For millions of Americans, the ultimate dream is to strike out and build a new life abroad. And as shown by the best countries for Americans to move to—laid out below—there’s plenty to lure them overseas. Year-round warm weather in Central America, art museums and celebrated architecture in Europe, and multicultural food havens in Asia await. But budgets are also a major reason why Americans pack their belongings and go. “Often when I ask people why they are moving, there are many reasons, but affordability is key,” says real estate agent Parisa Afkhami of Coldwell Banker Warburg, who works with international clients. “A higher quality of life as well as lower taxes and medical expenses have been cited as reasons.” Afkhami recommends Western European countries where universal education and healthcare make these affordability goals possible, especially for those on a fixed income.
For the specifics on where to go and why, read on.
How do we determine the best countries for Americans to move to?
We spoke with a range of experts—including those who work with expat communities, international real estate specialists, and expat insurance providers—to determine which countries would make the best new homes for Americans looking to make a move. We factored in quality of life, cost of living, immigration processes, job markets, cultural attractions, and natural beauty. We also considered insights from the most recent Expat Insider report from InterNations, a network and guide for expats in 420 cities worldwide.
What country is the easiest for Americans to move to?
Because “ease” can mean different things to different people, it’s tough to pick just one country. If ease is proximity to the US, then Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica are solid choices. For Spanish-speaking Americans, these picks would also eliminate any language barriers—though there are plenty of English speakers (in the larger cities especially) in these countries as well.
For ease in sorting out paperwork, it’s worth considering a country that offers a digital nomad visa—a temporary permit that allows visitors to stay in a country for up to a year (often with the option to extend) while they work remotely. Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Norway, Switzerland, and Greece (among others), all offer digital nomad visas for nationals from non–European Union countries. Japan also has a digital nomad visa, but only for six months.
What countries do most US citizens move to?
“We are finding that Americans are moving to Mexico, Canada, and Portugal, yet the live-and-work-anywhere movement is broadening the choices being made to include Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines,” says Andrew Jernigan, CEO of Insured Nomads, a global provider of international health insurance for expats and remote workers. Meanwhile, Jen Barnett, cofounder of Expatsi, a site that helps Americans move abroad, says her company offers a quiz called the Expatsi Test, which 110,000 clients have taken. This gives the company insights into why clients want to move abroad as well as their budgets, life stages, and other factor. “The quiz then uses data to recommend countries to move to,” she says. And the top recommendations according to their quiz answers are:
The dispute between WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and hosting provider WP Engine continues, with Mullenweg announcing that WordPress is “forking” a plugin developed by WP Engine.
Specifically, Advanced Custom Fields — a plugin making it easier for WordPress users to customize their edit screens — is being taken out of WP Engine’s hands and updated as a new plugin called Secure Custom Fields.
Mullenweg wrote that this step was necessary “to remove commercial upsells and fix a security problem.”
The Advanced Custom Fields team responded on X, describing this as a situation where a plugin “under active development” has been “unilaterally and forcibly taken away from its creator without consent,” which it said has never happened “in the 21 year history of WordPress.”
“This essential community promise has been violated, and we ask everyone to consider the ethics of such an action, and the new precedent that has been set,” the ACF team wrote.
Both Mullenweg’s blog post and a reply from WordPress claim that similar situations have, in fact, happened before, though Mullenweg added, “This is a rare and unusual situation brought on by WP Engine’s legal attacks, we do not anticipate this happening for other plugins.”
They also pointed to WordPress’ plugin guidelines, which give WordPress the right to disable or remove any plugin, remove developer access, or change a plugin “without developer consent, in the name of public safety.”
Some background: WordPress is a free, open source content management system used by many websites (including TechCrunch), while companies like WP Engine and Mullenweg’s Automattic offer hosting and other commercial services on top.
Last month, Mullenweg published a blog post criticizing WP Engine as a “cancer to WordPress.” His criticisms covered everything from WP Engine’s lack of support for revision history to its investor Silver Lake, but he also suggested that its “WP” branding confuses customers, making it sound like the company is officially connected to WordPress.
