pin +benson (snobs)
Temples of Consumerism
Undertaking Thailand’s Political Tactics through Bangkok Shopping Malls
Main Advisor: Professor Marcos Parga Research Advisor: Professor Lawrence Chua, Professor Lawrence Davis Partially Funded by SOURCE Grant Summer 2020 - Summer 2021
My undergraduate thesis, Temples of Consumerism: Undertaking Thailand’s Political Tactics through Bangkok Shopping Malls investigates the role of architecture as a physical tool in maintaining the status quo, used by those who hold political powers in order to superimpose their hierarchical ideologies on the citizens and perpetuate the governing systems. This thesis is a speculative dystopian narrative that subverts the same architectural tools that the “merit-makers” use on the Thai population, both through “merit-making” and “shopping,” in order to uncover and surface their political, financial, and cultural relationships that are manifested in the popular Siam-Ratchaprasong shopping district in downtown Bangkok where the malls have replaced the temples’ roles as community centers, and unlike temples, malls seem to be secular and nonpolitical. This proposal showcases how the ‘commoners’ have become an integral part in completing and sustaining this interdependent system of government and the modern capitalist society that coexist with the traditional Buddhist landscape.
MALLS Central World
Siam Paragon
Central Embassy
Pathumwanaram Temple (Looking West)
Pathumwanaram Temple
Pathumwanaram Temple
Pathumwanaram Temple
Sign on Skywalk
Sign on the Wall of theRoyal Thai Police Headquarters
Outside of Siam Paragon
Outside of Siam Paragon
OTHERS
TEMPLE
Siam Paragon Plaza
Never-ending Walkway Loop
Merit-Making Ritualistic Cycle
Merit Score Systems
Siam Interchange Station
Spiritual Levels
Plastic Crown
Model Making with Found Objects and Photography
Advisor: Professor Yutaka Sho Funded by SOURCE Grant Spring 2021
Plastic Crown is an independent project in collaboration with Benson Joseph, and was funded by the SOURCE Grant. The aim of the project is to create a head garment that address issues in related with inequality in the Thai society that sits under the monarchy. By recreating the King’s golden crown with light single-use plastic bottles, the project questions the stability of the monarchy and ridicules its power. While the weight of the crown symbolizes the responsibility and the burden carried by the monarchy, the Thai people are the actual ones bearing that weight of the oppressing government. The intended users of the new crowns are the young students protesting the monarchy on the streets of Bangkok as we speak. The plastic crown will not protect the students physically when they criticize the government. But with its power to obscure the protesters’ faces, the crowns can protect their identity while amplifying the critical opinions. The discarded single-use plastic bottles can be found easily, and the crowns take little and use no glue to construct. As plastic crowns are re-used over and over, they become memorable sculptural pieces that hold meanings to participants and observers.
King Bhumibol of Thailand Square Protest Rally and Art Performance
In Collaboration with Boston for Thai Democracy Funded by Thai Rights Now December 2021
The protest rally on December 5th, 2021 at King Bhumibol Square in Cambridge raises the issues of the Lèse-majesté or Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code that stipulates that “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of 3 to 15 years. The art performance is a 94th birthday gift for King Bhumibol, who suppressed freedom of speech and democracy in Thailand for more than half a century. It consists the traditional Thai alphabet song, but with twists that reveal the depravity of Thai authoritarianism - particularly that of the monarchy. The performance incorporates artwork by a Bangkok-based typeface designer, PrachatipaTYPE, and the rap group Rap Against Dictatorship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YnJ1Rtplg&ab_channel=SunaiTV
In Collaboration with Boston for Thai Democracy
Funded by Thai Rights Now, an independed, international non-profit organization
Graphic Design
eW bsite Design
Graphic Design
Artwork by PrachatipaTYPE
o W odworking
By Virakri Jinangkul
By Virakri Jinangkul
Music
Typeface Design
By Virakri Jinangkul
Music by Rap Against Dictatorship
Body & Space
Public Interventions and Experimental Video
In Collaboration with Sandrine Bamba, Ashley Nowicki, Kyle Neumann and FADS (Fashion and Design Society) Advisor: Dean Michael Speaks November 2020
This project is an independent project that Benson Joseph and I initiated, with collaboration between students from the School of Architecture and College of Visual and Performing Arts. Body and Space is a series public interventions in the city of Syracuse, designed to question the perception associated with the icon of black hoodie. The project establishes the scenario of the “hooded person,” regardless of race or ethnicity, as an active member in space within the urban public realm, creating a new relationship between body and space. Each human body is adorned in a black hoodie, pants, shoes, and mask. The bodies are then choreographed as a series of aggressive formations on a pre-selected location. The QR code printed on the face shield serves as a method of communication between the curators and the audience. The concept of this project was then applied to Fashion and Design Society (FADS)’s annual fashion show, where student designers are prompted to submit their designs within the same theme.
