Virtual Commencement

こんにちは。まずは近況報告。

今日学校側が計画したヴァーチャル卒業式が開催された。卒業式のスピーチを任されたゲストが脚本家と作家のネールゲイマン。作家なだけあってスピーチが上手かった。彼はサイエンスフィクションの物語を沢山出版しているだけあって、これから今年の卒業生がするべきことの例えとしてサイエンスフィクションを挙げた。

卒業式のウェブサイトが今日の午前十時に公開されました。十時って言われていたので生配信でスピーチをしてくれるのかと思いきやすでに録画されたスピーチ四つと卒業した学生の名前がリストアップされたものだった。じゃあわざわざ朝の十時に起きる必要なかったじゃんって怒るクラスメイトが多数。それを想定していたのか建築学部の教授たちが集まってみんなで Zoom で乾杯して最後に話そうという内容のEメールが届いていた。過去五年間僕ら生徒を躊躇なく叩きのめして来て、中もいい教授もいれば過去５年間怖すぎて顔すら見れない教授も参加していた。教授たちがおめでとうって言った後に生徒側に最後に言いたいことある？って聞いて来て。僕は特になかった。こんな状況で Zoom を通じて教授やみんなの前でスピーチで来る奴なんて学校に気に入られた奴らだけだった。

これこそが僕が建築学部を気に入らなかった理由の一つです。成績やプロジェクトを出版される回数で将来の成功率が決まってくる。なのにこっちの建築学部は数学や計算にあんまり力を入れずアートの方に集中している。そのため結果を残すにはどうしても教授に気に入られる必要があるんです。計算だと合っている答えが限られていますがアートは正解がない。そのため勉強しなくてもゴマスリで結構成功できてしまうんです。過去に日本の建築事務所でインターンシップしていた時に正社員の方にお話を聞いたらあっちではデザイン力と数学両方に同じぐらい力入れるらしいです。

こっちでは正解がない上に、教授が二人いる時もある。となると教授が別の意見を自分に押し付けて意地を張り合ったりする時もある。会社に例えると上司たちがいうことが違いすぎてやることが分からなくなるのと同じです。

最近日本の Youtuber にはまっていて。こっちではもう Youtube が面白かった時期は過ぎてしまったけど日本では今が一番面白くなって来た気がしてます。で、メンタリストのダイゴさんのチャンネルでメンタルが病みやすい特性をリストアップしている動画を見てそれの上位に必ずある条件が自分の目的が分からない職場です。ちなみに他の条件もほぼ全部僕の大学では揃っています。僕もちなみに三年ぐらいはやばいぐらい病んでしまいました。得られるものは大きいけど代償も大きいということです。

それもやっと無事終えることができて迎えた卒業式。ゲストスピーカーがとにかく凄かったんです。

彼のスピーチのだいたいのあらすじをシェアしたいと思います。まず現実に起こっていることに疑問を持つことがサイエンスフィクションの作家になるための最初のステップだと言ってました。”what if” （もし）と “if only”（さえ）の違いについて語っていました。”what if” は現実では起こり得ない事態を想定した時に使う用語で　“if only” は現実の理想版を語っている時に使用する用語だと。この画面越しの卒業式も普通の僕たちからすれば “what if” の話で、それに対し “if only” はこの事態がいち早く回復するシナリオの話。日本に言い変えると “もしいつかあぶないウィルスが地球中に広まって外出禁止になればどうなるんだろう？” と “もしコロナに効くワクチンが二週間で出来あがれば” みたいな理想論。両方とも非現実的なお話をする時に使う用語です。

彼のメッセージは ”もし” アートや想像力を使ってこの世の中を自分の理想の場所にできるのなら。今年卒業した生徒たちがそれを実現化させてみんなが理想とする大人に “さえ” なればこの世の中を今より全然いい場所にできるということだった。

そう言われればやりたいことはいっぱいあるなーってやる気が出た反面できるかなーって不安がこみ上げて来た。今の世の中のシステムとかの大半は正直好きじゃないんです。これもいちいち説明すれば長くなりますのでそのうち機会があれば他のブログに載せます。

もうほんっとやるしかないよね。一応もう大人だし。

キース

Hi!

