics…the individual becomes a human chameleon, lacking either strong sense of self or a guiding plan, but instead constantly looking outward for social cues, seeking an appropriate background condition to settle upon so as to comfortably lose distinction from the world ." 105

Likewise, while the LEED program may "improve morale" for its proponents in the short-term, its most egregious failure is its total disregard for fostering long-term sustainable ° behaviors, such as individual accountability and adaptation. Let's consider for a moment, electricity. Like Muzak's sonic brandscape, electricity pulses in, around, and through our constructed environments providing the soundtrack to our everyday. Sun up, we wake. Sun down, we sleep. Lights on, we rise. Lights off, we rest. Inhale, oxygen. Exhale, carbon dioxide. We are subconsciously, and at times, consciously aware of these actions. But, what if, as political theorist Jane Bennett suggests, ”the electrical grid is better understood as a volatile mix of coal, sweat, electromagnetic fields, computer programs, electron streams, profit motives, heat, life styles, nuclear fuel, plastic, fantasies of mastery, static, legislation, water, economic theory, wire, and wood—to name just some of the

Lefebvre describes the interdependencies of individual and society as that of far order and near order in which "this far order projects itself into the practico-ma terial reality and becomes visible by writing itself within this reality. It persuades through and by the near order, which confirms its compelling power." Lefebvre, Henri, Eleonore Kofman, and Elizabeth Lebas. "The Specificity of the City." Writ ing on Cities. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1999: 101.

Steve. Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2010. 144. Asounder: Sonic Tactics to Radicalize Everyday Life. Web. <http:⁄⁄asounder.org⁄resources⁄goodman_sonicwarfare.pdf>.

actants?”

In this context, simply opening a blind, flipping a light switch, or even inhaling and exhaling, become monumentally different acts. Unless, however, there are no blinds, the lights are automated, and breathing is calibrated° by a system known as Aircuity.

The Aircuity OptiNet system, similar to Squier's multiplex communica tion network, "takes samples of air remotely throughout a facility and routes them to a centralized suite of sensors." According to the Aircuity website, "By measuring critical indoor environmental parameters, the OptiNet system provides intelligent input to building ventilation systems for energy efficiency and high quality indoor environmental quality."107 But who defines our "critical environmental parameters"? And how do our bodies actually respond to such 'high quality' indoor environments over time? One of the leading theories regarding the recent rise in childhood allergies throughout the U.S., indicates that we're too clean!108 The hygiene hypothesis argues that "exposure to microbes and parasites in childhood reduces the risk of autoimmune disease."

This phenomena is particularly prevalent among kids that spend their early childhood on farms. Allergist Mark Holbreich references the farm effect in his study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clini cal Immunology Holbreich's research correlates low rates of allergies amongst children living on a farm in Indiana with early exposure to dirt, animals, and drinking raw milk.

Actually, in the early 1900s, Indiana was home to one of the first Open Air Schools in North America—a model based on Dr. Bernhard Bendix and pedagogue Hermann Neufert's Waldeschule . The movement was precipitated by a scourge of tuberculosis. "Although children were somewhat less exposed to the conditions causing tuberculosis, a signifi-

106 Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010: 25.

107 "OptiNet System Overview." Aircuity RSS. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.aircuity.com⁄tech nology⁄optinet-overview⁄>.

108 I distinctly remember the phrase, "It's ok, it'll build your immune system" being repeated throughout my childhood. Old milk? "It's ok, it'll build your immune system." Chilling temperatures? "It's ok, it'll build your immune system." Expo sure to chicken pox? "It's ok, it'll build your immune system." Needless to say, I never missed a day of school between kindergarten and 8th grade. Taylor would've been proud.

cant number were excluded from school because they were considered too 'delicate" and consequently sent into the woods for 'open-air therapy'— reading, writing, and arithmetic in the panacea of fresh air.109 As popu larity for open-air therapy and tuberculosis spread, classrooms were fashioned out of tents, prefabricated barracks, and other re-purposed infrastructures. See Appendix 132-133

In sharp contrast, The New School University Center's impenetrable façade draws a definitive boundary between inside and out. Sixteen stories of Muntz metal are penetrated periodically by thin slivers of glass, 30% to be exact 110 the U.S. Green ° Building Council's golden ratio according to the project's LEED scorecard. See Appendix 128-131 Though the Council provides two additional opportunities to maxi mize the façade's potential and score a few more credits: Credit 8.1 requests that designers provide "adequate daylight in at least 75% of all regularly occupied spaces."111 Credit 8.2 asks designers to afford individuals "direct line of sight to the outdoors between 2'6" and 7'6" above the floor for 90% of all regularly occupied areas."112 The New School University Center design team determined that both credits were "not possible."113 Instead, the majority of windows are arranged in horizontal bands. Half provide individuals a visible link to the outside. The other half function as a clerestories with a light shelf that bounces daylight off the ceiling into classrooms and offices. See Appendix 134-135 Rather than send today's delicate undergraduates and graduates into the mortal milieu of the metropolis, The New School University Center provides a safe haven within which students can study rather than directly participate or engage in urban ecologies, social justice, and

109 Worpole, Ken. "Live Out of Doors As Much As You Can: The Architecture of Public Health." Here Comes the Sun: Architecture and Public Space in Twentiethcentury European Culture. London: Reaktion, 2000: 49-68.

Interesting side note: Muntz metal, a brass-like alloy composed of copper, zinc, and trace amounts of iron, dates back to 1832 when George Fredrick Muntz patented the alloy for the purpose of replacing the copper sheathing used to line the bottom of boats. Today, Muntz metal is primarily used to fabricate corrosion resistant machine parts.

United States. Green Building Council. LEED. The New School University Center LEED for New Construction and Major Renovation 2009 Project Scorecard and Tracker. November 2011.

(amongst myriad other topics).

DISTRIBUTED CONTROL: BOTTOM, UP (DIY) STRATEGIES

“…When education becomes a venue for making a profit, delivering a product, or constructing consuming subjects, education reneges on its responsibilities for creating a democracy of citizens by shifting its focus to producing a democracy of consumers.”114

Or, prosumers.115 Obama's 2008 presidential campaign was fabricated to a large extent by this coveted mixed-bred of creative producer and consumer. It is not surprising then that, as Scott Thomas confided, the most valuable asset on Obama's campaign site was the 'Download' page: "I didn't want to design a T-shirt for every single organization known to man. And I didn't want to have to create fliers for every single little party that was going on. But by just simply putting all of these assets online and by being 'transparent,' what we were able to do is activate and allow people to participate in the political process."116 Or more accurately, disseminate our message. Translated in the context of The New School University Center Collab: We will afford you the op portunity to participate in the 'cultivation' of the University, but do so in

114 Giroux, Henry A. Stealing Innocence: Youth, Corporate Power, and the Politics of Culture. New York: St. Martin's, 2000.

115 One of our most prolific prosumers? Shepherd Fairey. Sarah Banet-Weisner and Marita Sturien refer to Fairey's capitalist fetishes as an "inside⁄outside strate gies" with a "Robin Hood effect." Banet-Weiser, Sarah, and Marita Sturken. "The Politics of Commerce: Shepherd Fairey and the New Cultural Entrepreneurship." Blowing up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture. Ed. Melissa Aronczyk and Devon Powers. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2010: 274.

116

Incidently, Thomas recently published a 360-page "full-color, hardbound, and highly crafted" compendium chronicling the evolution of the art and design from the 2008 campaign. A "return on investment" shall we say. Thomas, Scott. "Scott Thomas: Designing the Obama Campaign." Vimeo. Bechance: 99U, 2010. Web. <https:⁄⁄vimeo.com⁄5943199>.

SKOOL'D: A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EDUCATION

In time and place where a 500,000 square foot,1 16-story, $353 million2 “bronze bastion”3 perched on a parcel of Manhattan’s most prime real estate 4—9 floors of which are dedicated to luxury lofts from which 617 undergraduates will have the privilege of gazing down upon "the concrete jungle where dreams are made" for a mere $2375 per month, 5 while the The New School, a 501 ( c )( 3 ) non-profit, taxexempt organization dedicated to the advancement of education, is unofficially on a hiring freeze and operating on a $5.8 million deficit6 while students are being notified that the administration "have been reviewing costs, optimizing financial aid, and other forms of assistance, and seeking efficiencies where ever possible" however, tuition is going to rise, "but our efforts have kept The New School below the national average for the last 3 years;" 7 although undergraduate tuition at The New School exceeds the national average by approximately $10k per year 8 ( $40k per⁄degree ) , which happens to be the same tuition that provides nearly 90% of the school's revenue; and funds Provost Tim Marshell's annual salary of $466,273, in addition to his $80,000 stipend for housing and upkeep,9 which actually pales in comparison

1 For more information regarding the design development of The New School University Center, I recommend reading: Kirkbride, Robert, and Shannon Mattern. "Chainbuilding: A New Building For A New New School." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 22, 2009: 201-19. 2 $84million of the $353 million was raised by President Emeritus Bob Kerrey. The balance was reconciled through the issuance of tax-exempt bonds (to the tune of $200million); $2 million in Washington earmarks compliments of Brownstein, Hyatt&Farber (a firm for which Kerrey was once a strategic advisor) et al; and several generous donations. Morton, Joseph. "Kerrey: New School Tenure Brought Needed, If Controversial, Change." Omaha.com. The Omaha World Herald, 19 Aug. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.omaha.com⁄article⁄20120819⁄NEWS⁄708199953>.

3 Davies, Pete. “The New School Shows Off Its Big Brassy Dame.” Ny.curbed.com 07 May 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2012. <http:⁄⁄ny.curbed.com⁄archives⁄2010⁄05⁄07⁄ the_new_school_shows_off_its_big_brassy_dame.php>.

4 The Center for Urban Pedagogy. "Envisioning Development: What Is Affordable Housing?" Envisioning Development: What Is Affordable Housing? The Center for Urban Pedagogy, Dec. 2009. Web. <http:⁄⁄envisioningdevelopment.net⁄map⁄>.

5 "Student Housing and Residence Life: Apply for Housing." The New School Web. <http:⁄⁄www.newschool.edu⁄student-services⁄student-housing⁄apply-forhousing⁄>.

6 Frechette, Madeline. "At Town Hall, President and Provost Discuss Future of the University." The New School Free Press. NewSchoolFreePress.com, 13 Apr. 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.newschoolfreepress.com⁄2013⁄04⁄13⁄at-town-hall-presidentand-provost-discuss-future-of-the-university⁄>.

7 Van Zandt, David, and Tim Marshall. "Tuition and Fees for the 2013-2014 Academic Year." Message to the author. 04 Apr. 2013. E-mail.

8 "Paying for College." Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. United States Government, Web. <http:⁄⁄www.consumerfinance.gov⁄paying-for-college⁄comparefinancial-aid-and-college-cost⁄>.

9 United States. Department of Treasury. Internal Revenue Service. "2011 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990): The New School."Guide Star. Web. 01 May 2012.<http:⁄⁄www.guidestar.org⁄FinDocumets⁄2011⁄133⁄297⁄ 2011-133297197-085cd4a2-9.pdf>.

41to his administrative colleagues whom collectively consume nearly 25% of the The New School budget 10 ( including the $2,494,535 spoils President Emeritus11 Bob Kerrey received last year on top of his housing entitlement of $417,970, in addition to a $108,377 contribution toward his retirement; while Chief Operating Officer James Murtha banked $484,642 and $100,159 for housing ) 12 paid for in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Educa tion, the Department of Defense 13 and supplemented by a Board of Trustees that includes such private-sector notables as The Durst Orga nization, the Rudin Management Company, Proskauer Rose, and Louis Vuitton, while faculty 80% of whom are part-time and have not received a salary increase in nearly 2 years nor have much, rather any say in the allocation of funding but are dedicated to developing innovative ways to increase student's capacities "to understand, contribute to, and suc ceed in a rapidly changing society, and thus make the world a better and more just place" "taking full advantage of 'our' New York City (not the University ) as locus and connectivity to urban global centers" 14 —can claim to be sustainable, should come as no surprise considering this is the same city in which the Mayor, whose net worth is $27 billion15 wields the power to implement a plan "to enhance the quality of life for all New Yorkers,"16 "because a city, like a business, needs a long-term

10 The Student Action Network. "Financially Flawed: The New School's Troubling Lack of Transparency." The New School Free Press. NewSchoolFreePress.com, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.newschoolfreepress.com⁄2012⁄04⁄25⁄financially-

11 "In 2009, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Kerrey was the 4th higest-paid private college president in the State of New York. Ranked higher were the presidents of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Columbia University, and New York University—with all four earning between $1.3 to $1.7 million." Vaatainen, Erika. "New School Financial Forms Reveal Upward Trend in Administrative Compensation." Comp. Will Carter, Martina Gordon, Heather Pusser, and Kareem Samuels.

12 United States. Department of Treasury. Internal Revenue Service. "2011 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990): The New School."Guide Star.

14 "Leadership: A Vision for The New School." The New School. The New School.

15 "The World's Billionaires." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, Mar. 2013.Web.<http:⁄⁄www.

16 United States. The City of New York. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “PlaNYC: Up-

strategic plan"17 yet circumvents any and all democratic and participa tory frameworks for developing said plan18 that might have afforded some of the 1.6 million New Yorkers19 struggling to make ends meet with less than $10,830 per year,20 an opportunity to incorporate their needs° into the "long-term sustainability° of 'the' city with the largest income gap in the country where ⅕ of the residents earn an average income of $371,754 , nearly 38 times as much as the ⅕ wading in the shallow end of the earnings pool ( $9,845 ), in a "tax-free" state where "nurturing a start-up" equates to funneling $1.4 billion in cash and tax incentives toward the development of a 300mm semiconduc tor wafer to make way for its future sibling, 450mm, the $4.8 billion spawn of a global consortium, i.e. economic orgy, between New York State, CNSE, IBM, Intel, Samsung, TSMC, GlobalFoundries, and the State University of Albany's College of Nanoscience and Engineering ( CNSE ) , an institution housed on a $14 billion, 80,000 square foot 21 campus dedicated to confronting "one of the nation's formidable prob lems...(the) looming shortage of scientific and engineering personnel" by training college graduates and undergraduates, high school stu

17 ICLE-Local Governments for Sustainability USA, and The Mayor's Office for Long-Term Sustainability. "The Process Behind PlaNYC: How the City of New York Developed Its Comprehensive Long-Term Sustainability Plan." April 2010 < http:⁄⁄nytelecom.vo.llnwd.net⁄o15⁄agencies⁄planyc2030⁄pdf⁄iclei_planyc_ case_study_201004.pdf>.

18 Agnotti, Tom. "Is New York's Sustainability Plan Sustainable?" Proc. of Confer ence of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and Association of European Schools of Planning, Chicago. Hunter College Department of Urban Af fairs and Planning, 2008. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.hunter.cuny.edu⁄ccpd⁄sustainabiltyand-ecology⁄PlaNYC>.

19 Roberts, Sam. "One in Five New York City Residents Living in Poverty." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 22 Sept. 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄www. nytimes.com⁄2011⁄09⁄22⁄nyregion⁄one-in-five-new-york-city-residents-livingin-poverty.html>.

20 Office of Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. "Prior HHS Poverty Guidelines and Federal Register References." ASPE: Office of Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Web. <http:⁄⁄aspe. hhs.gov⁄poverty⁄figures-fed-reg.cfm>.

21 "CNSE Wafer Processing Research & Development." College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.sunycnse.com⁄WorldClassResources⁄ CNSEWaferProcessingRandD.aspx>.

dents, and even "the youngest members of our community" 22 in kindergartens across the Hudson or Tech Valley to become "the most adept workforce in the Nation," 23 a Nation whose President portends Winning 'The' Future is dependent upon "out-innovating, out-educat ing, and out-building the rest of the world" 24 by opening classrooms to transnational business conglomerates willing to Invest (Billions) In Innovation, i.e. "tap into 'our' most valuable resources—"creativity and imagination" 25 —in order to sustain our, I mean, their Race To the Top.26

THE SHORT OF THE LONG Environments are often designed as didactic entities with circumscribed utility. Their programs, scripts, codes, curriculum, and corresponding values pervade society and soma. These prefigurative innovations construct physical and psychological barriers between mind and body; individual and society; production and consumption; cause and effect; past, present, and future. Human and non-human agents are relegated to the role of occupant or user in the name of efficiency,° productivity, and, most recently, sustainability.° Consequently, contemporary Western cultures (we ) are withdrawing into increasingly mediated, modu lated, and artificial spaces that limit our capacity to effectively engage with our surroundings—to critically confront the present and rehearse alternative futures. In other words, to think.

Erich Fromm forewarns of the alienation inherent in the reification of the Ivory Tower (or any classroom be it a patch of grass, a farm, factory, living room, or State legislature) in which learning and the 'learner' are transformed into commodities via the transfer of individual power to something outside oneself—"to a leader, to the state, to society, to an organization…such that he is in touch with his own powers only by the

22 "Nano for Kids." Nano for Kids. College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄cnse.albany.edu⁄NanoForKids.aspx>.

23 Andrew M. Cuomo. Governor's Press Office. Governor Cuomo and SUNY

Chancellor Zimpher Unveil Groundbreaking "NYSUNY 2020" Program. Gover nor Andrew M. Cuomo. New York State, 02 May 2011. <http:⁄⁄www.governor. ny.gov⁄press⁄050211suny>.

24 Obama, Barack. "Winning The Future: President Obama's Budget." The White House. USA.gov, 2011. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.whitehouse.gov⁄winning-the-future>.

25 Ibid.

26 U.S. Department of Education. "Race to the Top Fund." Race to the Top Fund ED.gov, Web. <http:⁄⁄www2.ed.gov⁄programs⁄racetothetop⁄index.html>.

Just Justice. A relative concept that is in constant dialogue with the individual and collective needs° that characterize a giv en context. Here, I am specifically refer ring to a more equitable (yet inherently partial and biased) migration, allocation, and accumulation of resources. I do not imagine this to be a 1:1 exchange give, then take or wash, rinse, repeat. Nor am I imagining a utopia in which content ment is constant. I imagine a time and space in which a diversity of perspectives are privileged in the adaptation of our political, social, economic, and environmental infrastructures, so that the migra tion and allocation of resources might respond more effectively to individual and collective needs°as they unfold.

Cross Reference Need p25

worship of these institutions or leaders or personalities to whom he has conferred his power." As currently configured, The New School University Center and its attendant Collab present undergraduates and graduates with a pedagogical paradox—go forth and change the world but, while you're here, do not question nor dare adapt [y]our University. As New School founding father, John Dewey professed, "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." Not only does The New School's logic deny individual or institutional account ability, it offers little potential for imagination to migrate into the terra incognita of sustainability ° as an emancipatory space where under graduates and graduates labor as citizens for more politically, socially, economically just° distribution of resources that might transcend the capitalist construct. Instead, one of our most valuable resources, creativ ity, is co-opted by capital to [re]present and [re]produce the Empire States of […]27 TED N o 80

"Ultimately it does not matter whether development is wrapped by the latest morphogenetic skin, neoclassical motif, some sort of bricolaged surface, or LEED-certified photovoltaic panels if all approaches con tinue to camouflage the most pressing problems of urbanization today,” asserts designer and activist, Teddy Cruz.28 Consider this morning's headlines: "Efforts to Curb Entitlement Spending Face Resistance; ( War Veteran ) Learning to Master a Mechanical Arm; New York’s Gated Enclaves Seek to Let in Storm Aid; Tax Proposal Could Create a Bubble; Social Media on Cyber Monday; Looking to Cities in Search of Global Warming’s Silver Lining"29 "DR Congo rebels set conditions before pullout; Yassar Arafat’s body exhumed in Ramallah; Eurozone and IMF agree Greek bailout deal; Qatar defends right to host climate talks; Mass Rio protest over oil royalty measure; Dual-Currency Policy

27 Enriching the Ecosystem via capital's law of value relegates individuals to the role of 'occupants' of The New School University Center and hence stewards of the U.S. Green Building Council. Therefore, The New School serves as an adjunct of New York State, which is merely a handmaiden to the Nation, all of which bow to capital, be it public or private, local or global.

