Statement from the Dean's Office

Progress continues at the Daniels Faculty and across the University of Toronto as we prepare for a safe return to campus this fall. For the most recent information, visit the UTogether hub and the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students’ website.

Since my last update on May 31, Ontario is now in step two of the provincial plan to reopen ahead of schedule and the Federal Government announced they are easing quarantine restrictions for fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents. (As restrictions ease, please reference the Vice-Provost's COVID-19 Resources for information related to quarantine accommodation for students.)

This news, combined with the province’s accelerated vaccination plans, is another step in the right direction for our transition to on-campus activities.

U of T also announced that vaccinations will be required for students living in residence. “This requirement, which is endorsed by our local public health authorities, will enable us to give our students the residence experience that they expect – and that is so important to their growth and development – without compromising on their health and safety,” said Sandy Welsh, U of T’s vice-provost, students.

I encourage you to consult Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccination website for information on vaccine eligibility and how to book your first and/or second dose.

At the Daniels Faculty, we continue to monitor public health measures as we prioritize planning for activities that benefit the most from an in-person experience. We will provide another update in July as more information becomes available.

Until then, take good care.

Robert Wright
Interim Dean

In recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Daniels Faculty is excited to announce an upcoming mural for the north façade of the Daniels Building that will be created by an Indigenous artist. 

“Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day – a day for all Canadians to celebrate the heritage and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. However, to truly celebrate Indigenous communities we must commit ourselves to Truth and Reconciliation,” said Interim Dean Robert Wright. “These are not just words but our obligation and direct calls to action. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples have shown us a path, and it is one that we must walk together.” 

This inaugural Indigenous installation at the Daniels Building is intended to address Indigenous Spaces within the University’s response to the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC Steering Committee’s Report, Answering the Call. Wecheehetowin) specifically, Call to Action #2: A strategy for the funding and placement of more Indigenous public art across all three campuses should be developed, in close consultation with local Indigenous communities.

“It is important for our Daniels community to come together as one and expand our listening to the land and to all our relations,” said Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. “As we walk this path together, we are gathering new voices to learn new ways of knowing. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share my knowledge and teachings with the Faculty and students.” 

The collaborative process to create the mural is being organized by the Daniels Art Directive (DAD), a student-led art collective, with guidance from Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean, and supported by the Daniels Faculty’s Office of External Relations and Outreach. An advisory panel of Indigenous members will create the call-for-proposals and then select the artist.

Located at 1 Spadina Crescent, the site is part of the historic Ishpadinaa – one of two historic Indigenous trails in Toronto that were recently recognized with Anishinaabemowin signs. Ishpadinaa is an Ojibwe word that means “a place on a hill.”

This project follows the first installation of a mural on the Daniels Building: the ‘Support Black Designers.’ mural curated by DAD, in collaboration with designers and Daniels alumnae Ashita Parekh and Tolu Alabi, was on view from October 2020 to May 2021.

"The north façade is a window into the Daniels Faculty. As students at this school, we are honoured to support all artists and the messages they want to share," said Michelle Ng on behalf of DAD. "Through community-driven art, we hope to decolonize spaces and create opportunities that will lead to concrete changes for an intersectional, inclusive future."

The call-for-proposals will be announced at the end of June and an information session is scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, 1-2 pm. Mural installation is slated to begin late August – early September 2021.

Indigenous Mural Project logo design by Mariah Meawasige (Makoose).

Statement from the Dean's Office 

Since my last update in March, we have seen promising developments across the province as we prepare for a safe return to campus. If you are a new or returning student, plan for in-person learning and increased on-campus opportunities at the Daniels Faculty this fall. 

On May 28, 2021, the Province of Ontario announced it reached a key milestone in the fight against COVID-19: 65 per cent of eligible Ontarians have now received the vaccine ahead of schedule and the province is now accelerating second dose appointments.  

This is promising news, but it is critical that we continue to do our part: get vaccinated, follow the guidelines, and stay safe this summer. We will provide another update on June 30 when new information is available. 

