FUNHOUSE
ABOUT
1004.seb@gmail.com / Instagram / Are.na
Associate Director at JSA / MIXdesign
Organizer and Board Member at Friends of Gadsden Creek
Board Member at Hawaii-Fi
Core Team at KoLab
Member of Activation Cooperative Fund
Founding Member of Kona Queer Artist Collective
Seb Choe (they, b. 1994) is a gender-fluid Korean-American community organizer and musician from Washington State, currently based in New York and Hawai’i.
Choe is Associate Director at JSA/MIXdesign, a New York-based architecture firm, where they oversee MIXdesign, an inclusive design consultancy and think tank. They oversee client-based projects and internal initiatives that reimagine everyday spaces to be accessible and welcoming, including restrooms (see the award-winning Stalled! initiative), art museums, and university campuses.
Choe is an organizer and board member of Friends of Gadsden Creek, a grassroots environmental justice campaign and non-profit in Charleston currently engaged in a lawsuit against a real estate development that threatens to destroy a tidal creek with cultural significance to the neighboring historic Black community.
Choe works at the intersection of activism, architecture, creative media, and popular education with organizations including Carolina Youth Action Project, Kent State University, Kids on Point, Mohawk Valley Collective, Rave Salon and Rikers Island Education Program. Choe has hosted 25+ electronic music workshops with LGBTQ+ teens in Hawai’i, New York, South Carolina, and Washington. Since 2019, they have been conducting R&D for an inclusive teen center and real estate cooperative. Choe performs and releases music under the name Broken Spear. Choe holds a B.A in Architecture (Magna Cum Laude with departmental honors) from Columbia University.
NEWS
currently..
- (aug-sep 2023) development: still life, hawaii-fi, kolab
- (late 2023) essay for ‘out in architecture’ book
- (late 2023) performance dadboyclub (seoul)
recently...
- (july 2023) ‘amplifying waves’ at east hawaii cultural center
- (july 2023) trans camp
- (may 2023) ‘9 profiles: real estate activists’
WRITING
“9 profiles: real estate activists”
do not research, 2023
“carolina youth action project” + “stalled! airport prototype”
queer spaces: an atlas of lgbtq places, 2022
“access in the atrium”
queens museum: year of uncertainty, 2021
“the fight to save gadsden creek and dismantle environmental racism”
avery shorts, 2021
“house of commons”
Pin-Up Magazine, 2020
“love letter to noncompliance”
avery shorts, 2020
"madder movie: film + essay”
Journal of Art Criticism, 2017
“twirl collapse drone hawk”
multimedia poem
co-proyect, 2020
"body whirlpools"
Poems By New Yorkers, 2016
INTERVIEWS
“creating space: an interview with seb choe” Donkey Mill Art Center, 2022
“Pipe Dreams, The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet”
simon & schuster, 2022
“hacking architecture: interview with seb choe”
Representations of Difference, 2021
“rave salon”
armondo, 2020
“how public toilets became a peculiarly british battleground”
Vice UK, 2020
“the power of having a voice”
interview
Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 2020
“seb choe”
Coeval Magazine, 2019
“artist insight: seb choe”
space-ship, 2018
"rikers education program"
interview in book
MAX Journal, SAIC, 2018
"the prince of love, film premiere”
Editorial Magazine, 2015
"neoseeker - my hand, album review + interview”
Rare Candy, 2015
"uda ox"
music interview
Writing in Reverse, 2012
PRESS
“unstalled: inclusive bathroom design”
Architect Mag, 2022
“rethinking architecture and trans spaces”
Bwog, 2021
“poolside - vera mist ft. broken spear”
Extra Chill, 2020
“rave salon”
Charleston City Paper, 2020
“seb choe”
angel.beams, 2020
“how architecture could help us adapt to the pandemic”
the new york times, 2020
“where do we go from here?”
99% invisible, 2020
“charleston pride”
Charleston City Paper, 2019
"truth pieces"
music + video premiere
AQNB, Electric Sound of Joy, 2019
“Stalled!: The Video - AIA Innovation Award”
AIA, 2018
"angel hill, film premiere to 26K fans"
OneTreeHilled, 2017
"silent energy single premiere”
space-ship, 2018
"broken spear - true"
album review
Seattle Weekly, 2016
"beats, rhymes, & justice"
education program
Vice , 2016
"the life that chose she"
short doc. film premiere
GrungeCake, ThatsEnuff, Rare Candy, Slant, 2014
"hiro kone / oteiza"
music video premiere
Dummy Mag, 2014
LECTURES
“designing gender inclusive spaces”
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum, 2023
“artist talk: growing towards inclusion”
Donkey Mill Art Center, 2022
“so you want to build an equitable future? practice innovation through universal + inclusive design“
AIA Young Architects Forum, 2022
“intent to impact: approaches to community-based design”
AIA New York, 2021
“friends of gadsden creek”
Gullah Geechee Environmental & Energy Conference, 2021
“restroom revolution! designing restrooms for everyone”
AIA Utah Annual Conference, 2021
“democratizing the public realm”
urban design forum, next new york series, 2021
"single sex institutions and the racial implications of gendered space"
barnard college, trans / racial architectures series, 2021
“stalled! project with susan stryker”
mills college, trans speaker series, 2020
“annual student program”
architectural league of new york, 2020
“body politics: social equity and inclusive public space”
aia conference, 2020
“body politics: social equity and inclusive public space”
architectural league of new york, 2020
“gender neutral design: restrooms and beyond”
aia chicago, 2020
"on | being read"
visual art in book
Shelf Shelf, 2019
"equity x design: mapping equitable workplaces”
Center for Architecture, Hunter Douglas, 2018
TEACHING
“noncompliance: activist design approaches”, Interior Design, College of Architecture & Environmental Design, Kent State University, Fall 2022
GUEST LECTURES / JURIES
Columbia GSAPP, 2022
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2022
Taubman, University of Michigan, 2022
University of Pennsylvania, 2022
Pratt Institute, 2021
Kent State University, 2021
Columbia GSAPP x CCNY, 2021
2x4, 2020
EXHIBITIONS
“tidal futures: friends of gadsden creek”
Redux Contemporary Art Center, 2021
“your restroom is a battleground”
Venice Biennale, 2021
"co-:space to share"
arch. work in exhibition
Barnard Columbia Department of Architecture, 2018
“CSArtists photo exhibition”
CSArtists, 2017
"new year show: architecture
Spectator, 2017
FEATURED / AWARDS
2022 Grantee for “Grassroots Organizing for a Clean Energy, Forest Positive, Socially Just Future”
Packard Foundation
“Outstanding Artist, 2021 US Water Prize”
US Water Alliance
“CJLC 2017, visual art”
Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism, 2017
“TKTNK 2017, architecture”
TKTNK, 2017
“Seb Choe, architecture”
Ratrock Magazine + Print, 2016
"NERTM meditation walk", video”
NYC Parks, 2015
"montreal: a spatial investigation, short documentary”
Kollectif, 2015
"from monumental to transitory, short film”
Columbia University GSAPP, 2015
"skinship ii, 1st place photo contest”
Adorama, 2015
"corpse exploitation"
research paper award
Samuel Eells Literary Foundation, 2014