Making Contact

March 1, 2017

Paris: Responses to Terror, and the Experiment in Mixité

For this episode, we jump across the Atlantic to Paris, France–a city whose identity is a long held archetype of beauty and romance. Conversely, Paris has also long been the site of historical protest and legacies of colonialism whose spectres are still coming to fore.

Louie Media

2022

Émotions – Season 1

To understand why you feel the way you feel, and where the emotions come from.

Paradiso Media

2020

En Tongs au pied de l’Himalaya

Ishmael is 8 years old. When he was two and a half years old, he was diagnosed with ASD. It means "autism spectrum disorder". In this documentary, Marie, Ismaël's mother, recounts her memories, crossed with testimonies from other parents, educators, health professionals, and people with ASD. Why does our society find it so difficult to make room for those who do not fit the norm?

The Funambulist

February 27, 2017

Here There Be Dragons: Broadcasting Identity And Security In The Parisian Region

In 1920s Paris, a police unit was formed with the purpose of cutting down on low level offenses like homelessness, public drunkenness, petty theft, and immigration violations. This unit was called the North African Brigade. As Mathieu Rigouste previously discussed in issue 8 of the Funambulist, in 1961, then police chief Maurice Papon used the newly minted state of emergency legislation to impose a curfew on Algerians in Paris. When FLN activists defied this curfew, police officers murdered them by the dozens. In 2004 the French National Assembly passed a law banning religious garments and symbols in schools and public space. In 2010 the French National Assembly passed a law banning face coverings in public space. Both of these laws disproportionately affected observant Muslim women.

The Funambulist

January 16, 2017

Producing A Podcast About The City, Safety, And Identities

This conversation with Jessica Myers occurred in the context of her recording of a second season of the podcast “Here There Be Dragons” about the way city residents experience neighborhoods in various way. While the first season was dedicated to New York (in particular regarding gentrification), the second one will be about Paris and the notion of safety and identities. After Jessica interviewed me (absent here, but fragments will be part of this second season), she returned the favor and talked to me about this project and a few of the responses that she had collected through the 31 other interviews that she made during her stay in Paris.

SAFAR

August 28, 2020

Performative Talks – Episode 1

The first performative talk in the artist duo aghili/karlsson's series SAFAR is between the urbanist Jess Myers and the artist and researcher Mimi Onuoha!

Log

Winter/Spring 2020

Log 48: Kin

Jess Myers expands the idea of kinship

The Architect’s Newspaper

October 28, 2019

Why don’t architects have unions?

In late August 2019, the AIA’s New York chapter hosted a panel moderated by architecture activist group The Architecture Lobby at the Center for Architecture called Firm Handbook and Best Practices for Office Policies. After all the panelists finished listing their offices’ progressive policies, including flexible work hours and codes of conduct, an audience member (in a crowd notably stacked with Lobby members, myself included) asked a question about unions and collective bargaining. The associate director of human resources of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates responded: “Is this a case of wanting a union because the people suggesting it feel like the employer is the jerk and has to be controlled? Or, are you just saying you want to be able to give feedback and be heard and help influence the culture of the firm? Those are two very different things. If the general industry is really that bad and needs to be regulated by something like a union, then we all have a problem.”

Failed Architecture

September 2, 2020

How More Security Makes Women and Queer People Feel Less Safe

As the insecure position of women and queer people in public space is not helped by surveillance control and incarceration at all, real solutions might be found in other fields.