How is U of T planning for a safe return to campus? 

U of T is closely monitoring the Government of Ontario’s plans for safely re-opening our province. Efforts are underway to prepare for the arrival of new and returning students, including preparation of residences and programs to assist students arriving from outside of Canada. Sandy Welsh, U of T’s vice-provost, students, recently spoke with U of T News about University plans for the fall. 

• International Student Arrival 

• Quarantine Information for Students Entering Canada 

• Residences and Off-campus Housing 

From upgraded building ventilation and air filtration to rapid screenings and vaccination clinics,  read “12 ways U of T is preparing for a safe return to in-person instruction” for details on University-wide safety measures. 

What will fall 2021 look like at the Daniels Faculty? 

Students, faculty, and staff should make appropriate plans to be on campus this September. 

At the Daniels Faculty, we are prioritizing activities that benefit the most from an in-person experience – like undergraduate and graduate studios, on-campus research activities, and student services and workshop access – while maintaining the best practices we have learned from virtual teaching.  

As vaccination rates increase and public health guidelines are updated, we will share more information around physical distancing and capacity limits in the classroom. 

We understand that there will be questions as plans progress this summer. Please reference the related links, including the UTogether hub and the Daniels Faculty COVID-19 FAQs.

Take good care, 
Robert Wright 
Interim Dean 

The Daniels Building has been closed for the duration of Ontario's long COVID-19 lockdown, but students can still spend time in One Spadina's social spaces and studios — albeit virtually.

That's because Lily Jeon, a studio technologist at Daniels, has created an online replica of the Daniels Building, where students can walk around, study, and socialize as though they were actually on campus.

The project arose out of frustration with the drawbacks of online learning. "Faculty members and I wanted to respond to feedback received from students about the shared frustrations and difficulties of having casual conversations with one another online," Jeon says. "It’s hard for people to call each other out of the blue. It's much easier for them to have conversations when they're given opportunities to bump into each other naturally."

But the virtual building has now grown into much more than a casual hangout. Professors have begun to hold critiques there, and student clubs have started using it for events. A few faculty members have even begun using the space to hold office hours.

The virtual Daniels Building exists on Gather, an online collaboration platform. Gather is different than other collaboration platforms, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, in that it actually tries to replicate the experience of being inside a physical space with other people. It does this by borrowing some of the design language of 1990s-era two-dimensional video games, in which player-characters wander brightly coloured worlds rendered in a top-down perspective. It's a fun, accessible aesthetic, instantly recognizable to anyone who has spent too much time playing Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda.

In Gather, each participant in a meeting appears as a pixel-art avatar inside a two-dimensional environment. Participants can travel freely around the virtual space. When two or more avatars approach each other, they have the option of opening a video chat together. The experience is similar to wandering through a party or a crowded lecture hall, noticing colleagues and spontaneously being pulled into conversation with them.

Gather provides some generic rooms for avatars to move around, but Jeon wanted to make the virtual space feel a little more Daniels-specific. So she got out her iPad and spent hours illustrating detailed environments that accurately replicate, in cartoon style, different parts of the Daniels Building. She and her work-study students, Gemma Robinson and Zainab Wakil, worked to refine the different areas to make them suitable for various kinds of programming.

Here's the student commons, where the Architecture and Visual Studies Student Union recently hosted a "coffee with profs" event, in which professors sat at tables in the virtual space and chatted with students:

Here's the graduate studio's amphitheatre, where assistant professor Erica Allen-Kim has lately been holding Writing Centre office hours:

Here's the undergraduate studio:

And the main hall, where the Daniels undergraduate mentorship program recently held a trivia night:

Several undergraduate studio professors have begun using the virtual Daniels Building on Gather to host critiques, including Dina Sarhane (ARC362), Tom Bessai (ARC381), and Jay Pooley (JAV101). They say the virtual environment allows for easier, more natural collaboration than Zoom.