Cease-and-desist letters have gone both ways, with WP Engine claiming Mullenweg threatened to take a “scorched earth nuclear approach” unless the company paid to license the WordPress trademark.
WordPress banned WP Engine from accessing WordPress.org, briefly lifted the ban, then imposed it again. This essentially prevents WP Engine from updating the plugin through WordPress.org — so it can’t offer automatic updates to address security issues.
WP Engine has, however, published a workaround for users who want to update the plugin and continue using ACF. (It says the workaround is only necessary for ACF’s free users, as pro users will continue to receive updates through the ACF website.)
Moving forward, Mullenweg wrote that Secure Custom Fields will be available as a non-commercial plugin: “If any developers want to get involved in maintaining and improving it, please get in touch.”
At this year’s Made on YouTube event on Sept. 18, creators like Michelle Khare received exciting news: They will soon be able to organize their videos into seasons and episodes, much like traditional television shows.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan invited Khare on stage for a Q&A to discuss the announcement. Khare is the creator of Challenge Accepted, a high-stakes digital series in which the 32-year-old takes on challenges ranging from working as a 911 dispatcher to training as a ballerina. Her videos, known for their premium quality, run between 15 and 24 minutes and consistently attract millions of views. With nearly 5 million subscribers, Khare has built a dedicated audience.
SEE ALSO:
YouTube announces new AI tools for its creators: Veo, Communities, auto-dubbing, and more
This announcement comes as YouTube continues to dominate as the most popular streaming service on U.S. televisions, with 150 million people watching YouTube on TV screens monthly. The platform’s success is driven by its hands-off approach, trusting creators like Khare to craft content that resonates with audiences. Earlier this year, Mohan urged Emmy voters to recognize YouTube creators, though popular shows like Hot Ones, Chicken Shop Date, and Good Mythical Morning were overlooked for nominations. This latest update solidifies YouTube’s growing role in the television landscape.
Following the announcement, Khare spoke with Mashable about the new feature, what it means for Challenge Accepted, and how her creative process fuels YouTube’s evolving TV strategy.
Mashable: Have you ever thought about Challenge Accepted in terms of episodes and seasons prior to this announcement?
Michelle Khare: Our team always tries our best to think about things in terms of seasons and episodes. We think about, “What’s the tone of this show? What’s the release cadence? What’s our format?” Previously, we organized things by season in playlists. Now through the new structure of the television app, we can formally organize things in terms of genre, episode, season, series. It just elevates our content even further.
What’s your reaction to the update?
As creators, we can only focus on the content we create and we put it on the platform. It’s really cool that the platform is evolving so that it positions our content as premium. I imagine it has the same feeling as when someone’s in a movie and they see the poster in Times Square. As someone who loves premium television content, seeing our stuff in that limelight was really cool. It affirms what we’re already doing with Challenge Accepted and it makes me even more excited to lean into that episodic format.
I imagine it gives you more control of how a viewer interacts with your content.
When you watch your favorite premium show, sometimes you’ll watch one episode and realize you have 12 more episodes you can finish right after. I hope that [the update] will encourage people to watch more of Challenge Accepted when they stumble upon a standalone episode. They may realize, “Oh my gosh, I can watch more of this show, and it’s all organized here for me.” It takes a lot of the thinking and digging work out of the equation for the viewer.
Do you think the new format will make it easier to attract new viewers?
Right now to discover new content, you open the home pages to tons of videos, or the sidebar, when you’re watching one video, you see a bunch of suggested. Now, you’re not only introduced to one episode or a new creator but the world of this creator.
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When did you start making your videos for television? What was the process like of shifting over to that level of production?
I’m gonna be honest, it wasn’t a conscious choice of wanting to be seen on television. Our team is a mixture of people from both traditional and digital backgrounds. We have people who have worked on feature films, Oscar-nominated stuff, and Saturday Night Live. Our output now feels premium, which is a wonderful thing to hear. But genuinely, it’s just been about, “How can we make the best 30 minutes possible out of this story?”