Updates.

The virtual commencement was held today. Neil Gaiman was our guest speaker. As expected from a renowned author of science fiction novels and TV shows, his speech was very impactful. He compared our goals as future members of society to science fiction.

Before I explain the content of his speech, I wanted to give some context on how this commencement took place. We were told by the school via email that the commencement website would be available starting from 10 AM. It was a website that included four speeches including Neil Gaiman, a video of two students singing the alma mater song and a list of all the students who is graduating. They were very specific with the time, so we were all expecting a live broadcast of the speeches. I remember some of my classmates being underwhelmed, and upset about the fact that they could’ve slept past 10 if it wasn’t for this. The faculty of architecture, perhaps having predicted this, have sent us a Zoom invitation to casually celebrate the occasion, exclusively with the undergraduate architecture community. This included professors I enjoyed, professors who were rumored to be so scary and intimidating that I could never look in the eyes, and other students. After all the faculties congratulated us, they asked if anyone of us would like to say something. I had nothing to say. Not to mention, I was extremely nervous to talk in front of the professors through Zoom. Only those who were either heavily involved in the school affairs or received special honors and were closer to the professors than the rest of us had the courage.

This is one of the flaws of architecture schools. If you think about it, your future success depends on how many times you get published, or how well your grades are. For these to happen, it is a prerequisite that your professors like you. According to one of my supervisors in my previous internship, Japanese architecture schools focus equally on the calculation aspect and the design aspect of the major. Here, it is heavily focused on design. Therefore the assessment of projects become more subjective. This results in favoritism amongst students. There are students who goes along with the whole system and works hard to be loved by professors. On the other hand there are students who fail to do so, either because they failed to grasp this system, or upon having a full understanding of how this whole thing works, they felt strongly against it and became very unmotivated. Unfortunately, I was the later. I didn’t see any benefit in learning how to be liked by professors. Theoretically, students can survive the five-year course just by being liked by professors instead of actually learning skills that are going to be useful in society. If I was aiming for only numbers and grades, I could have just followed the system but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so.

Also, there were cases where there were two or more professors guiding you throughout the semester. Unlucky sections get two professors that think very differently.Two professors who say polar opposite things. In this case, the two professors try to compete against each other in terms of who is giving the students the “best” advice instead of coordinating with each other. Their pride as an architect is on the line. Again, in such a subjective field, how do you even determine which one is "better"? If this was a company, there would be few bosses and all of them would be telling you to give priority to different tasks.

Recently, I have been checking out Japanese Youtubers. America has already gone through the golden age of Youtube. But in Japan Youtube is about to enter the golden age. There is a series of video by the renowned Japanese mentalist, Daigo, where he lists up office conditions that are the most harmful to employee’s mental health. Not knowing what to do in the office because of different bosses giving you different instructions were one of the top conditions. If you’re thinking of going to an architecture school in the states, please be advised that all of the conditions listed by Daigo can be found in architecture schools, therefore make sure that you are 100% passionate about architecture before committing 

I still can’t believe I finished architecture school. I was so glad to hear Neil Gaiman’s speech for commencement. It was such an incredible speech.

He was stating the difference between “what if” and “if only”. The first one is used to describe an unrealistic scenario. “What if there is a pandemic that forces all human interaction to happen only through screen?” This whole event was a “what if” scenario. “If only” is used to describe the ideal scenario where a current problem is fixed. “If only the vaccine is discovered any time soon so that everything goes back to normal”. He then applied these terms to describe what to do with the skills we acquired in school. “What if” we have the power to change the world into a better place and become the kind of adults we see as ideal? “If only” we have enough determination to continue running towards this goal.

This made me realize how much I want to change this world. It is full of irrational systems like the one I saw in school. This is the basis for all injustice that is taking place in this world right now. I was hit by a wave of motivation. But I was overwhelmed upon realizing how much effort it would take to achieve this.

I guess I got no choice but to pull through. No turning back at this point.

Good day / night.

Keith