Dear GSD — a demo

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The record — what was said

10 / 22 / 2020
>> Dear MDes students, Please join MDes Program Director Michael Hays and Dean Sarah Whiting for a Town Hall this Thursday, October 22nd at 12:30 pm. On the agenda: the Spring 2021 semester and the future of the MDes program.
MDes Town Hall announcement
10 / 23 / 2020
>> Dear GSD Community, I write to share some exciting updates to our Master in Design Studies program… This program refresh further deepens the MDes program's historic commitment to a pedagogy of nimble and independent design research, while multiplying productive overlaps between the program and the school's departments.
Official announcement of changes to MDes
10 / 23 / 2020
>> Hi, my fellow GSD and MDes classmates… After the town hall yesterday, many of us left with a bad after-taste. The message I got was that EITHER we swallow the new rules, OR we leave. There is NO SPACE for discussion about the stress we're going through, on top of an entirely new reconstruction of our programs the school is imposing without ANY consultation.
First open letter — MDes student Ran Mei
10 / 26 / 2020
>> Dear Students of the MDes Program, I'm writing to clear up what we see as a few failures of messaging about the reconfiguration… Trajectories are exactly analogous to the Areas. A top priority of the change was to enable MDes students more autonomy in determining their areas of study. In this way we achieve maximum rigor plus maximum flexibility and nuance.
Official explanation — M. K. Hays
10 / 28 / 2020
Dear Dean Whiting, This is Shikun Zhu from MDes ADPD 20. On behalf of many beloved MDes fellow students, faculty and families, I want to share the open letter regarding your restructure announcement, as our response. It has been signed by more than 170 members of our community, from current students to alumni.
Second open letter — MDes student
11 / 11 / 2020
Sean Conlon >> … the number of leaves will result in a bubble — a larger than typical number of enrolled students. To accommodate it we will likely have to extend studio space beyond Gund…
Laura Snowdon >> I guess you had a relaxing day!! How many leaves? Interesting about space. MDes will likely be unhappy.
Private email accidentally sent to the community
11 / 12 / 2020
>> Dear MDes Students, I want to apologize for the email I accidentally sent to the GSD community yesterday… I responded too quickly and misinterpreted the information. MDes spaces will NOT be impacted. With sincere apologies, Laura.
The walk-back

gsd.confession — what was whispered

MDead.
We want a real listening session — not another vague email that covers ass rather than offering meaningful support.
The new classification of MDes feels like the meaningless character customisation in a low-quality RPG.
If this gets 100 likes I'll start a petition to demand the dean's resignation.
Does anyone honestly think it ever was any better?
Please read and sign in solidarity with MDes.
The "MDes messaging" email was a huge pile of nonsense, and half of it was gibberish.
The admin wants to talk to us in small groups so our voice is weaker — divide and conquer. It's an intimidation strategy.
Before the reform, MDes Tech was the same as CS, MDes Real Estate the same as Business school. Maybe the reform gives us a new horizon?
I was so excited to apply for the MDes program — which doesn't even exist anymore?
What is MDes?
Is DDes next??

"Maybe disciplinarity is a scary word that makes people think about a single thing."

Sarah Whiting

"This program refresh further deepens the MDes program's historic commitment to a pedagogy of nimble and independent design research."

On the MDes change

"You have the expertise of the designer. And you have to know what designers can do to push those fields — and have those fields push us."

Sarah Whiting

"This is a big place. There are a lot of you."

Sarah Whiting

Connections…

The administration missed its connections with students — even with open office hours and town halls, the meetings led to little. Conflict, left unresolved, tips into protest.

Recreating the past…

In earlier protests, print was the students' strongest tool. Those posters — simple, powerful slogans — can be brought back to life, rather than stored away as "dead art" in a museum.

KW's voice

an audio-reactive reading — sound on

Student protest, 1969

Printing became the protestors' most powerful tool. GSD students set up the Strike Poster Workshop in the Great Space of Robinson Hall. They chose the red fist as the symbol of their dissent, cut stencils, and printed it on paper, t-shirts and armbands — a range of designs with slogans like "End ROTC," "Maybe They Can't Hear Us, Strike a Little Louder," and "12345678 STRIKE."

Student protest, 2019

In December 2019, Harvard graduate students began a strike after negotiations between their union and the administration broke down. Several hundred members of HGSU-UAW picketed in Harvard Yard. Students carried printed posters reading "UAW ON STRIKE" through the campus.

Make your voice out — pick a program, then remix the poster

Text remixed from the MDes open letter · colour set by program, per the thesis component system