#Invisible Architecture of Bias

[dionysianfreak]

Hi, asking as a disabled Hermes worshipper here, is there specific ways he manifests in neurodivergence or chronic illness that you can elaborate on? I saw your post about the Gods manifesting in the worst ways and it interested me.

hello lovely, what a great question ! I think there's plenty of aspects of Hermés that relate to the less-than-fun sides of neurodivergency/disability. I'm going to make this a bullet-point post to make it easier to read.

public school systems/work life/societal scheduling favoring neurotypical people

standard fonts are typically the worst for dyslexic people

the lack of disability-friendly architecture

the disability system as a whole, especially the cap on personal wealth

privatized medical insurance, cost of general medical care, and the even higher cost of specialized care

lack of constructive research for neurodivergency and "invisible" disability

bias, infantilism, or distaste towards disability in the workplace, schools, and in public

the cost of mobility aids and lack of reliability when obtaining proper equipment

high segregation rates of high support need individuals and less rates of empathy for non-visible illnesses

"pretty privilege" causing people to question the validity of someones disability or illness

powerful organizations dictating disabled people's lives (e.g. autism speaks)

gambling addiction (neurodivergent people, especially with ADHD, are at a high risk of gambling addiction)

out of all the Gods, I think Hermes' domains contain a lot of strife these days (especially His rulings over money and economy). I turn to Him a lot for these issues because He knows the darkness that is present there better than anyone. thank you for the ask !

[cognitivejustice]

At the corner of Banani Bridge, Rofikul and Johra run a temporary food stall. Around the stall, they grow vegetables on small patches of land along the Gulshan-Banani (or Korail) lake. The couple, long-term resident of the Korail neighbourhood, has been growing their food for many years. In 2020, the pandemic motivated them to focus more on this venture. They joined a group of urban farmers, Nogor Abad, which finally led to the establishment of the food stall. They grow chemical-free vegetables, fruits and spices, many of which find their way to the stall's tables. They also cook and sell packaged meals with the produce. Their earnings helped Johra reduce her working hours as a domestic worker to lead the couple's independent venture.

When we visited them in December 2024, Rofikul told us about the flowers he planted to draw pollinators. We spotted a common kingfisher perching on a bamboo pole in Johura-Rofiqul's vegetable plot. Rofikul smiled proudly when we complimented him for creating homes for all forms of life along the lakeside.

Johra and Rofikul's greening practices, which received no formal recognition from urban authorities, depict the model of a healthier, fairer, and more liveable Dhaka, not just for people, but for a multispecies urban life. In fact, the couple's greening practices belong to a kaleidoscope of urban farming initiatives all over Dhaka. When done thoughtfully, such farming can benefit both farmers and their local ecologies—a medicine for the polluted urban soil, water, and air. However, urban farming practices, especially poor people's greening practices, are invisible in Dhaka's planning, architecture, and governance. When government authorities plan ecological infrastructure for the city, such as Hatirjheel, they displace poor people and erase their practices of environmental stewardship. An anti-poor, anti-agricultural bias is baked into the technocratic ecological projects common in Bangladesh's urban development and governance.

[caterpisser]

I would lovee to hear the lore dump about your otherworldly ocs :]c they're such cool designs and id love to hear more!! <3

AUDHAIUCFGEQIUDHWIQUEFHIUWDHE YAYYY!!!!! YAYY!!! YAY!!!! HI THIS IS RLLY RLLY RLLY LONG SO STRAP IN LOL Other Worldly is a story I've been writing for like 3ish years and it's gonna be a psychological horror comedy set in a modern fantasy world. I want it to be a video game that I'll hopefully start actually making next year hehe Gonna put a really really long-winded worldbuilding explanation below the cut but dw if you don't wanna read it it's a lot lolololol

So on Urf the terrain is a lot more than it is irl. The wildlife is essentially a lot bigger, and so are the predators. Depending on the area, humans have animalistic traits originally there to help them fend against these predators. However, this is set in modern day so humans have a lot more technology now and over the generations they've lost things like natural camouflage and such. That's why characters like Robin and Piper have unnatural skin tones and different pupils (although the pupils are hard to see bc their eyes are so short). Not all humans have remnants of the past, though! Larry and Gary's families have evolved past them so they look completely human. There's also nature spirits who are kinda personifications of things like forests and bodies of water who are there so take care of said piece of nature. They can kinda take whatever form they want and most of them stay away from humans (theres more to it but that might have to be a separate post lol). OK SO THE ISLAND was originally a piece of Urf but it was taken and lifted into the sky by two spirits named Madre and Pater who wanted to start a new society. I tend to imagine the island the size of a small town. The island itself is floating in Urf's atmosphere but is invisible to humans because it's covered by thick clouds always surrounding the planet (there is a reason for this). It was lifted way back when around the 1800's so that's the basic reference point I have for a lot of the fashion and architecture. It is flexible though since it isn't the 1800's and I imagine Pater goes to Urf frequently. Madre and Pater are treated as the gods of the island, ruling over the citizens tightly. Some people worship both equally, but many have a bias toward Pater since he's more outgoing than Madre. You might be wondering, who is living on this island??? It isn't humans, but star people. People born from stars. Tbh they can also be explained in another, longass post but to point out something important, Starborns don't have sex organs or genitals. They're regarded without gender on the island and Madre and Pater are the only ones referred to with gendered terms up there, making them divine in nature. (to overexplain it a little, being a man/woman isn't really a thing up there and is basically a status symbol to show Madre and Pater are above their citizens). TO FINALLY EXPLAIN SOME OF THE STORY, Ernest grew up heavily worshipping Madre. They're extremely loyal to her and go to her for advice a lot. They sincerely love her deeply and couldn't imagine her ever doing anything bad. So completely unrelated, she sends Ernest to Urf after Pater's mysterious death. I wonder what happened. So anyway, after falling, they meet a forest spirit named Lenore who takes them to live with Larry, her best friend. That's kiiinda where the mandatory story ends. I have a few routes planned and there is technically a canon storyline but that's just what happens until the player is set loose to have fun. SO YEA THAT'S THE BASICS OF MY STORY LOLOLOL I HAVE A LOT OF FREE TIME TO WORLDBUILD SO THERE'S A LOT HERE ALSO TYSMSMSSMSMSM FOR ASKING I GOT SO ELATED SEEING THIS ASK TYSMSMSMSSM

[jcmarchi]

The Black Box Problem in LLMs: Challenges and Emerging Solutions

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-black-box-problem-in-llms-challenges-and-emerging-solutions/

The Black Box Problem in LLMs: Challenges and Emerging Solutions

Machine learning, a subset of AI, involves three components: algorithms, training data, and the resulting model. An algorithm, essentially a set of procedures, learns to identify patterns from a large set of examples (training data). The culmination of this training is a machine-learning model. For example, an algorithm trained with images of dogs would result in a model capable of identifying dogs in images.

Black Box in Machine Learning

In machine learning, any of the three components—algorithm, training data, or model—can be a black box. While algorithms are often publicly known, developers may choose to keep the model or the training data secretive to protect intellectual property. This obscurity makes it challenging to understand the AI’s decision-making process.

AI black boxes are systems whose internal workings remain opaque or invisible to users. Users can input data and receive output, but the logic or code that produces the output remains hidden. This is a common characteristic in many AI systems, including advanced generative models like ChatGPT and DALL-E 3.

LLMs such as GPT-4 present a significant challenge: their internal workings are largely opaque, making them “black boxes”.  Such opacity isn’t just a technical puzzle; it poses real-world safety and ethical concerns. For instance, if we can’t discern how these systems reach conclusions, can we trust them in critical areas like medical diagnoses or financial assessments?

The Scale and Complexity of LLMs

The scale of these models adds to their complexity. Take GPT-3, for instance, with its 175 billion parameters, and newer models having trillions. Each parameter interacts in intricate ways within the neural network, contributing to emergent capabilities that aren’t predictable by examining individual components alone. This scale and complexity make it nearly impossible to fully grasp their internal logic, posing a hurdle in diagnosing biases or unwanted behaviors in these models.

