New Models is a lecture series that invites practitioners from different disciplines to discuss how their work can change the models around which society is organised. These conversations will address how we can shift power structures, socio-economic forces and structural inequalities present in society today to give us new tools to rethink the world around us.​
In 2020, a global social experiment rooted in intersectional justice called Office Hours emerged, to cultivate the sharing of worldmaking knowledge amongst creative practitioners who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Since its inception, more than 2000 people of the global majority in over 14 countries have abided by its community agreements to participate in an ongoing socially-engaged initiative that privileges mutuality, nonviolence, and collective empowerment, rather than singularity and competition. This talk will address the philosophical and dialogical frameworks of Office Hours, which ask the question; if worldmaking disciplines, such as architecture and design, are inherently social practices, might realigning how we engage individually and collectively as social and political agents radiate outwards to have significant and lasting structural effects?
Website: http://office-hours.design
Instagram: @officehours.design
Esther Choi is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist, trained in photography and architectural history, whose artwork, writing, and scholarship explore how concepts of nature, marginality and identity have shaped and been shaped by worldmaking practices and technologies. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Cooper Union and a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.
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