Alice Jia Li S
- Research Program Mentor
MArch at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Expertise
Architecture, Architectural History, Art History, Design Projects
Bio
Having over 10 years of architectural experience in academic and professional settings, I am most interested in thinking about design as a radical act of imagination. I’m interested in the expansive role of architecture, and its capacity for storytelling by exploring different modes of architectural representation - drawing, models, film, and writing. I continue to be interested in examining architecture as an absorptive form capable of holding cultural, political, social, economic, and material inscriptions. In my own work, I have examined how systems of power can inscribe unjust established orders in the built realm, and how in turn, architecture can be deployed as an operative tool that intervenes, subverts, and disrupts those orders. In my downtime, I love working on graphic and book design projects. I have designed posters, zines, books, and T-shirts for grassroots and community groups. I love building and making, my latest project was a tufting project that culminated in a rug and film.Project ideas
Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.
Narrative Tour
Pick a place, this can be your hometown or somewhere you have never been to before (use Google Streetview), use media and writing to represent a walking tour that traverses through an interesting part of the city. Notice buildings, infrastructure, shops public art, and public life. How would you talk about their significance to you or to others? This exercise involves using media to represent the built environment and using narrative to reveal the culture and history embedded in the built environment.
Teaching experience
Teaching assistant for MIT Art Culture Technology's Studio program. Research assistant to Skylar Tibbits at Self-Assembly Lab.Credentials
Education
University of Waterloo
BA Bachelor of Arts
ArchitectureMassachusetts Institute of Technology
MArch Master of Architecture
Architecture