The Tradeoff: Scale vs. Interpretability

Reducing the scale of LLMs could enhance interpretability but at the cost of their advanced capabilities. The scale is what enables behaviors that smaller models cannot achieve. This presents an inherent tradeoff between scale, capability, and interpretability.

Impact of the LLM Black Box Problem

1. Flawed Decision Making

The opaqueness in the decision-making process of LLMs like GPT-3 or BERT can lead to undetected biases and errors. In fields like healthcare or criminal justice, where decisions have far-reaching consequences, the inability to audit LLMs for ethical and logical soundness is a major concern. For example, a medical diagnosis LLM relying on outdated or biased data can make harmful recommendations. Similarly, LLMs in hiring processes may inadvertently perpetuate gender bi ases. The black box nature thus not only conceals flaws but can potentially amplify them, necessitating a proactive approach to enhance transparency.

2. Limited Adaptability in Diverse Contexts

The lack of insight into the internal workings of LLMs restricts their adaptability. For example, a hiring LLM might be inefficient in evaluating candidates for a role that values practical skills over academic qualifications, due to its inability to adjust its evaluation criteria. Similarly, a medical LLM might struggle with rare disease diagnoses due to data imbalances. This inflexibility highlights the need for transparency to re-calibrate LLMs for specific tasks and contexts.

3. Bias and Knowledge Gaps

LLMs’ processing of vast training data is subject to the limitations imposed by their algorithms and model architectures. For instance, a medical LLM might show demographic biases if trained on unbalanced datasets. Also, an LLM’s proficiency in niche topics could be misleading, leading to overconfident, incorrect outputs. Addressing these biases and knowledge gaps requires more than just additional data; it calls for an examination of the model’s processing mechanics.

4. Legal and Ethical Accountability

The obscure nature of LLMs creates a legal gray area regarding liability for any harm caused by their decisions. If an LLM in a medical setting provides faulty advice leading to patient harm, determining accountability becomes difficult due to the model’s opacity. This legal uncertainty poses risks for entities deploying LLMs in sensitive areas, underscoring the need for clear governance and transparency.

5. Trust Issues in Sensitive Applications

For LLMs used in critical areas like healthcare and finance, the lack of transparency undermines their trustworthiness. Users and regulators need to ensure that these models do not harbor biases or make decisions based on unfair criteria. Verifying the absence of bias in LLMs necessitates an understanding of their decision-making processes, emphasizing the importance of explainability for ethical deployment.

6. Risks with Personal Data

LLMs require extensive training data, which may include sensitive personal information. The black box nature of these models raises concerns about how this data is processed and used. For instance, a medical LLM trained on patient records raises questions about data privacy and usage. Ensuring that personal data is not misused or exploited requires transparent data handling processes within these models.

Emerging Solutions for Interpretability

To address these challenges, new techniques are being developed. These include counterfactual (CF) approximation methods. The first method involves prompting an LLM to change a specific text concept while keeping other concepts constant. This approach, though effective, is resource-intensive at inference time.

The second approach involves creating a dedicated embedding space guided by an LLM during training. This space aligns with a causal graph and helps identify matches approximating CFs. This method requires fewer resources at test time and has been shown to effectively explain model predictions, even in LLMs with billions of parameters.

These approaches highlight the importance of causal explanations in NLP systems to ensure safety and establish trust. Counterfactual approximations provide a way to imagine how a given text would change if a certain concept in its generative process were different, aiding in practical causal effect estimation of high-level concepts on NLP models.

Deep Dive: Explanation Methods and Causality in LLMs

Probing and Feature Importance Tools

Probing is a technique used to decipher what internal representations in models encode. It can be either supervised or unsupervised and is aimed at determining if specific concepts are encoded at certain places in a network. While effective to an extent, probes fall short in providing causal explanations, as highlighted by Geiger et al. (2021).

Feature importance tools, another form of explanation method, often focus on input features, although some gradient-based methods extend this to hidden states. An example is the Integrated Gradients method, which offers a causal interpretation by exploring baseline (counterfactual, CF) inputs. Despite their utility, these methods still struggle to connect their analyses with real-world concepts beyond simple input properties.

Intervention-Based Methods

Intervention-based methods involve modifying inputs or internal representations to study effects on model behavior. These methods can create CF states to estimate causal effects, but they often generate implausible inputs or network states unless carefully controlled. The Causal Proxy Model (CPM), inspired by the S-learner concept, is a novel approach in this realm, mimicking the behavior of the explained model under CF inputs. However, the need for a distinct explainer for each model is a major limitation.

Approximating Counterfactuals

Counterfactuals are widely used in machine learning for data augmentation, involving perturbations to various factors or labels. These can be generated through manual editing, heuristic keyword replacement, or automated text rewriting. While manual editing is accurate, it’s also resource-intensive. Keyword-based methods have their limitations, and generative approaches offer a balance between fluency and coverage.

Faithful Explanations

Faithfulness in explanations refers to accurately depicting the underlying reasoning of the model. There’s no universally accepted definition of faithfulness, leading to its characterization through various metrics like Sensitivity, Consistency, Feature Importance Agreement, Robustness, and Simulatability. Most of these methods focus on feature-level explanations and often conflate correlation with causation. Our work aims to provide high-level concept explanations, leveraging the causality literature to propose an intuitive criterion: Order-Faithfulness.

We’ve delved into the inherent complexities of LLMs, understanding their ‘black box’ nature and the significant challenges it poses. From the risks of flawed decision-making in sensitive areas like healthcare and finance to the ethical quandaries surrounding bias and fairness, the need for transparency in LLMs has never been more evident.

The future of LLMs and their integration into our daily lives and critical decision-making processes hinges on our ability to make these models not only more advanced but also more understandable and accountable. The pursuit of explainability and interpretability is not just a technical endeavor but a fundamental aspect of building trust in AI systems. As LLMs become more integrated into society, the demand for transparency will grow, not just from AI practitioners but from every user who interacts with these systems.

[dinamakan]

Reading Lists

Who's currently working on a project but mentally exhausted, drowning in a reading slump, unable to take a break mindfully? It shouldn't be just me. I decided to write these lists, not sure if this helps me.

Here's my TBR list (not in order) (as far as I remember):

Doa Sang Katak 2 - Anthony de Mello

Pasca-Indonesia Pasca-Einstein - Y.B. Mangunwijaya

Burung-Burung Manyar - Y.B. Mangunwijaya

Jejak Langkah - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Rumah Kaca - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men - Caroline Criado Perez

The Architecture of Happiness - Alain de Botton

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist - Liz Pelly

Enlightenment Now - Steven Pinker

The Burnout Society - Byung-Chul Han

Time Anxiety - Chris Guillebeau

Factfulness - Hans Roslin

Man's Searching for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl

The Pilgrimage - Paulo Coelho

Cahaya dan Bayang-Bayang dari Jawa - Franz Junghuhn

and so on; if you see me reading other books, set me free.

Moreover, here are my current reads as I'm still trying to be present in the moment:

Anak Semua Bangsa - Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Imajinasi, Problematika, Kompleksitas - Anggi Afriansyah

The Jakarta Method - Vincent Bevins

It's not all about me, I'd also love to recommend these books for you:

Nuklir Sukarno: Kajian Awal atas Politik Tenaga Atom Indonesia 1958-1967 - Teuku Reza Fadeli (if you're into history)

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear - Mosab Abu Toha (this book makes it easier for readers to empathize with Palestinians)

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer - Fredrik Backman (a short book to cure the reading slump, but poignant enough to make you weep)

Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels - Pramoedya Ananta Toer (if you need a travel guide to enjoy a historical 'trip')

8 Rules of Love - Jay Shetty (if you want to: prepare for love / find your love / maintain the relationship / break up when things totally fell apart / know how to love all people in your life)

That's all, I'm going back to work on my project.

[sasorikigai]

Hanzo what is the most attractive feature of Jack's body?

Random Inbox Shenanigans || anonymous, mention of @sonxflight || always accepting! 

