Main Content
Abstract
“The Einstellung effect occurs when a person is presented with a problem or situation that is similar to problems they have worked through in the past. If the solution (or appropriate behavior) to the problem/situation has been the same in each past experience, the person will likely provide that same response, without giving the problem too much thought, even though a more appropriate response might be available.” The “expertise” we call on can be a barrier to thinking creatively about design and research problems. It is important to find necessary distance from old patterns and methods for researching and designing.
In this talk Anita Bakshi reflects on what she learned about her perennial intellectual preoccupations – the themes that appear time and time again in different projects – during a research leave last year. With time to read along the edges of different interests, she was able to reexamine these themes: the hidden histories of places, conflict, intergenerational memory, the development of architectural taste, and the relationship of beauty to social life. Using excerpts from video projects, memoire, and academic research she will describe how these have impacted her two current collaborative book projects: Our Land, Our Stories, and Collaborations in Architecture and Sociology.
Bio
Anita Bakshi teaches in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Rutgers University. Following several years in architectural practice, she received her PhD in the history and theory of architecture from Cambridge University with the Conflict in Cities research program. Her research focuses on contested landscapes and histories, environmental justice, and the relationship between architecture and sociology. She edited the book Our Land, Our Stories: Excavating Subterranean Histories of Ringwood Mines and the Ramapough Lunaape Nation (2022), in partnership with the Ramapough Lunaape Turtle Clan. She is the author of Topographies of Memories: A New Poetics of Commemoration (2017), and co-author of Collaborations in Architecture and Sociology (2024) with Zaire Dinzey-Flores.