"It's particularly great for students who have never been to the building, because it gives them a peek at what they have to look forward to," Pooley says. "It works well for studios, because students are able to easily break out into small groups within the class, and they can meet with their teaching assistants at a separate table. I've had people stop by my class, which is really great. It has been fun. We enjoy it."

Jen Wan, a fourth-year undergraduate at Daniels, has attended social events in the virtual Daniels Building as part of her involvement with Applied Architecture, Landscape, and Design, a student group. "I like Gather because it's really fun," she says. "When you're meeting with people in Zoom, it's hard because you have to work to orchestrate activities and games. On Gather, they're all right there for you."

The virtual Daniels Building isn't just for special events and studios. It's available on Gather 24 hours a day, and Daniels Faculty students and instructors are encouraged to use it casually, for informal hangouts and games. To join, use the link below:

Sign up for the virtual Daniels Building

Statement from the Dean’s Office

I hope that you have had a chance to read President Gertler’s update from last week regarding Fall 2021 at the University of Toronto. At the Daniels Faculty, we are actively planning for in-person learning and on-campus activity this September.

Part of what makes the experience at Daniels unique are the physical spaces and community environment in which we study, create, and work. I hope that you join in my excitement for the next steps that will bring us back to campus this September.

What will fall 2021 look like at the Daniels Faculty?

As vaccine rollout progresses over the coming months, students, faculty, and staff will make plans for a gradual return this fall. We will continue to follow public health guidelines and adhere to strict safety standards throughout this transition.

We are prioritizing Faculty activities that benefit the most from being in-person – like undergraduate and graduate studios, on-campus research activities, and student services and workshop access – while maintaining the best practices we have learned from virtual teaching.

This past year we have adapted time and time again from producing medical face shields in our own Digital Fabrication Lab during the early days of the pandemic, to student projects that explored design’s role during the time of COVID-19. Throughout it all, you have demonstrated great resilience and creativity.

We understand that there will be questions as we enter this next phase, and we’ll be here to answer them as plans progress. You can continue to find information about the University’s COVID-19 response at UTogether: A Road Map. And we will update the Daniels Faculty COVID-19 FAQs as more information becomes available.

Looking forward,
Robert Wright
Interim Dean

Have a question about fall 2021? Reach out to us at the contacts below.

Current students: registrar@daniels.utoronto.ca

Prospective students: undergraduate@daniels.utoronto.ca or graduate@daniels.toronto.ca

Faculty and staff should reach out their supervisors for more information on the gradual return to campus.

Statement from the dean's office

As we continue to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health of our students, faculty, and staff remains our greatest concern. That is why we have made the decision to continue offering instruction exclusively via remote learning throughout summer 2021.

All courses will be offered online, and we will continue to provide a remote access guarantee — meaning, every student, regardless of where they are in the world, will be able to earn required course credits from home.

In short: all classes, labs, tutorials, and outreach programming during summer 2021 will be conducted exclusively online.

Regarding student access to the Daniels Building and other Faculty facilities: we will continue to follow the guidance of university, municipal, and provincial authorities. As soon as it is safe for us to permit people in our buildings, we will do so. For the time being, our facilities remain closed to students and visitors.

For more information on the Daniels Faculty's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, refer to our online FAQ and the University of Toronto's UTogether website. If you have any questions that aren't answered by either of those resources, please contact the Office of the Registrar and Student Serviecs.

Thank you for your understanding.

Chris Lee

The graphics that accompany the listings for the Daniels Faculty's 2020-2021 lineup of "talks" — meaning, online events where several expert participants have a conversation on a pre-selected topic — are a little confounding to the eye. The text is chunky and pixellated, and the backgrounds are made up of asymmetrical assortments of shapes, scattered seemingly randomly across a black field.

All of that visual dissonance is, of course, entirely by design. And the one who did the designing is Chris Lee, a freelance graphic artist and educator.

Top: Lee's design for the winter talks series. Bottom: Lee's design for this week's talk with Douglas Cardinal and Arthur Dyson.