💥 || As being a virile man in his prime, and an epitome of exquisitely crafted physique and traumatized psyche, Hanzo Hasashi would be lying if he downright disregarded and refuted that the primal physical attraction did not play an importance when it comes to the amalgam of attraction he may feel for another. Hanzo Hasashi is well aware of the fact that there exists outer beauty, which contains the makings of classic physical attraction or chemistry, and there’s inner beauty, which refers to one’s traits, character, or soul. Basically, how one looks or how one can make someone attracted to him. 

The bias here is obvious; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But proximity and similarity breaks all his preexisting stereotypes, even the resentment and spiked bitterness he had felt through their first unsavory interactions, as raging firestorm brewed against his ribcage in rampages, as immolating and condensing brutal cruelty of his past had been ameliorated beneath the soothing balm of Ryou Sakai’s devoted affection and love. 

All that matters is he is no longer a flame flickering and dwindling, having once threatened to fade into sullen oblivion. His dour, grumpy expression breaks almost imperceptibly beneath his unchanging visage, and his taut hardness gives into the mischievous and knowing grin, as his penetrating gaze lingers in unearthly intensity and fervor. “What kind of fucking question is that?” The more time he spent teasing the architecture of Ryou Sakai’s flesh and mind, the kinkier the deeds and the naughtier the crime of his mapped topography upon his beloved. 

“I love every inch of his body, both explored and yet to be fully and completely explored; for his unbidden authenticity is attractive because it’s brave, and it’s out there. It signifies someone who has gotten in touch with himself and not flinched away. To be authentic is to be a rebel, and it’s to go against the stream. Who wouldn’t be attracted to someone who was internally strong enough to tell the world, “This is who I am. Take it or leave it,” but at the same time, reciprocates my own needs as he causes my heart and soul to blossom like a field of wildflowers?” 

Ryou Sakai’s ass. He percolates in deep pensiveness. He did love it, as he thinks of thrusting into his lover, as he would repeat the celestial mantras beneath the muffled sounds orchestrated in the flesh and bones, in the throes of his release and inevitable paroxysmal convulsion which it follows, where their interlinked orgasm would fragment of his memory and reality to be merged as he would float in cloud nine. And as Hanzo would bask in the afterflow of their sweat, exertion, and spunk, as it all brushes past his naked skin, he would relish the invisible caress stroking to clear the reverie from his mind. Ryou would clench, and Hanzo would moan - and it would simply a bland simulacrum to their lovemaking if he didn’t have the voidlike unclarity of his memory being dragged out to intensity as his blood would rush in pulsing fits through his body, urging his lucid arousal. 💥 || 

[luxe-pauvre]

The first of these themes is the female body - or, to be precise: it’s invisibility. Routinely forgetting to accommodate the female body in design - whether medical, technological or architectural - has led to a world that is less hospitable and more dangerous for women to navigate. It leads of us injuring ourselves in jobs and cars that weren’t designed for our bodies. It leads to us dying from drugs that don’t work. It has led to the creation of a world where women just don’t fit very well. There is an irony in how the female body is apparently invisible when it comes to collecting data, because when it comes to the second trend that defines women’s lives, the visibility of the female body is key. That trend is male sexual violence against women - how we don’t measure it, don’t design our world to account for it, and in so doing, allow it to limit women’s liberty. Female biology is not the reason women are raped. It is not the reason women are intimidated and violated as they navigate public spaces. This happens not because of sex, but because of gender: the social meanings we have imposed on male and female bodies. In order for gender to work, it must be obvious which bodies elicit which treatment. And, clearly, it is: as we’ve seen, ‘the mere sight of a woman’ is enough for the viewer to ‘immediately elicit a specific set of associated traits and attributions’. To immediately class her as someone to speak over. Someone to cat call. Someone to follow. Someone to rape.

Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

The data that we do have is unarguable: as we continue to build, plan and develop our world, we have to start taking account of women’s lives. In particular, we have to start accounting for the three themes that define women’s relationship with that world. 

The first of these themes is the female body – or, to be precise – its invisibility. Routinely forgetting to accommodate the female body in design – whether medical, technological or architectural – has led to a world that is less hospitable and more dangerous for women to navigate. It leads to us injuring ourselves in jobs and cars that weren’t designed for our bodies. It leads to us dying from drugs that don’t work. It has led to the creation of a world where women just don’t fit very well. 

There is an irony in how the female body is apparently invisible when it comes to collecting data, because when it comes to the second trend that defines women’s lives, the visibility of the female body is key. That trend is male sexual violence against women – how we don’t measure it, don’t design our world to account for it, and in so doing, allow it to limit women’s liberty. [...] 

Which is where we run into the third trend, which is perhaps the most significant in terms of its impact on women’s lives worldwide: unpaid care work. Women are doing far and away more than our fair share of this work – this necessary work without which our lives would all fall apart. And, as with male violence against women, female biology is not the reason women are the bum-wiping class. But recognising a child as female is the reason she will be brought up to expect and accept that as her role. Recognising a woman as female is the reason she will be seen as the appropriate person to clear up after everyone in the office. To write the Christmas and birthday cards to her husband’s family – and look after them when they get sick. To be paid less. To go part-time when they have kids. 

Failing to collect data on women and their lives means that we continue to naturalise sex and gender discrimination – while at the same time somehow not seeing any of this discrimination. Or really, we don’t see it because we naturalise it – it is too obvious, too commonplace, too much just the way things are to bother commenting on. It’s the irony of being a woman: at once hyper-visible when it comes to being treated as the subservient sex class, and invisible when it counts – when it comes to being counted. 

There is one more trend I kept coming across while writing this book: the excuses. Chief amongst these is that women are just too complicated to measure. Everyone was saying this, from transport planners, to medical researchers, to tech developers: they were all knocking their heads up against Freud’s riddle of femininity and coming away baffled and defeated. Female bodies are too unharmonious, too menstrual and too hormonal. Women’s travel patterns are too messy, their work schedules are too aberrant, their voices are too high. Even when, in the early twentieth century, influential Swiss architect Le Corbusier was devising a standard human model for use in architecture, the female body was ‘only belatedly considered and rejected as a source of proportional harmony’, with humanity instead represented by a six-foot man with his arm raised (to reach that top shelf I can never reach). 

The consensus is clear: women are abnormal, atypical, just plain wrong. Why can’t a woman be more like a man? Well, apologies on behalf of the female sex for being so mysterious, but no, we aren’t and no we can’t. And that is a reality that scientists, politicians and tech bros just need to face up to. Yes, simple is easier. Simple is cheaper. But simple doesn’t reflect reality. [...] 

There is a better way. And it’s a pretty simple one: we must increase female representation in all spheres of life. Because as more women move into positions of power or influence, there’s another pattern that is becoming even more apparent: women simply don’t forget that women exist as easily as men often seem to. 

Women in the film industry are more likely to employ women. Female journalists are significantly more likely to centre a female perspective and to quote women. Female authors do the same: 69% of US female biographers wrote about female subjects in 2015, compared to 6% of male biographers. The emphasis by women on female voices and perspectives extends to the academy. Between 1980 and 2007, female history faculty in the US rose from 15% to 35%14 – meanwhile across a similar time period (1975-2015), US history faculty specialising in women’s history rose from 1% to 10%15 – a tenfold increase. Female academics are also more likely to assign female authors to their students. 

Then there’s how women might interpret history: in a 2004 Guardian article comedian Sandi Toksvig wrote about how when she was studying anthropology at university one of her female professors held up a photograph of an antler bone with twenty-eight markings on it. ‘This,’ she said, ‘is alleged to be man’s first attempt at a calendar.’ We all looked at the bone in admiration. ‘Tell me,’ she continued, ‘what man needs to know when 28 days have passed? I suspect that this is woman’s first attempt at a calendar.’

When Britain’s EU Withdrawal Bill was announced in 2017, the Human Rights Act was explicitly excluded from alteration – but it took a woman, Maria Miller, the Conservative MP for Basingstoke, to force the government to agree to make a statement requiring that Brexit is also compatible with the Equalities Act. Without this concession, a whole range of women’s rights could be scrapped after Brexit, with no avenue for legal redress. In the workplace it is often women, like developmental biologist Christiane Nusslein-Volhard with her foundation to help female PhD students with children, who are putting in place solutions to structural male bias – a bias which male leaders have overlooked and ignored for decades. [...]