28 Cruz, Teddy. Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else. Ed. Esther Choi and Marrikka Trotter. Cambridge, MA, 2010: 81.

29 The New York Times. Nytimes.com, 26 Nov. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄nytimes.com⁄searc h⁄sitesearch⁄#⁄november+26+2012⁄>.

Cubans; Geoengineering: A climatic ‘Frankenstein’?"

Each story is symptomatic of a larger tale31—increasingly asymmetrical development; human population growth; environmental degradation; and the fiscal peaks, plateaus, and cliffs, etc. These crises are hardly limited to the capitalist construct, yet vehemently perpetuated by it.

Neoliberalism is an insatiable institution intricately woven through every fiber of society, yet conveniently absent from our collective conscious.32 As Margaret Thatcher unabashedly professed, “Econom ics are the method…the object is to change the soul.” 33 Designed to seduce and subordinate even the most resilient, this now-standard uniform of capital shrouds the past, cloaks the present, and annihilates the future. We are a dynamic network of forces, an Empire, that simul taneously transverse and mold our landscape, psyche, and soma.34

UNCERTAINTY IS OUR LANDSCAPE. CULTURE IS OUR CAPITAL. DESIGN IS OUR HABITUS.

30 Alijazeera. Al Jazeera America, 26 Nov. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄america.aljazeera.com⁄ topics⁄topic⁄categories⁄international.html>.

31 or to borrow from the field of psychoanalysis, the identified patient. These are the stories we tell ourselves. Yes, stories—the fertile ground where fact and fic tion procreate to spawn tales of tactical magic. New York serves as the primary context within which this thesis was assembled. However, when possible, I have attempted to foreground the relational complexities of our narratives.

32 Maurice Halbwachs' theoretical framework of memory posits that memories are collectively constructed out of "shared data or conception" through reiterated practices of belonging and organized forgetting. Halbwachs, Maurice, and Lewis

A. Coser. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1992.

33 Harvey, David. Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geo graphical Development. London: Verso, 2006: 17.

34 Horst and Rittel refer to such complex contingencies that are resistent to resolution as wicked problems. I prefer Crutzen's Anthropocentric perspective—which, in my interpretation, suggests human and non-human agency and therefore, embodies a higher potential to spawn accountability and adaptation. Rittel. H. and Webber, M. “Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning.” Policy Sciences 4, 1973: 155-169.

In order for art and education to stop parroting the social dynamics and organizational frameworks of other institutions, it must recognize:

the studio is a classroom, the classroom is an exhibition, the museum is a curriculum, the lesson is a social experiment, the artwork is a teacher, the artist is a student, and so on.

Anna Craycroft

FOR TOMORROW BY DESIGN

Craycroft, Anna. "The Art of Education and The Education of Art." Draw It With Your Eyes Closed: The Art of the Art Assignment. Ed. Paper Monument. Brooklyn, NY: N+1 Foundation, 2012: 55-56. Union of Initiatives For Educational Assembly. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.yuoiea.com⁄uoiea⁄assets⁄files⁄pdfs⁄Craycroft-4Pedagogues.pdf>.

L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y & Z.

How far were you able to get before breaking into song? For me, it is nearly impossible to recite the alphabet beyond the letter Q with out the familiar melody creeping into my head: ...now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me. This would probably not surprise Diana Deutsch, a professor specializing in the Psychology of Mu sic and Memory at the University of California. Deutsch stumbled upon a similar speech-to-song phenomenon in 1995 while editing her CD, Musical Illusions and Paradoxes 1 One afternoon, Deutsch stepped out of the studio to fix a cup of tea. As the water rolled to a slow boil, the phrase 'sometimes behave so strangely' continued to loop in the background. Deutsch thought to herself, "Who's sing ing?" Until she realized "That's not someone singing, that's me...talk ing!" The phrase, 'sometimes behave so strangely,' when repeated over and over again, is heard as a song rather than spoken words. Once the melody is carved in your cranium, it becomes virtually impos sible to hear the phrase as spoken word. 2

Music is one of myriad micro- and macro- level mnemonics that help us [re]present and [re]produce information as simple as the alphabet or as complex as a political ideologies. If we embrace this morphogenesis of mind and matter to be design in the expanded field, in which—mean ing, making, and memory or learning—is an affect of designing, then we can begin to challenge the interdependencies between politics, culture, and identity that converge in the commodification of design, develop ment, and sustainability as industries of neoliberal [re]presentation and [re]production by inventing innovative tactics for identifying, [dis]assembling, and [re]framing our prevailing lexicon, discourse, and practices that construct our perceived, conceived, and lived realities3

IN A WORD, TO [UN]LEARN.

1 Deutsch, Diana. "Earworms." Interview by Jad Abumrad. RadioLab . WNYC, 21 Apr. 2008. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.radiolab.org⁄2008⁄apr⁄21⁄earworms⁄>.

2 It's been one month since I first listened to Deutsch demonstrate this phenom enon to Jad Abumrad and 'sometimes behaves so strangely' continues to replay in my mind. :⁄

3 Every Monday morning for fifteen weeks in the Spring of 2012, I was afforded the opportunity to spend 3 hours with Miguel Robles-Duran a man with tenacious passion for pushing the margins of the academic apparatus and 15 dedicated comrades. Together, we navigated The Production of Space as it relates to Social Justice in the City. Needless to say, I've not been the same since. Many thanks and let me know where I can forward my therapist's bill.

PUNCTUS PERCONTATIVUS

[Un]Learning is a transdisciplinary praxis1 of explication that exposes latent assumptions embedded in various contexts by aligning theories of action, in action at various scales. Argyris and Schön identify this process as thinking in action or double-loop learning through which the status quo or governing variables of a particular context—individual, organizational, or institutional—are critically challenged. Philosopher Michel de Certeau might refer to this schemata as "a poetic making do" a bricolage that investigates, [dis]assembles, and [re]frames, i.e. [re]interprets the signification that defines our perceived, conceived, and lived realities.

03 July 1997

The National Endowment for the Arts 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20506

Dear Jane Alexander,

I just spoke with a young man from your office, who informed me that I had been chosen to be one of twelve recipients of the National Medal for the Arts at a ceremony at the White House in the fall. I told him at once that I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration. I want to clarify to you what I meant by my refusal.

Anyone familiar with my work from the early Sixties on knows that I believe in art’s social presence—as breaker of official silences, as voice for those whose voices are disregarded, and as a human birthright.

In my lifetime I have seen the space for the arts opened by movements for social justice, the power of art to break despair. Over the past two decades I have witnessed the increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice in our country.

1 According to Gramsci, praxis does not tend towards the peaceful resolution of the contradictions existing in history, rather it is itself the theory of those contradic tions. Gramsci, Antonio. "Hegemony, Relations of Force, Historical Bloc." The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916-1935. Ed. David Forgacs. Marxists. org. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.marxists.org⁄archive⁄gramsci⁄prison_notebooks⁄reader⁄>.

There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.

I know you have been engaged in a serious and disheartening struggle to save government funding for the arts, against those whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive. In the end, I don’t think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope. My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not partici pate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me.

Sincerely, Adrienne Rich cc: President Clinton2

In her letter to Jane Alexander, Adrienne Rich eloquently unveils the irony inherent in her nomination for a National Medal for the Arts. The medal is a symbol or [re]presentation for a shared value, in this case, art. As an artist, Adrienne Rich, has dedicate her creative practice to the advancement of social justice. By selecting Rich as a recipient of the National Medal, President Clinton, in theory, is demonstrating his support for Rich's art and subsequently social justice. In reality, the President's actions tell an entirely different tale (which can be loosely translated as): Artists working toward social justice deserve National recognition; however, considering I do not identify myself as an artist but as President of the United States of America, I can reserve the right to circumvent social justice when necessary to secure democ racy. ° By aligning Clinton's theory of action, in action a nd refusing to accept his invitation, Rich subverts the subjectivity of ceremony, leaving the medal of honor a mere bone devoid of meaning on the White House table for the President and his comrades to chew on.

As we traverse our everyday lives in dialogue with the complex and often contradictory "mix of philosophical fragments and cultural myths" or wayshowing systems embedded in our landscape, we as

2 Popova, Maria. "The Letter with Which Adrienne Rich Became the Only Person to Decline the National Medal of Arts." Brain Pickings. 16 May 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.brainpickings.org⁄index.php⁄tag⁄politics⁄>.

Democracy Here, I am referring to the western interpretation of democracy as a system of goverment in which the voices of many (or at least those deemed eligable) are relegated to the power of a few.

A concept we inherited from the ancient Greek and that a Frenchman seared it in our hearts. A concept that we [re] present and [re]produce everyday. A concept that the rest of the world could help us [un]learn.

semble our own equally incongruent theories of action . More often than not, however, we are unaware of this negotiation of meaning, making, and memory, or learning. "All biological organisms, includ ing sentient human beings, are continually engaged in contestation struggles to maintain the cohesion of their selfhood and territory.” 3 In a nation that privileges allegiance and a city that celebrates as similation, we must begin to embrace dissonance and difference 4 as well as certainty and identity. "If I do not know who I am, then I have to join the herd in order to be sure that I am somebody." As Erich Fromm elaborated during a lecture on The Automaton Citizen and Human Rights : "…to be a person requires not to be a prisoner of the unconscious forces which drive one to be free—to make the unconscious, conscious; to be aware; to see the reality inside me and the reality outside of myself."5 To learn and [un]learn. To engage and [dis]engage.

Or to find one's own way. Wayfinding is the capacity to orient one's self within a given context. To this end, we develop myriad tactics or creative ways of interpellating our surroundings6 in dialogue with the various wayshowing programs that attempt to "identify, claim, define, and circumscribe" 7 i.e. design environments with the intention of [dis]orienting someone or something along prefigurative courses of action. The operative logic of [un]learning foregrounds difference and dissonance or thinking in action as a vehicle to foster accountability and adaptation by aligning theories of action, in action. Conflictive dynam ics form the foundation for the generation of all affective respons

es.8 According to environmental scientist and systems analyst Donella Meadows, the "highest leverage point…is to keep oneself outside the arena of paradigms, to realize that no paradigm is "true"...even the one that sweetly shapes one's comfortable world view is a tremendously

3 Choi, Esther. "How Does It Feel to Feel?" Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else. Ed. Esther Choi and Marrikka Trotter. Cambridge, MA: Works Books, 2010: 7.

4 Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.

5 Fromm, Erich. "The Automaton Citizen and Human Rights." YouTube. Lecture. The American Orthopsychiatric Association. 1966. Web. <https:⁄⁄www.youtube. com⁄watch?v=RpfW1xfouaM>.

6 Gell, A . "How To Read A Map: Remarks on the practical logic of navigation." Man , 1985: 272.

7 Hunt, Jamer. "Just Re-do It: Tactical Formlessness and Everyday Consump tion." Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2003: 61.

8 David Rudrauf and Antonio Damasio, “A Conjecture Regarding the Biological Mechanism of Subjectivity and Feeling,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 12, 2005.

limited understanding of an immense and amazing universe..."9 A senti ment that is echoed in the first sentence of the Tao Te Ching: " The way that is true is not the way."10

However, given design’s proclivities toward the modulation of time, space, and being, our capacity to doubt must be cultivated. [un]Learn ing is constructed upon an inverted analytic framework that regards solutions as problems—prefigurative, inflexible outcomes—and ques tions as solutions—opportunities for reflection and adaptation. In this context, doubt becomes the primary vector for critical thinking that interrogates the legitimacy, authority, and ethics of existing attitudes, practices, policies, and institutions or cultural status quo. [Un]learning engages design as a means to question the foundations and aesthetics of common sense. This is a question that does not seek an answer, but a question—a rhetorical question. 11 Or as Henry Denham illustrated punctus percontativus12 [?] i.e. percontation point, a typographical notation that emancipates designers from the discipline of cultural [re]presentation and [re]production. [Un]learning does not seek to solve problems, but engage our selves as part of the problem.13 By identifying and harnessing the affective potentialities embedded in such instances of difference and dissonance, perhaps we can propel the practice of design into a time and space that has yet to be conceived, constructed, or occupied.

TACTICS FOR EVERYDAY [DIS]ENGAGEMENT

9 Meadows, Donella. "Places to Intervene in a System." Whole Earth Catalogue, 1997: 78-84. Whole Earth Catalogue. Web. <https:⁄⁄wholeearth.com>.

10 Lao-tse. "Dao De Jing: The Way and Its Power." The Way and Its Power. Trans. Waley. 2001. Web. <http:⁄⁄wengu.tartarie.com⁄wg⁄wengu.php?l=Daodejing>.

11 For those with whom Adrienne Rich might not register, I offer two words— Jon Stewart. It's undeniable that the percontation point punctuates every utterance of The Daily Show. Most recently, however, Stewart, master of the bricolage, has assembled a new segment, Priorities USA, that posits: "While it's hard to judge an administration by the actions it says it wants to take but can't, perhaps we can learn something about the administration by the actions it says it won't take, but does." Theories of action, in action .

The Daily Show. Dir. Jon Stewart. Perf. Jon Stewart. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Comedy Central, 23 May 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.thedailyshow.com⁄ full-episodes⁄thu-may-23-2013-morgan-freeman>.

12 "Irony Punctuation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 May 2013. Web. <http:⁄⁄en.wikipedia.org⁄wiki⁄Irony_punctuation>.

13 Fry, Tony. Design as Politics. New York: Berg, 2011.

Tactics and strategies, though not mutually exclusive, are antithetical actions. Tactics are situated within the strategic strictures from which they seek to emerge. According to de Certeau, space is an effect (which I believe means affect ) of the strategies which attempt to "orient it, situate it, temporalize it, and make it function in a polyvalent unity of conflictual programs or contractual proximities…that pin their hopes on the resistance that the establishment of a place offers to the erosion of time."14 Tactics, on the other hand, explains de Certeau, "are a clever utilization of time, of the opportunities it presents, and also of the play that it introduces into the foundations of power."15 Tactics are ways of constructing alternatives to the techniques of the empowered, or strate gies" the force relationships, which become possible when a subject of will and power can be isolated from an 'environment.'"

I have redirected my creative practice toward developing, identifying and adapting, Tactics For Everyday [dis]Engagement or mind-bodyspace mash-ups 16 that:

tune up perceptual affordances, in order to tune out of habitual patterns, and tune in to a heightened awareness

so that individuals, as designers⁄agents, can critically confront the present investigate the technologies 17 that shroud our environment, automate our everyday, and impact our perception, conception, and mobility.

As a transductive 18 framework for [un]learning predicated on differ ence and dissonance , tactics for [dis]engagement align mind and body; individual and society or local and global; production and

14 K ind of like fixing a signifier to a sign.

15 Certeau, Michel De. The Practice of Everyday Life . Berkeley: University of California, 1984.

16 Walter Benjamin might refer to these mind-body-space mash-ups as interpretive devices

17 Foucault identifies four types of technologies: production, sign systems, power, and self. Tactics for everyday [dis]engagement foreground the technologies of the self as a heuristic for exploring the technologies of production, sign systems, and power. Fortunately, as Foucault reveals, the knowledge and power embedded in space not only produces us, but also provides the capacity for us to produce ourselves—to read⁄decode; write⁄translate; interact⁄interpret—to commune, dif ferently.

18 Lefebvre, Henri. "The Right to the City." Writings on Cities. Trans. Eleonore Kof man. Ed. Elizabeth Lebas. Cambridge, Mass, USA: Blackwell, 1996: 151.

consumption or cause and affect; past, present, and future—the frag ments of our perceived, conceived, and lived realities.

Affects exert pressure on, and have the potential to modify perception and behavior. Adaptation is necessary for affects "to endeavour in current routines and tasks, shift to other states, or simply face them. This pressure or tension is a central component of feeling."19According to neuroscientists David Rudrauf and Antonio Damasio, "From a biologi cal standpoint, the act of feeling is a physical system’s process of ‘grappling’ with variance in order to resist the inertia of its ongoing mechanics.” 20 Consequently, [un]learning is work that is perpetually in progress. Tactics for [dis]engagement are intended to be adapted (or discarded) depending on the prevailing strategies that define a given context (time, space, and being)

Tactical development integrates critical theory with the experimen tal prowess of emerging and established practitioners expanding the margins of such fields as contemporary movement, improvisa tion, ethnography, social psychology, art, technology, architecture, cartography, geography, etc. to serve as an analytical framework.

TUNING UP

Seeing is believing. Since the days of Aristotle ( 384 BC—322 BC ) , Western culture has privileged sight 21 as the arbiter of truth, knowl edge, and reality. Our language and cultural practices are littered with visual metaphors. However, human perception is contingent upon the interdependency of all sensory receptors to identify, organize, and interpret environmental stimuli. Psychologist James Gibson re fers to this phenomena as the visual world. According to Gibson, there is a contrasting visual practice which he refers to as the visual field , in which sight is detached from a diversity of interconnected ecologies in order to [re]present and [re]produce 'projected shapes.' In this

19 Lefebvre, Henri. "The Right to the City." Writings on Cities. Trans. Eleonore Kof man. Ed. Elizabeth Lebas. Cambridge, Mass, USA: Blackwell, 1996: .242.

20 David Rudrauf and Antonio Damasio, “A Conjecture Regarding the Biological Mechanism of Subjectivity and Feeling,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 12, 2005: 236.

21 Granted with 800,000 fibres (and 18 times more nerve endings then the cochlear nerve), the ocular nerve has the capacity to transmit information to the brain at a rate that far exceeds any other sense organ. Jay, Martin. "Introduction." Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-century French Thought. Berkeley: University of California, 1994: 6.

context, the world around us is reduced to a spectacle in which we are mere spectators and "our vision is itself an artifact, produced by other artifacts," as philosopher Marx Wartofsky concludes and as we have seen. "This separation and reduction fragments the innate complexity, comprehensiveness, and plasticity of the perceptual system, reinforcing a sense of individual detachment and alienation," suggests architectural theorist, Juhani Pallasmaa.22 Tactics for everyday [dis]engagement are situated in the visual world in order to actively challenge the visual field

TUNING OUT

The performative, discursive, and phenomenological attributes of these antagonistic actions distribute deviances at a range of intensities throughout the body, penetrating and gradually eroding the condi tioned relations between established signs and meanings; ultimately, transforming spatial strictures into flexible infrastructures open for interpretation. These momentary incursions into everyday patterns should not be confused with Adorno's theory of disruptive syncopation which "fuses the most rudimentary melodic, harmonic, metric, and for mal structure with the ostensibly disruptive principle of syncopation, yet without ever disturbing the crude unity of the basic rhythm." 23 Rather, [un]learning seeks to engage, interrogate, and [re]interpret rhythms of thought and action—individual, organizational, and insti tutional—not escape them. As geographer Michael Storper points out, "Interpretations and constructed images of reality are just as impor tant as any "real" material reality, because these interpretations and images are diffused and accepted and become the basis upon which people act; they become real. Such interpretations and images are central to the organization and evolution of markets, prices, and other key economic variables. They are, in this sense, as real and as material as machines, people, and buildings."24

TUNING IN

22 Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses. Chichester: Wiley-Academy, 2005: 39.

23 Adorno, Theodore. "Perennial Fashion: Jazz," Prisms, trans. Samuel Weber and Shierry Weber, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982: 121.