Our team leans into [television] because they are from traditional television. But that said, creating for YouTube is a different animal because we’re creating with the audience in mind. We’re creating with the mindset of respecting the viewers’ time, listening to their suggestions, and being aware that their time can be spent anywhere, and that it’s on us to make a story that commands and interests their attention for long periods of time.
How do you choose a challenge?
Many of our initial episodes were born out of a whiteboard brainstorm of “What are Michelle’s biggest fears?” and “What are the unique situations to put me in to confront them head-on?” We use that as a building block to use the challenges as a way to overcome fears, because it creates conflict and creates story. For example, I want to be a firefighter, but I’m not brave enough. Or I want to be a pageant queen, but I don’t know if I’m graceful. We started using those one sentence formats to kind of inspire the different things we do.
That’s so interesting, I wondered how you created so many challenges with a similar level of intensity.
Conflict creates story. Story creates growth. Watching other people grow are the stories that we’re most interested in, whether they’re scripted or unscripted. That’s really the angle we were coming back from.
Are there any jobs you tried where you thought, “Maybe I should have pursued this instead of being a creator?”
I love being a creator, and I’m not just saying that because we’re at Made on YouTube 2024. I really, really love it. Being a professional jack of all trades is my ideal profession. Behind the scenes, I love running our studio, our production company, and our team and growing into [being a] CEO and leader. It’s such a privilege to be an entrepreneur in this space. I hope to be doing it for a really, really long time.
Do you have a golden rule for for content creation?
Because our episodes are intense and in-depth, we have a pretty thorough vetting process before we greenlight an episode. We think about how we feel it will perform. Is it something our audience has been requesting? Are we, as a team, excited by it? That’s often the question I find us asking the most. Analytics and getting feedback from the audience is wonderful, but we don’t move forward unless our team’s heart is in it. That comes from a practical perspective because if we greenlight a project we’re going to be working on it for the next several weeks or months, sometimes even up to a year.
Challenge Accepted is a show about pursuing novel life experiences, and I once heard that people who have more novel life experiences feel like their lives are longer. I think about that a lot. It’s such a privilege to be able to think critically about where our time is spent and how much joy is created in the day-to-day. Ironically, that has led to the passion that our audience sees in each individual episode.
Is there a challenge you wouldn’t accept?
We’re really fortunate that we’re in this position where we’re continuing to push the envelope. We’re very inspired by a lot of other creators around us. I’m excited to play in new worlds. What I love is that if you asked me a year ago what the next 20 episodes of Challenge Accepted are going to look like, I probably could have told you the next five. But fast forward a year, and there are things that we’ve released this year that I would have never even conceptualized a year ago.
What I love about the internet is that you can create quickly versus the traditional Hollywood system, where we would have greenlit several episodes a year ago, shoot them whatever, they don’t come out for another entire year. A person can grow a lot in a year. So I love being able to create and release as it is relevant, impactful, meaningful, and heartfelt to us in each moment.
What advice do you have for someone just starting and looking for financial stability as a creator?
There’s a reason so many people want to be content creators. I’m not going to lie: It rocks. But it’s a very slow process that begins with creating content and learning your voice while you have another job. You’re doing it in your free time to the point where you can’t wait for the weekend because you get to work on this other thing. From there, you develop your voice and consistency. You can fail in a safe environment. Then, you can grow to the point where that becomes your full-time thing. But you have to feel really solid about your content before it becomes your whole world.
How do you combat creative burnout? Obviously, you have a team that supports you.
The people I look up to the most are very busy. I love moving at a fast pace. But the best parts of the job are also stepping away from the content and doing things that have nothing to do with making YouTube videos. You have to be a real person to tell real stories. You have to live life to have a story to tell. That time away from filming and producing and the office is so important to know what’s really going on.
Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain announced plans to move into a historic building in Place du Palais-Royal in Paris. Originally built in 1855, the Haussmannian building will be reimagined by architect Jean Nouvel and is scheduled to open in 2025. The collaboration between Fondation Cartier and Jean Nouvel dates back to 1994 when the architect designed the “Parisian Monument,” a glass and steel building on Boulevard Raspail that serves as the institution’s current headquarters.