The solution to the sex and gender data gap is clear: we have to close the female representation gap. When women are involved in decision-making, in research, in knowledge production, women do not get forgotten. Female lives and perspectives are brought out of the shadows. This is to the benefit of women everywhere, and as the story of Taimina, the crocheting maths professor shows, it is often to the benefit of humanity as a whole. And so, to return to Freud’s ‘riddle of femininity’, it turns out that the answer was staring us in the face all along. All ‘people’ needed to do was to ask women.

- Caroline Criado-Pérez’s Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

[7r0773r]

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

In the mid-1990s, research by local officials in Vienna found that from the age of ten, girls’ presence in parks and public playgrounds ‘decreases significantly’. But rather than simply shrugging their shoulders and deciding that the girls just needed  to toughen up, city officials wondered if there was something wrong with the design of parks. And so they planned some pilot projects, and they started to collect data. 

What they found was revealing. It turned out that single large open spaces were the problem, because these forced girls to compete with the boys for space. And girls didn’t have the confidence to compete with the boys (that’s social conditioning for you) so they tended to just let the boys have the space. But when they subdivided the parks into smaller areas, the female drop-off was reversed. They also addressed the parks’ sports facilities. Originally these spaces were encased by wire fencing on all sides, with only a single entrance area — around which groups of boys would congregate. And the girls, unwilling to run the gauntlet, simply weren’t going in. Enter, stage right, Vienna’s very own Leslie Knope, Claudia Prinz-Brandenburg, with a simple proposal: more and wider entrances. And like the grassy spaces, they also subdivided the sports courts. Formal sports like basketball were still provided for, but there was also now space for more informal activities — which girls are more likely to engage in. These were all subtle changes — but they worked. A year later, not only were there more girls in the park, the number of ‘informal activities’ had increased. And now all new parks in Vienna are designed along the same lines. (pp. 63-64)

***

. . . Fifty year’s worth of US census data has proven that when women join an industry in high numbers, that industry attracts lower pay and loses ‘prestige’, suggesting that low-paid work chooses women rather than the other way around. (p. 76)

***

We teach brilliance bias to children from an early age. A recent US study found that when girls start primary school at the age of five, they are as likely as five-year-old boys to think women could be ‘really really smart’. But by the time they turn six, something changes. They start doubting their gender. So much so, in fact, that they start limiting themselves: if a game is presented to them as intended for ‘children who are really, really smart’, five-year-old girls are as likely to want to play it as boys — but six-year-old girls are suddenly uninterested. Schools are teaching little girls that brilliance doesn’t belong to them. (pp. 100-01)

***

But the disparity in the relative female-friendliness of plough versus shifting agriculture is also a result of gendered social roles. Hoeing can be easily started and stopped, meaning that it can be combined with childcare. The same cannot be said for a heavy tool drawn by a powerful animal. Hoeing is also labour intensive, whereas ploughing is capital intensive, and women are more likely to have access to time rather than money as a resource. As result, argued [Danish economist Ester] Boserup, where the plough was used, men dominated agriculture and this resulted in unequal societies in which men had the power and the privilege.

According to a 2011 paper, Boserup’s hypothesis holds up to scrutiny. Researchers found that descendants of societies that traditionally practised plough agriculture held more sexist views even if they emigrated to other countries. The paper also found that sexist beliefs correlated with the kind of geo-climactic conditions that would favour plough agriculture over shifting agriculture. This suggested that it was the climate rather than pre-existing sexism that dictated the adoption of the plough — which in turn drove the adoption of sexist views. (p. 146)

***

The data that we do have is unarguable: as we continue to build, plan and develop our world, we have to start taking account of women's lives. In particular, we have to start accounting for the three themes that define women's relationship with that world. 

The first of these themes is the female body — or, to be precise —its invisibility. Routinely forgetting to accommodate the female body in design — whether medical, technological or architectural — has led to a world that is less hospitable and more dangerous for women to navigate. It leads to us injuring ourselves in jobs and cars that weren't designed for our bodies. It leads to us dying from drugs that don't work. It has led to the creation of a world where women just don't fit very well. 

There is an irony in how the female body is apparently invisible when it comes to collecting data, because when it comes to the second trend that defines women's lives, the visibility of the female body is key. That trend is male sexual violence against women —how we don't measure it, don't design our world to account for it, and in so doing, allow it to limit women's liberty. Female biology is not the reason women are raped. It is not the reason women are intimidated and violated as they navigate public spaces. This happens not because of sex, but because of gender: the social meanings we have imposed on male and female bodies. In order for gender to work, it must be obvious which bodies elicit which treatment. And, clearly, it is: as we've seen, 'the mere sight of a woman' is enough for the viewer to 'immediately elicit a specific set of associated traits and attributions'. To immediately class her as someone to speak over. Someone to cat call. Someone to follow. Someone to rape. 

Or maybe just someone to make the tea. Which is where we run into the third trend, which is perhaps the most significant in terms of its impact on women's lives worldwide: unpaid care work. Women are doing far and away more than our fair share of this work — this necessary work without which our lives would all fall apart. And, as with male violence against women, female biology is not the reason women are the bum-wiping class. But recognising a child as female is the reason she will be brought up to expect and accept that as her role. Recognising a woman as female is the reason she will be seen as the appropriate person to clear up after everyone in the office. To write the Christmas and birthday cards to her husband's family — and look after them when they get sick. To be paid less. To go part-time when they have kids. 

Failing to collect data on women and their lives means that we continue to naturalise sex and gender discrimination — while at the same time somehow not seeing any of this discrimination. Or really, we don't see it because we naturalise it — it is too obvious, too commonplace, too much just the way things are to bother commenting on. It's the irony of being a woman: at once hyper-visible when it comes to being treated as the subservient sex class, and invisible when it counts — when it comes to being counted. (pp. 312-14)

[k-she-rambles]

So I wrote the “Oh no, she’s hot” fic I wanted to read

MidMerica Midsummer Conclave, Year of the Warthog.

“Hello, again,” said a voice in Scythe Faraday’s ear. The placement of the seats in the auditorium meant that he would have to turn completely around in his seat to see anyone directly behind him, or lean his head back, exposing his neck. He did the latter, because he knew that voice. Even then, the view was awkward. It was easier to speak to someone downtier from you.

“Hi,” he said, “I didn’t see you arriving.”

“I considered sneaking in,” said Scythe Curie, a faint downturn on her lips.

Faraday frowned up at his former apprentice. “I don’t love the attention, but…”

“Oh, don’t start. You were about to say ‘the public need to be reminded that they are the hand that wields us,’ weren’t you?”

Faraday felt himself flush, ego pricked, and found himself unusually unwilling to concede the point. “I’m very quotable.”

“Besides,” said Curie, “I’m beginning to understand that I can’t undo what I do. I made my choices as a young woman. I may be older and wiser now, but I can’t disrespect the memory of the girl who thought she was big enough to change the world and live with the infamy by refusing to do so when the time comes.”

Faraday turned in his seat to face her. “You’ve grown.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, and he glanced away. He didn’t think it was any thanks to him. He’d been far too young to take on an apprentice, years ago. She’d earned every ounce of her maturity the hard way. It was likely she thought the same.

But Curie only hmmed under her breath, and said “Yes, Michael, we’ve both turned corners.” He couldn’t place what was in her voice.

Like many Scythes, she’d turned corners back to a comfortably adult appearance. There were the faintest potential of wrinkles around her eyes, and a stripe of premature silver in her long, dark hair. Combined with the lavender robes, the effect was stunning. It was no wonder the rumor mill had started calling her the Lady of Death rather than “Miss Massacre.”

But he’d known her as an odd girl named Susan, just as she’d known him as an entirely too self-absorbed young Scythe. So he didn’t say anything.

