Skip to Main Content

Curated by Mimi Zeiger (M. Arch ‘98)

This is a playlist of women: designers, architects, theorists, artists, historians; and—perhaps more importantly—a playlist representing feminist thought and dialogue at SCI-Arc.

Throughout the decades, with varying degrees of amplification in-between, there has been a steady interest in the powerful ways that feminist outlooks shape our work and our world. From a 1974 lecture by graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, who cofounded the Women’s Building in Los Angeles, to Beatriz Colomina’s breakthrough rereading of the battle between Le Corbusier and Eileen Gray, to Esther Choi’s use of a cookbook to undermine art and architecture’s sacred cows, these videos communicate bold design principles that go beyond gender: collectivity and creativity, equity and humor.

Mimi Zeiger is a Los Angeles-based critic, editor, and curator. She was co-curator of the US Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale and curator of Soft Schindler at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture. She has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Architectural Review, Metropolis, and Architect and is an opinion columnist for Dezeen.

Design, Bitches (March 27, 2019)

Design, Bitches (March 27, 2019)

44:46
No short description available
Dolores Hayden (February 22, 1984)

Dolores Hayden (February 22, 1984)

01:27:52
No short description available
Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 – Conversation with Guest Curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 – Conversation with Guest Curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill

09:11

Cecilia Fajardo-Hill (Guest Curator – Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985) and Theresa Sotto (Assistant Director Academic Programs - Hammer Museum) discuss the exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985. The exhibition focuses on the artistic practices of women artists working in Latin America and US-born women artists of Latino heritage between 1960 and 1985, providing insight into this important period in Latin American history and in the development of contemporary art.

Alberto Bertoli & Phyllis Birkby (1980)

Alberto Bertoli & Phyllis Birkby (1980)

01:47:32
No short description available
Penelope Spheeris & Michael Stock: Decline of Western Civilization Part III (March 5, 2019)

Penelope Spheeris & Michael Stock: Decline of Western Civilization Part III (March 5, 2019)

41:34

Spheeris describes her discovery of punk, the production of her first “Decline of Western Civilization” movie (1981), and her feature “Suburbia” (1984).

Beatriz Colomina: Battle lines: E. 1027 (October 12, 1994)

Beatriz Colomina: Battle lines: E. 1027 (October 12, 1994)

01:14:02
No short description available
Susana Torre (October 6, 1995)

Susana Torre (October 6, 1995)

01:05:19
No short description available
Sheila de Bretteville (1974)

Sheila de Bretteville (1974)

01:38:37
No short description available
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (September 23, 1992)

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (September 23, 1992)

57:00
No short description available
Keller Easterling: Believers & Cheaters (November 17, 2004)

Keller Easterling: Believers & Cheaters (November 17, 2004)

01:15:04
No short description available
Esther Choi: Rem brûlée, and other hits: social alchemy as a spatial practice (November 14, 2018)

Esther Choi: Rem brûlée, and other hits: social alchemy as a spatial practice (November 14, 2018)

47:17

Marcelyn Gow introduces artist, architectural historian and writer Esther Choi.

Choi describes how discovering the menu for a banquet given for Walter Gropius in 1937, to mark his departure from London for the USA, suggested a new perspective on a historical figure she thought she knew. Food not only provides an index of status, taste, lifestyle, and class privilege, but has provided a medium for socially-engaged artists (Carol Goodden, Tina Girouard and Gordon Matta-Clark’s Food restaurant, projects by Womanhouse, Haus-Rucker-Co, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Alison Knowles’ “Identical Lunch”),

Izaskun Chinchilla Interview

Izaskun Chinchilla Interview

09:11

Izaskun Chinchilla [Principal, Izaskun Chinchilla Architects] reflects on the role of ecology in radically transforming architectural practice and the potential of changing mobility patterns in relation to ‘caring activities’ in cities. Chinchilla’s projects address gender issues and work with design-hacking everyday, industrial objects to create a broader architectural engagement.