Intervention

Positionality Statement
My academic and professional background is in Architecture and Design for Performance and Interaction. I was educated in English, in a post-colonial India. My formative years were marked by stories of my ancestors and the generational trauma (Rao, 2021) passed down from the former British empire as well as the omni-present tension between Hindu and Muslim communities this caused. Hatred was disguised as patriotism and this created a lot of bias in society. I had the privilege of having access to education, safety and community – something a large percentage of the country cannot claim to have. Cultural influences were predominantly western (American/British), right down from film to cinema – cartoon, fashion, etc – creating a (sort of) colonisation problem I only realised much later.

Intervention
My intervention/s take place across two sessions, exploring the nature of safe spaces. Here, a safe space refers to the physical embodiment of a space where conversations around intersectional social justice can take place or students can approach this issue through design and critical thinking.

Session 1: Synthetic Spaces, Form Lab with Owen Wells (GMDLCC,2024).
Date: 10 April 2024

Synthetic Spaces (see Appendix A) explores how (physical) spaces are represented or manipulated physically/digitally/both. Students are asked to work in groups to 3D scan a corner of the classroom and redesign it in Virtual Reality. Here social justice is addressed through a series of prompts (for design) such as:

What would make the space feel more familiar?
Does the space feel safe and accessible?
Is it easy for you to listen to the tutor speaking at the front of the room?

Session 2: Active Space Lab with Irene Martin (GMDLCC,2024).
Dates: 15 April 2024 and 22 April 2024

This is a 2 part session (see Appendix C and D) that responds to and builds on Session 1 in a new context. It was evident that the redesign of a space was challenging and I wanted to explore how we can activate existing spaces to tell stories around intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) and social justice.

Students worked in groups to pitch an installation around social justice for the Design School Graduate Showcase. The piece was exhibited live at the front of the Upper Gallery, giving students the opportunity to bring this conversation to wider audiences (Muller, Froggett and Bennett, 2020).

Students are asked to select from the following themes to develop a concept:
LCC communities (inside and outside)
Access and opportunity
Student journey and voices
Sustainability
Intersectional identities (Crenshaw, 1991)

Context
I’m interested in exploring intersectional social justice as an embodied physical experience for our students. As mentioned in my intervention outline, I have encountered a barrier where I am struggling to address intersectionality and social justice as lived experience within the classroom. I am able to express them within impact-oriented briefs and contextual/theoretical frameworks. However, I’m interested in approaching a social justice that is more situated. Therefore, I have outlined three areas that I would like to address through these intervention/s:

  1. Social separation/Inclusivity– There is a degree of segregation (within the classroom) between students that come from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds within LCC. This is especially evident in the case of international students from East Asian countries, affecting where and with whom they choose to sit. Barton (2001) provides us with a reference point from the perspective of urban planning to think about how boundaries that separate people based on culture and race can often be invisible. I find this pertinent even at the scale of the classroom. Sembene’s (1966) Black Girl shows us how taking an individual out of their context without the necessary conditions available for their inclusion can lead to a feeling of alienation and imprisonment. I would like to acknowledge here that I am not making a comparison between international students and the colonial treatment of African people in the 1960s but rather, trying to bring forth the feeling of how disjointed an experience can feel based on one’s expectations.
  2. Safety– A safe (classroom/academic) space is not only where one can express themselves freely but where conversations around intersectionality and social justice can take place without prejudice. As Francois (2019) argues, there is a need to restructure our understanding of who a safe space protects and who it undermines, calling for a need to look at spaces from the lens of bravery over safety; where our privileges are not rendered invisible but rather brought forth for discussion. Art and Design can be a great vehicle for these conversations, however the necessary conditions must be afforded.
  3. Community– UAL has a diverse cohort with a large body of international students (University of the Arts London, 2024), each of whom brings with them a unique set of intersectional identities framed by their own experience. This serves as a wonderful opportunity to think about how our spaces could reflect their occupants. I am keen to explore how spatial design and/or experience can be used to create a feeling of community for our students by tapping into their individual experiences and backgrounds. I would like to consider the intentionality of space, its design and use (Hollingsworth, 2018) as a necessary agent in placemaking. Further, as Ebo (2023) suggests, involving the community itself in the making of a place can create a sense of collective ownership.

Observations/Analysis

Reflections on Session 1:

Students worked in groups on 3 corners of D110 at LCC. Attached below are some of the visual artefacts produced in the session.