MidMerica Autumnal Conclave, year of the Aye-Aye

All business and most pleasure had been concluded, leaving the Scythes to busy themselves with the final meal of the conclave or to wander back to their usual domains as they saw fit. Many stayed late: the catering was particularly good this year.

“I hear you have come into possession of a new house,” said Faraday.

“It’s not mine,” said Curie, around a mouthful of noodles.

“Of course,” said Faraday placidly. Scythes owned their rings, their robes, and their journal. Everything else was donated, considered loaned even if their owners didn’t want them back.

“I do like having a project,” Curie admitted. “Falling Water is practically a ruin. I have a tent on the property. The park rangers know I’m there, and people have started coming around, offering to help me rebuild.”

Faraday speared a final bit of pasta on his fork. It wasn’t the first architectural marvel she’d restored. “I am not sure I could do what you do.”

“You’d feel guilty.”

“I’d feel guilty. All those people volunteering time and resources in the hopes of me granting them immunity, when all I want is the house restored and preserved.”

“See,” said Curie, gesturing with her chopsticks. “That’s where we’re different. You live a life of simplicity to keep yourself grounded. But you still called it my house. It’s not. It’s Fallingwater House. It existed before me, and if I do it right, it’ll exist after me. A point where mortal art intersects the immortal age. I don’t know if art can have a soul of its own, but part of its value lies in what it stirs up in the human heart. That’s what I do. I glean to help people make an end, a conclusion, and I remind the living that they are alive. Falling Water will help me do that. It already is – I tell most volunteers no, and if they come back, it’s not because I might owe them.”

Faraday smiled. He valued her passion towards the things she believed in. “I would like to see it, when you’re done.”

“You could help me. I’ve always appreciated your head for research.”

He made a face at her.

“Oh, come on. Just because I hated doing your statistical analyses as an apprentice doesn’t mean I think it’s valueless. Just like you follow your heart more than you admit in your gleaning.”

It was an old argument, well-worn enough to be almost fond. “There is no such thing as unbiased heart, Curie. Statistics and just a touch of chance are the way to go.”

“But is it worth it? Denying your instincts all the time?”

“Interrogating my instincts all the time. The commandment says to kill without bias. And if I audit myself, I do not have to worry about it when the conclave rolls around.”

Curie huffed. She courted pre-conclave anxiety, but she had never once been reprimanded for bias, even though she flatly refused to glean children. She wasn’t sure if it was the better angels of the powers that be, or the perks of being her, and she wasn’t about to ask. “Don’t tell me how to do my job.”

“Likewise.”

They glared at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

Excerpt from the Gleaning Journal of H.S. Faraday:

Scythes own nothing, truly, but their robes, their journal, and their ring, but it’s difficult to live in the world and not acquire a few more things along the way. Which was why I was cleaning out my bureau when I found something I’d written as a very young man. I’d intended it as part of my gleaning journal at the time, but I was working with incomplete data, and what I had said there unfairly mischaracterized a friend. And, well, revealed what a self-absorbed bastard I could be. I had to laugh, but it was bittersweet—the same way we laugh at the foibles and ignorances of the mortal age and yet miss its vitality. If I had felt then what I felt now, or had the wisdom of experience then —no, I have lost the thread of what I am writing. Speculation is for those with time on their hands, which I do not have. Then again, immortality is nothing but time…

Revival Clinic, somewhere in MidMerica. Summer

If it weren’t for post-mortal medicine, Faraday’s head would be splitting. As it was, his senses felt muffled, like he was seeing and hearing everything through an invisible blanket.

As the nurse bustled away, pleased with his consciousness, a smear of purple in the corner resolved itself into Scythe Curie.

“What are you doing here?” He didn’t mean it to sound accusing. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. I mean –”

“Good morning, sunshine,” Curie drawled, in a tone that could have turned rainforest into desert. “Also, what the hell?”

“Sorry?”

“You. Are. A. Scythe. You do death as a career. Other people’s, not yours. What are you doing mostly deadish in a revival clinic in small town MidMerica?”

“Only mostly deadish,” said Faraday, smiling slightly. “Have you seen that one?”

“No, and you’re avoiding the question.”

“…IchallengedthemanIwasgleaningtoaduel,” Faraday mumbled.

“And you lost? You taught me bladecraft.”

He felt his cheeks grow hot. “Again. I lost again. I was going to arrange a climbing accident, but he is an avid fencer and I –” She was laughing at him now. “I cannot change my mind –that would be petty and cruel. I don’t actually use swords a great deal. Statistically, the number of sword deaths in the mortal age is–”

Curie shook her head. “You’re going to go right back to try again, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll drive you,” said Curie. “But if you die again, I’m eating your post-revival ice cream.”

“As you wish,” said Faraday, rolling his eyes.

Falling Water; the eastern border of MidMerica, Winter

“Faraday,” said Curie softly, opening the door wider “Come on in.”

Faraday hesitated on the threshold “I don’t want to intrude –you often have guests…”

“It’s ten PM. They’ve left already. Come on. I’ll make tea.”

She had turned off most of the lights for the evening. Even so, the ambient light from the full moon streaming through the large kitchen windows was enough to illuminate the counters and light up the silver in her hair.

Curie noticed him hovering, a ghost in a cream-colored robe. “There’s a loaf of raisin bread in the cupboard to your right. Bread knife is in the drawer.”

They sat at the kitchen island with their tea and buttered bread.

“This is good,” said Faraday.

“Thank you,” said Curie. “You want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

“I never said anything was bothering me.”

“You’re a good Scythe, Michael. It means you’re a bad liar.”

He moved his tea spoon on his saucer. It clinked. “I may have made a miscalculation.”

“Personal, or professional?”

“Possibly both.” He took a deep breath and stood up suddenly, walking to the nearest window, eyes fixed on the dark forest beyond. “If there is a higher power, I am convinced they have a sense of irony.”

There was fire in his tone. Curie eyed him over the rim of her cup. “So.”

“I am a fool. I’m sorry,” said Faraday. “I should not have –I’m keeping you from going to bed.”

She joined him at the window with both their cups of tea. She wrapped his hand around his cup with her own. “What’s really going on?”

“I–” He bit his lip. “Marie.”

She laughed softly.

He loved her laugh. He loved– He reached out, cupping her cheek with one hand, everything he was afraid to say flitting across his face.

“I–” He kissed her. Lightly, tentatively, with room for her to back away. Her lips followed his as he moved back to study her reaction.

She frowned. “You stopped.”

“I was –if you did not still feel the same way, I didn’t–”

“Just because I grew up and made peace doesn’t mean my feelings have changed any.”

“Ah.”

“You’ve thought about this?” said Curie seriously. “Breaking the commandment for me?”

“I know it cannot be forever,” said Faraday. “I know we are Michael and Marie, not Gerald and Susan. We will be found out eventually, and I will submit to the judgement of the Scythedom with grace. But in between there will be time.”

She kissed him then, grabbing the collar of his robe and backing him into the window.

Later, they would have to clean up the broken china and spilled tea. Later, they would laugh at their younger selves. Later, there would be seven deaths and seventy years apart. Later, they would have to decide whether love or friendship were mortal or immortal after all.

But for now, there was time.

[ironglassandsteel]

Booklist

What I’m currently reading in preparation of my review essay:

Albu, Cristina. “Between Expanded Consciousness and Expanded Bodies: Spectatorial Engagement with Invisible Architecture.” Athanor, no. 28 (2010): 85-93.

Ayers, Andrew. “Into the Deep.” Architectural Record 207, no. 5 (May 2019): 104–8.

Colomina, Beatriz. “Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism.” Sexuality and Space. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992.

Forbes, Karen, and Peter Zumthor. Site Specific: Conversations with Peter Zumthor, Steven Holl, Róisín Heneghan, Bjarne Mastenbroek, Bjarke Ingels, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Patrik Schumacher, Kjetil Thorsen, Craig Dykers, and Harry Gugger. Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2015.

Khan, Hasan-Uddin. “Because We Can: Globalization and Technology Enabling Iconic Architectural Excesses.” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 7, no. 1 (2018): 5–26.

Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space. Oxford, UK : Blackwell, 1991. 

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

"Under (Underwater Restaurant) / Snohetta." ArchDaily. March 22, 2019. https://www.archdaily.com/913575/under-snohetta. 

“Under – Europe’s First Underwater Restaurant.” Snohetta. https://snohetta.com/project/428-under-europes-first-underwater-restaurant

My bibliography [so far] consists of a mix of sources that will provide information about the project itself, as well as other texts/theory that will connect to my interests on the emphasis of visuality, spectacularity, and the discussion of interiority/exteriority in the project. Parts of the Pallasmaa and Lefebvre texts start to get into the notion of ocularcentrism, the particular bias of sight and the visual in architecture over other senses, that may be helpful in my interpretation of Under as a project focused on visuality. The act of seeing itself is replicated in the very form of the structure, and its focal point of the panoramic window, as a frame for viewing what is below the surface of the sea. The structure is a frame, the view made possible by it.

The Albu and Khan texts start to deal with the spectacle, and the notion of excess in architecture, and what is produced by the power of those strong visual experiences. How is the spectacle of a building performing in society, and what are its consequences? Why is architecture constantly striving for excess, or an iconic image? Does the image or the physical building produce the object of commodification and spectacle?

Colomina’s text sparked my interest in this issue of interiority/exteriority within the project, and this idea of the “window as a screen” – the panoramic window existing as just another flat image. What is the effect of this in Under? The exterior is inscribed in the interior, but what does this do for the perceived experience of the exterior? The reality of experiencing the exterior through this window becomes artificial or masked, the “screen” makes this impression seem purely sublime, turned into an image of beauty and wonder. From within the interior of Under, this contrast and realistic displacement between cold/harsh exterior and warm/comfortable interior becomes erased through the panoramic window. 

The remainder of the sources provide meaningful insight into the specific project, both from the perspective of the architects and from outside, in the architectural press. These sources provide informational insight into the concept, function, design, construction process, materiality, and the associated imagery which represents it. These images are likely to be the only attainable experience of the project (unless you are part of the few who can afford to dine there)... what are these images trying to convey or communicate? Is the image created from the panoramic window in the physical experience more meaningful than the image we can consume on our own screens? Snøhetta also posits Under as a new landmark for Southern Norway, and one that challenges the determination of a person’s physical placement in their environment, and that inhabiting the project “will offer new perspectives and ways of seeing the world.” How will the building perform in this impactful way? This also raises a question of how a landmark of a place is defined, especially if the experience of it is only accessible by few.

[Image credit: Ivar Kvaal]

[artprojectsonly]

This project became about the lived experience of hypervigilance and fear that women are taught to feel, in order to protect themselves from something that they have no control over. I am interested in responding to the emotional and physical experience of hyper-vigilance.

Reading Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez has been especially insightful into how the male bias in architectural and infrastructural design has unintended yet substantially harmful effects on women – experiences of lack of safety and sexual assault included.

By changing the light in these spaces, this acts as an intervention that changes the way one looks and interacts with the space. The purpose of each site chosen ranges from making an unsafe space feel safer to simply acknowledging the lack of safety and asking the viewer to become conscious of that by analysing it in a different way.

The choice of the colour pink comes from an inherent fascination with the colour, as well as research into the specific shade of Baker Miller Pink. Psychological research by Baker and Miller (1969-1970’s) into the physiological effects that colour can have on behaviour, it was found that this specific hue is effective in reducing aggressive and violent behaviours. Relating to my work, this colour has a practical purpose in reducing violent behaviour in areas that crime is more likely to take place. Alongside this, I use pink as a reclamation of the colour, in rejecting the consensus that pink represents femininity as ‘weakness’, when in fact one can wear pink and be feminine and still be taken seriously – as one should.

I am currently working collaboratively with a graphic designer to produce a publication that includes a map and information about the project, so that the work can be sought out and viewed in an art context. However, I am also interested in how this work will be encountered by chance, as people go about their day. I hope that it causes them to observe and question these spaces through a different lens and so provoke conversation about women’s lack of safety and daily burden of the emotional experiences this manifests itself in.

[afutureworththinkingabout]

I’m Not Afraid of AI Overlords— I’m Afraid of Whoever's Training Them To Think That Way

I’m Not Afraid of AI Overlords— I’m Afraid of Whoever's Training Them To Think That Way

by Damien P. Williams

I want to let you in on a secret: According to Silicon Valley’s AI's, I’m not human.

Well, maybe they think I’m human, but they don’t think I’m me. Or, if they think I’m me and that I’m human, they think I don’t deserve expensive medical care. Or that I pose a higher risk of criminal recidivism. Or that my fidgeting behaviours or culturally-perpetuated shame about my living situation or my race mean I’m more likely to be cheating on a test. Or that I want to see morally repugnant posts that my friends have commented on to call morally repugnant. Or that I shouldn’t be given a home loan or a job interview or the benefits I need to stay alive.

Now, to be clear, “AI” is a misnomer, for several reasons, but we don’t have time, here, to really dig into all the thorny discussion of values and beliefs about what it means to think, or to be a mind— especially because we need to take our time talking about why values and beliefs matter to conversations about “AI,” at all. So instead of “AI,” let’s talk specifically about algorithms, and machine learning.

Machine Learning (ML) is the name for a set of techniques for systematically reinforcing patterns, expectations, and desired outcomes in various computer systems. These techniques allow those systems to make sought after predictions based on the datasets they’re trained on. ML systems learn the patterns in these datasets and then extrapolate them to model a range of statistical likelihoods of future outcomes.

Algorithms are sets of instructions which, when run, perform functions such as searching, matching, sorting, and feeding the outputs of any of those processes back in on themselves, so that a system can learn from and refine itself. This feedback loop is what allows algorithmic machine learning systems to provide carefully curated search responses or newsfeed arrangements or facial recognition results to consumers like me and you and your friends and family and the police and the military. And while there are many different types of algorithms which can be used for the above purposes, they all remain sets of encoded instructions to perform a function.

And so, in these systems’ defense, it’s no surprise that they think the way they do: That’s exactly how we’ve told them to think.

[Image of Michael Emerson as Harold Finch, in season 2, episode 1 of the show Person of Interest, "The Contingency." His face is framed by a box of dashed yellow lines, the words "Admin" to the top right, and "Day 1" in the lower right corner.]

Read the rest of I’m Not Afraid of AI Overlords— I’m Afraid of Whoever's Training Them To Think That Way at A Future Worth Thinking About

[architectnews]

Nine design projects from The New School's Parsons School of Design students

A project exploring how architecture is integral to healing trauma and another investigating how bioluminescence could change our relationship to interiors is included in Dezeen's latest school show by students at the Parsons School of Design.

Also included is a project examining how the design of a shelter can support survivors of domestic violence and a device designed to slow desertification.

The New School's Parsons School of Design

University: The New School's Parsons School of Design Course: Architectural Design (BFA), Architecture (MArch), Industrial Design (MFA), Interior Design (AAS), Interior Design (BFA), Interior Design (MFA), Lighting Design (MFA), Product Design (BFA)  Email: thinkparsons[at]newschool.edu

Statement:

"Parsons School of Design – consistently named the best art and design school in the United States and ranked third in the world – has sent change-making artists and designers out into the world since its founding in 1896.

"The School of Constructed Environments, one of the five schools within Parsons, guides students in creating socially and environmentally sustainable and technologically innovative buildings, interiors, lighting and products.

"In a time of unprecedented change, our BFA and MFA programmes foster the skills, values and vision that foster creative thinking and a more integrated, equitable and aesthetically beautiful world."

The Gallery Hotel by Mohamad Ali Ezzeddine

"Located at the corner of 20th Street and 10th Avenue, The Gallery Hotel offers a dynamic and cultural experience at the heart of Chelsea adjacent to the High Line. In a neighbourhood saturated with art galleries, The Gallery Hotel is thoughtfully designed to include an art gallery displaying local artists' work on the main floor.

