Dave Pabellon
Assistant Professor
University of Notre Dame
From the Authors:
This book is a transcript, a conversation, a guide, an example, a reference, an archive, and hopefully many more things to many people. It takes, as a point of departure, the transcript of a lecture by the five of us (Bz Zhang, Lisa C. Henry, Shalini Agrawal, Shawhin Roudbari, and Tonia Sing Chi), members of the collective Dark Matter U, given in September 2022 at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design, at the invitation of Berkeley architecture students. Following the lecture, we hosted a workshop where we applied frameworks that addressed power structures and issues identified by students from both Berkeley and the California College of the Arts. After these events, we held two virtual panels with DMU organizers from across the country in dialogue with Master of Architecture students.
The original lecture represents both our individual perspectives as five members of DMU as well as the collective work and insights of hundreds of built environment practitioners, scholars, students, and organizers. The text incorporates perspectives from additional DMU collective members who were not present in the lecture hall. Here we expand on the lecture with additional references, build on it through a series of exercises to support activism and reflection, and experiment with the book as a medium—in both form and content—for challenging patterns of supremacy. We invite you to join us in the margins and take space across entire pages (and beyond them) in shaping these conversations, and we look forward to imagining and building the futures and worlds we have been dreaming of together.
Supported by:
This book has been generously supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning, and DMU.
Production notes from the designer:
Total Run:
750 copies
Pages:
132
Publishers:
Dark Matter U (DMU) and MAS Context
Printing and Binding:
die Keure, Brugges, Belgium
Ink, Color, and Finishes:
Body: PMS 801 (Fluorescent Blue), PMS 807 (Fluorescent Pink), PMS 877 (Metallic Silver), and Black.
Cover: Coldfoil silver, Black, and All-over Aqueous Lacquer
Size:
5.825 inches x 8.27 inches
ISBN:
978-1-7367436-5-2
Typefaces:
Garamond, designed by Claude Garamond; Balto, designed by Tal Leming; and Martin, designed by Tre Seals
Authors/Collaborators
Shalini Agrawal (she/her) is a facilitator, educator and an interdisciplinary designer based in unceded Ohlone territory, also known as the Bay Area. Her practice is grounded in spatial justice, self-reflection and embodied healing.
Lisa C. Henry is an artist, associate professor, and associate dean of the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah. Her research is focused on how critical gender, race, queer, and disability theory intersect with architectural education, pedagogy, design, production, and activism.
Tonia Sing Chi is an architect, memory worker, and builder based in Oakland on Ohlone land. Her design practice, Peripheral Office, is rooted in reciprocity and shared authorship, weaving together storytelling, place-based building practices, and community organizing. Her projects include Nááts’íilid Initiative and Storytelling Spaces of Solidarity in the Asian Diaspora (SSSAD).
Shawhin Roudbari studies and teaches about ways designers organize to address social problems. He bridges studies of social movements and race with architectural theory. His research contributes to theories/practices of contentious politics around race and design. His work with the DissentXDesign research collective is published in architectural, sociological, and interdisciplinary journals.
Bz Zhang is an architect, organizer, and artist based in Tovaangar (so-called Los Angeles). In their own practice, they use documentation and speculation to unravel physical and cultural constructions of place. As part of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, they work with communities toward environmental justice through design, construction, and stewardship of our public green spaces.
Biography
Dave Pabellon is a design educator, researcher, and practitioner under the moniker It Is Just Dave LLC.
As a practitioner, Pabellon’s studio work primarily consists of identity, publication, and exhibition design, with a focus on partnerships with cultural institutions, contemporary artists, and activist organizations.
As an academic, Pabellon’s research centers on the history and practice of graphic design labor as a means of building solidarity among communities of color and activist spaces. Specifically, he studies how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) designers have worked with and alongside liberation movements in the past, and explores contemporary models. He has lectured and published papers at numerous conferences and summits, as well as in peer-reviewed journals.
Before his appointment at Notre Dame University, Pabellon was a senior designer at the award-winning studios Faust Associates and Celery Design Collaborative.
https://mascontext.com/news/mas-context-launches-its-new-book-challeging-patterns-of-supremacy
This project was the 2025 Design Incubation Educators Awards winning recipient in the category of Scholarship: Creative Works.