The Night Lab

Friday, October 20th

5 PM - 9 PM

This year, Night Lab projects by DWIH members and a selection of local NYC initiatives show a connection between “night and day” - and how different approaches to resilience are intertwined. The Night Lab is a social space that encourages interaction. Projects from a wide range of disciplines take community-centered and creative approaches to raise awareness of different forms of urban, ecological, and cultural resilience, and advocate for more inclusivity in how we perceive, design, plan, and thrive in cities night and day.

Lauren Goshinski, Night Lab Curator/Producer

Lauren Goshinski is a curator, producer, and DJ who works at the intersection of nightlife culture, the arts, and urban planning. Placekeeping is at the core of her practice. As a curator she brings together creative practitioners and communities across disciplines to spark unique and insightful connections and build bridges between creative scenes around the world. She was curator of “The Nighttime Lab” with DWIH and VibeLab at SXSW, in Austin, TX, exploring displacement of diverse, creative communities throughout the city and strategies to save space. www.laurengoshinski.com

Night Lab Contributors

Listed alphabetically by first name

Academy in Exile / University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) / Fatemeh Rezaei

“What We Brought with Us” is an exhibition developed by Academy in Exile at TU Dortmund University, one of the three universities that comprise the University Alliance Ruhr. The exhibition presents images of objects carried by some of Academy in Exile’s fellows when they fled from their countries of origin to Germany.

The exhibition serves as an engaging exploration of the significance and emotional resonance carried by the objects refugees bring with them when fleeing their homelands. “What We Brought with Us" prompts us to reflect on what truly matters to us and what we consider most precious.

University Alliance Ruhr (UARuhr) is an alliance between Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the University of Duisburg-Essen, the three largest universities in Germany’s thriving Ruhr Area.

Fatemeh Rezaei is a photographer from Afghanistan. Last year she started as a researcher at Academy in Exile and is currently living in Essen, Germany. Her current project is about The Impact of ID Cards on the Lives of Immigrants and Refugees: A Photographic Exploration of Identity and Migration. This exploration examines the impact of ID cards on the lives of Afghan immigrants and refugees in Iran, focusing on theemotional and psychological effects of identity and migration. Fatemeh Rezaei was de a visa to the US to participate today.

Egemen Özbek is the academic coordinator of Academy in Exile at TU Dortmund, where he supports scholars, journalists, and cultural producers at risk to continue their work in Germany. He is also a researcher specializing in the politics of memory, with a particular emphasis on the Armenian genocide and commemorations.

Kate Bonansinga is Director, School of Art, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at University of Cincinnati, where she is also a professor and teaches courses about curatorial practice and art in public space. She was the founding director of Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Art at The University of Texas at El Paso where she curated dozens of exhibitions and established an undergraduate minor in museum studies. Bonansinga is the author of "Curating at the Edge: Artists Respond to the U.S./Mexico Border" (University of Texas Press, 2014) and of numerous articles, book chapters and exhibition publication essays, all of which address contemporary art, its meaning, and its purpose.

Annika Roux is a member of Academy in Exile's production team, where she has managed the website,contributed to conference organizing, the e-learning video series, the layout of publications, and co-curated exhibitions. She is a student at Freie Universität Berlin, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in media and communication studies and a master’s degree in Romance literature with a focus on Spanish and Portuguese philology.

Birgitta Sticher & Tricia Wachtendorf

Born in Germany in 1960, Birgitta Sticher studied psychology and worked in psychiatry as a clinical psychologist. Since 1998, she is a professor at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin). Her students are future police officers and security managers.

A special focus of her research is the involvement of the population in disaster management. To this end, she has conducted two major research projects on the consequences of a long-lasting power outage in Berlin and how to improve the way the population copes with this crisis or disaster. She is excited about improving communication, training students in crisis communication and working on the topic of "discrimination risks and protection".

Tricia Wachtendorf is a leader in disaster research and education. A Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware, she directs the world-renowned Disaster Research Center – the oldest center in the world focused on the social science and management aspects of disasters.