24 Soja, Edward. Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.

This historical ontology25 confronts the present—breaking open, fractur ing, that which is already broken—in attempt to [dis]assemble the rhizome 26 otherwise known as our Empire states of mind, body, and soul. As the complexities unfold, salient contradictions and contingencies emerge that challenge latent assumptions regarding beliefs, bias, and practices integrated into the affective networks of our political and economic ecosystems.° These contradictions and contingencies, or moments of doubt, serve as the foundation for [re]framing existing dialectics into an innovative theories of action that manifests in action as a critical environments, objects, and⁄or beings. From extraordinary to mundane, everyday practices are augmented, amplified, and activated in order to engage human and non-human agents in conversations that confront our present and rehearse alternative ways of be-coming.

Each tactic seeks to expose latent environmental assumptions; unveil the structure, operations, and context of the corresponding infrastruc tures; and, ultimately, disrupt the dominant order, rendering it as one possibility amongst many

THE CONUNDRUM OF THE EVERYDAY

The practice of [un]learning is as elusive as the everyday. "As its name indicates," critical theorist Jamer Hunt aptly observes,"(the everyday) is, a temporal category…aleatory and fugitive. They resist codification because their heterogeneity is both meaningless in its particularity and distorted when we abstract or generalize it…The everyday, then, is an anxious oscillation between the gravitational poles of stasis and change." 27 Similarly, critical consciousness teeters precariously along

25 Adapted from Foucault, Michel. "What is Enlightenment?" (1984), translated by Catherine Porter from an unpublished French original, in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow, New York: Pantheon, 1985: 38.

26 Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizo phrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1987.

27 As Director of the Transdisciplinary Design MFA at Parsons The New School for Design, Jamer designed the framework upon which this thesis could unfold. As advisor of this thesis, he shared his time, extraordinary endurance, and insight. Many thanks Jamer. Hunt, Jamer. "Just Re-Do It: Tactical Formlessness and Ev eryday Consumption." Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life. Ed. Andrew Blauvelt. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2003: 56-71.

Adaptive Adaptation or Adapt.

The capacity to change and therefore the essence of design. "Everyone de signs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones."

Simon, Herbert Alexander. The Sciences of the Artifical . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996: 11. Web. <http:⁄⁄m.friendfeed-media.com⁄ 092e5a73c91e0838eeb11e0fe90edaf9e9afc065>.

the dynamic dialectics of [un]certainty—engaging and [dis]engaging, assembling and [dis]assembling, learning and [un]learning. The capacity for [un]learning to advance critical consciousness is dependent upon frequent intervention into our normative land scape in order to disrupt the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies or infrastructures that modulate our everyday practices. Neither sign nor signifier; form nor function; letter nor word; product, service, nor brand are relevant without syntax, context, taxonomy 28 or culture. Similarly, "the effects of cultural objects and practices can only be adduced by investigating the contexts in which they are embedded over time." This Logic of Invention, which having yet to be invented, is capable of “mediating between reflective categories of philosophical thought and the pragmatic requirements of any empirical project…"29 By assembling hegemonic fragments and contradictions as a means to [un]learn we can invent new perceptions, conceptions, practices, and cultures; rehearsing alternative futures through the negotiation of time, space, and be-coming.30 [Un]learning "really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience."31

With limited knowledge but expanded literacies we are equipped to journey into the terra incognita of sustainability.° In this context,

28 "Terms in themselves are trivial, but taxonomies revised for a different ordering of thought are not without interest. Taxonomies are not neutral nor arbitrary hat-racks for a set of unvarying concepts; they reflect (or even create) different theories about the structure of the world." Gould, Stephen Jay, and Elizabeth S. Vrba."Exaptation A Missing Term in the Science of Form." Paleobiology 8.1, 1982: 4-15. Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. Florida Atlantic University.

29 Elizabeth, Grosz. "The Future of Space: Toward An Architecture of Invention." Olafur Eliasson: Surroundings Surrounded: Essays on Space and Science. Ed. Peter Weibel. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001: 252-301.

30 “As ‘becomings,’ they (affects) possess the capacity to produce potential emergent effects, ultimately determining how a body may feel and thus how a body may act and what a body may do.” Choi, Esther. "How Does It Feel to Feel?" Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else. Ed. Esther Choi & Marrikka Trotter. Cambridge, MA, 2010: 7.

31 Wallace, David Foster. "This Is Water: Some Thoughts Delivered On A Significant Occasion, about Living A Compassionate Life." Kenyon College Commence ment Address. Gambier, OH, May 2005. YouTube. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.youtube.

Lao-tse. "Dao De Jing: The Way and Its Power." The Way and Its Power. Trans. Waley. 2001. Web. <http:⁄⁄wengu.tartarie.com⁄wg⁄wengu php?l=Daodejing>.

The way that is true is not the way.

Lao-tse

Taoist Philosopher and Educator

FINDING A WAY: THEORIES OF ACTION, IN ACTION

SHH. YOU'RE IN A FUCKING QUIET ZONE

CONTEXT

Parks, like advertisements, are meticulously manicured po litical, economic, and social fields through which normative beliefs and behaviors are negotiated. Since Fredrick Law Ol mstead and Calvert Vaux first drafted their 1857 Greensward Plan, Central Park has served as a complex mix of motiva tions—that seek to nourish political and commercial inter ests, foster public health, provide jobs, harvest profit, "refine the rich, and lift up the poor."1 “Although planned as places of healthful recreation for all classes, landscape parks were built to middle-class standards."2 In the case of Central Park, it took approximately 20,000 individuals, 2 years, and "more gunpowder than fired at the Battle of Gettysburg" to cultivate the cultural blueprints of New York City's elite (an attempt to mirror that of 'our' European brethren).3 See Appendix 136.

In 1980, after what some considered a dramatic decline, "a group of civic and philanthropic leaders" throughout New York City converged to restore Central Park's aes thetic (and corresponding values) to its 'former splendor.'

"Since its founding, The Central Park Conservancy has "managed the capital 4 restoration of much of the Park's landscapes and facilities; created programs for volunteers and visitors; prescribed and carried out a management plan for the Park; and set new standards of excellence in

1 Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1992: 18.

2 Taylor, D. 1999. "Central Park as a Model for Social Control: Urban Parks, Social Class, and Leisure Behavior in Nineteenth-Century America." Journal of Leisure Research 31 (4):420-477.

3 Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1992.

4 To the tune of $600 million ($470 million of which has been donat ed by private investors—individuals, corporations, and foundation)

park care."5 In August of 2011, the Conservancy, in partner ship with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, unveiled a new strategy in its quest to sustain° the Park's standards of excellence—a wayshowing program that, according to Conservancy president, Douglas Blonsky, "helps visitors have as rich an experience as possible in the Park…by telling them: ‘Do This! Try This!’”6 Amongst the 1,500 directives that punctuate the pastoral paradise, is:

"BE QUIET! TRY SILENCE!" 7

NYC Parks and Recreation Title 56.105.D dictates that "No person shall make, or cause, or allow to be made, unreason able noise …so as to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or harm."8 Chartreuse and white signage reading: "No Musi cal Instruments. No Amplified Sound." demarcate eight of the Park's most popular, highly-trafficked destinations as 'Quiet Zones.' See Appendix 137.

Bethesda Terrace, is the most recent location to be cleansed of "any excessive or unusually loud sounds that disturbs the peace, comfort, or repose of a reasonable person of normal

5 "About the Central Park Conservancy." The Official Website of Central Park. Central Park Conservancy, Web. <http://www.central parknyc.org⁄about⁄>.

6 Dunlap, David W. "Central Park Has 1,500 New Ways to Say Keep Off, or On, the Grass." New York Times: City Room Blog. The New York Times Company, 29 Aug. 2011. Web. <http://cityroom.blogs. nytimes.com/2011/08/29/central-park-has-1500-new-ways-tosay-keep-off-or-on-the-grass/?_r=0>.

7 Ibid.

8 Bloomberg, Michael. "NYC Parks §1-05 Regulated Uses." City of New York Parks and Recreation. NYC.gov, Web. <http://www. nycgovparks.org/rules/section-1-05>.

sensitivity or injures or endangers the health, or safety of a reasonable person of normal sensitivity, or which causes injury to plant or animal life, or damage to property or busi ness" in other words, noise.9 Ironically, Bethesda Terrace, is renown for its "spectacular views, people-watching opportunities, and frequent appearances by talented street performers.”

10 See Appendix 125.04. Its graced movie screens and mantles around the globe. The fact that it has been deemed off-limits to musicians, does not surprise NYC-based composer and performer, Sxip Shirey: "All over the world, 'street performers' are the first to be put on TV, film, photos to promote the diversity and excite ment of city life and they are also the first to be regulated to the point of not existing. Notice how every movie about NYC shows some mime in the street. That mime doesn't exist, that sax player standing on the street corner doesn't exist either; we are living in a media mythos of NYC that doesn't exist in real life."11 Title 56.105.D not only silences musicians, it has the capacity, by means of quantum modulation,12 to radically alter the political, social, and eco nomic ecologies° that have come to characterize Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, and NYC.

9 [Un]fortunately, the statue does not attempt to qualify the characteristics of reason. Bloomberg, Michael. "NYC Parks §1-05 Regu lated Uses." City of New York Parks and Recreation. NYC.gov, Web. <http://www.nycgovparks.org/rules/section-1-05>.

10 Wheeler, Jesse M. "Central Park: Bethesda Terrace." CentralPark. com. Greensward Group LLC, Web. <http://www.centralpark.com/ guide/attractions/bethesda-terrace.html>.

11 Shirey, Sxip. "Today's Soup." Message to the author. 07 Oct. 2011. E-mail.

12 Cross Reference. A strategy that also provides the foundation for Muzak's Audio Architectures.

THEORY OF ACTION: INTERROGATING THE OBVIOUS

The sun silhouettes an 8 foot bronze angel descending upon Bethesda Fountain as her cherubs Temperance, Purity, Health, and Peace frolic in the pool of water below. Meanwhile, couples paddle across the pond, while others recline on the Terrace steps, ensconced in a chorus of voices emanating from the marble promenade. Upon visiting Bethesda Terrace, it became apparent the Conservancy's message echos loud and clear for those tuned in:13 Quiet is subjec tive. You are the subject. If we deem your music 'unreason able,' we reserve the 'privilege' to silence you. Or more loosely interpreted, shh...you're in a fucking quiet zone (quiet, here being irrelevant considering anyone outside the realm of the Conservancy or its attendant NYC Depart ment of Parks and Recreation has little control over how it is interpreted).The capacity to interpret the messages em bedded in a given context is fundamental to developing a critical consciousness necessary to confront the present. Unless you're the next Jimi Hendrix, one must learn to read music before tearing into All Along The Watchtower , i.e. generally one must know the rules before they can break them. To this end, Roland Barthes (and Bob Dylan) suggest inter-rogating the obvious : [dis]assembling the signification of messages communicated in a given context

13 [un]Fortunately situational awareness that affords the capacity to tune into the implicit connotations embedded in our landscapes is often diverted by explicit attempts to co-opt our attention. For instance, I frequent Central Park on an almost daily basis, and Bethesda Terrace at least three times a week, however I was unaware for almost a year that Quiet Zones were included in the new wayshowing program. This is how [in]visible infrastructures of power manifest as everyday practices, guiding as well as impeding individual's capacity to find their way.

or [un]packing the myth.14

By migrating from the two-dimensional realm of visual communication into the third-dimension by enacting the subjectification of Title 56§1.05.D, I hope to: [re]present the negotiation of normative behavior as individual and col lective actions; challenge the legitimacy and authority of the Conservancy and NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation; increase situational awareness (literacy) of the various connotations and meanings embedded throughout Central Park's Quiet Zones; provoke dialogue regarding cultural [re]presentation and [re]production amongst artists et al; [un]playing, as cultural provocateur and theorist Mary Flanagan refers to this process in her book Critical Play, affords individuals the opportunity to enact "unanticipated conclusions often in op position to an acceptable or expected (adult-play) script."15

PRECEDENTS

LA Has Faults, Yee Chan and Silence, John Cage

THEORY OF ACTION, IN ACTION Shh...You're In A Fucking Quiet Zone is a public performance that interrogates the signification of Title 56§1.05.D. On Wednesday, 5 October 2011, I distributed the following invitation to approximately 140 individuals on 5 continents via a daily publication known as Today's Soup:

from Kiersten Nash <marabou101@gmail.com> to Today's Soup date Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 8:02 AM re Today's Soup

Have you heard that musicians in Central Park are now prohibited from playing in eight of the park’s most densely populated areas—including Bethesda Terrace, Conserva tory Garden, Conservatory Water, East Green ,Shakespeare Garden, Sheep Meadow, Strawberry Fields, and Turtle Pond. Title 56§1.05.D Rules of the City of NY dictates:

NO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

NO AMPLIFIED SOUND

“Park signs are traditionally prohibitive — a lot of ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that,’” said Douglas Blonsky, president of the Central Park Conservancy. “The primary purpose of our new signs is to help visitors have as rich an experience as pos sible in the park – we’re telling them: ‘Do this! Try this!’”

Or, be quiet! Try silence! Unacceptable! In response, join me in: Shh. You’re In A Fucking Quiet Zone. During the perfor mance, musicians, situated in each of the eight Quiet Zones, will play Silence—a musical score that necessitates all the behaviors associated with making music, but falls short of generating sound. THAT is the Public’s role—conversation.

SIT DOWN. SHUT UP. ENJOY!

14 Barthes, Roland, and Annette Lavers. Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.

15 Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009.

All are welcome. Admittedly, I am coming late to the table. But I'm here and prepared to promote the 'natural' soundtrack of Central Park. Hope to see you on Sunday!

This initial foray into the 'public' via the security of the internet afforded the opportunity to assess or prototype the effectiveness of my communication. Responses to the invitation indicated that the intended message was com municated effectively:

from Lindsay Broad <lbroad@gmail.com> to Today's Soup date Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 9:02 AM re Today's Soup

Oh New York and its rules. I remember every warm day in Madison Square Park watching the guard shoo people off the grass and onto the concrete.

At Hardly Strictly this weekend in GG park it was pretty much anything goes. Over 700,000 people over three days, 6 stages of free bluegrass and essentially no rules or secu rity to speak of except for one guideline that was repeated over and over: you better fucking compost and recycle.

from Lauren Farquhar <lauren.farquhar@gmail.com> to Today's Soup date Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 10:49 AM re Today's Soup

What a crying shame! Also, it doesn't make any sense. If you're looking for peace and quiet, why would you go to one of the most densely populated areas in the park (and the city)? Also, I love that excerpt regarding social control. Our own neighborhood park is being renovated and while I'm thrilled, I do anticipate some clashes among the classes.

On that note, the invitations were off to the printer. See Appendix 138.

INTERROGATING THE MESSAGE AND MEDIUM

In order to increase the legitimacy, and hence effectiveness of my interpretation of the Conservancy's implied message, I adopted the graphic standards, or aesthetic code established by New York City-based advertising firm McGarryBowen for Central Park's branding campaign. The field of 'sprightly yellowish green' was [re]dressed by the profane translation of the Conservancy's message in pristine Titling Gothic. [Re]dressing or subtly altering the presentation of the Quiet Zone sign allows the forbidden to unfold under the guise of the Conservancy's established norms. This tactic, as Mary Flanagan explains , can be traced back to the eighteenthcentury when French artists began "infusing a pointedly domestic materiality into what was traditionally accepted as 'high' art" a.k.a. Rococo.16 [Re]presentation via [re]dress ing creates liminal periods for enacting and [re]negotiat ing cultural conventions, or wayfinding!17 However, it is not relegated to the tactical toolkits of artists, it can also manifest as an instrument of the State. Similar to co-opting the graphic standards that dictate the visual language of Central Park's signage system, 'The New New York Whole New Approach To Business' advertisement employs the cultural conven tions of popular icons—Jay-Z, Keys, and DeNiro—to communicate Cuomo's economic agenda.

Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009: 32.

While the e-mail succeeded in provoking conversation and soliciting support, it failed to garner participation. Orchestrat ing a performance without any performers seemed like an impossible task, so I considered who and where are the per formers? It wasn't long before I was slipped on my sandals,18 grabbed a stack of invitations, and headed to Central Park. I needed° to connect with the individuals directly affected by the ordinance. I needed to connect with musicians.

Wandering around the northern portion of the Park, I visited two Quiet Zones—Strawberry Fields and Bethesda Terrace where I spoke with approximately fifteen artists, nine of whom are musicians. The majority, though unfamiliar with Title 56§1.05.D or the corresponding 'Quiet' Zones, were incredibly interested in both topics and extended their sup port toward my initiative...but were unwilling to commit to the performance. Was it the day? The time? Did I need° to provide motivation? Was the cause not incentive enough? Then I met Matthais, a white bearded cellist propped on a park bench under the elms lining the Mall. After a fairly brief conversation, Matthais actually agreed to participate. Shew the band 'plays' on! Ok, it's a band of one, definitely not the elaborate spectacle I had envisioned, but a critical interven tion into the contested territory of cultural [re]presentation and [re]production nonetheless.

Sunday, October 9th. First stop? Strawberry Fields! Around 1:30pm, I arrived only to discover a chorus of Lennon fans

18 Admittedly I also donned a pair of cut-offs, loose sweater, and head wrap, in an effort to advertise my artist cred(ability).

from all walks of life have descended on this small patch of grass in honor of their fallen hero's birthday. Imagine that —I forgot to check the calendar &^%! A not so minor detail that was definitely going to necessitate some reorganization. In the meantime, I decided to test a different strategy. While I stood there desperately trying to come up with a Plan B, I started to distribute the fliers…silently. Surpris ingly, I actually garnered attention. Some people laughed. Others pointed. And a few grabbed their friends or family to ask, "Hey, can you believe this?" I was astonished. A few minutes later when Matthais arrived, I confessed my oversight and regretfully requested that we schlep his cello about a quarter mile across the park to Bethesda Terrace. Fortunately, Matthais is an easy-going fellow and agreed.

Conditions at Bethesda Terrace seemed much more con ducive to a silent performance, i.e. there wasn't a concert already in production. There was, however, a decent amount of traffic. So we situated ourselves in the middle of it all, along the edge of the fountain, and began the overture. He played for about 10 minutes while I observed people's reac tions. Nothing. Not a damn thing. Not a smirk nor nod. Ok, Plan C? Rather than sit an observe, I decided to pass out fli ers, actively engage individuals. 10 minutes later, one tourist stopped and wanted her picture taken. Forty-five minutes later, Matthais put down his bow and turned to me: “I’m done. People are just too stupid to get this.”See Appendix 139.

REFLECTIONS

Logistics matter.

Scout out and coordinate specific meeting place ahead of time. Particularly if you have never met the person that you’ll be collaborating with face-to-face. For instance, one musician who responded to Sxip Shirey's tweet, was unable to partici pate because we failed to connect in the park.

Bring essentials. Food, water, and shelter. At the very least, provide the necessities for your collaborators. Matthais really needed° a chair. Typically, when in the park, he co-opts a bench as his stage. But we wanted to position ourselves in the cross traf fic (needless to say, that's not where benches are typically located).

People are generous. Walking around Central Park soliciting for musical talent, I was astounded at the outpouring of generosity. For the most part, people are willing to devote time, energy, and insight to discussing issues that directly effect them. Granted, my target audience was musicians.

Lost in translation. What was an effective two-dimensional campaign, failed to elicit response in the three-dimensional realm. This is not surprising however given my experience designing wayshowing systems. Yes, I am a trained environmental designer—a not-so-minor detail I probably should have mentioned before now.

