"I had visited Paris before, but cycling to class and through different neighborhoods gave me a daily view of the city I had missed as a visitor."
The Global Learning Scholarship made it possible for me to join Columbia’s Summer in Paris: English Track. Going to Paris meant spending less time on summer research and giving up part of my research income, so without GLS support I would have hesitated to go. I had visited Paris before, but cycling to class and through different neighborhoods gave me a daily view of the city I had missed as a visitor.
For the course, I built an interactive project in which visitors reviewed an incomplete fictional asylum file and wrote a recommendation. I had selected the documents they could see and the questions the form would ask. The project made me examine how my own design choices could shape the judgment I was asking them to make.
During an intense heat wave, my dorm had no air conditioning or fan and stayed hot long after midnight. I started thinking about whether sunlight could supply the energy needed to cool a room. That interest led to conversations with Professor Dobie about the history of solar energy in France and North Africa. We kept talking after the program and are now developing it into a research project.
In Music Humanities with Professor Magdalena Stern-Baczewska, I learned to listen for musical form and to hear how performers can make the same score sound different. In our conversations about music and AI, I began to connect a musician’s freedom within a score to the choices people have when using an interactive system.
For my final project, I created A Score for Shadows. The idea grew partly from watching Professor Magdalena Stern-Baczewska perform and feeling that even her shadow onstage was performing. Breathing toward the projected scene made its leaves rustle, while hand movements changed the sound. I had to decide what to fix in code and what to leave to the performer and the surrounding space. I also discussed the work with artists, curators, and faculty.
Outside class, I reconnected with friends I had met earlier in Europe. A curator friend took me to exhibition openings across the city, while others showed me parts of Paris that belonged to ordinary life rather than a visitor’s itinerary. Cycling gave me the freedom to move between those spaces and talk with people I would not have met otherwise. During one meal, I met the French magician Jean-Luc Bertrand and his family. When he learned that I study computer science and cognitive science, he began explaining how he thinks about perception and illusion. We have stayed in touch and plan to continue exchanging ideas. That friendship gave me a sense of belonging I had missed on earlier visits. It mattered to me as much as my classes did.
I also made a short documentary, Crossings, as another way of remembering the summer. It brings
together classes, field trips, friendships, and small everyday moments through which Paris gradually
became familiar to me.