"The lobby floor also features a reception area as well as a bar and lounge where guests can relax and enjoy the atmosphere. The second floor includes a restaurant with direct access to the High Line with the option to dine outdoors.

"The hotel has 24 guest rooms located on the third, fourth and fifth floors. To complement the neighbourhood's features, The Gallery Hotel will include a rooftop lounge area where guests can enjoy a panoramic view of all that Chelsea has to offer."

Student: Mohamad Ali Ezzeddine Course: AAS Interior Design

Resistance by Carmen Cordova

"Self-sacrifice: working without compensation, care and labouring towards the reproduction of society, have been attributed as characteristics of women's identity.

"It is not fair or sustainable to place the duty of maintaining society on an individual and as part of their identity. Without restructuring the exploitative relationships of care, societies can never promote the unity of community nor achieve greater equality.

"This is why it is important to build resistance towards traditional roles, to end this issue and direct society towards fairness. My capstone project aims to build solidarity between the women of El Salvador and bring visibility to the issues they face. For women to continue to resist and fight, it is essential to provide them with tools to overcome the hardships they may face."

Student: Carmen Cordova Course: BFA Interior Design

Why They Stay by Jenna Koss

"This is a real-life proposal for the Helpmate Domestic Violence Shelter in Asheville, North Carolina. The shelter needs to grow in both capacity and quality of its space and has purchased land on a slope to construct a purpose-built shelter.

"Working within the expansion committee, this ongoing project investigates how the shelter can be designed to provide safety to inhabitants from both illness and abuse while enhancing conditions that promote healing.

"This project also proposes how interior space can be layered in a way that empowers a survivor to form connections, reclaim agency and build resilience over time."

Student: Jenna Koss Course: MFA Interior Design

A Tale: Heading to the Tent of Tomorrow by Jiuying Li

"The thesis project is an experiment of transforming an abandoned artefact into an imaginary utopia which is occupied and renovated by people who have suffered from gender inequality and discrimination.

"The project aims to manifest the urge of eliminating the gender bias that is rooted within American history, and to depict an alternative future for the architectural relic through storytelling."

Student: Jiuying Li Course: MArch

Flood Points: Redesigning Ekistics with time by Nalin Chahal, Eric Hu and Anthony Vesprini

"Ekistics, the science of human settlements, has been a pervasive and well-established foundation of human civilisation since agriculture began. The dominance of humanity over the natural world has primarily left this science in a perpetual, unchanging state. But, our anthropogenic effects on the environment and the natural world around us in the past century have upset the delicate balance of carbon that is critical to maintaining habitable conditions on our planet.

"Our devastating effect on the natural world must force us to reevaluate the ways we inhabit the land, how we engage with the world, and refound the idea of ekistics to adapt rather than withstand.

"Our proposal will drastically alter our site to consider this change, focusing on rising sea levels and how we must adapt to this change rather than build ever-growing sea walls – be it 55 years on a critical carbon emissions scenario (2075) or 95 years in a low emissions scenario (2115) for our site to flood.

"The first phase of the timeline would see the reintroduction of the natural habitat of Ditmars-Steinway back into the area, while also reimagining the site as an engaging park, educational space, market and community centre for Astoria. A vital component of this shift would be to drastically change the way energy is generated at our site to a more circular, sustainable and less carbon-intensive solution.

"The second phase of the timeline would include the flooding of the site due to rising sea levels. As the site floods, more of the land would be dedicated to housing the changing flora and fauna. During this period, our programmatic elements of the site would remain functional. The final phase of our timeline would see the flooding of the programmatic mounds, returning the land (and the flooded interiors) to the natural flora and fauna. During this phase, the only operable programme would be the research centre."

Students: Nalin Chahal, Eric Hu and Anthony Vesprini Course: BFA Architectural Design

Aquastor by Zihao Fang

"Aquator is desertification remediation vessels produced using mixed materials from desert resources. Aquator vessels can promote soil growth in desert areas and slow the advance of desertification. It will be placed on the edge of the desert in a triangular arrangement with a spacing of one metre to build a barrier.

"The temperature difference between the inside and outside of the vessels allows external water vapour to enter the desert and reduce the evaporation rate. Eventually, the Aquator vessels will be completely degraded and turned into nutrients for the land."

Student: Zihao Fang Course: MFA Industrial Design

The CroChair by Daniela Solovey

"For my project, I chose to investigate crochet as a novel form of production by using the technique to weave together upcycled materials. I designed made-to-order furniture that facilitates a transitional nod to an analogue craft, offering its user a highly functional product with a unique aesthetic.

"It will benefit the design community by legitimising an often overlooked art form through the fusion of craft with traditional furniture design."

Student: Daniela Solovey Course: BFA Product Design

Bio Loose Sense by Jo Li

"During the pandemic, we are homebound, many of us working, living and relaxing indoors. At home, we have combined all functions of living. In my thesis, I want to introduce a new way of applying biomimetic design with light to separate the different functional zones and times in our house. If we consider temporal changes (time) as part of the biomimetic process, we must consider the lighting's control as the key to this application.

"Human activities include a rhythm similar to the rhythm of nature. Bio Loose Sense is a biomimetic design that encourages the connection between humans and nature and also keeps our senses activated.

"The design learns from natural phenomena, such as bioluminescent tides and organisms. It explores how we can use the potential of bioluminescence to change our relationship to lighting and interiors."

Student: Jo Li Course: MFA Lighting Design

Healing Structures by Carmen Iris Ruiz Cruz

"The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that took place a year ago in Puerto Rico not only left the island's urban infrastructure compromised but challenged the survivors to recover from the physical and mental repercussions.

"The problem is that post-disaster response focuses on physical wellbeing, immediate solutions like shelter and overlooks mental wellbeing and invisible injuries like trauma, which have a long-term impact on the survivors.

"Architecture and lighting are integral to the healing process. Built spaces are not only meeting points, but environments where people share stories and attempt to heal one another through communal interaction. If healing is the goal, the quality of these spaces needs assessment and consideration."

Student: Carmen Iris Ruiz Cruz Course: Dual Degree: MArch and MFA Lighting Design

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and The New School's Parsons School of Design. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post Nine design projects from The New School's Parsons School of Design students appeared first on Dezeen.

[coca-chch]

Redrawing boundaries: Fieldwork in the context of Ōtautahi

Exhibition companion essay commissioned by Toi Moroki CoCA from Bojana Rimbovska on the occasion of Peter Robinson’s Fieldwork, 3 March - 27 May 2018. Full exhibition photos can be viewed at fieldwork.website; photos in this essay by Daniela Aebli, courtesy of CoCA & Peter Robinson

Scattered across, between, and outside of CoCA’s gallery spaces are Peter Robinson’s delicate wire forms. Each holds their space within the demanding environment of CoCA’s brutalist building which has played host to a variety of exhibitions throughout its fifty-year history, and is again activated through Robinson’s playful spatial interventions. Evident in the exhibition are some common threads which have carried throughout his recent practice, namely his interest in the ways in which spatial arrangements are used to create new lines of sight and lead to a more conscious interaction with the gallery space. Fieldwork also invites the audience to engage in a conversation around the language of sculpture, and presents Robinson’s ongoing exploration of artistic convention and our consumption of it. It is an exhibition which is grounded: grounded in Ōtautahi – a place that connects to his own history as a boy growing up in Canterbury and his training as an artist, grounded in the space of the gallery – which becomes expanded and reconsidered as a site – and grounded in the space between work and viewer where meanings are continually being negotiated and constructed.