Video 1: Work produced by BA GMD Students in Synthetic Spaces, Form Lab – see Appendix B for Student Credits (Rendered as Animation by me in Cinema 4d)
Image 1: Work produced by BA GMD Students in Synthetic Spaces, Form Lab – see Appendix B for Student Credits
Image 2: BA GMD Students working in the session (see Appendix B for Student Credits)

It was interesting to note that a number of students approached the design problem from a decorative standpoint when confronting issues around safety. Initially, I thought that this might have to do with the way I structured the session, expecting students to arrive at a new form of spatial sequencing or configuration instead. However, on reflection it seems that the students derive value from the objects, surfaces, colours and textures within a space as well as how that makes them feel. Gore (2023) explores the connection between the interior design of spaces and the inherent values espoused by its occupants, suggesting that objects, furniture, décor, etc can be used to promote (racial) wellness but equally also – instil certain values in the visitors of the space. Hooks (1997) describes the ‘homeplace’ as a site for (social/cultural/racial) resistance by looking at the restorative qualities of the space and how it affects its occupants. Perhaps this is something to think about in how we design and use our classroom spaces as well, a ‘sort of’ home away from home for our students before they step into the outside world. It was also interesting for me to think about this from the perspective of my positionality as an architect and spatial designer, who now finds himself working in media arts and design. Perhaps my biases rooted in my subject-specific expertise didn’t allow me to understand (wholly) what the students were thinking and doing in the first instance.

Reflections on Session 2 and 3 (note* Session 2 had 2 parts):
Learning from session 1, I thought it could be interesting for students to have an opportunity to try activating a space to tell a story or create an experience that engages members of the public (Muller, Froggett and Bennett, 2020). Students were asked to design a site-specific installation to communicate themes of intersectional social justice. It was great to be able to work with the students on a live project like this. They pitched two ideas – (see appendix E), that responded to the themes of identity and diversity.

Image 3: BA GMD Students pitching ideas to Exhibitions Teams (see Appendix E and F)
Image 4: BA GMD Students pitching ideas to Exhibitions Teams (see Appendix E and F)

Eventually we (students and staff) worked with these two ideas in a consolidated sense to produce an installation called Reflect. The students took the lead and were supported by members of staff including myself, Irene Martin and Alistair McClymont. The idea for the installation was to tell a story about diversity. Students proposed using machine learning models to render people in the environment as simple geometric shapes/arrangements (square, circle, rectangle, grid). The shapes could be manipulated in real time by the participants through simple gestures recognition and pose detection (algorithmic) models. The idea here was to use a playful form of interaction design to communicate a narrative about inclusivity; that no matter who the person is, they are acknowledged in the space through their interaction with the machine.

Video 2: Prototyping and testing interaction with students and Alistair McClymont
Image 5: Caption of the piece entitled ‘Reflect’ as shown in the Graduate Showcase
Video 3: Members of the public interacting with the piece at the Graduate Showcase, courtesy Andrea Capello

Challenges, learnings and looking ahead:
One of the key challenges I faced across both interventions was managing time. In the future, it would be good to manage expectations from an early stage. Intersectional social justice presents a set of complex and layered topics that require a considered and nuanced approach in order to be able to cover. But, perhaps that is not the point. I think if we start to see these topics as more like values and/or things we care about, it becomes a lot easier for us as staff members to have those conversations with students based on work that they produce.

Further, It would have been wonderful to be able to speak to the students more about machine learning and classification systems, touching on the biases within them based on how they are trained (Buolamwini, 2017). This would have been a great launchpad to discuss (with students) issues on exclusion and discrimination as a result of these systems and their perceived neutrality. I think ultimately this is really the point of having intersectional social justice as part of the curriculum – to create more opportunities to bring these complex topics to the table for students.

Finally, it was challenging to look at my positionality and be able to re-frame my expectations based on that reflection. This is not something I have actively considered in the past but has served here as an important lesson in understanding my teaching practice as well as thinking about how I would like to develop it further. 

References:

  1. Black Girl (1966) Directed by Ousmane Sembène [film]. New York: New Yorker Films.
  2. Freire, P. (1974) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. 
  3. Crenshaw, K. (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989, Article 8. https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8
  4. Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039 
  5. Hooks, B. (1997) ‘Homeplace: A site of resistance’, in L, McDowell (ed.) Undoing Place? A Geographical Reader. London: Routledge, pp. 41-49.
  6. Barton, C. E. (2001) Sites of memory: Perspectives on architecture and race. Princeton Architectural Press.
  7. McIntosh, P. (2001) White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women’s studies (1988). Race, class, and gender: An anthology, pp.95-105.
  8. Giaccaria, P., & Minca, C. (2011) Topographies/topologies of the camp: Auschwitz as a spatial threshold. Political Geography, 30(1), 3-12.
  9. Katz, J. (2013) The three block model of universal design for learning (UDL): Engaging students in inclusive education. Canadian Journal of Education, 36(1), 153-194.
  10. Buolamwini, J. (2017) How I’m fighting bias in algorithms, TEDxBeaconStreet. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/joy_buolamwini_how_i_m_fighting_bias_in_algorithms?subtitle=en&trigger=0s (Accessed: 11 July 2024).
  11. Hollingsworth, D. (2018) Places and Spaces and the Behavior They Create, TEDxMinneapolis. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/damaris_hollingsworth_places_and_spaces_and_the_behavior_they_create?subtitle=en&trigger=0s (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
  12. Francois, Janine (2019) ‘Moving from Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: How “Intersectionality” can Facilitate Difficult Conversation within Teaching and Learning’, Doing Feminist Pedagogy in Contemporary Universities: Old Dilemmas and New Challenges, Warwick (United Kingdom), 08 Mar, Warwick: Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick. Available at: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/research/gender/calendar/eventrecordings/janinefrancois.mp3 (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
  13. Tayob, H., & Hall, S. (2019) Race, space and architecture: Towards and open-access curriculum. London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Sociology.
  14. Muller, L., Froggett, L. and Bennett, J. (2020). Emergent knowledge in the third space of art-science. Leonardo, 53(3), pp.321-326.
  15. Noel, L.A. and Paiva, M. (2021) Learning to recognize exclusion. Journal of Usability Studies, 16(2), pp.63-72.
  16. Rao, J. M. (2021) The lasting impact of colonial trauma in India: Links to Hindu nationalism. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 18(4), 345-362.
  17. Thomas, L. (2022) The intersectional environmentalist: How to dismantle systems of oppression to protect people + planet. Souvenir Press.
  18. Bayeck, R.Y., (2022) Positionality: The interplay of space, context and identity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, p.16094069221114745.
  19. Ebo, I. (2023) Designing for Intersectionality and Inclusion. 24 August, AIA Austin Design Excellence Conference, Austin. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0xVRcC4BuY (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
  20. Gore, S. (2023) Interior race theory is a creative way to decolonize our homes. Architectural Digest. Available at: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/interior-race-theory-design-concept (Accessed: 10 July 2024).
  21. Medvescek, N., Raori, R. and Gonsalves, K. (2023) Relationality in Intermedial Architecture: A Creative Producing Approach. In Proceedings of the 6th Media Architecture Biennale Conference (pp. 173-178).
  22. Crook, L. (2024) ‘Less experimentation and more “safe spaces” will define architecture in 2024’, Dezeen, 4 January. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2024/01/04/architecture-trends-predictions-2024/ (Accessed: 28 May 2024). 
  23. GMDLCC (2024) GMD LAB. Available at: https://lab.gmdlcc.com/ (Accessed: 28 May 2024).
  24. Merry, K. L. (2024) Delivering inclusive and impactful instruction: universal design for learning in higher education. (No Title).
  25. University of the Arts London (2024) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Annual report 2022/23. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/432141/SPCB23435-EDI-report-2022-23.pdf (Accessed: 13 July 2024).

Appendix
Contents:
Appendix A: Synthetic Spaces Presentation
Appendix B: Students Credits for Synthetic Spaces
Appendix C: Active Space Lab Session 1 Presentation
Appendix D: Active Space Lab Session 2 Presentation
Appendix E: Student ideas for Active Space Lab
Appendix F: Students Credits for Active Space Lab

Appendix A:

Synthetic Spaces, Form Lab Presentation:

SyntheticSpacesDownload

Appendix B:

Student Credits for Synthetic Spaces, Form Lab:
Amaal Mohammed
Anastasiia Tyshkovets
Charlie Morgan-Anstee
Faye Cai
Hannah Murray
Haram Kim
Leyang Ye
Li Shi
Luke Macgregor
Marceline Chu
Mariaa Sharamko
Polina Yelistarkhova
Prabhnir Natt
Saige Kim
Shuang Li
Soham Chandrachud
Wandi Chen (Wendy)
Xiaoying He (Eurus)
Xin Qiu
Yashica Jain
Yuting Qi
Zhiyang Zhang (Doris)
Zhuoyun Zheng

Appendix C:

Active Space Lab Session 1 Presentation:

Active-Space1Download

Appendix D:

Active Space Lab Session 2 Presentation:

Active-Space-Lab-Session-2Download

Appendix E

Student Group ideas for installation. There were two groups that pitched ideas (see below) and these were then consolidated into one.

Student Group 1:

CONCEPT-PRESENATATION.cleanedDownload

Student Group 2:

Threads-of-identity_project-proposalDownload

Appendix F:

Student Credits for Active Space Lab:
Alina Mityukova
Elif Turan
Faye Cai
Haram Kim
Isel Porta
Jiawei Fan
Layan Khalife
Leyang Ye
Lovisa Carlqvist
Natalia Zolyniak
Olena Kovalevych
Paula Pages Lovaton (Poli)
Polina Yelistarkhova
Qingying Liu
Serggy Bermeo Alban
Soham Chandrachud
Suhyong Bae
Timothy Yufit
Xin Qiu
Xinyue Zeng
Yashica Jain
Zhiyang Zhang (Doris)
Zhuoyun Zheng

Note* Students highlighted in bold are the ones that continued to work on the installation after the session and until the showcase. Not all students were able to commit to this timeline due to deadlines and other ‘end of year’ commitments. The three students were also credited in the caption for the piece at the Graduate Showcase (see Image 5).