The new location was originally inaugurated in 1855 as the Grand Hôtel du Louvre. The site evolved into the Grands Magasins du Louvre in 1863 before being converted into the Louvre des Antiquaires in 1978. Jean Nouvel’s design aims to integrate the building’s historical context, emphasizing an open architecture with large bay windows that open views of the surrounding Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Rue de Rivoli, and Place du Palais-Royal.
The new Fondation Cartier space encompasses 8,500 square meters, with 6,500 square meters dedicated to exhibition areas. Among these are five mobile platforms that span 1,200 square meters, allowing for a dynamic reconfiguration of the space and creating vertical areas up to 11 meters high. This feature allows for a continuous renewal of the environment, enabling varied artistic installations and offering flexibility and space for creativity, aligning the architecture with the Fondation’s mission. The walkways provide visitors with varied vantage points, ensuring an engaging experience in both art and architecture.
In 1994, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain transitioned to a new location in Paris, designed by acclaimed architect Jean Nouvel. Positioned on Boulevard Raspail, the building was a radical departure from traditional museum architecture, constructed entirely of glass and steel. Instead of the conventional walls, the building embraced transparency and fluidity, thus constantly redefining the exhibition space and its connection to the urban environment. The openness of the design invited artists to engage creatively with the space and its surroundings. Nouvel’s approach allowed for a continuous dialogue between art, architecture, and the city, an approach set to continue into Fondation Cartier’s third chapter.
Moving into such an impressive site, in terms of location and history, entails a form of invention. And what is invented is not automatically seen in steel or stone. The space is marked by a different way of doing: a way of conceiving how artists can have maximum power of expression. A site such as this one calls for boldness, and courage that artists might not necessarily demonstrate in other institutional spaces. The Fondation Cartier will likely be the institution offering the greatest differentiation of its spaces, the most diverse exhibition forms and viewpoints. Here, it is possible to do what cannot be done elsewhere, by shifting the system of the act of showing. – Jean Nouvel
Paris, a city renowned for its architectural offerings, continuously evolves its landscape with projects that redefine its skyline and cultural narrative. Recently, Moreau Kusunoki and Frida Escobedo Studio have been announced as the lead architects for the renovation of the celebrated Centre Pompidou. Moreover, emerging practice Roofscapes proposes a pilot program to reimagine the roofs of historical Parisian buildings to improve the city’s climate resilience.
Suppose you want to change the color of your rental apartment’s walls, but you don’t want to bother repainting them back to their original color before you move out. That’s where Unpaint comes in, as it’s an interior paint that can simply be peeled off as needed.
Unpaint is made by Colombian company Glasst, and has been available in that country for a couple of years. Glasst has now set about expanding its market, with the just-announced availability of the product in US stores.
Offered in over 5,000 matte-finish colors, Unpaint is applied just like regular paint, with a brush, roller or sprayer. Users should apply two to three coats, allowing at least 30 to 60 minutes of drying time between each one.
The paint reaches full dryness 24 hours after application, essentially becoming an elastic film. It’s then reportedly “durable enough for everyday use in residential and commercial settings,” although we’re told that it is more susceptible than regular paint to scratches caused by sharp objects.
If you felt so inclined, you could conceivably cover more than just your walls with Unpaint
Glasst
Once it’s time to convert the walls back to their original color, users just pinch the Unpaint film at one corner, then proceed to peel it all off by hand. The underlying regular paint should remain undamaged and unstained, although Glasst does advise testing Unpaint in one small area before applying it to a whole wall.
Because Unpaint is made of unspecified natural and renewable substances, it should reportedly biodegrade within one to three years of being peeled off and discarded. It also doesn’t emit any volatile organic compounds in either the room or the landfill.
Unfortunately, Unpaint does start to biodegrade after 12 months even while still on the wall, causing it to become brittle and thus more difficult to peel. For this reason, it isn’t advised for applications lasting more than one year.
That said, Unpaint can be applied to things other than just walls, such as furniture or home decor. It’s said to be compatible with materials including plywood, glass, metal, plastic, and sealed concrete.
Unpaint is now available to US customers at Lowe’s and other hardware stores, and via online platforms such as Amazon and the Glasst website. Pricing starts at US$29.98 for a 1-quart (0.9 l) can.
