old Gallery

The DFI Gallery was established in June of 2022 with the mission of promoting public scholarship by blending research, media, and art. We invite visitors to explore new ways to connect, imagine, and engage in the immersive experiences designed in this space. 

Boundaries of Adventure Playgrounds

March - May 2024

The Boundaries of Adventure Playgrounds exhibit was connected to Lucius Von Joo’s three article dissertation on children's play rights.  Adventure playgrounds have a long history dating back to World War Two playing in the realm of risk, creativity and speculative dreaming with the byproducts of a city. In these playscapes children play and build with loose moving parts that are deeply reflective to the cities they are housed within. The play yards are spaces where professional play workers support children in building new imagined worlds. The Boundaries exhibit represents the many voices and multimodal methods explored in the three-article dissertation, which explored adventure playground linguistic landscapes, players perspectives, and playworker practices.  

Playing with Form

November - February 2024

Informed by the idea that play is generative in (re)shaping and (re)forming our present conditions, this collection of work documents a year-long collaboration facilitated by creativity and making as serious, playful, and intellectual. Long considered an activity that only children do, we gesture towards play as more than a confined set of activities belonging to a particular time, space, set of activities, or group of people, but a sociocultural practice where individuals creatively and collectively ideate towards new and emergent practices. In academic settings, we often demand specificity, expertise, and a commitment to a singular path. What if we open up spaces to encourage experimentation and exploration as sites of possibility? Where do we find pockets of exploration and experimentation to develop, dabble, and cast our imaginations across different contexts and platforms, using a variety of modes and forms while interacting with objects, materials, other people, and technology? 

It is often said, “there is no time for play in kindergarten”, however, there might not be enough time for play in higher education, either. In other words, we envision an academia that blurs disciplinary boundaries, disrupts traditional forms, and reimagines what counts as productive and valuable. We do this in order to expand the boundaries of what is knowable and, in so doing, expand the impact of research and teaching 

MODES 

September 2023

A Multimodal Dissertations Exhibition (Series 1) 

What can multimodal research look like and how might that shape the forms a dissertation takes? As part of an ongoing effort to archive, showcase, and discuss multimodal dissertations, this exhibition highlights five dissertations from scholars associated with Teachers College.  From comic books, to dance, to podcasts, to photographs, to sculpture, each of these examples finds a way to go beyond the written page. 

This exhibit explores how scholars are bridging the gap between research, practice, and audience with their creative dissertations. These alternative modes of scholarly expression provide insight into different ways data can be collected and responded to in a mediated, digital, multimodal world. 

As the seed of an archive, Modes speaks to the future paths of scholarship.

Unfolding 

May 2023

Unfolding

The self is only a threshold, a door, a becoming between two multiplicities.
—Gilles Deleuze

Unfolding is an exhibit about becoming between multiplicities: becoming without an essence, always in flux, and co-determined with our conditions. The works here—created by first-year doctoral students in Curriculum & Teaching—speak to the impossibility of “simply being”. The pieces sit alongside renditions of five completed multimodal dissertations. Rather than perceiving the works as “beginnings” and “ends”, what if we sense them as always unfolding?

Gestures 

February 2023

. .GESTURES LEARNING. . 

There has been little time to question the Zoom platforms we stepped into to fulfill remote means of contact. We clicked into two-dimensional frames that gallery alongside others in remote locations. 

Gestures Learning sets out to isolate and play with the silent gestures to stretch and reflect on what we quickly have come accustomed to. The gesture portals simply capture the shape of you and whoever else is in front of the other portal. 

As you stand here, look down the aisle and you will see a partner portal. If you have someone with you we invite them to walk to the other portal, or just be patient and catch a glimpse of another person walking by. 

What were your first thoughts on Zoom? What do you think you could communicate through the gesture portals? 

Freedom Dreaming for Educational Justice

October 2022

June-September 2022

For a map, directions, and a virtual tour of TC, review the Visit Teachers College page.