February 2, 2022 Students Reveal Cultural Potential of Public Space
Students in our School of Architecture “acted up.”
In Adjunct Assistant Professor Curry Hackettâs fall 2021 Architecture seminar, titled Acting Up: Ritual and Provocation in the Public Realm, 4th-year, 5th-year and graduate Architecture students studied Black cultural traditions to better understand the under-recognized potential of public spaces.
Students studied quilting and textiles, regional social dance and style of dress to imagine a public realm that encourages imagination and intent, while challenging its traditional place of power and capital. They critiqued pitfalls of architecture in the modern Western traditionâwhich is often concerned more with buildings than the people who occupy themâto inform more gracious modes of practice.
![headshot Curry Hackett](/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/1Selected_Hackett-IMG_1312.jpg_cropBW-1024x747.jpg)
âStudents learned that Black Americansâ spatial, material and rhetorical practices often serve as means of resistance and refusal, in spite of power dynamics and colonialism,â Hackett explained. âArchitecture as a discipline must contend with the conflict of space being both fraught with peril and welcoming of possibility.â
As students considered this reality, they engaged in individual and group exercises to create performances and installations in the interior of the Art + Architecture Building, meant to challenge conventional behaviors in the atrium. In the end, using independent methods of learningâincluding improvisational performance and weaving, as well as anecdotal researchâstudents devised strategies to promote care and agency in the built environment.
Fifth-year student Melissa Lozano Lykes explains the impact on their design perspective. âThis is something Iâve continued to take into my design career: the same conditions can create many different answers, and they often break into groups showing whatâs most important or clear to a population.â
âThis class challenged the first vision that comes to mind when we hear âarchitectureâ but gave us the tools to challenge and enrich our ideas, visions, and designs,â said 5th-year student, Christina Ceniceros. âThe course…drew me in deeper into the provocative nature that architecture has in both a social and cultural context. I knew that architecture was more than the instinctual primary vision of the four walls and a triangular roof but rather a tapped-in understanding of the flexibility and dualistic nature of space and design. This course enriched my creative endeavors and empowered me to re-imagine architecture.â
Enjoy photos from the studio:
Photo 1: The image with multiple iterations shows Christina Cenicerosâs study during the âMakingâ exercise, which incorporated a collection of found materials contributed by the rest of the class (plastic bags, braiding hair, flowers, grass).
![photos of found materials made as clothing accessory](/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hackett_f21_foundmaterials-1024x755.png)
Photo 2: The yarn image was one of the three installations created during the âMarkingâ exercise, in which students had to identify a space and social group for whom to design a place of refuge. This was intended to incite conversation through collective weaving and alter behavior of the atrium lobby. Group members: Maureen Sotak, Gabe Wall and Munzir Mohamed.
![yarn woven into tall structure](/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hackett_f21_refuge-768x1024.jpg)
Photo 3: The bamboo image was also one of the three installations created during the âMarkingâ exercise. The students harvested bamboo to create a âharborâ over one of the atriumâs bridges. Yarn was added to offer a tactile experience and material contrasts while passing through. Group members: Joanna Martin, Sydney Neff and Katie Pennington.
![curved bamboo and yarn](/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hackett_f21_bambooharbor-768x1024.jpg)
Photo 4: The âpuppetâ image was one of three performances during the âMovingâ exercise, in which the students had to choreograph a spectacular âhappeningâ in the atrium lobby. They were encouraged to reuse materials from the previous exercise. This group used yarn and bamboo to create human âpuppets,â controlled by passersby on the upper level and made to do simple tasks such as drawing, building with blocks and basketball. Group members: Joanna Martin, Kathryn Parker, Melrose Lykes and Munzir Mohamed.
![students engaged as human puppets](/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Hackett_f21_puppet-768x1024.jpg)