For almost three decades, her research has focused on disaster improvisation, multi-organizational coordination, transnational crises, and social vulnerability to disasters. She has engaged in quick response fieldwork after such events as the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, tsunamis affecting India, Sri Lanka, and Japan, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, earthquakes in China and Haiti, as well as the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.

Cara Michell, Northeastern University

Cara Michell is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at Northeastern University. Previously, she worked as an urban planner in NYC and Toronto. Cara holds an MUP from Harvard University and an AB in sculpture from Princeton. Her conceptual artwork has been exhibited at MoMA PS1, LaMama Galleria and with the design collective Intelligent Mischief. In 2015, Cara co-founded and co-chaired the inaugural Black in Design conference with Courtney Sharpe and the Harvard GSD AASU. caramichell.com

Christopher Kennedy & Timon McPhearson, Ekos, Urban Systems Lab, The New School at Parsons

The Urban Systems Lab is an interdisciplinary research, design and practice space at The New School that provides knowledge and analysis for developing more equitable, resilient, and sustainable cities. The Lab’s work advances cutting edge science, data visualization, and computation to develop systemic solutions to social and environmental challenges driving inequity and injustice in urban areas. The Lab brings together designers, urban ecologists, scientists, researchers and policymakers with the goal to improve the lives of those most vulnerable, and to enhance decision making and science communication from local to global scales. “Ekos” is a game that invites players to alternate between building Social, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETS), and responding to a diverse range of Events. Working cooperatively to complete challenges earns you Ekos points. The game continues until one player earns enough Ekos points to win! https://urbansystemslab.com/ 

Christopher Kennedy is the associate director at the Urban Systems Lab at The New School and lecturer in the Parsons School of Design. As an artist and scholar, Kennedy’s research explores the social-ecological benefits of urban plant communities, multispecies thinking, and community-based approaches to environmental stewardship and environmental art. Kennedy holds a BS in environmental engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MA in Environmental Education from NYU, and a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina.

Timon McPhearson is director of the Urban Systems Lab, professor of urban ecology at The New School's Environmental Studies Program, and research faculty at the Tishman Environment and Design Center. In 2017 he was awarded The New School's Distinguished University Teaching Award and in 2018 became a member of the IPCC and lead author for the urban systems chapter. He investigates the ecology in, of, and for cities and teaches urban resilience, systems thinking, and urban ecology.

German Research Foundation Presents “Molecular Resilience”

The German Research Foundation (DFG) promotes scientific excellence by selecting the best research projects on a competitive basis and facilitating national and international collaboration among researchers. Its mandate also includes encouraging the advancement and training of early career researchers, promoting gender equality in the German scientific and academic communities, providing scientific policy advice, and fostering relations between the research community and society and the private sector.

The Night Lab will feature work by two DFG Walter Benjamin Fellows:

Dr. Arthur Neuberger

Dr. Mascha Koenen

The DFG is an official partner of the Night Lab. We are grateful for their generous support:

Prof. Dr. Henrik Schultz, Resilience Walk, Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences

Henrik Schultz will lead different walking practices that promote awareness of both the space being walked through and the walking group, such as walking in silence, working with the pace of walking, deviating from familiar paths, and sharing questions in walk and talk pairs. At the end of the walk, the participants record their experiences in a quick sketch with a term that for them is the essence of the concept of resilience. These sketches will be exhibited and further developed with attendees at the Night Lab.

Hilke Berger & Rico Herzog, City Science Lab, HafenCity University Hamburg

The CityScienceLab at the HafenCity University Hamburg investigates the urban challenges in the era of digitalization in cooperation with partners from civil society, politics, economy, and science. It pursues an inter and transdisciplinary perspective by linking technical issues with social and cultural developments. CityScienceLab develops digital city models– so-called CityScopes – based on comprehensive urban data to make future cities more livable and efficient. And, CityScopes help to visualize and simulate complex urban development processes. ”Nighttime at the Digitope” is a hands-on activity that will explore CityScopes in night time conditions. https://www.hcu-hamburg.de/en/research/csl

