STATEMENT

wthisthisthesisabout // #statement

Deschooling through Media is a thesis convocation, a manifesto thread, and a kit-of-parts that sponsors alternative learning experiences through digital + analog play. The project examines follows the transformative ways that digital technologies are dismantling and revolutionizing spaces of learning, especially in middle-to-late childhood. The goal of the convocation is to understand disrupt how education establishes systems of control and thought standardization (#deleuze+guattari). The thread facilitates urges for architecture that works in synchrony with (and sometimes in opposition to) media-delivery mechanisms in order to agitate academic archetypes. The kit-of-parts consists of an open-source set of deschoolization tools and methodologies that leverage the material and human capital available within existing schools. Together, this framework reclaims pedagogical autonomy by questioning how knowledge is acquired and valued (#stiegler) and how academic building typologies shape subjects in control societies (#illich). Through small-scale assemblies and networked environments, the objective of the project is to (almost always) understand, (often) assist and (sometimes) limit media’s role in restructuring education.

The research produces a deschoolization toolkit at <https://deschooling.online/>. The effectiveness of the toolkit is tested through the intense alteration of an existing k-5 school. By combining pedagogical media with materially-rich spatial scenarios, the resultant architecture simultaneously ‘deschools’ the building and (hopefully) creates a more engaging thing that subverts learning paradigms. Deschooling immediately requires the critical reconsideration of pedagogical practices and, over time, entails the drastic redesign of spaces of learning. Eventually, this toolkit could be re-deployed as an adaptable, crowdsourced system made accessible to architects, teachers, parents and students. Ultimately, Deschooling through Media is a platform through which a variety of players can collectively defy existing models for knowledge acquisition by using media architectures deliberately and mischievously.

side notes // #inquiry

what has been and what is the architecture of spaces of learning in the digital age (“traditional classrooms,” formal, informal, flipped classrooms, montessori, WeGrow #fail, clever classrooms)

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how is digital media dismantling + restructuring existing spaces of learning

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how is digital media affecting our collective memory, collective knowledge_why are those things relevant? #stiegler

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what is the role of schools in the loss of knowledge due to externalization of knowledge #stiegler

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what is the role of schools and thought standardization in the valorization of knowledge?

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does architecture have a role in making spaces of learning more equitable and accessible?

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can architecture affect the role of digital technology in the development of a society of control (#deleuze+guattari)_focus on education

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can architecture deschool society (#illich)

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what are the tectonics of a digital school?

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how can architecture affect the negative side effects of prolonged screen time?

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how can deschooling through media also deschool architecture thesis?

tl;dr (again) // #wthishappening

wthisthisthesisdoing

disruption of thought standardization processes
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exploring the meaning of crowdsourced and open source architecture through syllabus website and kit of parts collaboration and collective design
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continuous and non-linear development
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questioning the role of the architect - can/ should we shift towards the design of architectural/ design processes rather than the design of buildings?

wthdoesthisthesislooklike

https://deschooling.online
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alteration of existing school
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appropriation of existing and speculative pedagogical media
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deschooled thesis presentation