Institution
Life Sciences Building, Syracuse University
Institution
The Promenade, Syracuse University
Urban Public
Interstate 81, Syracuse
Urban Public
Columbus Circle, Downtown, Syracuse
THESIS: The conversation is between Body and Space. Serving as a direct confrontation to the concept of spatial registration, the body, not sentient nor organic, proclaims itself as a visual limitation, merely a backdrop in what we perceive as spatial registration. Our senses, however, dictate that there are 5 factors that extend us beyond our physical being, in conjunction to our own self-awareness. Therefore, we theorize the concept that there lay a spatial extension beyond the limitation of our senses, dancing on the thin line between visible and invisible. This unnamed registrar stakes its claim in the world of micro-particles, undetectable by the human senses but nonetheless serving as an extension beyond the boundary of our spatial occupation. Through this understanding, we challenge our initial cognitive awareness of how we identify within spaces and how, by quantifying this registrar, spatial extensions infiltrate space and expand the limitation of spatial registration beyond the visible. We understand that this is a concept within its own right but do not deny that race is an intrinsic factor. Both concepts are therefore not dichotomous but rather a mode of intersection, which we begin to see unveil in the interaction of multiple bodies and space. The invention is designed to challenge accepted norms, impose force (something unwelcome or unfamiliar) to be accepted or put in place to label the “other”. The disproportionate “othering” that happens between or against other races and ethnicities. The idea of “othering” is detrimental because it creates an Us vs. Them mentality that separates communities. In “Body and Space” the personification of the “other” is a black man with a hoodie. The black hoodie is often associated with negative connotations such as violence, drug, poverty. “Body and Space” questions the perception associated with this Icon. The figure then becomes nothing more than signage! The Exhibition aims to first bring awareness to certain stereotypes associated with our society with specific demographics of people. The project’s second motive is to develop a thesis from the documentation process of the physical urban interventions using “human” bodies. This moving installation establishes the scenario of the “hooded person”, regardless of race or ethnicity, as an active member in space within the urban public realm. Creating a new relationship between body and space. The subject of the story becomes an object in space, occupying space, obstructing space, shifting space, remaking space, forcing a re-establishment of how we understand bodies in space. The moment the black hoods stop moving and become an obstruction within the space, the viewers will be forced to engage the stagnant person in black hoods situated within their space. The human body is adorned in a black hoodie, pants, shoes, and mask. The bodies are then choreographed as a series of aggressive formations on a pre-selected location. An emblem placed on the surface of a face shield will service as a method of communication between the curators and the audience. The second filtering tool comes from filming each intervention in succession and re-evaluating a new conditional statement. Text by Sandrine Bamba, Ashley Nowicki, and Benson Joseph
Fashion Show Video Link to Video: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHjbMC-
Interventions Video Link to Video: https://youtu.be/6Nv7sK-
Instagram Page
Website
Video Installation at Everson Museum of Art
Press Coverage
Symposium Questions: How can we balance between creating our own spaces while also demanding that room be made for black women in these existing institutions? Are there pros or cons to branching out separately and creating these spaces specifically for us as Black Women?
Interviewing
Digital Collaging
Lecture and Symposium
Is there a limit to how much “inclusion” into previously exclusive institutions can do to uplift black women in our fields?
