2/11/18: Class 48: FEC discussion (Part II) with trustees Paul Nikulin and Stephen Gerard

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2/11/18: Class 48: FEC discussion (Part II) with trustees Paul Nikulin and Stephen Gerard

Hey Projects class ☔️,

We'll meet this week at 2pm in room 414 Fdn and start with our weekly bulletin updates, so please bring your asks, shares, updates, or progress-es.

This week

We’ll continue our discussion of the FEC report, which we started reading through together two weeks ago. 📊 Don't forget your printed copy! 📈If there are questions you'd like to ask directly of a trustee, we’ll have not one but two trustees joining us in class: Paul Nikulin and Stephen Gerard. Paul is an alumnus (CE'06), President of the Cooper Union Alumni Association, Alumni Trustee, and served as a member of the Free Education Committee. Stephen is an alumnus (ME '67), Alumni Trustee, and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board.

Last week

We were visited by professional magician Mark Mitton. Mark started with a go-around at the beginning of class to "get the gossip" from us all....with a brief break in the middle for some card tricks. He told us about his training as a magician, apprenticing with Slydini (a.k.a. Quintino Marucci) and Ozzie Malini. He spoke at length about the role of deference and submission in his education as a magician to masters of the craft, as well as his college education in economics. For Mark, being a magician is all about chops, or having and developing skillsets. In magic, he says, the apparent interacts with the actual, and rather than pontificating on truth, a magician is concerned mostly with how tricks either work or they don't. Tricks, says Mark, are the juggling of causal patterns, the apparent elimination of ambiguity, non-philosophical ways of constructing visions, and the sometimes aggressive gathering of social information. Alternating between magic lessons, lecture, and conversation, we ended class by learning how to catch invisible balls, and discussing Mark's hat-grid and duck-rabbit illusions.

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Weekly bulletin

  • Anton shared that ESC is creating a committee to related to searching for a Dean of Engineering. Students of had input in the past but this seems more involved than usual.
  • Eva has been talking with Yonaton about design club, considering casual ways for people to get introduced to and take up the Lubalin Center.
  • Bebe asked about how to bring an artist presentation (Tropical Cream) to Cooper? Vic recommended talking to Jackson who runs the student lecture series, or talking to Mike Essl, or Leslie Hewitt (who runs IDS).
  • Liv recommends seeing the Sondra Perry show at Bridget Donahue.
  • Taesha updated that the Architecture School's end of semester show in the Houghton Gallery is being curated this year by the Architecture Archive. Architecture Student Council is working on this year's party.
  • Casey is reading two good books: A History of American Higher Education by John Thelin and Hold On To Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992, by Tim Lawrence.
  • Amelia shared an excerpt from a talk at Barnard College by Sara Ahmed: "The Institutional As Usual: Diversity Work as Data Collection".
  • Vic went to all three FEC feedback sessions.. There were about 10 people at each, they were repetitive, it was unclear what the impetus was, they didn't meet the audience where they were at and it was unclear how they could contribute meaningfully to the discussion. Alumni have been pulling together additional points. A major underlying point is: why should it take 10 years to go back to free. Vic also read an except on belief from "The Case for God" by Karen Armstrong, thinking in relation to "suspension of disbelief" and texts by Jalal Toufic.
  • Walid asked how it works to help people donate directly to the archive? Vic mentioned that Katie has been working with archive club on logistics to make it possible.
  • Claire asked to talk with people about video, especially people interested in wormholes. Kiersten mentioned that Faye might be interested!
  • Jake updated that ASC met on Sunday for an open discussion with student trustee Julian Mayfield and turnout was low but turnout was also a matter of discussion. ASC was inspired by the poster that first years made about the FEC, sentiment was that more of that is beneficial and necessary, to get things out there for people to have a basic awareness. Learned that there's a communications committee that's not active. Julian laid out what he is and will be doing as he graduates. One ASC person is interested in running for student trustee. On another note: there is a company that makes penny crushers for amusement parks that will sponsor a penny-crusher based on foot traffic, you can design the exterior. Cooper doesn't keep track of foot traffic and here's apparently no data, but could be a project to design. Talk to Jake if interested in collaborating!
  • Harry will be in touch with Anton about donating comic sales to the  Archive. Went to alumni session of FEC, finds low attendance not surprising but jarring. Document necessitates presence from community, has been asking people if they've read it, if they're going to a session? (Vic doesn't think low turn out = low interest. An empty room could mean a lot of things to a lot of people: e.g. everyone's on board OR nobody cares OR something else. Attendance shouldn't be used in isolation to contextualize how people feel.)
  • Kunning shared a group show at Artists Space which opened this weekend, trying to destabilize approaches to labor, education. Alumnus Devin Kenny is in it.
  • Owen has been bedridden but going through an interesting line of thought and might prepare a quick presentation. Reading In the Vineyard of the Text by Ivan Illich, thinking about Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor, and how the act of reading changed when new technologies of organizing information in a book format became available. Saw an article about what the smallest space information could fit in is? (10^59?) If you pack any more it would create a black hole and it would still be available but take a long time to retrieve. Looking at speedrunning videos, a rogue gamma ray flipping a bit.
  • Cecilia is reading The Exform by Nicolas Bourriaud, on the relationship between politics and art from 1860 to today, and from stonecutters to artists working with information (Walid is mentioned).
  • Kiersten went to the student FEC meeting and was upset, couldn't ask a question about how the turnout until after. Most attendees were student council members already. Trustees were asking students to bring five people and have them bring five people, etc. Only one email was sent and it felt like they didn't want to hear opinions. How do we create a setting for discussion? How do you open up a room so people can join? They had no answers, just said students should've brought their friends.
  • Halle shared that BSU is doing events for Black History Month, forthcoming movie screenings of I Am Not Your Negro Moonlight, and Coming to America. More screenings TBD and maybe a party.
  • Vinny visited an artist's studio who's looking for paid interns for a project, a native american artist who's into the punk scene and creating huge dream catchers. Get in touch for the info.
  • Walid shared next week's class plan: a visit with Paul and other trustees to continue discussion of the FEC.
  • Vic shared that Peter Buckley was moderating a panel "Focused on the Future of Learning: Imagining a Cooper Education in 2040" that was part of the inauguration week, featuring Adriana Farmiga, David Gersten, and Atina Grossman among others. Peter encouraged students to contribute questions by email.
  • Jakob has been thinking a lot about scientific communication, people like Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, James Gleick, people on YouTube making science videos. Read an article on how even deeply trained people harbor deep skepticism of scientific truths. If you measure physiological responses, people have a similar biological response to not believing, a deep and strong resistance to counter-intuitive scientific findings. Exploring relationship of this dynamic in relation to contemporary art and neo-fascism: do people really believe in art in the expanded field: Or is art really just painting and sculpture?
  • Kiersten shared that ASC was having their biweekly meeting with Mike Essl on Thursday, and Ad Chairs were meeting with Mitchell Lipton on Monday to talk about financial aid issues.

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