Making Home with Data Lecture WITH Mona Chalabi and Brad Samuels in conversation with Christina L. De León

The Making Home lecture series at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union presents four free public lectures featuring Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial exhibition participants paired with designers, artists, professionals, and Cooper Union faculty discussing the exhibition’s exploration of home and its relation to design, data, justice, history, and building.

For the first program in the series, Making Home with Data, data journalist Mona Chalabi and architect Brad Samuels from the visual investigation practice SITU Research will discuss their installation “Patterns of Life” in the exhibition Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial. Their work examines the impact of domicide—the destruction of civilian housing during military conflict—highlighting its profound effects on communities and international efforts to raise awareness of this pressing issue.

The program will be moderated by Christina L. De León, co-curator of Making Home— Smithsonian Design Triennial.

Please note: This program is located offsite at the Great Hall in The Cooper Union Foundation Building. See address and location information below.

SPEAKERS 

Portrait of Mona Chalabi who is wearing a white shirt and has long hair in front of a multicolored curtain.Mona Chalabi is an award-winning writer and illustrator. Using words, color, and sound, Chalabi rehumanizes data to help us understand our world and the way we live in it. Her work has earned her a Pulitzer Prize, a fellowship at the British Science Association, an Emmy nomination, and recognition from the Royal Statistical Society. In recent years, her art has been exhibited at the Tate, the Brooklyn Museum, the Design Museum, and the House of Illustration. She studied international relations in Paris and Arabic in Jordan.

Chalabi works beside windows, sometimes in her hometown, London but usually in Brooklyn where she is writing a book about the ways we talk about money. It has been optioned by A24 as a documentary series. She is also the executive producer and creative director of an upcoming animated TV show with Ramy Youssef, A24, and Amazon Studios. Her writing and illustrations have been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Guardian where she is currently the data editor. Her video, audio, and production work has been featured on Netflix, NPR, the BBC, and National Geographic. 

Portrait of Brad Samuels who has short hair, a short beard and is wearing a black shirt in front of a white background.Brad Samuels is a founding partner at SITU Research, a Brooklyn based visual investigations practice focused on merging data and design to create new pathways for justice. SITU Research’s work supports activists, advocates, and lawyers, bridging the gap between digital evidence and the communities that can best deploy them towards justice and accountability. Samuels has overseen the team’s visual investigations for legal and advocacy organizations including The International Criminal Court, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, The Associated Press, Frontline, The United Nations, and many others. Samuels has served on the Technology Advisory Board for the International Criminal Court, The Advisory Board for the Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Human Rights Science, and the board of The Architectural League of New York. He is currently a Visiting Professor at The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union.

Black and white portrait of Christina L. De León who has curly hair and is wearing a black shirt.Christina L. De León (Moderator) is Associate Curator of Latino Design and the Acting Deputy Director of Curatorial at Cooper Hewitt. Her research focuses on the design and decorative arts of the Americas. De León has held previous positions at the Americas Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

 

AccessibiliTy & What to Expect

  • Format: The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speakers will engage in a moderated conversation. It will end with an optional Q&A with the audience. 
  • About the space: This program will take place offsite at the Great Hall in The Cooper Union Foundation Building, 7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003. It is wheelchair accessible (via elevators and ramps).
  • Accommodations: For any questions about accessibility, please email Mauricio Higuera at mauricio.higuera@cooper.edu.
  • Recording: The program will be recorded and posted on Cooper Hewitt’s YouTube channel within three weeks.

Support 

Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial is presented in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. This project received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum; the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the National Museum of the American Latino; the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center; and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Generous support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Support is also provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation; Edward and Helen Hintz; re:arc institute; the Keith Haring Foundation; the Lemberg Foundation; Maharam; and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.