The Daniels Faculty's design brief called for graphics that could be presented in static images and also in animations. Other than that, all Lee had to go on was the title of the talks series, "Resolutions and Agencies."

He began to think about the meaning of the word "agency" in the context of graphic design. "The scale of the graphic designer's agency is circumscribed by formal technical concerns," he says. "What colour? What typeface? What's the type program? What's the spatial conceit?"

Lee began by creating what he calls a "map" — a large digital canvas of abstract, monochrome geometric forms on a black background. By zooming in and out on different parts of his geometric map and making rectangular cut-outs of particular sections, Lee was able to create unique backgrounds for each different event graphic. "It's playing with the fundamentals of 2D form: the line, the dot, and the plane," he says.

Two designs by Chris Lee for the Daniels Faculty's fall talks series.

Lee's font choices are intended to subtly reference the "resolutions" component of the series theme. The event titles are rendered in "Lo-Res," a typeface by the digital type foundry Emigre. The series title, meanwhile, is set in Wremena, an angular serif typeface. "Lo-Res is very crass and low-resolution," Lee says. "In my mind there's a kind of counterposition between the low resolution of Lo-Res and the sharp geometry of Wremena, which resonated with thinking about scale."

Lee isn't only a graphic designer; he's also an educator. His current appointment is at Pratt Institute's Communications Design department, where he's an assistant professor.

Although he now splits his time between Toronto, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, he's originally from Toronto. After graduating from OCAD University in 2006, he landed a job as a designer at The Walrus, a Canadian magazine known for its long-form journalism. At around the same time, Lee started doing regular freelance work for C Magazine, an art periodical.

Lee's poster design for “Unmapping Eurasia,” an exhibition curated by Binna Choi and You Mi.

His introduction to the world of architecture came in 2010, when he joined the editorial board of Scapegoat, a journal of architecture, landscape architecture, and political economy. "Working for these clients got me thinking about the world of ideas in graphic design," Lee says. "I started wondering, what are people thinking about? What are the issues?"

He enrolled at the Sandberg Institute, a graduate school in the Netherlands. His master's thesis was a treatise on alternative currencies as a genre of graphic design. Today, he continues to study the design of official documents, like currencies and passports. "In spite of their banality, these genres of form are probably the most consequential types of design artifacts that we engage with," he says.

Memory Bank, a work created by Lee for an exhibition at El Museo, a gallery in Buffalo.

Lee graduated in 2010 and then spent two more years in the Netherlands, teaching and freelancing. Upon his return to Canada, he started teaching as a sessional instructor at OCAD U, worked for a while as a designer for Bruce Mau, and then landed his first full-time academic appointment at SUNY Buffalo. He was an assistant professor there until 2019, when he made the move to Pratt.

He hopes to use his designs for the Daniels Faculty's talks series as part of his teaching at Pratt. "The play with elemental two-dimensional forms is of interest to me from a pedagogical perspective," he says. "I think of it as a way for me to generate examples that I can show my students of how one can construct a visual syntax by the way one arranges elements. A circle isn't big until you put something smaller next to it."

Elder Whabagoon.

The Daniels Faculty is pleased to announce that it has appointed Elder Whabagoon, an Ojibway elder, as the inaugural First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. Whabagoon will work with interim dean Robert Wright — and his successor, Dean Juan Du — to evaluate the Faculty's curriculum and programs through an Indigenous lens.

"First Nations peoples have always been the stewards of Canada's lands,” says interim dean Robert Wright. “As a Faculty, we have much to learn from the First Peoples. We need to acknowledge and honour the history, protocols, and knowledge systems of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. Our programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, visual studies, and forestry have the responsibility to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. I'm honoured that Elder Whabagoon has agreed to guide us through that process. This new appointment is an important step in walking this path.”