The peeling-off process is demonstrated in the following video.
Europe’s biggest consumer tech show is just around the corner, and Dangbei is flying in to launch its first ultra-portable projector. The Freedo is a lot like Samsung’s Freestyle model, but with one important difference.
Samsung launched its “one-of-a-kind” Freestyle model back in 2022, a combined HD projector, smart speaker and mood light that stood out from the boxy crowd with a cylinder body mounted to a swivel base for “ultimate versatility and flexibility.”
The recipe was updated last year, but users still had to find a wall outlet to plug in the USB-C adapter to power the thing – unless a suitable portable powerbank could be found. Dangbei has pushed past such annoyances and crammed a 60-Wh battery inside the body of the more square (but still curvy) Freedo.
The company hasn’t revealed per-charge usage time yet – other than to promise “long-lasting, immersive viewing” – but again, the projector can be cabled up to a powerbank when out and about for extended entertainment. Dimensions are also unknown, but the consumer tech brand reckons it’s an easy carry with one hand. The projector will also include a shockproof, recyclable EPP carry case and a dust-proof bag to protect it on the way to camp.
The Dangbei Freedo 1080p projector can throw visuals at up to 120 inches, and rocks immersive Dolby sound
Dangbei
Like Samsung’s stylish effort, the Freedo throws 1080p visuals but can manage a maximum of 120 diagonal inches (instead of the Freestyle’s 100). It runs Google TV, too, for access to streaming apps – including Netflix – and packs in 360-degree Dolby speakers. Coverage of more than 90% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and support for HDR content are included, with Dangbei also promising easy setup thanks to the inclusion of autofocus, auto keystone correction, screen fit and obstacle avoidance.
The gimbal stand here “tilts over 100 degrees, making it easy to align the image with a projector screen outdoors without additional props. Indoors, the projector can be easily angled towards the ceiling, ideal as a bedroom projector for late-night movie marathons or bedtime story animations for kids in bed.”
The internal battery allows viewers to take their Google TV entertainment anywhere, while the gimbal stand and AI setup tech offer flexible positioning opportunities
Dangbei
That’s about all Dangbei is revealing ahead of launch at IFA 2024 in Berlin from September 6 to 10. We’ve no word on pricing, though strongly suspect that the Freedo will come in cheaper than its Samsung competitor. Nor do we know when you’ll be able to grab one, but there is a US landing page so perhaps the wait will be a relatively short one.
The new portable projector will be on display at the company’s IFA booth in Hall 21 at the Messe, where visitors can also take a look at the excellent Atom, the DBox02 (formerly known as the Mars Pro 2) and the N2 models.
“The Dangbei Freedo projector is designed for the modern lifestyle, where entertainment is no longer confined to the living room,” said the company in a blog post. “Whether you’re relaxing at home, camping under the stars, or hosting a backyard gathering, Freedo brings cinematic experiences to life in ways never before possible. With a built-in battery, integrated gimbal stand, and Google TV, Freedo is set to change how people enjoy their favorite movies, shows, and sporting events, both indoors and outdoors.”
People in the European Union are now allowed to access alternative app stores thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a new regulation designed to foster increased competition in the app ecosystem. Like Apple’s App Store, alternative app marketplaces allow for easy access to a wider world of apps, but instead of the apps going through Apple’s App Review process, the apps on these third-party marketplaces have to go through a notarization process to ensure they meet some “baseline platform integrity standards,” Apple says — like being malware-free. However, each store can review and approve apps according to its own policies. The stores are also responsible for any matters relating to support and refunds, not Apple.
To run an alternative app marketplace, developers must accept Apple’s alternative business terms for DMA-compliant apps in the EU. This includes paying a new Core Technology Fee of €0.50 for each first annual install of their marketplace app, even before the threshold of 1 million installs is met, which is the bar for other EU apps distributed under Apple’s DMA business terms.
Despite the complicated new rules, a handful of developers have taken advantage of the opportunity to distribute their apps outside of Apple’s walls.
Below is a list of some of the alternative app stores iPhone users in the EU can try today.