Six years ago as a brazen undergraduate ensconced by the white walls of the Ronald L. Barr gallery at Indiana Univer sity Southeast, I took a moment away from hanging my BFA exhibit to reflect:

Since discovering the diversity, flexibility, and potential impact of visual communication, I have pursued the study of design. My intrigue lies in the discipline’s potential humanis tic and ephemeral qualities—the perpetual exploration of an evolving society, the opportunity to make sense of the chaos, and the ability to challenge, define, and mold one’s individual perspective, if just for a moment.

Oy vey. Without details, one might mistake me for Cuomo, Taylor, Squier, or one of Muzak's audio architects—simi lar means, physiologic modulation, and end, to engage, persuade, educate or, dare I say, 'mold.' To think, weeks later uopn donning a cap and gown and receiving a piece of parchment, I was collaborating with artists, architects, engineers, educators, and writers to construct environments intended to immerse individuals in the unique narratives of museums and other 'culturally accredited' institutions.

Such as Maker's Mark Distillery. Approximately 100,000 bourbon fans make the pilgrimage to Loretto, Kentucky (population 718) every year to sample The Samuels Fam ily's small-batch bourbons…19 Or at least that's how the

19 "Marker's Mark Visitor Experience." Solid Light, Inc., 2008. Web. <http://www.solidlight-inc.com/projects/details.php?project=11>.

story goes. [Re]presenting and [re]producing the myth of Maker's Mark is undeniably one of the most immersive and phenomenal environments that I have helped brand. Upon arrival, visitors are transported to the Samuels' home circa 1950—family portraits adorn the living room walls (a few share their wit and wisdom, Harry Potter style) 20; while the gentle rasp of Will Monroe and others ema nates from the radio; in the office, business ledgers and blueprints decorate Bill's desk; the sweet smell of bread baking leads individuals into the kitchen where they can peruse the 'secret' recipes that spawned the renown Maker's Mark bourbon (according to family lore). From the Distiller's House, a docent leads visitors through the distillation process as distributed throughout the campus. The final note? A tasting room and retail store— consump tion eased by a nip or two of consumption.

"Activity in context," according to design theorist Malcolm McCullough, "is the heart of interaction design."21 Whether employed by a politician, a business manager, an architect, a university, or a distillery, design strategies are techniques of the empowered that fabricate, calibrate° and /or modu late time, space, and being— activity in context —in order to advance a particular narrative, agenda, or ideology as a seemingly immutable truth. 22 Considering I'm currently interested in challenging the authority, legitimacy, and integrity of said truths, I wonder how might I affectively en gage or enact context (time, space, and being) as a means to interrogate a dynamic dialectic, such as Bethesda Terrace

20 Ibid.

21 Malcolm McCullough, Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Com puting, and Environmental Knowing , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004.

22 Hunt, Jamer. "Just Re-Do It: Tactical Formlessness and Everyday Consumption." Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life. Ed. Andrew Blauvelt. Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2003. 56-71.

on Sunday, October 9, 2012? Surprisingly, as the conclu sion of my BFA statement reveals, I have been wandering around this terrain, from various perspectives for some time (most often merely meandering rather than actively mining):

Dazed by the glow of the computer, I increasingly had the urge to create free from the constraints of commercial de sign. The casting process literally allows the model to shed her skin, metaphorically generating a rebirth. They are the human form, simultaneously vulnerable and secure. This is the essence of my exploration—a quest to become secure with the vulnerabilities inherent in human interaction.

Simultaneously vulnerable and secure—shew, my Tayloresque tendencies can be quelled. Standing silent in Strawberry Field while distributing the fliers, I was vulnerable and secure.

However, both Matthais and I failed to embody these attributes during our performance at Bethesda Terrace. The uncertainty spawned by the unfamiliarity of the situation tempered my security. I failed to cultivate the trust necessary to create an environment within which Matthais and I could step outside of our comfort zones with ease. And as time passed, I became less secure with the vulnerability inherent in this action. Consequently, there was minimal interaction. 23

23 Many thanks to Doug Balder—activist, architect, colleague, and friend—whose questions continue to challenge my assumptions.

Approximately 4 years ago, while perched on a rock rising above Central Park's East Meadow, Doug turned to me and asked, "Do you think this rock was here before the park was designed or do you think it was part of Olmstead's grand plan? At the time, I remember answering, somewhat definitively, that most of the landscape was natural. Doug, in the style of Rainer Maria Rilke, let me "live into the answer."

DISPLAYING SUSTAINABLE BUILDING: A SYLLABUS

CONTEXT

In the fall of 2011, Lia Gartner, architect, and Vice President of The New School's Office of Design, Construction, and Facilities Management, in conjunction with philosopher and Associate Dean of Sustainability, Cameron Tonkinwise, as well as administrator and Assistant Director of Sustainabil ity and Energy,1 Gwen Kilvert, began framing a 15-week adventure entitled Displaying Sustainable Building. Consid ering my experience as an exhibit designer, I was invited by Cameron Tonkinwise, to design and facilitate the studio component of Displaying Sustainable Building. My first question:

HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUSTAINABILITY?

Cameron's interpretations of sustainability are grounded in the development of shared economies that seek to de couple use and ownership through collaborative consump tion. Suffice it to say, I can roll with finding innovative ways of circumventing capital accumulation. Game on! Or, as Cuomo might say," Carpe diem!"

During our first meeting, I received the brief: The studio should focus on developing proposals that make "the struc ture, operations, and context of The New School legible. The new building has a large number of leading sustainable features that The New School would like to display to: us ers of the building for improving its everyday performance; visitors (physical and virtual) to the building informing them about the features of the building; students at The New School, providing a dynamic resource for learning about more sustainable built environments. In other words, to tell a story.

1 Due to budgetary constraints

The Office of Sustainability was dis solved in May 2012. The New School Office of Design, Construc tion, and Facilities Management.

THEORY OF ACTION; A MESSAGE FROM INDUSTRY TO YOU... ON DISPLAY, SPECTACLE, AND EDUCATION

An unlikely, but popular, storyteller during the 50s was the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). After World War II, this advocacy group turned bureaucratic engine began producing Industry on Parade, a 15-minute2 public af fairs television program that infiltrated homes, classrooms, and community centers across the Nation. By displaying a carefully curated "pictorial review" of "the structure, opera tions, and context" of business and industry, this newsreel effectively reinforced capitalist ideologies as manifest in American architecture, manufacturing, and labor. Each epi sode was divided into three sections by two short interludes featuring 'A Message From Industry To You...' during which a stern voice would "proclaim the glory of American capital istic industry over communism, 3 warn of inflation, promote voting and conservation, and sing the praises of industry's effects on society."4

Fast forward 60 years to a Nation riddled by debt and eco nomic woes—new industries, new parade, same story. In May 2010, as construction commenced on TNS University Center, architectural critic Nicolai Ouroussoff observed: “What enlivens the design is not its bling, but its emphasis on the spectacle of social interaction. The interior, it turns out, is packed with communal spaces meant to encourage casual interactions. The exposed staircases are intended to put the flow of movement through the building on display

2 Incidently, Muzak's Stimulus Progression program was also seg mented into 15-minute intervals.

3 "A Message From Industry to You... On Capital Forma tion." Prod. National Association of Manufacturers. YouTube Global Image Works, 1955. Web. <https:⁄⁄www.youtube. com⁄watch?v=TK5S0acKCBM>.

4 Mittell, Jason S. "Invisible Footage: Industry on Parade and Television Historiography." Film History 9, 1997: 201.

to the world. They embody the idea—a popular one in architecture today—that getting an education should not be about barricading yourself inside a monastery but par ticipating fully in public life.“5

When social interaction is reduced to spectacle, there is a problem. When a sliver of glass penetrating an otherwise impermeable brass facade translates to "participating fully in public life," there is a problem. The problem, to quote David Harvey, is that "Once the city is imaged (by capital) solely as spectacle, it can then only be consumed passively, rather than actively created by the populace at large through politi cal participation."6

Whether a television script, architectural program, or a classroom curriculum, design engaged as a didactic entity with circumscribed utility limits our individual and collective capacity to engage with our surroundings. Consequently, displaying sustainable building is an oxymoron that contra dicts the ontological imperative of an institution dedicated "to preparing students to bring actual, positive change to the world.”7 How might individuals develop the skills neces sary to negotiate, let alone spawn change in, the world if not afforded the opportunity to engage in their immediate sur

5 Ouroussoff, Nicolai. "Brassy and Glass, And the World Inside On Display." The New York Times. 05 May 2010. Web. <http::⁄⁄www. nytimes.com⁄2010⁄05⁄06⁄arts⁄design/06building.html?_r=0>.

6 Harvey, David. "The Political Economy of Public Space." The Politics of Public Space. Ed. Setha M. Low and Neil Smith. New York: Rout ledge, 2006. 17-34.

7 "About." The New School. Web. <http::⁄⁄www.newschool.edu⁄about. aspx>.

roundings? If relegated to users, consumers, or occupants?

Rather than advertise a product or tell as story, what if designers focused their time, energy, and insight toward crafting really affective questions?

THEORY OF ACTION, IN ACTION

On January 15, 2012, I uploaded the following syllabus to the 'Displaying Sustainable Building: Conversations Toward A More Sustainable Future' blog:8

Architecture as living organism is a philosophy that has been widely hailed in theory but fallen short of expectations in practice. Why? Primarily because organic and inorganic mat ter have lacked means of communication. Until now.

The New School University Center, currently under construc tion at 65 Fifth Avenue in New York City, has the capacity to ‘converse’ with its surrounding organic and inorganic environ ment! How? By asking questions. To what end? Or perhaps a better question might be to what beginning?

Sustainability. R. Buckminster Fuller defined sustainability as “the conscious design of our total environment, in order to help make the Earth’s finite resources meet the needs° of all of humanity without disrupting the ecological processes of the planet.” (Undoubtedly, we will develop our own interpretations of sustainability.)

8 Nash, Kiersten. "Project Overview." Displaying Sustainable Building. The New School, 14 Jan. 2012. Web. <http::⁄⁄tnsuniversitycenter. com/2012spring/?page_id=2>

The pedagogical elements of the building will be informed by this course—a radical opportunity for participants to shape an alternative reality that marries theory and practice, organic and inorganic agency toward a more sustainable future. Over the next 15 weeks we will explore design’s capacities, capabilities, and culpabilities as it relates to the social, ecological, political, and economic responsibilities of the University Center within and beyond the boundaries of Manhattan.

Conceptual Design

The New School and the University Center’s interdisciplin ary design team developed a conceptual design brief that outlines the environmental commitments of the University Center, the sustainable systems dedicated to addressing each commitment, as well as the potential impact and main components of each system. Therefore, how might we unveil the structure, operations and context of these primar ily invisible infrastructures to engage the human and nonhuman agents in a dynamic dialectic toward sustainability?

Schematic Design

This semester is dedicated to expanding the capabilities of the sustainable systems outlined in the conceptual brief. Our objective is to find opportunities that allow occupants to engage in dialogue with the University Center in an effort to improve the everyday sustainable practices of both. As designers, we will devote a considerable portion of our resources to researching how the University Center will function as a living organism within the larger social, politi cal, and economic ecologies of Manhattan…and ultimately

the Universe (sustainability is inherently grandiose). We will develop narrative frameworks from the quantitative and qualitative data collected from interviews, site visits, litera ture reviews as well as more speculative design probes.

The narrative frameworks will serve as the foundation upon which we will construct schematics—detailed plans that visualize opportunities to highlight creative conversations between the University Center and its environment. Our schematic designs—including narrative frameworks, docu mentation and comprehensive storyboards—will be pre sented to Lia Gartner, the University Center’s Vice President of Design, Construction and Facilities Management, i.e. our client, in addition to a select panel of various stakeholders and distinguished guests. The most innovative schematic designs will progress through the remaining phases of the Displaying Sustainable Building Project:

Design Development (Fall 2012) Schematic designs will be further detailed according to materials, size, shape. Proto types will be tested.

Construction Documents (Spring 2013) Specifications will be drawn based on evaluation of prototypes. Students will work closely with a fabricator to develop final construction documents.

Installation (Spring - Summer 2013)

Program Development (Fall 2013) Students will aid in the design of educational programming, including facilitated

tours that educate individuals how to converse with the University Center’s sustainable operations.

REFLECTIONS: ON THE NEGOTIATION

Negotiation is an integral part of an effective collaboration. To give and to take or exchange. A seemingly simple theory of action that I am only recently beginning to embrace in action. There were several negotiations involved in drafting the initial Displaying Sustainable Building (DSB) syllabus See Appendix 140-141.

Sustainability is a social practice.

During our initial meeting, Gwen, Cameron, and I discussed the technical and social components of sustainability. I was primed for the discussion, having just spent the summer working in conjunction with Lucy Kimbell a prolific practi tioner working at the intersection of social science, design theory, business management, and art.9 Drawing on Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory of relational complexities as well as the investigations of Pierre Bourdieu, Elizabeth Shove, and Michel de Certeau, I stressed the importance of framing sustainability as a social practice. While vari ous systems woven throughout the University Center are

9 For three months during the summer of 2011, Lucy Kimbell opened the doors of her studio…and life to me. From the halls of Westmin ster City Council and Oxford University to the castles of Edinburgh, I followed Lucy. This phenomenal adventure in conjunction with Lucy's unique perspective, candid nature, and passion for social justice contributed immensely to the development of my practice, and consequently, this thesis. Thank you Lucy.

technologically advanced, they stand no chance of becom ing (politically, economically, socially, or environmentally) sustainable if they do not engage (and I would now argue challenge) the materials, knowledge, and practices of the human and non-human agents of said system. Needless to say, this is not a hard sell when you have Cameron Tonken wise in the room. (Later, this 'victory' comes back to haunt me. As you may notice, my interpretation of engagement evolves and is further qualified as [dis]engagement, likewise with learning and [un]learning.)

Sometimes what's absent speaks the loudest. Exhibit, legibility, digital media, visualizations, and except for the title, display were effectively removed from the syllabus! As were the words user, audience, and GREEN° !

Sadly, there are also many texts which didn't make the cut. According to Cameron, students don't read. If there's an insight that I'd like to share, I was advised to paraphrase it during our time in the studio. I disagreed. I'm a student. I read. However, Cameron was ultimately the authority. So, the reading requirements remained minimal. I did however manage to post a treasure trove of resources for interested individuals.

Process as product. Or, product as process. Somewhat by default given my experience, the course framework mirrors the standard design schedule em ployed by most exhibit projects (assuming that funding is consistent). This pragmatic approach offered solace to my colleagues. but ultimately left little to be desired in the way

of innovation.

A considerable portion of the semester, as outlined in the DSB timeline,10 is dedicated to understanding the mecha nization of the 'sustainable' systems woven throughout TNS University Center. To this end, Gwen Kilvert invited members of the original TNSUC design team to directly lend their knowledge to the class. In attempt to foster dialogue that facilitates the exchange of knowledge, I framed our weekly engage ments as an interviews. Which afforded me the opportunity to foreground active listening as a tool in our collaborative kit.11 Unfortunately, this tactic was ineffective. Most conver sations either began or devolved into presentations in which information would flow in one direction, without question or critique. Rather than communicating with one another, in this traditional banking model of education, "the teacher (in this case, members of TNSUC design team) issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patient ly receive, memorize, and repeat…the scope of action al lowed to students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits."12 I should've known better. Fostering conversation necessitates an investment of time and energy for all those involved. Actually I did know better. I attempted

10 Nash, Kiersten. "Timeline." Displaying Sustainable Building. The New School, 15 Jan. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄tnsuniversitycenter. com/2012spring/?page_id=290>.

11 Nash, Kiersten. "Toolkit." Displaying Sustainable Building. The New School, 15 Jan. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄tnsuniversitycenter. com⁄2012spring⁄?page_id=376>.

12 Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000.

to model active listening by engaging individuals early in their presentation in a question that might divert the presenta tion as rehearsed and precipitate a dialogue. This tactic was moderately successful as was posting possible questions on the course blog. Ideally, I would have like to speak with our guests in preparation for their visit. However, considering Gwen facilitated this portion of the course, I opted to respect her preferred methods. In hindsight, ironically, I should've initiated a conversation with Gwen regarding how we might cultivate a more interactive framework by which individuals could glean information.

Throughout the development of the syllabus, I often found myself in the position of having to defend the feasibility of the final projects to my administrative colleagues (primarily Gwen). This conversation helped solidify my expectations of the 15-week curriculum. I am more intrigued by the pro cess than the product or, more accurately, the 'product' as a process—a diagram of forces that converge to spawn an idea. Given this expectation, in the future, I would approach the design of a syllabus with more ambiguity and creativity.

NOTE

For 15 weeks in the Spring of 2012, I had the privilege of sharing Monday evenings with a motley crew of 22 under graduates that participated in the 'Displaying Sustainable Building: Conversations Toward A More Sustainable Future' studio. The dialogue that unfolded profoundly influenced

[UN] SEEN: AN EXERCISE

CONTEXT

The uncertainty spawned by critical reflection is an integral part of the practice of [un]learning. While the wonderland known as Art is no stranger to site-specific strategery, par ticularly that envisioned by Richard Florida and his creative capitalists, many individuals who identify themselves as artists have honed phenomenal capacities to transgress norms that have become culturally inscribed in our percep tual fields in order to provoke reflection by challenging our assumptions in situ. Or as Foucault posited,"…by the madness which interrupts it, a work of art opens a void, a moment of silence, a question without answer, provokes a breach without reconciliation where the world is forced to question itself."1 From the subtle tilt of Serra's monumental arc to the destabilizing dominion of Sandback's delicate strings, art works to (are capable of working toward) inves tigate, [dis]assemble and [re]frame site as a complex and contradictory physiological system designed and performed in flux. Consequently, in the Spring of 2012, while preparing for a discussion regarding the [in]visible narratives woven throughout our environment,I turned to artists for guidance.

THEORY OF ACTION

This may seem like a Deleuzian pool in which everyone drowns, however I can assure you it's not. Rather this tactic asks individuals to investigate and [dis]assemble an unfamiliar environment in order to understand the em bedded agents and corresponding affects.

According to Walter Benjamin, "It is only through the inten sification of everyday experiences that social change can occur."2 For the purposes of this assignment, I selected famil iar environments that were not part of participants everyday with the assumption that the beliefs and bias embedded in the everyday inhibit individual's capacities to perceive the various actors and narratives woven into the infrastructure.

This exercise serves as a primer for the following week's titled 'In The Wild' which asks individual's to repeat the same actions in the context of their everyday. Ultimately, this tactic, in addition to others explored this semester, seeks to expose latent environmental assumptions and unveil the structure, operations, and context of the corresponding infrastructures, so that individuals can translate this knowledge into innova tive theories of action that manifest in action as critical environ ments or objects. Essentially to develop their own praxis.

THEORY OF ACTION, IN ACTION Preliminary Reading

Lockton, Dan. “If…” Design with Intent. 09 Feb. 2012. Web. <http://architectures.danlockton.co.uk/2012/02/09/if/>.

View the following:

Olafur Eliasson: The Weather Project

Volkswagon: Piano Staircase

Improve Everywhere: Say Something Nice

Niklas Roy: My Little Piece of Privacy

1 Foucault, Michel. "Conclusion." Madness & Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Ran dom House, 1965: 288. Web. < http:⁄⁄libcom.org⁄files⁄Michel%20 Foucault%20-%20Madness%20and%20Civilization.pdf>.

2 Benjamin, Walter. "The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov." Illuminations. Trans. Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken, 1968: 83-109.

Select one and write a brief summary reflecting on how the design elicits engagement by outlining the following:

Identify the specific points of engagement.

List the human and non-human components involved in the interaction.

Consider the underlying assumptions of the design. What does the interaction require of the user and the envi ronment? What affordances does the interaction provide for the ‘user’? And the environment? What is the sensorial hierarchy (i.e. which modality is engaged first, and second, third, etc)? What are the leading and lagging environmental and behavioral indicators? What are the political, social, economic, or environmental forces influencing the space, including individuals?

