ABOUT

1004.seb@gmail.com / Insta / Are.na

Primary Roles
Associate Director at JSA / MIXdesign
Core Organizer, Board Director Emeritus at Friends of Gadsden Creek
Project Lead, Vibrant Hawai’i

Secondary Roles
Summer Counselor at Harbor Camps
Member of Hawai’i Island Youth Arts Coalition
Founding Member of Kona Queer Artist Collective

Former Roles
Board Director at Hawaii-Fi
Core Team at KoLab
Member of Activation Cooperative Fund

Bio
Seb Choe 최 (they) is a spatial activist, educator and musician based in Kailua Kona and New York, working to revive, create and sustain sanctuaries for marginalized adults and teens. They are currently focused on land rights, housing justice, and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. 

Choe is Associate Director at JSA/MIXdesign, an architecture firm specializing in inclusive design and accessibility, where they lead projects, research, and advocacy that reimagine everyday spaces like restrooms and art museums.

Choe is a core organizer with Friends of Gadsden Creek, a grassroots environmental justice campaign in Charleston, South Carolina, working to save a tidal creek from destruction and demand reparations for its neighboring Black community.

Choe has worked as an educator in architecture, creative media, and political education with organizations like Carolina Youth Action Project, Donkey Mill Art Center, Kent State University, Mohawk Valley Collective, Rave Salon, and Rikers Island Education Program. Choe performs and releases music under the name Broken Spear. Choe holds a B.A in Architecture (Magna Cum Laude with honors) from Columbia University. 

NEWS

current

• r&d on ʻāina justice
• leading ‘oaka artist fellowship

recent

• aug 2024    quicksand (single)
• aug 2024    harbor camps
  
• july 2024    bloomscroll
• july 2024    east hawaii cultural center camp
  
• july 2024    making inclusive museums now
• july 2024    donkey mill summer art experience
  
• jan 2024     making the inclusive museum
  
• nov 2023    panel at u buffalo
• nov 2023    sebseonbi (seoul)

WRITING

“Activation Cooperative Fund: a model to distribute mutual aid“
loomio, 2025

“making inclusive museums now”
architectural league, 2024

“pc music tribute”
seb choe, 2024

“report: central atrium for all”
queens museum, 2023

“rainbow in the fog”
out in architecture, 2023

“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

“seb choe”
jessamine (vol. 1), 2024

“JSA/MIXdesign share its work for the Queens Museum and champion participatory design processes”
the architects newspaper, 2024

“politics!!! w/ seb choe“
local cinema online, 2024

“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

“all-access art”
Urban Omnibus, 2024

“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

“making the inclusive museum“
Architectural League, 2024

“a conversation on gender diversity and space“
University at Buffalo, 2023

“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

“Manifesting Mutualism: Cooperative Land Projects” 
Woodbine and Symbiosis, 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”
College of Architecture & Environmental Design, Kent State University, Fall 2022

GUEST LECTURES / JURIES

Pratt Institute, 2024
KPF, 2024
Barnard + Columbia Architecture, 2024
UH Mānoa, Doctoral Thesis Committee, 2023-24
Kent State University, 2023
Columbia GSAPP, 2022
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 2022
Taubman at University of Michigan, 2022
University of Pennsylvania, 2022
Pratt Institute, 2021
Kent State University, 2021
Columbia GSAPP x CCNY, 2021
2x4, 2020

EXHIBITIONS

stalled! at “designing peace”
Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, 2022

“tidal futures: friends of gadsden creek”
Redux Contemporary Art Center, 2021

“your restroom is a battleground”
Venice Biennale, 2021

"co-:space to share"
Barnard Columbia Department of Architecture, 2018

“CSArtists photo exhibition”
CSArtists, 2017

"new year show: architecture
Spectator, 2017

FEATURES / AWARDS

2022-26 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"
first place, non-fiction award
Samuel Eells Literary Foundation, 2014