Lafayette Cruise

Lafayette Cruise’s practice intersects urban planning and futurism to explore the question: how can we expand our collective imagination of who belongs in our future communities and how we facilitate belonging in the present? He is a member of the Guild of Future Architects, has taught at the University of the Arts London and is currently a lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design. Emerging from an early career in urban governance and his masters thesis, his practice is rooted in collaborating to create and hold space for radical public and policy imagination. That has manifested as speculative salons for racialized urban planners and artists, co-creating a worldbuilding methodology, writing short fiction, constructing speculative worlds for other media projects, and teaching.  Regardless of the context, Lafayette brings a sense of awe and wonder for people, nature, and the imaginative possibilities of how we can exist together. https://lafayettecruise.carrd.co/

The Lot Radio

The Lot Radio is an independent, non-profit, online radio station live streaming 24/7 from a reclaimed shipping container on an empty lot in Greenpoint, NYC. Over the past 7 years this site has become an anchor locally and around the world for independent DJs and music culture. The Lot Radio is free and open to the public everyday from 8am-12am. www.thelotradio.com

Michael Fichman,  Vibe Lab, University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design

Michael Fichman is a data-savvy city planner and educator working in a range of fields, including nighttime economies, arts and culture, smart cities, transportation, parks and open space, and more. He is an Associate Professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Dept. of City and Regional Planning Masters of Urban Spatial Analytics, and a researcher and consultant Researcher & Consultant for PennPraxis, the Center for Safe Mobility, and nighttime consultancy firm Vibe Lab. http://michael-fichman.com  , https://vibe-lab.org/

People’s Riisearch Group (Jacob Riis Beach)

Preserving Queer Place and History - Public spaces can be crucial sites of messy and collective ecological, social, and cultural value, and this is especially true of public spaces utilized for queer gathering. However, planning processes designed around private property logics economically pressure and culturally flatten these non-normative and generative spaces in New York City and globally. This challenge is twofold; it is the physical removal of diverse communities AND the displacement and disruption of cultural knowledge and both social and ecological relationships.

Working class queer people have historically relied on often devalued public spaces to build community while also being at a heightened risk of violence and policing in public. As a humble and long-standing queer space in New York City, Bays 1 and 2 of People’s Beach at Jacob Riis Park have offered safety, community, and joy for over seventy years—though not uncontested by police and voyeurs.

Recent demolition, nearby luxury development, and increased surveillance—not to mention climate change’s refiguring of the landscape—are applying pressure to this crucial site of queer gathering. In support of and collaboration with GLITS’ campaigns to landmark queer Riis and establish community control of land adjacent to the beach, the People’s Riisearch Group was established.

Utilizing participatory art and research-based methods, the People’s Riisearch Group has two primary goals at present: (1) an update to the National Historic Register of Places to include queer gathering at People’s Beach and (2) the creation of People’s Riisearch Archive, which aims to collect, compile, share, and mobilize materials about queer histories at People’s Beach.

Lex Barlowe

dash pinheiro

Safiyah Riddle

jah elyse sayers

with support from Rita Musello-Kelliher

Philip Poon

Philip Poon is a registered architect based in New York City. His practice explores the contemporary American condition, in particular the architectural and spatial expressions of the Asian-American experience. Recent projects include a new 5,000-square-foot community church in Queens and a speculative proposal for a Chinatown community center, which was featured in Chinese-language newspapers Sing Tao Daily and World Journal. As an active member of the Asian-American and Chinatown community, he has exhibited his work in five galleries in New York City, including a solo exhibition in Tribeca. https://www.philippoon.com/

Soul Summit Music

The DJ collective founded in 2002 by Sadiq Bellamy, Tabu, and Jeff Mendoza began hosting an outdoor festival in Fort Greene Park celebrating Black culture and the roots of House Music. Soul Summit has become an institution developing a loyal following that brings the hills of Fort Greene Park alive with families, food, and dancing. The festival provides the backdrop for access to music, networking and other activities. Aways free and open to the public, the festival showcases artists of various backgrounds, including DJs, bands, dance companies, fashion designers, filmmakers and photographers, just to name a few. Soul Summit’s creative use of public space and steadfast commitment to community is a shining star of grassroots NYC events.