Diagram the interaction. What is the dialogue between the user and the component? What is the user ‘saying’? What is the component ‘saying’? How was the conversation initiated? What are the explicit and implicit behaviors? What are the environmental condi tions that might influence the interaction between the human and non-human agents, space, and time?

Speculate on the designers’ intended vs actual outcome. Was the design adapted in use? If so, how? What are poten tial quantitative and qualitative units of analysis to evaluate the designer’s outcome?

Please note, I do not claim authorship for the following insights, but find them immensely helpful for fostering my own reflection. The work is cited as a means to highlight the correlation between the conversations throughout the DSB studio and the evolution of [un]learning as a praxis for explication.

Niklas Roy’s “My Little Piece of Privacy” was provocative in the sense that the curtain does exactly the opposite of what it is meant to do: instead of maintaining privacy, it promotes voyeurism. What is most dynamic about it is the constant dialectic between the user and the viewer. At the same time, the parties are not clearly defined as sepa rate entities. Both parties play both roles. This ambiguity is what gives the work another dimension.

The most obvious set of roles is the passerby as the user, and the person behind the window as viewer. The user’s (passerby’s) environment, the open space, is what puts him in a vulnerable position. He is not aware of the entire situa tion at first, and wants to view what is behind the window but cannot. At the same time the person behind the window knows everything and can view everything. He is in a closed space and therefore plays the more dominant role of the

3 Nyguen, Lana and Linda Xin. "My Little Piece of Privacy: A Dialectic." Displaying Sustainable Building:Conversations Toward A More Sustainable Future. The New School, 02 Apr. 2012. Web. <http:⁄⁄tnsuniversitycenter.com⁄2012spring⁄?page_id=1787>.

MY LITTLE PIECE OF PRIVACY 3 Interpreted by Lana Nyguen and Linda Xin

person in control.

However, the power can shift. This happens when the viewer on the outside starts to understand what is going on: that the curtain is motion sensing his movement. Once he discovers this, he is now just as aware of the entire situation as the person behind the window. Now the passerby becomes the one in control. He can decide to quickly move sideways and take a glimpse at what is behind the curtain. The user on the outside has now become the viewer in control of the situa tion. The role of the environment has now changed as well. The closed space is now the vulnerable position. There is also a direct dialogue between the user (human component) and the curtain (non-human component). The human instigates the curtain to move. At the same time, the curtain instigates the human to move when the passerby sees it and decides to test what they saw. Both are making the other one act.

The sensory hierarchy involves 4 layers: body-mind-bodymind. At first the peripheral vision is engaged, a bodily awareness that leads to the passerby’s state of questioning what he just saw (mind). After this, the viewer tests his mind by moving his body, which then turns into a full mental awareness of the situation. See Appendix 142-143.

THE WEATHER PROJECT Interpreted by Louis Wright

"Weather is neither faceless nor passive. It is real, it shapes your life, and you influence it with your actions. The way you act, the way you are, the way you see yourself is intertwined with the thing we refer to as 'weather'. The natural systems you interact with every day are constantly changing and flux

alters the way life is lived all over the world."

The physical design of the human-scale architecture in the Turbine Hall determines how users can interact with The Weather Project. The shape and directionality forms a major non-human component of this designed experi ence. The lines in the room reflected by the mirrored surface, draw participants towards the sun, as well as increase the de-familiarizing effect of the situation. This room may be familiar to many 'users' and has now been transformed. It is a type of disruption that invites reflec tion and re-evaluation. The Weather Project, like the best installation-based art, enters into a dialogue not only with viewers but with the space it inhabits.

The central walkway structure offers a space from which to view the sun as well as to spectate at the individuals moving on the main floor of the hall. However, it also takes the viewer out of the conversation to a certain degree. They cannot lie down on this walkway, they cannot be as free as the users on the floor. They are, in fact, spectators; while the individuals on the floor can engage more physically and viscerally with the interaction. The structure's status as a connection between rooms outside of the Hall also renders it a sort of 'interface point' between this unfamiliar, constructed reality and the more familiar atmosphere of the Tate's galleries. These kinds of details are very important for understanding and analyzing how a population of users interface with an installation.

While the installation focuses on weather, climate, and so ciety's relationship with these systems, it could also be seen

as a comment on the role (and strangeness) of monolithic spaces like Turbine Hall. With the sun inside, the Hall could be the world itself. What is it like to be a human being in a landscape that dwarfs you? What is it to be a being that con structs these landscapes? Why does a well-lit space of this size engender propriety and whispering, while this warmed, darkened expanse encourages play, experimentation, and new ways of thinking?

"This is an unfamiliar environment, and I am not entirely sure how to evaluate the differences in my surroundings. The opportunity to watch myself in this context makes me feel reflective and playful."

The sun-lamp initiates the conversation with the user. How ever, the ceiling and floor, and their inter-relationship, argu ably do most of the talking. The floor's broad uncluttered expanse is a major affordance in this system. It allows the user to define their own experience of the installation and decide what they take away. The darkness and shadowed space caused by the mono-frequency lamp creates an af fordance of privacy in an otherwise hyper-public space. The user is encouraged to use this darkness as a space for reflec tion and play, while at the same time their actions are made public by the mirrored ceiling.

The mirrored ceiling, the large mono-frequency 'sun', and the floor are the main points of interface between the user and the exhibition in this case. The sun is the main focal point. It is the embodiment of the 'weather' in the piece's title, a close encounter with a force that usually resides far outside our ev

eryday experience. The light changes completely transforms the room creating a dark warm intimacy in a normally vast, echoing hall. While it is not the main feature of the installa tion, the mirrored ceiling is actually the element that defines the user experience. By allowing users watch themselves in a newly transformed space, the giant passively transforms Turbine Hall's floor into an entirely new space—a playground, an alien landscape, an event in and of itself. This is the most important lesson that we as a class and a design team can learn from The Weather Project—it not only activates reflec tion and thought about the role of climate in our lives, and our effect on it, it activates the physical space it inhabits without actually altering it. As we focus on exhibiting a building, this is of premiere interest. The Weather Project makes Turbine Hall a space for reflection and play, arguably the two concomitant activities that offer the most promise of practice disruption and behavior change. See Appendix 144-145.

REFLECTIONS

Less Is More

The first seven weeks of the semester were primarily devot ed to understanding the form and function of the University Center's blackwater, aircuity, and cogeneration systems. Two weeks ago the focus shifted. We were now ready to ask: how might we unveil the structure, operations, and context of these infrastructures to engage human and non-human agents in a dynamic dialectic toward sustainability?

Step 01: Scale out and begin to assemble the framework for each narrative. Title: Visible Infrastructures. Exercise:

Using the attached north⁄ south exterior elevation of the University Center, each group was responsible for mapping the components of their respective systems.

Step 02: Time to add a little detail. Title: Sensing the Situa tion. Exercise: Using our senses, let’s illustrate the visible and invisible components within our narrative frameworks on the enclosed elevation and floor plan of a typical University Center dorm room. Repeat exercise from step 01, imagin ing you are a student navigating a University Center dorm spaces like the one below. What are the tangible and intan gible components of the UC’s sustainable systems that you encounter—see, hear, taste, touch, smell? Consider walking into the kitchenette, what components of the black water system do you engage with while preparing lunch? What’s on your plate? What’s in your glass? Etc? What are the components are perhaps hidden from your immediate per ception, ie buried in the floor, behind a wall, etc? Keep scale in mind—ginormous, miniscule, and everything in between. We are equal opportunity designers.

Each of the above exercises proved interesting. However, the insights generated from this exercise were far more complex, creative, and provocative. I believe this is due to the contrasting frameworks. In hindsight, the first two were incredibly prescriptive and left little margin for interpreta tion. On the other hand, the framework for this exercise is relatively open. The resulting text and visuals afforded individuals the opportunity to interpret the material based on their capacities. I consequently was afforded a more in depth understanding of who was comprehending what.

Users begone!

Did I say 'user'? Yes—several times. And, not surprisingly, it has been repeated over and over and over again. Folks, meet Joe and Josephine—our quantified selves. See Appendix 146-147.

Equipped an anthropometry toolkit of calipers, block rulers, protractors, foot-measuring boxes, and scales, Herbert Drey fuss his interdisciplinary team of designers, meticulously measured every part of 'the'4 human body, through every stage of development. In 1955, the results were charted in The Measure of Man: Human Factors in Design. Heralded as

4 This is an oversimplification (albeit apt considering the context). Joe and Josephine are actually the spawn of sample populations ranging from 2000-4000 individuals whose measurements have been have been meticulously measured "between bony protuberances and end points are preferred...(flesh measurements may not be as accu rate)"...and then plotted "with the measurements on the horizontal x axis increasing toward the right from the zero point. The frequency of occurrences is plotted on the vertical y axis, increasing toward the top from the zero point." Resulting in a normal distribution curve. Each median point is assembled to create Average Joe or Josephine.

the pioneer of 'Human Engineering' 5 Dreyfuss 6 professed, "If people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient—or just plain happier—the designer has succeeded."7 If people are made? Why do we, myself included, insist on 'making' one another? According to Elaine Scarry, making, i.e. creation, is the transference of per ception from the designer to the material form. Consequently, objects, services, environments, and even entire ecologies are the manifestation of our complex and often contradictory desires and imaginations.8 Thirty years after Dreyfuss quanti fied human factors in design, Donald Norman developed a framework, known as user-centered design (sounds much better than human engineering) to qualify them. Personas, scenarios, and case studies are designed in collaboration with those individuals identified as potential users in order to qualify and quantify need.°

Like the U.S. Green° Building Council's LEED program, neither

5 The application of knowledge about human beings to design.

6 Interesting side note: upon graduating from the Ethical Culture School of New York in 1923, Herbert Dreyfuss designed costumes, sets, and lighting for the Strand and Radio-Keith-Orpheum theaters in New York under the tuteledge of Norman Bel Geddes, legendary Broadway stage designer and industrial engineer. Dreyfuss, Henry. Designing for People. New York: Allworth, 2003.

7 Dreyfuss, Henry. The Measure of Man: Human Factors in Design. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1967.

8 Scarry, Elaine. "The Interior Structure of the Artifact." The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. New York: Oxford UP, 1985: 278-326.

TRAINING: A WORKSHOP

1

CONTEXT

"How many of you try on your designs?" I asked a group of fashion designers in the Displaying Sustainable° Build ing (DSB) studio. It was a simple question that yielded pro found insight. Not one! "How many of you have ever tried on anything that you've designed?" Two out of approximately 14 fashion designers raised their hand…1

THEORIES OF ACTION, IN ACTION: TUNING UP, OUT, AND IN I began reflecting on my own practice. How many hours did I spend comfortably seated at a desk—fully caffeinated, Pandora drowning out the office banter—with mouse in hand, clicking away? Too many! Each click, each line segment, would eventually translate into an environment somewhere that someone would inhabit. How does the environment within which I am designing influence what I'm designing? This seems like a fairly banal question in the context of exhibit design. But what if I was a civil engineer redesigning a road somewhere in the South Bronx, how might my cushy office environment influence⁄obscure my perspective? 'Site-visits' are standard practice. But how might the design of said road change if the engineer was situated in the South Bronx throughout the design process? How might the smell of the combined sewer overflow (CSO) effect her⁄his decisions? Or what if the office environment could mimic some of the environmental attributes or potential attributes of the South Bronx? What if while considering the affects of CSO, a foul odor permeated the office? Or what if a click of the mouse or movement of a line segment was dependent on the environment within which you're designing ? For example,

By the way, when I inquired, " Why haven't you tried on any of your designs?" One fashion designer replied, "They don't fit; the models are too small."

the weight of a line and consequently the force necessary to move it with the mouse might be proportional to the active agents within that particular field of coordinates?

In short, I came to the conclusion that the environments within which we design have a profound impact on what we're designing. And unless we're designing offices, it is imperative that we cultivate a broader understanding of the environments within which we're designing. And ideally, engage the agents within that field throughout the design process.

An academic environment is no exception as the DSB sche matic overview suggests: "the pedagogical elements of the building will be informed by this course—a radical opportuni ty for participants to shape an alternative reality that marries theory and practice, organic and inorganic agency…" So upon contemplating the DSB charrette, I had to ask myself:

HOW MIGHT I CULTIVATE AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH TRUST TEMPERS ANXIETY AND FOSTERS PLAY WHICH SPAWNS CREATIVE RISK?

To answer this question, I borrowed considerably from three pedagogues: George Maciunas, artist and author of the Fluxus Manifesto; Viola Spolin, a pioneer in improvi sational theatre games; and Bunker Roy, social activist and co-founder of Barefoot College..

In '72, Bunker Roy in collaboration with members of the Tilonia village in Rajasthan, transformed forty-five acres of government land and an abandon Tuberculosis Sanatoriaum

into what is now known as Barefoot College. Throughout its evolution, the College has embraced Mahatma Ghandi's spirit of service and sustainability° as a framework for rural development upon which initiatives for rural development are constructed, owned, and operated by village members. This practice is guided by six non-negotiable values: equal ity, collective decision-making, self-reliance, decentraliza tion and austerity. Bearfoot College defines itself as:

"A centre of learning and unlearning; where a teacher is a learner and a learner is a teacher; where everyone is expect ed to keep an open mind, try new, and crazy ideas, make mistakes and try again; where tremendous value is placed on the dignity of labour, of sharing, and those are willing to work with their hands; where no certificates, degrees, or diplomas are given."2

Less explicit, but fundamental to the cultivation of the workshop (and studio) as an experimental space, was the abolishment of the teacher⁄student hierarchy. As you might have noticed, I make a concerted effort not to use the word 'student.' I believe every collaboration, including that which unfolds in a traditional classroom, is a negotiation— a give and take—in which all participants are obligated to con tribute. This is not an attempt to foster consensus nor does it negate the necessity for individuality. It is an attempt to foster individual accountability and collective agency.

On April 9th, I posted the following to the DSB blog:

2 "Innovation." Barefoot College. 2012. Web. <http://www.barefootcol lege.org/barefoot-approach/innovation/>.

"Physical Training: Tune Up, Out, and In: This is not your average workout…nor is it your average workshop. This is Physical Training—a body-mind-space mash up! We will perform a series of exercises (i.e. experimental research methodologies) to: tune ip our perceptual affordances, in order to t une out of the habitual patterns of our everyday and tune in to a heightened situational awareness, so that we can explore and prototype innovative opportuni ties to unveil the structure and operations of the cogen eration, blackwater, Aircuity, and active design systems woven throughout the University Center in such a way that engage human and non-human agents in a dynamic dialectic toward sustainability ° ." 3

On April 13th, I forwarded a reminder to which I received the following reply:

from Ashley Baker <ashleykrisjon@gmail.com> to Kiersten Nash <nashk224@newschool.edu> date Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 12:38 PM re ULEC 2921.A.Sp12.7773: Course Announcement

Hi Kiersten,

What kind of a workshop is this going to be? Are we actually exercising? I thought it was a design workshop. Ashley

"Fear not Ashley. We will be designing!" I replied, thrilled knowing that I had successfully challenged her definition of design and expectations regarding the workshop.

3 Nash, Kiersten. "PT: Tune Up, Out, + In." Displaying Sustainable Build ing. The New School, 09 Apr 2012. Web <http:⁄⁄tnsuniversity center.com⁄2012spring⁄?page_id=2290>.

DAY ONE

Welcome!

Spatial Guidelines

Warm-Up Dual Actions

Tune Up, Tune Out + Tune In How might we…

Exercises Spatial Orientation Ideation

Polarity Mapping Sorting Selecting Co-Creation Selecting Scripting

See also Appendix 148

WELCOME

Adapting the Barefoot College approach to sustainability° as a pedagogy that fosters individual accountability and collective agency, I presented four non-negotiable values to participants in order to frame our 3-day adventure:

ALL IDEAS ARE WELCOME. GIVE+RECEIVE RESPECT. RESERVE JUDGEMENT.

Q+A: EQUAL OPPORTUNITY LENDERS.

While I assumed the authority to impose these four val ues, I also reserved the right for individuals to reject them. However, if they were to do so, they would no longer be welcome as participants in the workshop.

A simple good morning.

I arrived early to set of the studio for the days activities— move furnishings, install slide show, meet with photographer, set out name tags etc. This afforded me the opportunity to actually greet individuals when they arrived. Eye contact and a simple "good morning" really seems to satisfy people who are obligated to give up a portion of their Saturday for a workshop.

I also took my shoes off. I'm uncertain what precipitated this move, perhaps just an informality to project a sense of com fort and ease. Whatever the rationale, I have to say, I think this minor gesture affectively invited individuals to relax. Later while reviewing some of the photos, I noticed several individuals also had their shoes off for the majority of the morning.

Name tags.

It's a pitiful reality—10 weeks into the semester, we still did not know one another's names. So, I crafted name tags with a sharpie, some cardboard, and pins. The tags served a dual function: they were informative but they also, unexpectedly, helped establish a collective identity.

Speak softy and carry big stick?

Truth is, I actually slept very little the night before the work shop began. When functioning with insufficient sleep, I've noticed my voice is actually several octaves lower and much

softer. In general, individuals seem to be incredibly receptive to this tone (which unfortunately is difficult to mimic on a full night's rest).

WARM UP: AUTHENTIC MOVEMENT

As a former gymnast, I'm familiar with the conditioning process. Hours, days, weeks…years of my childhood were spent rehearsing routines in a small gym tucked behind Westport Shopping Mall, so that when the time came to compete, my muscles memory would take command of the situation—overriding any psychological jitters induced by the competitive environment—and perform with ease. Matter over mind. That said, I also was trained to tune out the environment—mind over matter.

An underlying assumption in the development of [un]learn ing and consequently the Physical Training workshop is that, over time, training—be it actively as a gymnast, politician, or designer; or passively via environment, culture, and identity —actually inhibits our capacities to innovate. A practice I've come to refer to as bodily ways of [un]knowing.

Choreographer Lucy Guerin provides an illuminating dem onstration of this assumption in 'Untrained,'4 in which: "Four men take to the stage. Two of these men are highly skilled, experienced dancers and two are acclaimed visual artists

4 Untrained. Chor. and Dir. Lucy Guerin, Mike Dunbar, Alistair Macin doe, Ross McCormack, and Jake Shackleton, and Mike Dunbar. Lucy Guerin Inc. BAM, Brooklyn. 30 November 2012. Performance. <http:⁄⁄www.bam.org⁄dance⁄2012⁄untrained>.

with no movement training whatsoever. The complex, refined movements that one man can do with ease, another can only approximate. All are given the same instructions. It’s how they execute them displays an individual portrait of each man’s character, as well as an unavoidable comparison between the participants. It’s the evolution of information, built up through units of action, that shows what they have in common and where their physical histories set them apart."5

Soon after I began designing the Physical Training workshop, I reached out to dancer, design strategist, and colleague in the Transdisciplinary Design MFA program, Rachel Lehrer (RL):

RL …wait. What?

KN I should probably back up for a moment. So basically… what I'm doing is expanding the field of wayfinding. So right now I'm prototyping new methodologies in this class that I'm facilitating. I'm designing perceptual exercises so that individuals might understand wayfinding as a sensorial ex perience which they navigate. It would also be great to work with you to create some of those activities. If interested, I'm happy to share more.

RL Yeah

KN Sweet. So, I'm designing a 3-day workshop. The work shop will inform the design of interventions that will be woven throughout the University Center. These interventions

5 Guerin, Lucy. "Untrained." Lucy Guerin Inc. Web. <http://www. lucyguerininc.com/works/Untrained>.

will frame the University Center as an adaptable political, social, and economic interface designed and performed in flux. Does that make sense?

