News

Architect, Professor Speaks on ‘Infrastructure Space’

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Prof. Keller Easterling, architecture, Yale University, spoke about her recent book, Extrasatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space, and the ways in which infrastructure space can bring aesthetic pleasures and affect politics Monday afternoon in Sibley Hall. Easterling, who is also an architect, urbanist and writer, began her lecture saying that her book is an experiment “that rehearses a habit of mind about design.”
“It works on unfocusing eyes to see not only buildings of shapes and outlines but the almost infrastructural matrix space in which these buildings are suspended,” she said. Clarifying what she meant by the word infrastructure, Easterling defined it as a “spatial, operating system for shaping the city” that is “coded of laws and formulas for making repeatable spatial products.”
Easterling went on to note that “radical changes” of the globalizing world are being written into this matrix space that is currently being coded by specialists. This coding, she said, was both “a secret weapon of some of the most powerful people on Earth” and “a secret best kept from those of us designers who are trained to make space.”
This coding secret is what led Easterling to argue that the infrastructure space “brings to [architect’s] art another relevance as well as another set of aesthetic pleasures and political capacities,” adding that architects need to find a way to hack this spatial operating system. Easterling also pointed out three global infrastructure platforms and particularly highlighted and critiqued one platform called the Free Zone, which she has termed “extrastatecraft” because of the numerous sources that now have the power to influence or undertake the building of infrastructure.

Earrings

‘Sing Our Rivers Red’ Exhibit Honors Missing Indigenous Women

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Nearly 2,000 earrings are on display in Mann Library until Saturday as part of the Sing Our Rivers Red exhibition, which aims to raise awareness of the 1,181 missing and murdered indigenous women that have been taken from Native communities since 1980. Over 3,400 earrings have been donated and collected from countries including the United States, Canada, Scotland and the U.K., exceeding the exhibition’s initial goal to collect 1,181 single earrings to represent each woman, according to Natalie Rosseau ’16. The exhibit also includes letters from the earrings’ donors, which describe who they are donating their earrings for and why. There are now two traveling exhibits, including one at Cornell, which is brought by the Indigenous Graduate Students Association, in partnership with undergraduate organization Native American Students at Cornell. Sing Our Rivers Red seeks to address the not often recognized issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, said Grace Bulltail, president of the Indigenous Graduate Students Association.

Off Campus

Local Government Candidates Present Strengths, Backgrounds

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Four candidates running for local government positions presented their platforms at a candidate forum hosted by the Collegetown Neighborhood Council Tuesday. Elie Kirshner ’18 defended against questions about whether he is experienced enough to represent the Collegetown and Commons neighborhoods in the Tompkins County Legislature. Kirshner, the Democratically-endorsed candidate, is running against local attorney and independent candidate Rich John ’81. Although only 19 years old, Kirshner said he has many experiences to bring to his position, if elected. Last year, he interned at City Hall, where he said he organized the Commons reopening celebration and wrote press releases about city hall events.

Multicultural Greek Life

Multicultural Greek Letter Council Event Showcases Spirit, Diversity

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Sorority and fraternity members of the Multicultural Greek Letter Council held a Yard Show which included performances, music and information in an effort to showcase their unique organizations and bond as a community on Ho Plaza Sunday. While MGLC holds a formal event called Greek Freak every spring, it has been several years since they held a fall event, according to Mariana Pinos ’16, vice president of programming for MGLC and member of Sigma Lambda Upsilon/Señoritas Latinas Unidas Sorority, Inc.
“We wanted to do something in the fall semester not as formal as Greek Freak … to still get our names out there and to show the Cornell campus and educate them on what our organizations do, the cultural aspects of our organizations and what makes them unique,” she said. MGLC President and member of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. Andrea Kim ’16 added that the Yard Show was meant to be a “stress-free” event that could bring the Cornell community together. Through this event, Kim said MGLC hopes to “reach all different kinds of communities.”
“This is great for students of color and our organizations’ members to take pride in …