AltStore PAL
Image Credits: AltStore
Co-created by developer Riley Testut, maker of the Nintendo game emulator app Delta, the AltStore PAL is an officially approved alternative app marketplace in the EU. The open source app store will allow independent developers to distribute their apps alongside the apps from AltStore’s makers, Delta, and a clipboard manager, called Clip.
Unlike Apple’s App Store, AltStore apps are self-hosted by the developer. To work, developers download an alternative distribution packet (ADP) and upload it to their server, then create a “source” that users will add to the AltStore to access their apps. That means the only apps you’ll see in the AltStore are those you’ve added yourselves.
Some popular apps that users are adding include the virtual machine app UTM, which lets you run Windows and other software on iOS or iPad; OldOS, a re-creation of iOS 4 that’s built in SwiftUI; Kotoba, the iOS dictionary available as a stand-alone app; torrenting app iTorrent; qBittorrent remote client for iOS devices called qBitControl; and social discovery platform PeopleDrop.
Setapp Mobile
Image Credits: Setapp
MacPaw’s Setapp became one of the first companies to agree to Apple’s new DMA business terms to set up an alternative app store for EU users. The company has long offered a subscription-based service featuring a selection of curated apps for customers on iOS and Mac. Following the implementation of the DMA, it released Setapp Mobile, an alternative app store for iOS users only in the EU. Similar to its other subscription offerings, the new app store includes dozens of apps under a single recurring subscription price, and the number of apps grows over time. The apps are free from in-app purchases or ads and are generally considered high quality; however, it doesn’t include big-name apps like Facebook, Uber, Netflix and others.
Setapp Mobile is available to users on the “Power User” and “AI Expert” Setapp subscription plans for free. Otherwise, users can sign up via a new “iOS Advanced” plan that includes both the iOS app from Setapp’s main subscription and Setapp Mobile at $9.99/€9.49 monthly or $107.88/€102.48 yearly.
In addition, all Setapp subscribers (except for “Family” and “Teams”) can try Setapp Mobile for free during the invite-only beta period.
Epic Games Store
Fortnite maker Epic Games launched its alternative iOS app store in the EU on August 16, allowing users to download games, including its own Fortnite and others like Rocket League Sideswipe and Fall Guys, with more to come. The company said it’s also bringing its games to other alternative app stores, including AltStore PAL, which it’s now supporting via a grant, as well as Aptoide’s iOS store in the EU and ONE Store on Android.
The move to launch Fortnite in the alternative iOS marketplace comes more than four years after Apple removed the game from its App Store over policy violations, ahead of Epic’s legal challenge to the alleged App Store monopoly. While U.S. courts decided that Apple was not engaged in antitrust behavior, the lawsuit did pave the way for developers to link to their own websites for a reduced commission.
Aptoide
Image Credits: Aptoide
An alternative game store for iPhone, Lisbon-based Aptoide is an open source solution for app distribution. The company, already known for its Google Play alternative, says it scans the apps to ensure they are safe to download and install, while also ensuring they are compliant with the DMA.
The iOS version of the Aptoide store launched as an invite-only beta in June, so you’ll need to put your email on a waitlist to get the access code. As a free-to-use store, Aptoide doesn’t charge its users to cover its Core Technology Fee paid to Apple, but takes a 10% to 20% commission on in-app purchases on iOS, depending on whether they were generated by the marketplace or not.
Across all platforms, including Android, web, car and TV, Aptoide offers 1 million apps to its over 430 million users.
Mobivention marketplace
Image Credits: Mobivention
A B2B-focused app store, the Mobivention marketplace allows EU companies to distribute their internal apps that are used by employees, but can’t — or shouldn’t — be published in Apple’s App Store. The company also offers the development of a customized app marketplace for companies that want to offer employees their own app store just for their corporate apps. Larger companies can even license Mobivention’s technology to more deeply customize the app marketplace to their own needs.
For architecture school students, administrators, and faculty members, this year has been… different. As Gaza encampments occupy campuses from Cal Poly to Yale, academia has been forced to react.