…if we consider everything as vibrant matter, how do we, humans and non-humans engage in a dialogue if we're speaking two different languages? I think movement is a huge component.

RL So you have a mover and a witness. I think I did it for approximately 45 minutes but the time varies. The witness is just there to witness what happens and is completely nonjudgemental. The mover, moves with their eyes closed. You start in a fetal position on the floor. You have to pay attention to what's around you and how you feel.

RL Okay, so basically this quote is one I love: "To make a change, to become more consistent and hence more effec tive, I need° to become aware in the moment just before a habitual posture, gesture, voice-tone etc. takes over, so that I can exercise a choice. I need° to notice an opportunity to act differently to an established habit, and I need° an alternative to the habit to choose to activate." This is some guy (John Mason) Cameron (Tonkenwise) introduced me to. And I think this is important, particularly in regard to what you're talking about, because you're really asking people to under stand movement scripts, understand how their environment effects them, how they adapt their environment to sort of better represent them and I think all of that kind of under standing and awareness has to sort of be taught or someone has to be sort of given the experience of being more attune to what they're feeling for lack of a better word. Authentic movement is this attempt to uncover what the movements are on the inside. Like what are our actual movements? Our authentic movements?

KN Precisely! So attempting to veer away from this tradi tional sense of wayfinding.

.…the expectation is not that you move, but that you begin to understand what the impulses are that control your movement. My personal experience with it was profound. I had no idea what I was doing, but ended up slowly moving to wards the sunlight that was on the floor. So authentic move ment is a very specific way to get at an understanding of what the very subtle values are in the environment that make you move. And, in addition, try to understand what a body is that exists in a vacuum—where you don't have that visual impulse. And where your impulses are sort of beyond taste and touch but become about pressure…or soma-to-sensory perception which is touch, temperature, pain, pressure, and proprioception. Why we are able to do this with our eyes closed requires a particular attunement to how our bodies exists in space.

KN Yes! Moving away from a sensorial hierarchy that privi leges the visual is an essential element in this practice (of [un]learning)."6

For the first 20 minutes of the first two days (right after reviewing the four non-negotiable guidelines for Physical

Training), half of us closed our eyes and allowed Rachel to guide us into the unknown, while the other half witnessed the experience unfold. See Appendix 150

Amazing! It was a risk to begin the workshop with an exer cise that required such vulnerability, but it worked! I was as tounded at individual's ability to roll with it, to embrace the adventure. Seriously for the most part, people really enjoyed the process! I attribute this result to the following:

Finding the Familiar within the Unfamiliar. I reserved a studio on the 12th floor of the building for our workshop rather than our classroom. Not surprisingly, the change of environment dramatically shifted the individual and collective dynamics. The formal elements of the studio— a flat open space with tall ceilings and natural light flooding in through large windows—was a huge contrast to our classroom—a traditional stadium style lecture hall with fixed seating, no windows, and fairly awful florescent lighting. Finally, we were all standing on one level where we could move about freely and look one another in the eye. Within this unfamiliar architecture, we, as individuals in the DSB studio, became the familiar. Consequently, the new space contributed to our physical and psychological capacity to collectively step into the unknown of authentic movement.

Searching for the familiar within the unfamiliar seems like and innate response that could be leveraged in a variety of ways to either increase, decrease, or challenge adaptive capacities. tbc...

Simultaneously vulnerable and secure. Both Rachel and I were excited about the workshop. We'd dedicated a considerable amount of time to planning, knew what we intended to accomplish with this warm-up exercise, and yet had no idea how it might unfold in action. We were excited. Not anxious. Confident that what we were offering was valuable but inherently vulnerable considering this was entirely unfamiliar territory.

DUAL ACTIONS: THEORY OF ACTION, IN ACTION "Games , bound by limited information, an emphasis on play, and a manifestation as either a closed or open systems, struck Fluxus artists as a natural path for the creation of a vocabulary based on, or explicitly outside of, popular culture's rules and expectations. Fluxus artists were quick to see that games lay between the rational and the absurd, between mobility and fixed trajectories, and between logic and chance. Furthermore, Fluxus artists understood games as processes as well as outcomes, capable of disseminating even the most elusive of Fluxus ideas."7

Dual Actions are exercises, or games, designed to increase awareness of the various ways we communicate with our environment, as well as foster collective accountability and agency for the resources invested in each conversation. Each action requires a minimum of three agents—two human, one non-human: See also Appendix 151

7 Flanagan, Mary. Critical Play: Radical Game Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2009: 96.

Agents

minimum required for action

2 humans: 1 actor . 1 witness 1 non-human : water faucet

Dual actions are performative, discursive, and phenomeno logical exercises that tend toward the absurd. For example, individuals researching innovative ways to [dis]engage hu man and non-human agents in a dynamic dialectic regarding the blackwater system woven throughout The New School University Center, received the following instructions:

Rule

Water access is dependent on human interaction.

Instruction

If water is desired, then you must assume the role of actor by declaring to your witness:

I WANT WATER.

Your witness will then dispense a pre-determined amount of water (this amount is proportional to the amount of recent rainfall) If the initial amount of water dispensed is not enough, you must repeat (until satisfied):

MORE WATER. MORE WATER. MORE WATER…

Examples Of Use drinking

washing hands filling bottles

Individuals researching air quality in preparation for de signing an interesting opportunity to [dis]engage future inhabitants of TNS University Center with the Aircuity system were told:

Rule

This is a volatile organic compound (VOC) free zone.

Instruction

Upon directly or indirectly releasing any volatile organic compounds in the air, you must don a nose plug for the following five minutes. Witnesses are responsible for enforcing compliance.

Examples Of VOC paint sharpie disinfectant

The energy group engaging the cogeneration system were instructed as follows:

Rule

All human energy consumption must be offset by human energy production.

Instruction

Every time you consume energy from the building, you must off set your action with a physical reaction. Witnesses are

responsible for enforcing compliance.

Examples Of Consumption outlet light elevator

Examples Of Production jumping jacks spinning in place moonwalk

While planning the dual action portion of the workshop, I en visioned a studio of 22 individuals, the majority of whom were diligently working, immersed in their collaborations. But then there were a couple who (seemingly) out of nowhere would be forced to do 10 jumping jacks or sit there with a clothespin attached to their nose or…In my mind, this was fairly humorous. However the humor was tempered by dominion. Dominion of one individual over another. Dominion of humans over nonhumans and vise-versa. In my mind, the duality of the actions would engage the uncanny.

The reality of the situation proved otherwise. By the middle of day one, witnesses were too engrossed in the development of their ideas to identity and enforce behavior. Ironically this is exactly the reason that I think physical training as a practice to tune up,out, and in is necessary; however, there's a fine line between the benefits and hindrances of engaging and [dis]engaging. It became clear that my intent was actually to foster the ability to do both—to engage and disengage, to

learn and unlearn. And, perhaps more importantly, to have the capacity to identify when either is or should happen.

DAY TWO Welcome!

Spatial Guidelines Warm-Up Checking-In Exercises

Mapping The Sensorial Hierarchy Site Seen

Site [Un]Seen In The Wild See Appendix 149

SITE [UN]SEEN: THEORY OF ACTION, IN ACTION

In the introduction to her book, A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman asserts, "The senses don't just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity, they tear reality apart into vibrant morsels and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern."8

Absolutely...assuming that said senses belong to an active in dividual free to move and experience the world. Consider the classic kitty carousel that professors, Richard Held and Alan Hein, from Brandeis University crafted in 1963. (Forewarning: I'm almost certain a few of our furry friends were harmed in the process). Based on previous auditory and visual studies,

8 Ackerman, Diane. Introduction. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Random House, 1990.

Held and Hein were aware of the fact that human percep tion is plastic, it can adapt. However, the extent to which perceptual adaptation relied on 'concurrent self-produced movements' was yet to be determined. So, Held and Hein de signed an experiment to test if "being moved around and see ing the environment change was sufficient to develop visually guided behaviour, such as depth perception, or whether an individual needs° to experience self-generated movement in order to learn."9

The kitty carousel was a black and white stripped metal cyl inder. In the center was a roundabout to which two kittens were attached—one active (A) and one passive (P). The movements of Kitten A propelled the roundabout and hence Kitten P who sat suspended in a basket. If Kitten A walked clockwise, so did Kitten P (though with all four legs dangling from the basket, could feel the floor as it moved along). Nei ther cat could see the other. Over the course of six weeks, 10 kittens spent 3 hours a day in the carousel. The results of this torture? Kitten A learned to see normally. However, Kit ten P was effectively blind—its eyes could see, but its brain did not learn how to interpret the sensory input.

The Held Hein experiment has never been duplicated; however, in 2002 an article in the popular science maga zine, Discover , titled 'Sight Unseen' chronicled a similar scenario. This time the subject was not kittens, but a man by the name of Mike May. After a lifetime of being 9 Uniview Worldwide. "Hard To Find Classics 10: Held & Hein." Laboratoire De Recherche En Informatique. Université Paris-Sud.

blind, May regained his sight…sort of. Doctors restored the sensory receptors in his right eye to provide crystal clear vision. However, because Mays had moved through the first forty-three years of his life—as a downhill skier, soccer buff, business man, husband, and father—with out the means to see, his brain never processed visual input. Consequently, even though Mays can 'see' perfectly through his right eye, he still "travels with his dog, Josh, or taps the sidewalk with a cane, and refers to himself as "a blind man with vision."10

Iain Kerr and Petia Morozov of the research and design collaborative, Spurse, introduced me to the Held Hein ex periment. During a workshop, Producing Empathic Fields11 the fourth and final part of Understanding Ourselves as the City—Iain and Petia asked participants to navigate Seward Park, in the Lower Eastside of NYC, with earplugs and blind folded. Fortunately, we were afforded a partner who was tasked with insuring our general safety as well as recording our route and any memories the experience precipitated along the way. It was a phenomenal experience! Literally. My perception of self and the city was transformed in the moment that put the blindfold on (earplugs were already firmly lodged in place).

10 Abrams, Michael, and Alyson Aliano. "Sight Unseen." Discover, June 2002. Discovermagazine.com. Kalmbach Publishing Co., 01 June 2002. Web. <http:⁄⁄discovermagazine.com⁄2002⁄jun⁄featsight#. UsJLx_axZic>.

11 Kerr, Iain, and Petia Morozov. "Producing Empathic Fields." Proc. of BMW Guggenheim Lab, New York City. 2011. <http:⁄⁄www. bmwguggenheimlab.org⁄where-is-the-lab⁄new-york-lab⁄new-yorklab-events⁄event⁄live-feeds-feedforward-9-producing-empathicfields?instance_id=496>.

I was reminded of this experience when planning the Physi cal Training workshop. I wanted participants to experience the space within which they were going to design from multiple perspectives. I expected the disorientation might challenge⁄expand their assumptions of affordances embed ded in the context. So I adapted Spurse's design for the purposes of our exploration:

BIOSPATIAL HABITS

SENSE + DOCUMENT( behaviors + feelings)

1 sensor . 1 witness . 1 documentarian

5 mins

Blind Folded

What do you hear . feel . taste. smell?

5 mins

Blind Folded with Sound Cone

What do you hear?

Where are the sounds coming from? What do you feel . taste. smell?

5 mins

Blind Folded + Ear Plugs with Dowel

What is the dowel telling you?

In groups of three, individuals were to explore their chosen site in and around The New School on East 16th Street—the sensor explored the space based on the given set of constraints; the witness insured the sensors safety as well as mark touchpoints with circular stickers (areas where the sensor came in direct

contact with the environment); and the documentarian digitally captured the experience as it unfolded. See also Appendix

152 Each group had some familiarity with the context having already explored the 'Site Seen' in the preceding exercise. Vision was the first modality impaired. With a blindfold (scraps of an old bed sheet I'd cut up the night before) securely fastened around their noggin, sensors where to navigate the space, while stating out loud events and corresponding feelings as they unfolded. This continued for five minutes. The exact same process, with the same individuals assuming the same roles, was repeated two more times—once with the addition of a sound cone designed (by fellow Transdisciplinary Design colleagues) to amplify audio input and again with ear plugs that eliminated audio input.

What transpired over the course of the next 30 minutes (the allotted 15 didn't cut it ) was nothing short of amazing! Watching the participants movements, listening to their thoughts and feelings unfold, and finally share in their disbelief, was an incredible experience. According to one participant, Louis Wright (LW):12 See Appendix 153

LW …spaces get way bigger when you have a blindfold on. They just do. They get bigger because you have to put more of your body into them…You're not using your eyes as an extension of your physical form, so you don't fill the room with your perception, your confined to the space your body physically occupies (gestures to his physical form). So you realize spaces are much bigger than you think they are.

12 Wright, Louis. "In Conversation." Personal interview. 16 Apr. 2012. Vimeo. <https:⁄⁄vimeo.com⁄61197147.

And that informs how people navigate them.

KN How did it inform you?

LW …it informed me about the lobby of this building—that space is huge! Which I realize is why they put in those ropes; that space is totally unnavigable. There are no cues whatsoever and, actually, if you follow how that room works, rhythmically, you get to a wall. The room is directed at the back wall. It's not directed at the elevators. There no reason for you to walk to the elevators otherwise. You know what I mean? There's no reason to make a 90 degree turn in the middle of an empty room.

of Design, Construction, and Facilities Management—es sentially our 'clients'—also, inadvertently, crashed the party. On Day 03, they dropped by to check out the workshop. How ever, I found their presence difficult to negotiate for several reasons: one, they are the 'client;' two, entertaining while facilitating is too much; three, they hadn't participated in any other activities throughout the workshop and therefore did kind of crash the 'party', although truth be told, I invited them.

Consistency

REFLECTIONS

Day 01 of Physical Training facilitation, which employed more familiar tactics of [dis]engagement polarity mapping, ideation, selection, movement scripting, etc., felt much smoother. Although, both Day 01 and 02, were incredibly generative.

Participation

Participation contributed greatly to the atmosphere throughout the workshop. As noted, participation was not manda tory. However, I recommended that if an individual preferred not to participation to please leave the studio until they were ready to actively engage. In general, the majority of individuals participated in the majority of exercises, even the authentic movement warm up! However, on the second day, Cameron joined to observe the workshop. Ultimately his presence seemed more of a distraction primarily because he, a figure of considerable authority in this environment, was not par ticipating. Lia Gartner and Thomas Whalen from the Office

In a short time a daily rhythm was established day—arrive, greet every-one good morning, review guidelines, warm up. Unfortunately however, Rachel was unavailable to participate in the workshop on the third day, so we opted to forgo the warm up. In hindsight, I think this was a mistake. The warm up was an integral part of the workshop—a sun salutation with a secret handshake. It physically and psychologically sepa rated us from our everyday lives. It also reaffirmed the trust necessary to maintain magic circle by placing everyone in a state of momentary vulnerability and security.

Affects

Three weeks after the Physical Training workshop on the last day of class, we reflected on the DSB semester:

AC I see buildings now as like, humans. They have a brain— a central processing unit. Like they have downstairs at One Bryant Park…Usually when someone walks into a building they're like oh, it's just a solid structure but then seeing how all the components go together, you see this thing as living.

A life. Maybe even breathing…taking in air from the out side…so actually seeing this as a living structure.

LN And I was thinking just now, if we were water or air coming into the building, shouldn't we do something to filter out the bad things within the building?

LW Yeah.13 Effects

KN Do you think there's a capacity for Physical Training to scale into conversations regarding socio-spatial justice?

LW Yeah! Definitely. Definitely…The physical, and I guess phenomenological—subjective, perceptual—understanding of the physical environment is something that we don't study enough and it's necessary to get the way that a human being moves in space to be part of how you understand that space. And social justice is a huge issue here.

…THE WAY PHYSICAL SPACE RELATES IS HOW PEOPLE PERCEIVE JUSTICE IN THEIR COMMUNITY.

The fact that people in Carroll Gardens are happy that no residential buildings are incredibly tall, only infrastructural objects are really tall, is because they're fucking pissed off that someone is going to live higher then them. There used to be a law that the church steeple had to be the highest building in town because God was supposed to have the

13 Ceballos, Angel and Louis Wright. "In Conversation." DSB Studio Discussion. 07 May. 2012.

largest house. The relationships between these objects is how people understand things are going on in their life.

And you don't get that until you ask people to do things— to walk around and touch things, and look at things and take photographs, and make objects. You can't get it from a mapping perspective. And you can't get it from an interview perspective. You can't get it from a planning perspective. You have to do it.

A BRIEF NOTE ON ASSESSMENT

From extraordinary to mundane, everyday practices were augmented, amplified, and activated in order to engage hu man and non-human agents in conversations that confront the present and rehearse alternative futures. The capability of these tactics to cultivate critical consciousness via situational awareness was accessed using a diversity of qualitative and quantitative indices of embodied knowledge—verbal and non-verbal, including:

Gesture and Speech Mapping

I did however manage to record several participant inter views which offered considerable insight. While reviewing the conversations, I recognized an unexpected trend—sev eral of the individuals talked at length...with their hands!

Fascinated, I watched the interviews over and over and over again. Body language becomes very pronounced when watch ing a recorded interview on mute. However, when I finally turned the volume on, I was incredibly intrigued by the correlation of words and gestures. For instance, while Linda Xin (LX) explained:

LX …the way bathrooms are made define us and the way we respond, defines the bathrooms. (Linda's index fingers guide her hands (and torso) from right to left) And so it's that cyclical dialectic. (hands return to center and circle) That's probably one of the main things I've gotten from this whole design experience—the interaction between the human and nonhuman components (counts to two on left hand) and how those are constantly in motion (repeat circular motion)"14

See also Appendix 154-155

Gestural talking, according to many individuals, is often frowned upon and sometimes even admonished. It's perceived as nothing more than hand-waving or worse, (according to one professor in the Transdisciplinary Design MFA program) an indication that someone doesn't really 'know' what they're talking about. I disagree. And so does Susan Goldin-Meadow, cognitive scientist and Bearsdley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at the University of Chi cago. Goldin-Meadow's research on the gestures that accompany speech in hearing individuals has shown that "gesture has the potential to contribute to cognitive change in at least two ways—directly by influencing the learner, and indirectly by influencing the learning environment." 15 Gesture not only reflects cognitive change; it can create cognitive change. Gesture can either display information or serve as a "cognitive prop" helping individuals to pro

14 Xin, Linda. "In Conversation." Personal interview. 16 Apr. 2012. Vimeo. <https:⁄⁄vimeo.com⁄61197514>. 15 Goldin-Meadow, Susan. "Research Statement: The Resilience of Language: Spontaneously Created Gesture Systems." Goldin-Mead ow Laboratory. University of Chicago, 2013. Web. <https:⁄⁄goldinmeadow-lab.uchicago.edu⁄page⁄research-statement>.

cess information, as in Linda's case. "Gesture can thus be part of language or it can itself be language, altering its form to fit its function." 16

Gesture as means and evidence of cognitive development could be a thesis in and of itself or, in Goldin-Meadow's case, provide enough fodder for a lifetime of investigation. I have only dipped my toe into the pool. However, as a passionate advocate for innovation in the realm of developmental as sessment, particularly in academic settings, I felt the need° to mention it as an exciting opportunity that warrants further investigation.17

You might be asking yourself (because I know I asked myself), "Wait a minute, is she trying to cultivate a 'more competent man⁄woman? See Appendix 156-157 Or an organi zational man⁄woman? A docile body?" The answer is NO. While the means may draw many parallels—multi-modal learning—the end is diametrically opposed. My ultimate goal is to cultivate a critical conscious capable of [un]learning— to learn and [un]learn, engage and [dis]engage. Or "to exercise some control over how and what you think…being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay atten tion to and to choose how you construct meaning from

16 Goldin-Meadow, S. Talking and Thinking With Our Hands. Current 17 Ironically, this may seem a little hypocritical considering my strident attempt to subordinate the visual. Increasingly I realize that the visual need not be suppressed entirely. However, our or rather my current dependencies on the visual and how I chose to employ it as a means of meaning, making, and memory, or learning, need° to change.

experience."18 To find one's own way.