Born in Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Whabagoon is a member of the Lac Seul First Nation and she sits with the Loon Clan. Her mother was a residential school survivor, and her grandmother was a medicine woman with Sapay and Petawayway lineage. Whabagoon is a Sixties Scoop survivor. She is a Keeper of Sacred Pipes, a speaker, artist, active community member, land defender, and water protector.

Whabagoon intends to advocate for more Indigenous content within the Daniels Faculty curriculum, advise on respectful engagement with Indigenous people and communities, consider ways to introduce Indigenous languages, imagine the visual presence of Indigenous cultures in the Daniels Building, support a greater awareness and sensitivity towards Indigenous students, and clear the path for the next generation.

Since 2018, Whabagoon has been a co-leader of Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag, an Access Program for Indigenous youth at the University of Toronto. Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag is a culturally grounded, land-based mentorship program and pathway to post-secondary education that responds to Call 26 of U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Report. “Our youth need to connect with the teachings of the land,” says Elder Whabagoon. “The program strengthens their cultural identity, gives a platform for their voice on environmental issues, and guides them to envision their role as future caretakers of Mother Earth.” In her advisory role, Whabagoon will continue to support the program.

Whabagoon was honored at the High Table at Massey College for her community leadership role. She was invited to present on Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag at the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects 2019 Annual Congress, which was dedicated to Reconciliation. That same year, Whabagoon took Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag home to participants in the Elder and Youth Conference in Lac Seul. She was also a part of U of T Engineering’s Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) delegation that presented to 15 northern communities at the at the Sioux Lookout Innovation Station Conference.

Whabagoon is active in the Toronto Indigenous community. She is involved with many Indigenous organizations across Toronto, including the Native Canadian Centre Toronto, Native Earth Performing Arts, and the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. She loves the arts, and is a peer assessor on the Indigenous Arts Grants Panel with the Toronto Arts Council and an advisory member of the StART Partnership Program, a City of Toronto program that funds large-scale street and graffiti art projects.

“I am grateful and feel honoured to accept this position and look forward to building new relations with faculty, students, and staff at Daniels and the University of Toronto,” Whabagoon says. She looks forward to guiding the Reconciliation path together in a good way.

The Daniels Building is now a canvas for a giant-sized mural that serves as a call to action for dismantling systemic racism in the discipline of design.

The temporary installation, which spells out the words "Support Black Designers" in large letters, now occupies the wall of windows on the building's north facade. The words are visible to anyone travelling south of Willcocks Street on Spadina Avenue, one of downtown Toronto's busiest traffic arteries.

The mural project was a community effort by the Daniels Art Directive, a student-run art group. The design is the work of two Daniels Faculty alumni, Ashita Parekh and Tolu Alabi.

Each letter is made up of "pixels" — individual poster-sized pages, some of which are decorated with artwork submitted by designers in response to a call for pixel designs over the summer. The mural's creators received 84 pixel submissions, but decided to include only the ones that were created by Black designers — which turned out to be about 20 per cent of the total.

"The original call was open to everyone," Parekh says. "But after consultation with faculty members and students at Daniels who are Black, we realized that it was not right to give this platform to people who were non-Black. The Black creatives could not be a minority."

The mural is intended as a call to improve diversity and inclusivity in the design disciplines, where Black creatives have historically been underrepresented. "There need to be opportunities for students and designers to understand the benefits that Black people have provided within the design industry," Alabi says. "And for them to understand that Black people have always been essential to the design industry."

The Daniels Faculty has committed to creating a culture of inclusion. "It is important to understand how vital the input and work of our students has been in helping us understand issues around systemic racism in our institutions and professions," says interim dean Robert Wright. "We are learning every day from students, designers, and artists who are educating and transforming this faculty. The 'Support Black Designers' mural is a great demonstration of how the Daniels Faculty can do better."

"These words have power, but they must be followed by action," Wright adds. "I'm glad to share that we are now in the final stages of hiring our first-ever director of equity, diversity, and inclusion. This position will have a mandate to advance our equity goals. In addition to that, we're continuing to work with faculty, staff, and students on efforts to decolonize our curriculum."