This month, some CUNY students chose not to host their final reviews at the Spitzer School of Architecture, but rather at citygroup, a New York Chinatown gallery, out of solidarity with their school’s protesters. Washington University students staged boycotts. Yalies built a pop-up library for Palestine. And at Harvard GSD, students hung banners from the trays with messages that said WE WILL NOT ALLOW THE GSD TO STAND SILENT TO INJUSTICE not long after the student government passed an unprecedented divestment resolution.
Banners at GSD (Courtesy Cory Page)
In solidarity with protesters around the country—breaking away with years of tradition—Cooper Union’s very popular and very public End of Year Show (EYoS) isn’t being held at the Cooper Union. In response to a letter from Cooper’s administration announcing the show would no longer be open—instead allowing registered visitor access during a limited time slot—students removed their work from studios and mocked up a full-scale exhibition off-campus at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center.
The relocation is in response to an order issued on May 14 by Cooper Union President Laura Sparks. The order came as a shock to students and faculty alike, who had not been consulted. The order said that “Attendance at the End of Year Show will be exclusively for students and their registered guests. Each student will reserve a specific time and will be permitted to invite up to 4 guests per time slot. If schedules permit, students may be able to book multiple appointments on different days to allow them to show more than 4 guests their work. Students will register their guests in advance. Guests will need to show photo ID to check in upon their arrival.”
Sparks described the “new protocols” as a response to “end-of-year events being canceled at campuses across the country” and “disruptions to planned events.” In turn, Cooper students and faculty quickly condemned the action in an open letter, but to no avail. Cooper Union’s Student Justice for Palestine (SJP) chapter also criticized the protocols. The announcement came one month after Cooper Union president Laura Sparks voted to install surveillance cameras throughout the architecture school, sparking outrage among students and faculty.
In response, there were first letters and statements: a letter from faculty included voting members such as Diana Agrest, Nader Tehrani, Benjamin Aranda, Elisa Iturbe, and Lauren Kogod, among many others. There were six points expressed to communicate faculty disapproval of the order, one of them being: “The protocols unnecessarily pit legal and security concerns against the creative and intellectual interests of students and faculty, who value the opportunity to freely share their work with the profession, other schools of architecture in the city, and to alumni of The Cooper Union.”
The Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture’s fifth-year thesis class presented their work off-campus in protest. The students addressed the packed auditorium at the Clemente and reflected on the decision, their time at Cooper, and the importance of free and open exchange for education, and architects and designers in particular. (Emily Conklin/AN)
Student statements were also shared as posters during the staged walk-out as well as at the Clemente presentation. One reads: “I feel ignored. I feel distracted. I feel overwhelmed. I feel afraid for what the future will bring. I don’t recognize what The Cooper Union has become, and I really, really wish I did.” This statement followed a reproduced quotation from founder Peter Cooper’s trust-deed, which sought to establish “a community where [the student’s] capacity and talents can be usefully employed with the greatest possible advantage to themselves and the community in which they live.”
In an emotional off-the-cuff presentation on the stage of the Clemente’s theater, the thesis class made collective speeches to a packed, standing room-only auditorium filled with alumni, underclassmen, faculty, and Cooper community members alike. Fighting back tears, fifth-year student Julia Penchaszadeh Robert said, “For five years, we’ve been trying to learn as a class how to be architects in this world of multiple crises. What we know is that collaboration and open knowledge is what makes our work possible, our profession possible, and schools as places of free knowledge and exchange function. All we wanted is a place to exercise this freedom and this learning, and adequately celebrate five years of work that unfolded remotely, online, and amid international upheaval.”
Robert’s work in the exhibition gallery, titled “A Grammar for Caring Architecture,” was a meticulously crafted, handmade object, just like many of the works of her peers. It invited visitors to lift, fold, and “co-agitate” leaves of table into various spaces of care, evocative of a family kitchen. This complex sculpture, as all the other drawings, models, and large-scale interventions on display, had to be transported by hand from studio to the Clemente in protest—no small undertaking in New York City.
