Ekincioglu, M., 2020, "Building Bridges between Architecture’s Civic Engagement and Society during COVID-19", Building Bridges Through Civic Engagement, Center for Global Communication, Emerson College, Boston, MA, US, October 23.
This is a joint abstract with Citizen TALES Commons members, joint abstract title: “Redefining Civic Engagement: Lessons from Citizen Tales Commons”, chair: Dr. Vassiliki Rapti; participants: Rapti, V., Rigopoulos, D., Ekincioglu, M., Toloudi, Z., Mancini, E., Oliver, C., Yim, K., Trivilino, H.
For its short video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJvKcQmOERY&t=4s
My short presentation points out how COVID-19 has stimulated new potential of architecture's civic engagement to protect public health through digital technology, and pushed architecture's traditional methods and mindset to involve public issues. It can be claimed that architecture community (with students, faculty members and firms) has created a new kind of democratic and informal spaces by digital interconnections in order to produce face masks and shields in the US, and all of those "new" experiences invite us to think how this emerging mode of architecture's (digital) civic engagement (for public health) can incorporate into pedagogy of today's architecture education.
All rights reserved, Meral Ekincioglu, Ph.D.
Citizen TALES Commons abstract:
"Begun in 2019 at Emerson College as an innovative, open platform and collective of seven interdisciplinary researchers and artists concerned with the notion of citizenship, Citizen TALES Commons currently numbers 60 members working together towards building bridges for equity and inclusion globally. This panel will showcase the Citizen TALES model of co-creation, especially in regards to our response to the current pandemic that has exposed new and creative potentials of civic engagement in six of our research areas: a continuously improving governance in which technology can replace the citizens-government friction with systematic, transparent, fact-based collaboration, as Dr. Rigopoulos will argue; architecture and the notion of the “citizen architect,” as defined by the American Institute of Architects and redefined by Dr. Meral Ekincioglu, and as practice, exemplified in the “Technoutopias” exhibition by Dr. Zenovia Toloudi who points to an innovative civic vocabulary that offers new opportunities in establishing rituals that emphasize empathy, courage, and interpersonal connectivity; literature, as discussed by Dr. Elena Mancini who draws on the work of critical theorist Herbert Marcuse to discuss the critical attributes of play as expressed and experienced in art and literature and considers how these disciplines cultivate and expand democratic consciousness; literary translation as access to cultural capital, as shown by Kenny Yim’s translation of Virginia Woolf's novel ''Jacob's Room'' into Cantonese; dance for the community as shown by Christa Oliver’s performance project "Finding Freedom in Restraint" which opens a cross-cultural dialogue about the hidden and often challenging emotions surrounding race, identity, and class; Last but not least, Hannah Trivilino will share her experiences with building bridges for civic engagement among disadvantaged teenagers. All these research findings will be presented as evidence of innovative pedagogies indicative of the spirit of the public identity, healing, and transformation that Citizen TALES Commons practices."