Queer theory has gradual few decad me kind of oper curated in a referential too answers; shows how q through contextual and pe is worth particular attentio In an era where truth is d “queer” might be an invi real or imagined potential their selves. Perhaps it is mean to be queer? How space?
Symposium Questions: We can see how the inter spaces to express, conne anonymity and expansiv expression?
What do you think the po queerness in the face of flu
Lecture and Symposium
Erased from the narrative is a series of conversations being held through different audiovisual mediums to show the reality of being a black woman. The project seeks to join the discourse that promotes conversation and action in recognizing black women’s experiences and the unique nature it takes. The content explored through video and image medium addresses how narratives have been manipulated to overlook and marginalize, and even silence black women over time, through micro-aggressions, character assassination and exclusion.
Team: Bryce Edwards, Ind Advisor: Professor Lori Br
Research and Writing
Team: Ifeoluwa Areogun, Elena Whittle, Ashley Dunkwu, Rahmah Gimba, and Amina Kikaya Advisor: Professor Lori Brown
Through My Eyes
Interviewing
Erased from the Narrative
Body & Space
dra Prasasto, and Daria Agapitova rown
Team: Kristabel Chung, Luis Lopez, Andrea Herrera, and Lainey Marra Advisor: Professor Yutaka Sho
lly penetrated spatial discourse over the last ration? All of these perspectives, which will be olbox of sorts, provide valuable, fragmentary queerness is inevitably uncertain, existing ersonal defiance. This quality of incompletion on, especially in light of the world wide web. distributed between experts and individuals, itation—a shifting opportunity space (either ls) for individuals to defy, explore, and iterate prudent to take stock, and see what does it does queerness affect, and be affected, by
Body and Space explores relationships between body, garment, and space to propose new signage or analyze existing ones. The craft, cuts, and mending are utilized as means to illustrate an exploration of a relationship between Body and Space. In this exploration, the first tool is the garment; setting the subject matter for the team to explore in process. Following this textile work will be producing a contested site in relation to the garment’s subject matter. This allows for a series of photographic and GIF compositions, where the body may be distorted or arranged for connection to the signage of the garment. HUF x Angela by Kristabel Chung and Luis Lopex Crafting Domestic Comfort: Woman and the Street by Lainey Marra and Andrea Herrera
rnet has given queer people more interstitial ect and just be. How do you think the digital ve openness of the internet affect queer
Plastic Crown by Pin Sangkaeo and Benson Joseph
Interviewing
Quilting and Mending
Illustration and Photography
Presentation and discussion
otentials, limitations, and pitfalls of theorizing uidity?
Watch Party
Fabrication assisted by Lainey Marra and Location: Everson Museum of Art, Syra
Sculptural Installation and Video Projections
From May 2 - 5, 2021, the outcomes of each of the three sub-project including interviews, photo collage were projected on the facade of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, designed by I.M. Pei. We also fa x 12’ x 12’ sculpture that serve as screens for projections placed in adjacent public plaza to allow visitors to the work on a closer level. I was responsible for designing the sculpture and fabricating the screens using fabric and tent poles.
Kristabel Chung acuse, New York November 2019
es and videos abricated a 12’ o engage with performative
Hidden Trauma
Research in Collaboration with ARC 307 Classmates Professor Sekou Cooke ARC 307, Fall 2019
Halfway House
The studio explores the condition of mass incarceration in the United States, through the process of designing a halfway house in Syracuse, New York. The halfway house located in Southside is designed to accommodate the hidden intergenerated trauma faced by the men who were incarcerated. When approached to the building from the exterior, one would only see a opaque concrete box. However, when one enters the building, the interior hallway is actively designed to be different than the straight narrow hallways like those in typical apartment buildings or prisons. The spatial condition is meant to be interactive. The corridor way is designated for the program of family meeting area, encouraging the conversations and interactions between family members to be active and not stagnant, as well as for people to not be surveillanced while sitting in a stagnant room. Next to the halfway house, there is a community program of the reflecting pool where people from the neighborhood can come and enjoy.