(Elisa Iturbe)
The Cooper students, and other students holding protest reviews and exhibitions across the country, had to plan their alternative events in a matter of days, whereas planning for a show at the scale of EYoS takes institutions months. Unique to Cooper, the thesis class modeled and mocked up the Clemente space in the lobby of Cooper’s Foundation building, independently allocating wall space, square footage, and hanging mechanisms for each project originally meticulously planned for an entirely different type of gallery. The process of this admirably logical architectural skill on display is presented in a video playing in a dark, cool viewing room at Clemente.
Julia Penchaszadeh Robert’s “Grammar for a Caring Architecture” on display at the Clemente, alongside the transported work of her thesis classmates. (Emily Conklin/AN)
In a statement on social media, Cooper students explained their rationale to relocate: “The elimination of any public event effectively limits our freedom of speech and education, along with any sense of community that this event has historically represented. […] The Clemente allows us to share a moment of mutuality and collectivity at a crucial time when the administration of The Cooper Union hopes to extinguish these such moments. Through this collectively produced and curated exhibition, we present the work of this year’s thesis class, and bring the spirit of The Cooper Union with us into this new space.”
Back at the Foundation Building, underclassmen models and final projects shrouded in black in protest and solidarity. (Elisa Iturbe)
Meanwhile, underclassmen continued to display their drawings and models at Cooper but, in solidarity with thesis students, they decided to place black veils over their work. The underclassmen also staged a walk out on May 21 at about 4 p.m. as protest and proceeded to walk to the Clemente. The underclassmen also brought models and drawings out into Cooper Square for a “public crit.” Supported by the many faculty members, alumni, and locals in attendance, the showcase of solidarity across the boundaries of space, academic hierarchy, and most of all across the city, reflects an unwavering alignment between the entire community. “This decision to close the show without student and faculty consultation makes us question what a school is, at its core,” Elisa Iturbe told AN. Another Cooper alumna, Lily Zand, said, “I and my fellow alumni condemn this tactic of fear-mongering in the name of safety. By inclusion and compassion we create community and equity.” Zand was one of many who responded to VP of Alumni Affairs and Development Terri Coopersmith’s memo to the alumni network in protest and condemnation.
Overall, the powerful thesis showcase and aligned solidarity at the Foundation building speak to, in the words of Distinguished Professor Adjunct Elizabeth O’Donnell, “These students were handed something ugly and it turned into something beautiful. They went from shock and distress to peaceful dissent and joyful celebration….They could not have done more to prove Laura Sparks wrong: Our students are not a threat to the school, they are the school.”
The EYoS show is open to the public at the Clemente, located at 107 Suffolk Street on the Lower East Side.
One of the benefits of tiny houses is their flexibility, as highlighted by Baluchon’s recently completed Bois Perdus. The towable dwelling serves as a light-filled office that accommodates the owner’s crafting hobby and will eventually become a full-time home too.
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Category: Tiny Houses, Lifestyle
Tags: Baluchon, Building and Construction, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home
Dedicated DJs who value portability may have opted to spin their vinyl on a rather tasty turntable called the Vestax Handy Trax at the turn of the century. Now Korg is paying tribute with the Handytraxx Play.
Korg has been very busy over the last few days, issuing details on upcoming products destined to debut at the NAMM Show, which is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants, and is being held at the Convention Center in Anaheim, California, later this week.
One of those products expected to make an appearance is a portable turntable that was designed in collaboration with the former president of Japanese music gear maker Vestax, Toshihide Nakama – who sadly died before the project was completed.
DJs can dial in a scratch effects, filters and a built-in looper
Korg
The Handytraxx Play evokes the spirit of the original while also leveraging Korg’s digital processing and audio know-how. It can be powered by AAA-sized batteries or USB-C, is described as compact and lightweight, and rocks 3-W speakers for on-the-go convenience.
The turntable can spin at 33.3, 45 or 78 rpm, comes with “unique and creative filters” cooked in, sports a built-in looper with variable playback speed and monitoring during playback through headphones, a crossfader with reverse mode (which can be replaced if desired), built-in delay and scratch effects, and a detachable control panel.
There’s no word on the release window for the portable turntable, or potential pricing, though a non-playable prototype is reported to be on the way to NAMM.