“We are honoured to support this message, and the Black creatives who contributed,” says Michelle Ng, a founder of the Daniels Art Directive. “We were pleased when Tolu and Ashita’s design won the community vote, as it is crucial that we — as students and members of society — listen to and amplify Black voices in design. Through community consultation on this project, we learned and unlearned our own biases. While this mural is temporary, we hope to continue creating, sharing and supporting more platforms for Black voices in order to inspire change in design.”

To view the mural in person, visit the north side of Spadina Crescent. The best viewing angle is directly behind the Daniels Building, on the sidewalk. (Visitors are advised not to stand in the street.)

The mural was created with the assistance of lead sponsor Vistaprint.

For more information on the mural project, or for a closer look at the pixel art, visit the Support Black Designers website.

Photograph by Guershom Kitsa.

Photo courtesy of Mariah Meawasige.

If you've been paying attention to the Daniels Faculty's calendar of online events, you've probably noticed them: the purple-and-orange, grid-like illustrations at the tops of listings for events in the Faculty's fall lecture series. This colourful, geometric visual identity is the work of a local designer, Mariah Meawasige.

Meawasige is a 2019 graduate from the Ontario College of Art and Design University, where she majored in graphic design and minored in Indigenous visual culture. She has Anishinaabe heritage and is a member of the Serpent River First Nation. "I grew up between two communities: Serpent River and Elliot Lake, Ontario," she says. "That has informed my work a lot. My Indigenous community has been critical to me throughout my whole life."

Her professional design work has included a number of projects for Indigenous organizations. In 2019, she designed a logo for the Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge, a Toronto-based organization that promotes conversation about Indigenous art and culture. "The logo takes inspiration from topography, star mapping, transmotion, and particularly the Kinomaage-Waapkong (teaching rocks) in Peterborough," Meawasige writes on her website.

Meawasige's design for the Sovereign Bodies Institute logo.

Another logo design, for the Sovereign Bodies Institute, draws on themes of nationhood, bodies, and the self to visually represent the institute's research on sexual violence against Indigenous people. And Meawasige is currently at work on illustrations for a publication by Niizh Manidook, a group that teaches Indigenous youth how to tan animal hides.

Her designs for the Daniels Faculty's fall lecture series take inspiration from the COVID-19 pandemic's common denominator: the necessity of experiencing the world through a computer screen. "The design was meant to be a little tongue-in-cheek in the sense that it looks like a grid of pixels," Meawasige says. "I wanted it to encourage dialogue about the ways virtual learning has the potential to be so much more than just those squares. What does it mean to share space virtually? To share ideas virtually? How will our voices, symbolism, and body languages contort to fit into pixelated boxes?"

Meawasige's poster for Teresa Galí-Izard's lecture.

After settling on the pixel grid as a concept, Meawiasige researched each of the invited speakers. Then, using the results of that research, she designed a customized pixel grid for each speaker.

For instance, for Teresa Galí-Izard, a landscape architect with a background in agricultural engineering, Meawasige created pixel art that resembles a plant sprouting from the ground. "It's a mirrored image of a basic plant structure, to show how Galí-Izard pulls the worlds of environmental systems and architecture into her work," Meawasige says.

Meawiasige's poster for Sergio Lopez-Pineiro's lecture.

For Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, whose lecture is titled "A Glossary of Urban Voids," Meawiasige took a different tack. His grid is entirely empty — in other words, a void. "He had some really interesting commentary in his work on the idea of blank architecture," Meawiasige says. "And so we chose a design that's just blank. It's not all that interesting to look at, but at the same time, it is interesting. Because there's boundless potential."

Here are a few more examples of Meawiasige's work for the lecture series, each with its own unique pixel arrangement:

Meawiasige's poster for Kelly Doran's lecture.

Meawiasige's poster for Sheila Boudreau's lecture.

Meawiasige's poster for Elisa Silva's lecture.

Look for more of Meawiasige's work in the Daniels Faculty's fall event listings.