Diagrams on Trauma from Mass Incarceration
Collages on Trauma from Lynching and Mass Incarceration
Sample Pages of Studio Research Book on Mass Incarceration (Worked on Graphics and Layout)
Research Book Pin was the main graphic designer
k by 307 Studio r and editor for the research book.
Gentrification & Philanthropy
Professor Elizabeth Kamell ARC 575 - Fall 2019
Architectural Research
Purpose Built Communities is a customized consulting firm started by Warren Buffet and two other billionaires. They have aimed to develop communities and claimed to improve the lives of residents of cities around the United States, helping the local leaders with support. However, we studied the original in Atlanta and how the area and the school was performing better due to displacement of people, rather than development. Comparing the new developments in different cities to the old neighborhoods, it is clear that the number of units has decreased, showing the people have been displaced to elsewhere during the development period, and they could not afford to come back. We therefore concluded this act of redevelopment and philanthropy to be instead gentrification that has been disguised. The prompt of the project is to select a housing project and redesigning it by densifying the area by double. We chose Pioneer Homes, one of the oldest public housing project in the US.
Black History Month 2021 Online Video Exhibit
In Collaboration with 12 student designers and Fashion and Design Society (FADS) Advisor: Dean Michael Speaks Funded by Syracuse Architecture and NOMAS Syracuse February 2021
Black History Month video exhibition “Hidden Realities” is a 3-part video on hidden narratives of systemic racism. This video exhibit is a collaborative effort that involves 12 student designers, who each addressed a specific topic and a particular narrative through a poster. Each poster was then printed, placed, and documented at a selected site in Syracuse, New York. The process and method of this exhibition offered a chance to spatialize the content in a physical environment, introducing the audience and point of direct engagement with the topics of black histories. Each video was screened in the beginning of each lecture, where the content of the videos respond to the lecture topic, where this allows the speaker and participants to reflect the video throughout the conversations.
Graphic Design and Fashion Photography
Poster Design and Photography
Video Making
Lecture and Symposium
LOCAL: SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
NATIONAL : THE UNITED STATES
INTERNATIONAL: THE WORLD
Hidden Histories, National was officially selected for Salt City International Film Festival
Benson Joseph and I were interviewed by Archinect about the video exhibit
The posters were donated Art in Action organized by Syracuse NOMAS
We Outchea: Hip-Hop Fabrications and Public Space
Exhibition by Sekou Location: The Museum of Moder
MoMA Exhibition - Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America
Each project that was commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art for the exhibition Reconstructions: and Blackness in America proposes an intervention in each of the ten different cities across the US. Rec examines the intersections of anti-Black and racism and Blackness within urban spaces as sites of re refusal, attempting to repair what it means to be American. We Outchea by Professor Sekou Cooke e history of Syracuse in the site that used to be the old 15th ward, where it was a dense neighborho developed into one of the first public housing projects in the US. When the highway I-81 came through, torn down, and now what is being proposed are new mixed-income apartments. This exhibition took lay of the site and sampling them into something new. The physical model incorporates a section of con where the stoop has a legacy of being important to Black people in urban environments. The wood are the new proposal for mixed income housing and the orange areas are spaces for commerce and public We were asked by Professor Sekou Cooke to assist in fabricating the model and finishing the draw exhibition.
Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art
u Cooke STUDIO rn Art, New York February 2021
: Architecture constructions esistance and examines the ood and was , the site was yers of history ncrete stoop, eas represent c interaction. wings for the
Model Fabrication Process
(Concrete Stoop, Stacked CNC-Milled 3/4” Plywood, Lasercut Basswood)
Cognitive Awareness
Location: Marble Room, Slocum Hall, Syracuse University Fall 2019
Architectural Exhibition
This independent exhibition that I collaborated with Benson Joseph aims to express how architecture should as a conceptual paradigm that directs towards prioritizing our registration of space rather than the construction of space. Our senses, however, offer us the ability to register any object far beyond the physical make-up. Our cognitive awareness allows the conceptualization of spatial extension to exist primarily within the non-tangible realm of the mind, extending the boundary of our spatial occupation. The series of abstract models aims to illustrate the basic process of the spatial construction by identifying the working plane, site boundary, grid organizational structure, and formal manipulation of components in building the registration of space. The series of drawings represent eight built architectural projects that treat vertical members, columns, as tools in creating the space rather than for structural purposes.