18 Wallace, David Foster. "This Is Water: Some Thoughts Delivered On A Significant Occasion, about Living A Compassionate Life." Kenyon College Commencement Address. Gambier, OH, May 2005. YouTube. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.youtube.com⁄watch?v=M5THXa_H_ N8&feature=player_embedded&list=PL8151FBB7D3E7EFA1>.

BUILDING FUTURES: A STUDIO FRAMEWORK

CONTEXT

It was the middle of the Spring 2012 semester when Cameron Tonkenwise (unofficially) announced his resignation from The New School. Among the many questions his decision precipitated, I wondered who would design and facilitate the next semester of DBS? At the recommendation of Lia Gartner and Gwen Kilvert, I submitted a grant proposal to The New School Green° Fund1 to secure resources for developing Talk With Me—an interdisciplinary undergraduate studio to succeed DSB designed to: increase "awareness of sustain able° infrastructures by actively engaging occupants in the maintenance of facilities and resources, thus increasing the overall performance of The New School University Center."2

This actually pains me to read. Sustainable° infrastructure? Occupant? Performance? Clearly, somewhere along 'the' way, I lost 'sight' of my values. Or perhaps this was a tacti cal maneuver on my behalf—a compromise to appease the powers that be? Honestly, I think I got caught up in the moment—an occupational hazard of pursuing projects of such radical proximity 3 I was elated to have an opportunity to design and facilitate a class. It's a role that I'd imagined for some time. However, it wasn't until I participated in the development of DSB that I was certain the 'classroom' (here defined as an academic classroom) is, for me, an integral part of my praxis of [un]learning. Unfortunately, this clar ity was momentarily muddled.

As the Spring 2012 semester progressed, The New School Department of Sustainability° and I became increasingly involved with the DSB studio. As the Department head and project administrator, Gwen was passionate about insuring the 'success' DSB. She championed the development of Talk With Me as well as my involvement in the project4…at least when our visions of 'success' aligned. And for awhile, they seemed to. As my Green° Fund grant proposal outlines, I was committed to developing a studio that would "actively engaging occupants in the maintenance of facilities and re sources, thus increasing the overall performance of The New School University Center." As time passed, I began to [sub] consciously embody the Department of Sustainability's language. I naturally incorporated some words into my daily diction, others I was repeatedly encouraged to abstain from using words such as 'pedagogy,' 'ontology,' and, ironically, 'transdisciplinary' were off the menu. That said,

1 Administered by The New School Office of Sustainability, the director of which was Gwen Kilvert.

2 Nash, Kiersten. Conversations Toward Sustainability: Talk With Me Studio, Prototyping Post-Occupancy Tactics for Facilities Engagement. The New School Green Fund Project Proposal. 12 Apr. 2012.

3 Cruz, Teddy. Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else. Ed. Esther Choi and Marrikka Trotter. Cambridge, MA: Work, 2010: 81.

4 Excerpt from Kilvert, Gwen. "Nash Recommendation." Letter to The New School Green° Fund Project Panel. 30 Apr. 2012. MS. The New School, New York, New York. "…through Kiersten’s contributions one of the course’s biggest limitations that these were undergraduates from various disciplines not all directly linked to building design technology or sustainability° became its strength. Kiersten’s attention to human agency and our senses as well as the dire lack of it in the practice of architecture and engineering lent a dimension to this course that I did not foresee. By tapping into inherent behaviors, exploration of the senses and the power of observation, Kiersten turned the student designers into researchers and the researchers into designers. And she positioned the students as the building’s future audience: Making them not just the perfect designers for this project but stakeholders Throughout the maturation of this course, including the class discussions, assignments and the weekend-long charrette, my own perception of design's capacity to contribute to the New School's sustainable° initiatives has been reformed. The course revealed the true potential for interventions that can reduce the university’s environmental impacts. They must delve into habits, they must consider context, they must pose questions, and they must listen and respond."

or not said as it were, I don't feel as though I ever fully embraced the Department's mission a mission, in my opinion, that privileges profit over people and planet.

My Green ° Fund proposal had after all also suggested that: "By focusing on engaging occupants as agents, the Talk With Me Studio will transform these technologically sophisticated networks into truly sustainable ° systems. From extraordinary to mundane, everyday environments and practices will be augmented, amplified, and activated in order to actively engage human agents, i.e. occupants, in a dynamic dialectic with the energy, water, indoor air systems woven throughout the University Center.". 5

Long story short, in October 2012, I was awarded $10,000 from The New School Green° Fund by the Office of Design, Construction, and Facilities Management 6 to develop a graduate curriculum for the Talk With Me studio.7

THEORY OF ACTION

Changing the context of the course from an interdisciplinary undergraduate studio to a graduate studio had substantial implications on the curriculum development. In my mind, the pedagogical approach would require less structured and more responsive facilitation. And some serious help (on my behalf)! I felt reasonably equipped to facilitate an under graduate studio, but a graduate studio? I had just completed

5 Nash, Kiersten. The New School Green Fund Project Proposal: Talk With Me Studio. Grant Proposal. 12 Apr. 2012.

6 Ironically, due to budgetary constraints, The Office of Sustainability was dissolved in May 2012.

7 Gwen had decided that employing graduate students, as prosumers (though she did not use this term), would increase the capacity of the interventions to align theories of action, in action and insure the 'success' of the interventions to increase the performance of The New School University Center.

the coursework for my own graduate program, could I really design the framework and facilitate this course alone? No. Not effectively anyhow. I needed help. Then I realized, I had help. Throughout the development of [un]learning, I had consulted numerous creatives from all walks of life—Fluxus artists of days gone by to close friends. I investigated and [dis]assembled their projects and practices to serve my intentions. So, I decided to take a curatorial approach to the creation of Talk With Me (which actually, by this point, had been renamed Building Futures—a compromise, the details of which are not worth digging into at the moment. Other than to suggest that this transition serves as evidence that language was frequently contested).

Throughout six months of development, I drafted count less iterations of the Building Futures course proposal in attempt to appease individual administrators and faculty, as well as myself:

from Gwen Kilvert <kilvertg@newschool.edu> to Kiersten Nash <nashk224@newschool.edu> cc Elliot Montgomery <montgome@newschool.edu > date Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 12:45 PM re Collab checking in

Hello there,

… I wanted to offers some comments about the course description…I hope you are receptive to it as I realize you didn't exactly request this:

1. Identifying the building: Indicating it is a building designed as a high-performance, LEED-Gold building will attract the

architects and the environmental policy kids 2. Emphasiz ing that all "practitioners" are welcomed: Reinforce that the studio will draw upon a full breadth of design (EPSM students, for example, will not be familiar with the term "transdisciplinary") 3. Illustrate: Consider including a few examples of what an intervention might be 4. Break out phases of the studio: Investigation (research), collabora tion, prototype, installation—this last keyword may excite everyone who reads this 5. "Emergent"— there was some debate about what this word implies

Course Description: In the context of the newly constructed University Center environment, students will use a combi nation of social [science] analysis and [design] forecast ing techniques to study the potential of emergent social behaviors’[instead: occupant] impact on [the] sustainabil ity [of the building]. Students will work in transdisciplinary groups to design and construct [prototype and install] environments, objects, and services that facilitate, enhance, address [inform?] or provoke these emergent sustainable behaviors [instead: attitudes and behaviors and in turn policies and practices to foster sustainability ° from John Clinton].

…I would really appreciate you considering one more draft as it would be ideal to have a description that is workable both for the committee, the roundtables, and my efforts with Joel.

For six months, the Building Futures course description was passed back and forth between the Department of Sustain

ability° and myself. Each iteration, of which there were more than 20, was critically challenged and debated word by word. Upon reflection, I realized not only did the final draft bare only a vague resemblance to the original it no longer made sense and was actually quite contrary to my interests as a designer and facilitator. Therefore, I opted to amend the document.

On 21 February 2013, in response to an open call for course proposals to be integrated into the Art, Media, and Technol ogy curriculum, the following proposal was submitted to David Carroll, Director of the MFA Design and Technology graduate program at Parsons The New School of Design:

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Provocation: If the most sustainable8 building is one that isn’t built, how might The New School University Center claim to be sustainable° ?

In collaboration with the Office of Design, Construction, and Facilities Management, this interdisciplinary studio will analyze the culpabilities and capacities of architecture, technology, and design in cultivating The New School's cultures. We will integrate political theory with the experi

8 Keyword. Sustainable. According to The New School 2011 Climate Action Plan, sustainability involves “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Throughout this studio you will be required to qualify and⁄or quantify need° relative to use and exchange value based on the context in which you chose to engage; in other words, to interpret sustainability.°

mental prowess of emerging practitioners of improvisation, contemporary movement, social and behavioral psychol ogy, geography, architecture, art, design, and technology to develop innovative tactics for explicating the relational complexities that construct our environment as perceived, conceived, and lived space. With this expanded understand ing of spatial dialectics, students will prototype critical environments, objects and / or services that frame The University Center as an adaptable political, social, and economic interface. Prototypes will be evaluated based on their capacity to: expose latent environmental assumptions; unveil the structure, operations, and context of activated infrastructures; engage human and non-humans as agents capable of critically confronting our present (needs)° and building alternative futures.

COURSE PROPOSAL

Dedicated “to preparing undergraduate and graduate students to bring actual, positive change to the world.” 9

The New School (TNS) University Center has the capacity to serve as a pedagogical framework that fosters individual accountability and collective agency. How? By asking questions. To what end? Or perhaps a better question might be to what beginning? Sustainability.°

Architecture and technology are often designed as didactic entities with circumscribed utility. Their programs, scripts, codes, and corresponding values pervade society and soma. These prefigurative sociotechnical innovations construct

9 "About." The New School. Web. 18 Feb. 2012. <www.newschool. edu⁄about.aspx>.

physical and psychological barriers between mind and body; individual and society; production and consumption; past and present. Human and non-human agents are relegated to the role of occupant or user in the name of efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. ° Contemporary Western cultures are withdrawing into increasingly mechanized and artificial spaces, thus limiting their capacity to effectively engage within their environment—to critically confront the present (dialectic) and rehearse alternative futures. In other words, to think.

[UN]LEARNING FOR TOMORROW BY DESIGN

The Building Futures Collab is dedicated to cultivating critical consciousness by exposing latent assumptions embedded in a given context (time, space, and being) by reconciling theories of action, in action at various scales. Throughout the course of 15 weeks, participates will develop this practice of [un]Learning into an analytical framework that integrates philosophical investigations—including those of Bennett, Cage, Carroll, Derrida, Deleuze, duCerteau, Fry, Grosz, Harvey, Kafka, Lanier, Latour, Lefebvre, Merleau-Ponty, Mas sumi, Pallasmaa, Vidler—with the experimental prowess of practitioners expanding the potentials of contemporary movement, theatrical improvisation, ethnography, social psychology, art, design, technology, architecture, cartogra phy, and geography. This framework will guide our develop ment of Tactics For Everyday [dis]Engagements that:

Tune Up perceptual affordances, in order to Tune Out of our everyday practices, and Tune In to a heightened situational awareness

so that we, as designers, can investigate the various ways in which design10 enshrouds our environment, automates our everyday practices, and impacts our perception, conception, and mobility.

The performative, discursive, and phenomenological at tributes of these actions transform spatial strictures into idiosyncratic infrastructures open for interpretation. This practice does not seek to solve problems, but engages oneself as the problem, thus fostering individual account ability. Equipped with an expanded understanding of the relational complexities of TNS University Center, we will [dis] assemble the dialectic. Prior to untangling the web, a narrow point of entry must be framed and scaled according to the available resources. As the complexities unfold salient contradictions and contingencies will emerge that challenge latent assumptions regarding attitudes, beliefs, values, and practices integrated into the network of systems.

These contradictions and contingencies, or moments of doubt, will serve as the foundation for [re] framing the existing dialectic into an innovative theory of action that manifests in action as a Critical Environment, Object, and⁄or Service.

From extraordinary to mundane, everyday practices will be

10 Design is a generative term. From here on, the practice of design will be defined as "courses aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones." [Simon, Herbert Alexander. The Sciences of the Artificial. (Cambridge, Mass. usw.: M.I.T. Pr.), 1969.]

Consequently, we are all designers with varying capabilities to investigate, disassemble, and reframe our realities. [un]Learning for Tomorrow by Design seeks to expand individual accountability and collective agency in the production and consumption of critical environments and selves.

augmented, amplified and activated in order to engage The New School community and The University Center in conver sations that confront present needs and rehearse alternative futures ranging from near to long-term. Thus scaling the practice of [un]learning to the institutional level.

This Collab seeks to frame TNS University Center as an adapt able political, social, and economic interface. The effective ness of each prototype to foster individual accountability and collective agency will be measured and evaluated according to qualitative and/or quantitative indicators that assess their ability to: expose latent environmental assump tions, unveil the structure, operations, and context of the corresponding infrastructures, critically confront our present [needs]° , and rehearse alternative futures.

The Building Futures Collab will conclude with a universitywide symposium during which each group will share their research. David E. Van Zandt, Lia Gartner, members of TNS facilities staff, and two external consultants will select pro totypes to be translated into temporary interventions into The University Center. (Allocations for funding currently on reserve in TNS University Center Design, Construction, and Facilities Management budget.) All research col lected throughout the semester will be documented in a final design development brief (format to be determined), detailing the evolution of each prototype according to the theory of action, in action—initial assumptions, existing programs,scripts, and codes; theory of change; methods, maintenance, and evaluation plan; and value proposition/ ecological impact.

The Building Futures Collab is dedicated to intervening in the existing landscape with the intention of cultivating change communities that embody the necessary skills and actions to redirect—adapt and transform—our futures. Adaptation requires experimentation, critical reflection, sovereign action, and iteration⁄rehearsal in order to penetrate the collective psychology of a space over time. The success of this studio is contingent upon the ability to continually challenge norma tive practices—to [un]learn. Consequently the most sustain able° construct for the Building Futures Collab would be an annual incursion during the fall semester that reconciles TNS University Center theories of action, in action.

Assessment

Develop and implement qualitative and quantitative indicators capable of analyzing the capacities and culpabilities of the theory of action, in action

THE BUILDING FUTURES COLLAB SEEKS TO:

Reinforce The New School’s commitment to "preparing undergraduate and graduate students to bring actual, posi tive change to the world,” by providing a opportunity for participants to confront the present and rehearse alterna tive realities that marry theory and practice, organic and inorganic agency toward more sustainable° futures

[UN]LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the conclusion of our 15-week exploration, individuals will have begun to develop a redirective practice based on their interpretations of the following concepts and methodologies:

Transdisciplinary Collaboration

Negotiate the dynamics of an interdependent network of agents to exchange disciplinary knowledge, skills, and practices that generates innovative analytic frameworks for inves tigating a given context (time, space, and being)

Investigate

Critically confront and analyze existing ecologies

Prototype

Redirect—adapt—existing conditions according to design-led research framework model

Expand existing curricula by engaging graduate students throughout The New School in a transdisciplinary process dedicated to developing future-focused tactics for environ mental analysis, design, and education

Advance The New School's academic profile as a innovator in post-occupancy practices (a field desperately in need° of critical reflection) by embracing a more ecologically ambitious agenda for design that challenges the prevailing discourses and practices of sustainability°

Increase the accountability and agency of The New School to "meeting the needs° of the present without compromis ing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” ° by aligning its theories of action, in action.

A GENERAL FRAMEWORK ( not submitted as part of original proposal)

The fifteen week schedule is be divided into three unequal segments according to the time necessary for each group to: (a) investigate and (b) [dis]assemble a site within the context of The New School University Center in order to (c) [re]frame the context in a way that fosters critical reflec tion, accountability, and adaptation.

Each week, a new tactics for everyday [dis]engagement (TED) introduces a theoretical construct(s). I cast the net far and wide to develop this portion of the curriculum. I reached out to emerging as well as established practitio ners—people I've met along the way and those whom I've yet to meet, but have inspired my own practice.

We begin our journey with Sean Montgomery’s11 Scrapepistimeies through which we investigate the semiotics of sustain ability° —navigating fact and fiction to understand the build ing blocks of meaning, making, and memory, or learning:

See Appendix 158

11 Sean Montgomery—founder of Produce Consume Robot and adjunct professor at New York University—recently completed his PhD in neuroscience. His primary focus was studying how brain rhythms coordinate local and distant networks of neurons in the hippocampus to orchestrate encoding and retrieval of episodic memories. Although neuroscience still holds a part of his curiosity, Sean is currently apply ing his skills to find and create tunnels of opportunity at the interface of art, science, technology, and entrepreneurship.

SCRAPEPISTËMËS SEMIOTICS OF SUSTAINABILITY °

Scrapepistemes is a metaphor for semantic knowledge in the human mind, but also embraces culturally-defined concepts that exist outside any one individual. In the context of epis temological quandary dating back to Plato and Aristotle, this work uses snapshots of society's experience as a digital lens by which to find meaning inherent in everyday concepts.

INTENTION + INHERENT ASSUMPTIONS

To question the process by which our experiences are abstracted into cultural representations that, in turn, alter the way we think about and perceive the world around us...and consequently ourselves.

AGENTS

Cultural [Re]production and [Re]presentation Perception⁄Action⁄Image ACTION

Sustainability ° —is a keyword that we will spend the fol lowing 15 weeks attempting to explicate as it relates to various contexts throughout TNS University Center.

Investigation two weeks prior to class

For the next 5 days, photographically document 'sustain ability' as it manifests in your life. Tag each image with at least (1) one word. Upload your images, including tags, to the Building Futures Flickr account (url tbd). Review the Building Futures' Sustainability album. "Like" 25-50 of the images that you find "most interesting.

Assembly

[First day of class] Prior to class the edited Building Futures' Sustainability album of images will be run through a Process ing script that decreases their opacity and layers them into one Scrapepisteme. As a class, we will assess our collective interpretation—perception, conception, and lived realities— of 'sustainability.'

[Dis]assembly

The Scrapepisteme will then be [dis]assembled. As the lay ers are unveiled we will dig into individual interpretations and how the embedded beliefs and bias contributed to the common meaning of 'sustainability°.' What images were included? What was left out? And why? What do the tags reveal about our beliefs and biases? How might this process of cultural [re]production and [re]presentation affect our everyday perception and practices?

Works Cited

Chambers, Selma Lola. The Little Golden Book of Words, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1948.

Rosler, Martha. Semiotics of the Kitchen. 1975. Video. MoMA, New York.

Required Readings excerpts from

Eco, Umberto. Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang, 2012. Reisberg, Daniel. Cognition: Exploring the Science of the Mind New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Williams, Raymond. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

…With Etienne Turpin and Jimme Durham, we contemplate the vibrancy of matter by Becoming Scrupulous . Radhika Subramaniam, in partnership with Lewis Carroll and Alice, invites us to imagine six impossible things before break fast. Alongside Michael Taussig and Copernicus, we frolic through the day in dialogue with the sun. Through dreams, Matt Grasso,12 Kafka and A Hunger Artist awake us to the wonderland of our subconscious.

Catie Newell13 guides us into the loquacious landscape of darkness where relics of the past converse with artifacts of the present, thus shedding light on remnants of our future:

See Appendix 159

12 When it feels like the rest of the world is offering only a blank stare or worse shaking their heads in rejection, I call Matt Grasso. As a friend, he offers the time, space, emotional and creative support necessary for me to assemble many of the ideas that shaped this thesis. As a writer, he inspires and astounds me. Thank you.