Fieldwork marks Robinson’s return to Ōtautahi, this being his first solo show in the city since the earthquakes. In 2017, he was a contributing artist to the Paemanu: Nohoaka Toi exhibition (also held at CoCA), which saw his brightly coloured felt forms hanging high and low on the gallery walls as if bouncing around the space. Fieldwork, however, offers a new body of work, one which Robinson has developed directly in response to the site. Woven throughout it are purposeful connections to the region that reference his personal history and gesture towards an exploration of twentieth century art historical discourse. Having grown up on a farm in Ashburton before moving to Ōtautahi to study at the Ilam School of Fine Arts, this idea of ‘fieldwork’ seems appropriate as a title and a concept through which to consider his work. It references a landscape – multiple landscapes in fact – as he constructs visual fields which are sparsely punctuated by his sculptural forms on the floor, walls and ceilings, and follow no discernible pattern while continually disrupting your gaze as you move through the space. One work in particular evokes the farming fields of the Canterbury plains, as hundreds of silver galvanized wires have been haphazardly placed on the ground mimicking a pile of hay. The lustrous quality of the wires reflects the light and catch the eye from a distance, again bringing attention to the expansive space which they occupy. The hanging grids which dominate the space in the Mair gallery can also be read as alluding to the grid layout of the city. They create a referential landscape that connects to the colonial history of Ōtautahi and ground the exhibition within the city, past and present, as the gallery itself has not shifted from its original position within the four avenues.

Furthermore, the materiality of the works themselves contribute to the construction of invisible fields, such as those created by the magnetic sculptures in the exhibition. These magnetic components literally anchor the works in the space as their magnetic attraction is often solely responsible for their attachment to the building and between the individual components of the work itself. This makes their position precarious, and subject to the viewer’s understanding of the forces at play as some people, for example those with pacemakers, will be directly impacted by something that remains invisible to the eye but dictates their movement through the space.

‘Fieldwork’ as a title also frames the exhibition in a way which acknowledges the processes behind its making. In the lead up to the instillation, Robinson made multiple visits to the gallery to explore the building and surrounding areas, which have changed considerably over time.  This research-based approach around the context that he is working within extends beyond the physical and considers the many artistic influences which inform his practice. Artists such as Richard Tuttle and Nora Schultz, whose sculptural practices incorporate found or readily available industrial materials like metal rods, tubes, and discarded wood which combined with the simple manipulation of these materials within the gallery space brings them into conversation with Robinson’s work. The audience too becomes an important part of this conversation. Thinking about the concept of fieldwork in relation to this exhibition clearly positions the audience as active participants in the collection and use of the information presented throughout it. Visitors to the gallery are bringing their own bias and knowledge into the space and drawing their own conclusions. It is a reminder that the nature of fieldwork – and the way we experience art of any kind – is always multi-directional and subjective as it is unable to be removed from the self. This element of self-reflexivity is encouraged as it makes space for constant reinterpretation of the works and acknowledges both internal and external influences which frame peoples experience of the exhibition.

Fieldwork also offers a refreshing treatment of the gallery space which has previously hosted massive and highly immersive exhibitions. The brutalist building – a fine example of the Christchurch Style and designed by Minson, Henning-Hansen and Dines – was purpose built as a gallery, and as such, offers a lot of light, height, and wall space with which to play around with. At first, Fieldwork appears to push back against this by having works that appear disproportionate in scale to the space and some that are scattered in dimly lit corners or obstructed by the architecture itself. Such tactics bring attention to the architectural features of the space which might otherwise go largely unnoticed or be perceived as being disconnected from the works on show. Robinson’s sculptural forms respond to the architecture in playful ways and remind the viewer that this is an active space. Long, textured, and anodized aluminium rods lean against the corners of the gallery and draw the eye up towards the ceiling, emphasising the point at which the two walls converge. Similarly, the wire work in the Ground Floor Gallery which is attached to a metal sprinkler pipe on the ceiling, as well as the work situated in the lift, bring attention to the services of the building and hint at its human occupation. Being reminded of this as people make their way around the show acknowledges the fact that it is more than an exhibition space – it is a workplace, a site of leisure and entertainment, and a site with its own history of which Fieldwork is only a small part of.

In other ways, the interplay between the sculptures and the architecture can also make something less visible. For example, a work made from very thin white wire blends into the surrounding white wall and is only revealed when people move closer to it. Another sculpture sits on the stairs between a wall and a glass divider and its reflection, as opposed to the object itself, is slowly revealed as people turn the corner. The careful placement of these works encourages people to slow down and consider them more closely, which is refreshing given the fast-paced approach to almost everything else in modern society. This idea of objects hiding in plain sight also contributes to the sense of playfulness that runs throughout the exhibition and it reminds us how reliant we are on the cues given by the built environment when navigating the space.

In a more subversive move, Fieldwork spills outside the galleries and pushes back against the museological convention of displaying works within a few designated areas. There are sculptures scattered throughout the building that occupy liminal spaces such as stairways, toilets, a fire corridor, and a balcony. Some of the works are easy to spot and draw attention to themselves through their bright colouring and prominent placement, but others are tucked away in dim or inconspicuous corners of the building which have been previously inaccessible to the general public. Free movement throughout the entire space is encouraged but is again mediated in subtle ways, and perhaps carries with it some anxieties around encountering these sculptures in places that might not necessarily be seen as ‘spaces of art’. Gallery maps and arrows also guide people to the works like a treasure hunt which removes the possibility of a chance encounter, and glass doors and rope barriers section off specific works from the viewer. The responsive nature of this exhibition means that the architecture has a large role in dictating the placement of the works and therefore should not be seen as something which is independent from the rest of the exhibition. By having works scattered throughout the building, the space is conceived of as a whole and people are invited to examine the gallery space in greater detail and look at it more conceptually, question where it begins and ends (if such judgements can be made at all), and consider why this ambiguity might be uncomfortable given the lasting influence of the white cube model of display.[1]

As a viewer, it’s impossible to remain passive when encountering Fieldwork. Curiosity, and to a degree, confusion encourage people to look closer, move further into the field laid out in the space, and decipher in their own way the visual language presented by Robinson. The participatory quality of the show is best demonstrated by the heightened sense of bodily awareness people gain when attempting to navigate the space. Their carefully choreographed movements are interrupted by moments of unpredictability when they are ambushed by a work as they turn corners, open doors, or shift their gaze. Even private moments are fair game with works waiting to be uncovered in the toilet cubicles. Such encounters urge visitors to spend time with the work and find their own ways of connecting to it. The exhibition is participatory not in the sense that it is tactile, but because it acknowledges that looking is not a passive act, particularly when followed by a conscious effort to comprehend what is in front of us, how it is framed, and how this feeds into the overall perception of the exhibition.

Although the element of surprise is, for the most part, a luxury afforded to first time visitors to the exhibition, Fieldwork continues to offer new ways of interacting with space and form with every visit. By occupying what is often considered to be an authoritative cultural space, his forms may appear certain in their status as ‘art objects’ within the gallery, but they are bringing into question the space itself and reflecting on the histories of modernist sculpture which are entangled with contemporary art spaces and practice. CoCA, with its long history in Ōtautahi and an institution which has found its place in Robinson’s own career as a Fine Art student and now as a practicing artist, seems like an appropriate setting for these conversations. The thoughts which arise from spending time amongst Fieldwork are not always coherent, but nor do they have to be. As a visitor, any frustration at this incoherence or the caution with which you have to move throughout the space and be constantly alert is undercut by the sense of playfulness of being caught in a perpetual game of hide-and-seek with his sculptures.

[1] The ‘white cube’ model has become the most common method of displaying modern and contemporary art in the Western museological tradition. It is often characterised by galleries with white walls, even lighting, ample room between artworks, and offers minimal descriptive information about the works on display. Its supposed neutrality has been (and continues to be) heavily critiqued, however, the ideology of the white cube remains pervasive today. For a detailed discussion into the development of the white cube as a display format please see Brian O’Doherty’s essay “Notes on the Gallery Space” in his book: Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Available here: http://arts.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/arc-of-life-ODoherty_Brian_Inside_the_White_Cube_The_Ideology_of_the_Gallery_Space.pdf

[luxe-pauvre]

Like so many decisions to exclude women in the interests of simplicity, from architecture to medical research, this conclusion could only be reached in a culture that conceives of men as the default human and women as a niche aberration. To distort reality you are supposedly trying to measure makes sense only if you don’t see women as essential. It makes sense only if you see women as an added extra, a complicating factor. It doesn’t make sense if you’re talking about half of the human race. It doesn’t make sense if you care about accurate data.

Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men