Interview with the Daily Orange
spatial condition
conceptualizing spatial condition
horizontal plane
identifying working plane
spatial boundary framing boundary
Series of Conceptual Models and
cardo and decumanus
setting structure and order
d Drawings of Precedent Projects
hypo-style
expressing vertical element
primary elements
free-forming the elements
Homo - Symbiosis
Location: Bird Library, Syra
Sculptural Installation
This project is an independent project that Benson Joseph and I initiated, where the intention was to employ the diamond-shaped modular structu from an architecture project we did to create a public sculptural installation. The installation aims to illustrate the idea where everything and eve within a symbiosis relationship. The arrangement of the sculpture as a whole aims to render an idea of unity, implying many possible configur the slight variation of every single diamond within a module of nine caters to the unique characteristics of an individual. Finally, the mirror surfa reminder that you, as an individual within the collective, are the spectator. Your role as a crucial participant through the use of the reflected surfac the equal necessity of both complementary bodies. I took the lead in designing the overall form of the sculptures and the dress, and building the m with pieces of laser cut wood and paper.
acuse University September 2019
ure developed eryone exists rations. Next, aces act as a ces reiterates modular units
nstallation
ol in Southside, Syracuse
Digital Pandemic
Set Design for Experimental Short Film
In Collaboration with Lainey Marra Short Film by Samantha Slaughter Funded by Syracuse College of Visual and Performing Arts Location: Lights on Fayette, Syracuse, New York March 2021
Digital Pandemic is an experimental short film that brings the issue of screen addiction to light by contrasting themes of reality and screen overload, each defined by their own unique space, sound design, choreography, and editing effects. The film works to deconstruct the negative components of screen addiction. The set design represents the reality space with the use of scattered wooden structures, which are contrasted by a growing amount of projected visuals on the rectangular fabric screens throughout the film. The use of the raw seams, scrap fabric, and loose threads in each screen is then brought to light to represent the chaos of our minds when being immersed in the digital realm. I took the lead in designing the overall formal structure and constructing the site on set.
Conceptual Drawing by Benson Joseph
MINUS THE HAIR
Experimental Documentary Short Film
FIL 360 - Documentary Idea Professor: Miso Suchy Spring 2020
MINUS THE HAIR is a short documentary film about the notion of female body hair in the capitalist society. Body hair for women is commonly considered to be inappropriate in the modern world. This film was stemmed from an idea of how women’s body should or should not be controlled by the society. This project started with an intention to explore my curiosity on why women have to shave their body hair, as well as to express the feeling of the social oppression on women and how they should treat their bodies. I’ve always wondered why women shave their body hair while men don’t. Is it because of the type of clothes women wear? Or is it purely due to capitalism? Through researching on the advertisement of women hair shaving products and the pink tax, the result on why most women still shave today is due to the media portraying women only with smooth skin, which is overall a result from capitalism. The approach I took in this film was posing a metaphor comparing humans’ hair and “nature’s” hair, starting initially with an idea of showcasing plants that are hairy and that people somehow see them as pretty. Also, I showed at the end that I still get defeated by the society, by shaving my body hair myself too.