13 Catie Newell is the founding principal of Alibi Studio, Detroit and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan. She has a Masters of Architecture from Rice University and a Bach elor of Science from Georgia Tech. In 2006 she won the SOM Prize for Architecture, Design and Urban Design with her project Weather Permitting. Before joining the University of Michigan as the Oberdick Fellow in 2009, Newell was a project designer at Office dA in Boston. Newell’s work captures spaces and material effects, focusing on the development of atmospheres through the exploration of textures, vol umes, and the effects of light or lack thereof. The work often recon figures existing domestic spaces. Newell's creative practice has been widely recognized for exploring design construction and materiality in relationship to location and geography, and cultural contingencies. Newell won the 2011 ArtPrize Best Use of Urban Space Juried Award and the 2011 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers. Newell exhibited at the 2012 Architecture Venice Biennale and was recently awarded the 2013 -2014 Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize in Architecture.

LEFT IN THE DARK DEPLOYING INTENTIONAL DARKNESS

Do not underestimate the inherent possibilities of what you see… Dare to permit what you capture to formulate its own truth to the space, only from there will you know your surroundings.

INTENTION + INHERENT ASSUMPTIONS

To capture mischievous optical distortions that are permitted to swallow material conditions in order to fabricate bold spatial manipulations that foster the belief in temporary and multiple realities.

AGENTS

Darkness: The fortuitous fall of night or the focused restriction of light

Observation: Timing, composition, and credence

ACTION

Photographic records as the spatial prompts and narratives to expose suspicious realties.

Nightfall formulates a new city. With light limited to artifi cial sources and darkness expanded in space, geometries are heightened or masked, symmetries are obscured, masses are erased, and the air appears to have weight. The city dissolves into a peculiar optical fragmentation; its partially illuminated elements give the impression of being in suspension, and the adjoining darkened spaces lack clar ity and definition. These compounding immaterial effects distort our spatial perception, making the once familiar setting unfamiliar by challenging both the visual appear ance of space and its implied conditions of occupation. Our

surroundings become formally obscured, and the physical extent of architecture is thrown into question. Owing to its capacity to manipulate and create unique spatial effects, darkness can be used as a design tool, revealing new envi ronments and obscuring otherwise familiar ones, affording them unexpected dimensions.

Despite it ubiquity and cyclical occurrence, we often do not trust darkness and instead, by default, infill its presence with the mind’s eye, or with illumination. It’s mischievous ability to seemingly erase or expand, flatten or deepen, pressure or set free the realities of existing spaces falls away with the rise of the day, leaving surrounds that we find more familiar and definitive. More presentable to most, it remains a stability that misses out on spaces that these foils of dark ness permit.

Prompting the rigorous implementation of photographic re cords, this tactic seeks to capture the fleeting manipulations provided by darkness. Allowing the smallest highlights of light to exists, darkness becomes the main subject of the documentation. Deep with contrast, heavy with deep colors, and riddled with spatial maneuvers otherwise unobtainable, the work attunes the photographer to a captured spatial manipulation. Far greater in scope than a built maneuver, and far wilder than what illumination merely gives. These spaces are amongst us, always there, and left in the dark.

Capture the darkness. Use photography. Narrow the ap erture, extend the shutter, and deploy the lack of light as the dominate record to the camera. Dare to increase the

longevity of that which we typically sleep off.

Required Readings excerpts from

Alvarez, A. "Introduction: Let There Be Light." Night. New York: W.W. Norton, 1995.

Tuan, Yi-fu. "Fear In The City." Landscapes of Fear. New York: Pantheon, 1979.

Lefebvre, Henri. Critique of Everyday Life. London: Verso, 1991.

Massumi, Brian. The Potential Politics and the Primacy of Perception. 2007.

Play Time. Dir. Jacques Tati. Perf. Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, and Rita Maiden. The Criterion Collection, 1973.

Vidler, Anthony. The Architectural Uncanny: Essays in the Modern Unhomely. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1992.

Alongside Jamie Kruse,14 we begin to the transitory nature of prototyping where East meets West:

14 Jamie Kruse is an artist, designer, and part-time lecturer at Parsons The New School for Design. In 2006, she co-founded Smudge Studio with Elizabeth Ellsworth. Their multi-media practice seeks to invent aesthetic provocations that assist humans in feeling for themselves the reality of contemporary forces and scales of change (natural and human-made). She is the recipient of grants from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (2012), The New School Green ° Fund (2011); New York State Council for the Arts (2010, 2011) and the Brooklyn Arts Council (2011). Selected exhibitions include the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center (Parsons The New School for Design); the Storefront for Art and Architecture (New York, NY); Incident Report (Hudson, NY); and Richland Gal leries, (Dallas, TX). She is the author of the 'Friends of the Pleistocene' blog and recently co-edited a collection of essays with Elizabeth Ellsworth entitled, 'Making the Geologic Now: Responses to Mate rial Conditions of Contemporary Life' (Punctum Books, 2012).

Since our initial introduction in 2012 during the Displaying Sustain able Building Studio, Jamie has proven a constant source of inspira tion. Many thanks Jamie.

MONO NO AWARE LEARNING TO LOVE CHANGE

INTENTION + INHERENT ASSUMPTIONS

To more adequately engage the continuous change that composes the contemporary moment, and precarity of human designed infrastructures⁄affordances in relation to these changes, this tactic explores the capacity of humans to cultivate a broader gamut of personal and creative responses in relation to changing environmental contexts.It poses the question, “Should humans cultivate a different set of skills ⁄responses for experiencing change as it affects the ‘built environment’ versus the ‘natural world’”? Should we respond differently to the flooding of NYC subway tunnels by Hur ricane Sandy or the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, than how we respond to watching cherry blossoms fall or the melting of icebergs? If so, why? If not, what are their differences?

Using The New School University Center as a test site, we will tune in to scales⁄agents of change unleashed within, and in relation to, a given structure. We will consider materi als of the built environment, such as glass, steel, and concrete, as ephemeral materials, with trajectories of history and future that do not necessarily align with that of the human time scale. We will loosen and relax our sense of the stable.

As “preparation” for navigating uncertain futures, we will pause with and attempt to reframe, habitualized tendencies to use descriptors, such as “destruction” and “loss” when experiencing materials assembling and reconfiguring outside of (or beyond) human desire and control. In the process of enacting this tactic, we will aim to cultivate clarification within ourselves regarding

how we might anticipate non-human forces and consider them co-designers of configurations of potential both in relation to the natural and built environment. We will discuss the neces sity of developing a broad range of responses for meeting rates of change with accumulating effects that currently es cape and exceed human cognition, such as geologic scales of change, both long and short.

ACTIONS Not to be shared in advance with participants. Day 1 Intro + Inspirational Data 45 mins

Building Intentions 1 hr 15 mins

Build a three-dimensional structure. Design it for a specific purpose or to fulfill a need° (shelter, aesthetic pleasure, to demarcate space etc.) During the construction, give height ened attention (via sketchbooks, journals, photograph, etc.) to the materials used. Consider each material individually— as forces unto themselves, unfolding at varied temporalities, essential parts of a larger configuration. Conduct research that follows various materials beyond this given context (i.e. here, paper is used as a screen, elsewhere paper is used for writing, a consumer product, trash, a tree etc.). Once completed, the structure will be “put to use” for its given purpose and documented.

Release To Unknown Outcomes 30 mins

Pass off the structure to another participate who will take it up and reconfigure it into a new form⁄usage.

Co-Design With Non-Human Forces 45 mins

Stage a site of exposure in the natural world for the newly designed structure. Over the course of the next week make

documentation⁄observations of the changes affecting the structure, with particular emphasis upon the forces that exceed human scales of perception⁄control.

Close 15 mins DAY 2

Anticipation: Discussion⁄Presentation 1 hrs

For a closing discussion and presentation we will consider the outcomes of our structures and explore new ways to describe the changes that have occurred. How might we anticipate unknowable change? How can we design for transformation? How can we change descriptors such as “destruction” into “passing into something else”? What happens when we build with change in mind? What connections between humans (and our designs) and the natural world, that we previously did not see, are perceptible to us now? How can we transform “limits” into “affordances”? How might we develop evolution ary capacities that allow us to consider long-term changes while acknowledging their complexities that escape us?

Required Readings excerpts from

Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.

Ellsworth, Elizabeth Ann., and Jamie Kruse. Making the Geologic Now: Responses to Material Conditions of Contemporary Life. Brooklyn, NY: Punctum, 2013.

Fernández-Galiano, Luis. Fire and Memory: On Architecture and Energy Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000.

Jiro, Yoshihara. "The Gutai Manifesto." Scribd. Web. <http:⁄⁄www.scribd com⁄doc⁄48369246⁄The-Gutai-Manifesto>.

0n March 2013, after reviewing the final proposal as out lined above, The Department of Sustainability relinquished its administrative support for the project. In response, I sent the following letter to the review committee:

Despite several phone calls and another email, I did not receive a reply from either one of the selection committee. However, one week later, I received the following email:

from Gwen Kilvert <kilvertg@newschool.edu> to Kiersten Nash <nashk224@newschool.edu> date Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 9:50 AM

from Kiersten Nash <nashk224@newschool.edu> to Joel Towers <TowersJ@newschool.edu>, David Carroll <CarrollD@newschool.edu> cc Gwen Kilvert <kilvertg@newschool.edu > date Mon, Mar 04, 2013 at 8:19 AM re Building Futures: TNS University Center Collab

Good morning all The University Center offers many exciting opportunities

for The New School…I have developed a course proposal that seeks to frame The University Center as an adaptable interface capable of fostering individual accountability and collective agency via innovative tactics for environmental analysis, design, and education. Please accept the Collab: Building Futures proposal for review to be integrated into the fall 2013 AMT program.

To date, Gwen Kilvert has dedicated a considerable amount of time, energy, and insight into developing the administra tive armature of this proposal. As noted, this proposal is now being advanced independent of her support. Therefore, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss how we, in col laboration with Lia Gartner, might develop this framework into an exciting curriculum for all participants—the School of AMT, the DT MFA program, the Office of Design, Construction and Facilities Management, and graduate students throughout The New School.

re TNS University Center: Tour & AMT Course Proposal

Hi Kiersten,

I have been meaning to respond to you sooner. I sincerely regret to inform you in an email that you will no longer be teaching "Building Future"—now Collab: TNS University Center. I am not removing myself from this effort just from the proposal that you put forth. It became clear we were unable to work together effectively and that we needed a faculty member who could execute technology-based con cepts. It is very unusual for even full-time faculty to receive compensation for course development, so I do hope that you honor the Green ° Fund proposal you submitted and deliver the course components you outlined. This is what I expect of every awardee in return for their money. While I realize this is a lot to take in, I would very much appreciated hearing from you within the next few weeks about when you can deliver these final deliverables (per page 4 of your Green° Fund proposal). Needless to say, the University Cen ter tour is now unnecessary (it was yesterday anyway), and I think our getting together would be unproductive. I hope you understand. I wish you the best.

Gwen

Sustainability° | Provost's Office

Parsons School of Design Strategies

On Funding

"Typically, an artist … is invited by an art institution to produce a work specifically configured for the framework provided by the institution…Subsequently, the artist enters into a contractual agreement with the host institution for the commission…"15

Initially, upon receiving the Green° Fund grant in 2012, I thought that I had been afforded the opportunity to advance a cur riculum dedicated to "prototyping post-occupancy tactics for facility engagement."16 Within a few months, I recognized my naivety. Once the exchange of money occurred, development (and consequently the developer) was tethered to the dictates of the administration and consequently 'the intended opera tions' of The New School University Center. I will let the remainder of this text serve as my commentary on the migration, accumulation, and allocation of capital within academia. Moving forward, I will be more critical of the opportunities, expectations, and limitations embedded in funding frameworks—particularly grants—as political, so cial, economic, and environmental practices aimed at chang ing the existing to the preferred., i.e. as design strategies.

On Nouns and Pronouns

As Scott Thomas advised designers while discussing the

15 Kwon, Miwon. One Place after Another: Site-specific Art and Locational Identity. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2002.

16 Nash, Kiersten. Conversations Toward Sustainability: Talk With Me Studio, Prototyping Post-Occupancy Tactics for Facilities Engagement. The New School Green Fund Project Proposal. 12 Apr. 2012.

strategic development of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, "Deliver clear and concise messaging, focusing on 'We' rather than ‘He'." Ok, I'm not Obama and this is not a campaign for the presidency, nor do I seek to culti vate consensus.°

As previously outlined, I am however dedicated to diminish ing the boundaries between 'students' and 'teachers,' between those that learn and those that teach. In various capacities and with various capabilities, we are all students. And in others, teachers. Consequently, I employ we in the course description not as a means to foster consensus but to underscore individual accountability and agency for cultivat ing the studio experience.

That said it is exceedingly difficult to receive administrative approval for a course description that does not engage the word 'student.' I was asked on several occasions to review existing course proposals to better understand the established language and structure. This was a helpful exercise in many ways. Almost all course descriptions have a similar rhythm and rhythm. Ultimately, however, I intended Building Futures to be different…beginning with the general framework.

I'm not Obama, And this is not a Presidential Campaign. Seems obvious, but that didn't stop me from attempting to translate his campaign strategies in the development of this curriculum. Like Obama's status as a junior senator, as a graduate student, I have limited authority in the context of academia, in particular amongst academic administra tion. Therefore, when it became apparent that my ability to

effectively communicate with Gwen regarding the value of [un]learning as a pedagogical approach to sustainability,° I enlisted the status of my collaborators. 17 Like Obama's chorus of cultural icons, I had hoped (pun intended) that this amazing cast of celebrities in their own circles might af fectively increase my legitimacy and consequently illustrate the potential of my proposal. They did not. Gwen was un familiar with a majority of the individuals, so any chance of the affective chain relaying my intended message was lost.

On Collaboration

Numerous events that transpired over the course of the last year contributed to the deterioration of the collaboration between the Department of Sustainability and myself (the majority of which have not been included in this text). We are both passionate and dedicated to the advancement of a more sustainable ° future. In the end, however, I believe that all aspects of our collaboration were impacted by our divergent interpretations of sustainability° and consequent pedagogies. In brief, the Department embraces single-loop learning or working within an existing system, such as the U.S. Green° Building's LEED program, as their approach to development.

On the other hand, I prefer to practice double loop-learning or [un]learning as a means to cultivate an “…understanding

17 Including: Catie Newell, Jamie Kruse, Radhika Subramanian, John Thackara, Quilian Riano, Stefani Bardin, Toby Heys, Anni Puolakka, Luca Difuse, Aki Sasamoto, Rachel Lehrer, Michael Taussig, Etienne Turpin, Sean Montgomery, Elizabeth Streb, Christopher Robbins, Jenna Sutela, Lucy Kimbell, Matt Grasso, Verenna Lenna, Eva Es mann Behrens, and Coogan Brennan. See Appendix 160-161:1-23

of the existing order—its genesis, growth, and present working" that is capable of challenging and redirecting “the established order of things.”18 See Appendix 162 Consequently, when asked to work within "the context of The New School’s LEED-Gold University Center," rather than attempt to "align operations with intended performance," I believe a more sustainable ° approach might be attempt to understand and amplify the existing micro- and macro-level tactics of adaptation that, according to the U.S. Green ° Building Council's 2008 Final Report, currently characterize most new construction.19 See Appendix 163 It is in these spaces that people are thinking—investigating, [dis]assembling, and [re]framing or adapting the existing context to fulfill their needs.°

18 "Research School to Open". The New York Times, 30 September 1919. 19 I would be lying if I denied my disappointment upon realizing that the Building Futures studio would not come to fruition as I had originally imagined. Since then, I have repeatedly asked myself: should I have compromised on more of the defining parameters of the course framework? Should I have embraced the LEED pro gram? Could I assess development based on an individual's capacity to produce something capable of "yielding a return on (capital) investment (for the university)"? Should I just call a student, a stu dent and a teacher, a teacher? More than likely if I had, I would be wrapping up the first semester as facilitator of the Building Futures studio. However, in this instance, I am more satisfied knowing that I had the confidence to stand up for what I believe. The Department of Sustainability's unrelenting diffidence catalyzed my conviction and encouraged me to explicate my intentions—a process that con tributed greatly to my understanding and practice of [un]learning.

IN CONVERSATION WITH CLIVE DILNOT Parsons The New School for Design

KN …does that make sense?

CD What you're after is understanding. The banal myth that you were supposed to make the exhibition for. This is the opposite. This is actually expanding understanding. Actually comprehending. So, what you're offering through the processes, and what you eventually create, is a dif ferent form of understanding. But it is understanding.

…THE UNDERLYING CRITERIA FOR YOUR PROJECT IS UNDERSTANDING.

"…Adorno argued, aesthetic experience is the more adequate form of cog nition because any subject and object, idea and nature, reason and sensual experience were interrelated without each pole getting the other hand. in short it provided the structural model for "dialectal materialist cognition."

So in other word, what your (quilt) can do is be a synthesis of complex aspects of experience…some of it's emotional, some of it's political, some of it's very subjective, some of it's memories, some of it's economic facts… So you are producing something about understanding which is also hold ing together and synthesizing moments that we tend to break apart. We are much more comfortable most of the time in breaking these parts apart. But one thing the aesthetic experience is quite good at is holding these moments together and negotiating between them.…Which doesn't mean that understanding is against aesthetic, what you're going to try to do is align them.…It's both an artistic event and a genuine piece of understanding in the same moment. They're not two distinct things. You can't pull them apart…It's the art event that makes the history come to life. Be real. And equally it's the regulations, the history, that give the art considerable meaning.

KN I'm also hoping to ask a question. I'm hoping that designers, or at least myself as a designer, can embrace the fact that I don't have the answer. Can we design systems that continually ask questions?

CD Well that's precisely what you're offering —not answer, but understanding. It's one stage more than the question. It's not just the ques tion, but its the understanding of the situation.

KN But continually asking to redefine what that (situation) is.

CD Yes. Without coming to a finality. To the contrary. Without coming to a finality. Why not? Because your subject is really the capacity of people to comprehend a situation. A history. That's what you're trying to refer back to.

KN Absolutely CD So you're not providing the answer. What you're really offering are conditions for people to increase their capacity to understand x. Or x, x, x. Whatever that is. You define what the arenas are. But you don't give the answer. Using the capacities of design to build individual capacity to understand in a way…through the objects, environments, things you make. So yeah, that's okay. That's not going to be in contradiction to what you just said.

KN Okay

CD So there we go…So basically it's now concretizing this. In a sense you becoming clearer about this understanding that you're going to offer. With this notion of understanding being opposite of myth. Myth is what you don't want you say.

KN So perhaps the first step is to identify and analyze the myths.

CD Yes something that would be the myths. Then you have to start to look at the reality.…So now you're using a kind of wayfinding…but now it's about doing a complex understanding of the social reality, rather than writing a myth about it.

KN Exactly CD OKAY, GO DO IT

For Sale: Tech Valley . 306 Osborn Road Loudonville, NY 2011.

A seemingly arbitrary assertion—dial 435.9944 to unlock the gateway to Tech Valley, which according to the sign, lies just beyond this noble Tudor. By [re]dressing the traditional 'For Sale' sign, this wayfinding system aligns 'Better Homes & Gardens' and 306 Osborn Road— the house; the lush patch of land that it rests on; as well as its past, present, and future 'owners'—and with Tech Valley (which effectively supplants the signification of the Hudson Valley). The connotation? For Sale: A Byte of Tech Valley (formally known as the Hudson Valley).

The

School

Open Air School Netherlands, 1918. Courtesy of www.spaarnestadphoto.nl

Potter Fresh Air School Indianapolis, Indiana, 1914. Photo courtesy of www.IN.gov

Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, 2011. Photo courtesy of Aurelien Guichard, UK.

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