MINUS THE HAIR by Pin Sangkaeo Dialogue List TIME IN 00.17.15
SPEAKER MAN (VO)
00.23.16 00.34.11 00.36.00 00.39.18 00.43.09 00.46.15 00.51.10 00.53.21 00.56.12 01.00.18 01.05.13 01.09.08 01.13.22 01.17.13 01.22.10
WOMAN (VO) VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO VO
01.26.21 01.29.12 01.32.00
VO VO VO
01.44.09
VO
01.48.01
VO
01.51.22 01.55.00
VO VO
02.15.03 02.58.14 03.18.02 03.18.02 03.21.22 03.25.21 03.34.12
WOMAN (VO) MAN (VO) TITLE: On screen text SONG LYRICS CREDITS SONG LYRICS END OF PICTURE
DIALOGUE LIST Minus the hair, this is the most beautiful leg I’ve ever seen Minus the hair? If you don’t ever shave Then it’s a no go for me It’s unattractive I prefer less of it I have a thing for soft smooth skin Gross Not a fan of facial hair on women Also not a fan of armpit hair I think it ruins the look of dresses and skirts When will you shave? Pit and pelvic region should be trimmed It makes our sex not pleasant EWWWWWWWWW I think the ideal body for women in this society is totally smooth Real smooth, baby skin, no hair Porcelain skin, soft skin Pretty much thin, petite, no body hair, for the majority of the world like a complete unrealistic beauty standard to hold oneself to, so that’s great for capitalism I won’t put on my bikini till I take it off with Neet! I won’t put on my disco dress till I take it off with Neet! Facial hair is a problem for women of all ages Imagine permanently transforming your unwanted hair from this to this Fine, I’ll shave Yes, you shaved Minus the Hair ♪Smile the while you kiss me sad adieu ♪ ♪When the clouds roll by I’ll ome to you ♪
This film was selected to be filmed at three four festivals including the 19th edition of the Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival as part of the international short documentary film competition, the Monthly Edition of Mindie - Miami Independent Film Festival, the 11th MikroFAF Festival at Belgrade, Serbia, and the Salt City International Film Festival. The film won Best Documentary at Salt City International Film Festival and the Special Mentions Award for DIY Films in International Selection at MikroFAF Festival.
La Fille
Professor: Benjamin Vanmuysen Location: Rhinebeck, New York Course: Design VII - Spring 2020
Flagship Store of Lingerie Brand - La Fille D’o This store depicts the notion of space for female consumption that exists within the hyper sexualized culture, with the approach of appreciating the banal materials and their interaction in between, exploring on what should be conventionally revealed or not revealed. This store is designed for the Belgian based avant garde lingerie brand by Mureillle Victorine Scherre in 2003, La Fille D’o. She created her own vision of underwear, luxurious but straightforward since she didn’t see what she wanted in the existing market. The lingerie hopes to bring out the aesthetics of the mechanics of the human body and to appreciate body movements and body curves. Like the brand, the unique experience in this store is created for women to feel like they can reveal their body parts that are constantly hidden by the society without being sexualized while they shop in this public consumption space. The approach taken in designing includes combining high end material with banal or construction material with language of penetration or penetrating each other.
Network
E-waste Recycling Plant and Pre-School
Professor Daniele Profeta ARC 409 - Spring 2019
Re purposing is required as an adaptive measure to sustain the current condition of mass production, consumption, and waste. “less than a quarter of all U.S. electronic waste is recycled, according to a United Nations estimate. The rest is incinerated or ends up in landfills. That’s bad news, as e-waste can contain harmful materials like mercury and beryllium that pose environmental risks.” This project aims to appropriate the particular unstable nature of materials as a conceptual framework for this project. The logic of transformation and re-appropriation determine the site posture, form strategy, program, and building aesthetic language. The plan embraced the linear nature of the process to organize systems, programs, and building skin. Series of bars consisting of program, machine, and people wrap in multiple layers of glazing and translucent to make up the interior of the project. The exterior also expresses deployed the logic of the bans in conjunction with the building as a ban within the larger strategy.
7. Refubishing Store Second-hand store for selling e-waste products.
5. Storage Space for storing incoming and outgoing shipments.
4. Refurbishing This station in the process repairs and make use of suible parts from the dismantling. process
1 Pre- School
0 Output
-1
Input -2 6. E-waste processing sorting station for building store and outgoing shipments of refurbished items.
1. Collection e-waste is collected both from the general public and other e-waste collection facilities to start stage 1 of the process.
-3
2. E-waste sorting station e-waste is sorted with both the assistance of people and machines.
-4
3. Dismantling e-waste then is dismantle into individual parts. The process seperate resuable from permanent waste.
1. Collection
2. E-waste sorting station
3. Dismantling
4. Refurbishing
5. Storage
6. E-waste processing
7. Refubishing