Stanford d.school party rocks with student art and design futures

Stanford d.school hosted their first Satellite Session of the year — the first of several “parties with a purpose” — on Friday. 

The theme of the evening was sex, drugs and rock ’n roll — all three of which were woven into each section of programming.

One speaker introduced her design project with a question for deeper reflection: “What is a drug?” Another listed all the entities that have sued her for her work on “sex, gender and bottom surgeries” — each lawsuit listed was met with cheers and applause from the audience.

“I came to this because my professor mentioned the event in DESIGN 1,” Minerva Pineda ’27 said. “I also saw the FashionX video and I was like, ‘I love this.’” 

The promotional video recapped a previous d.school and FashionX event, complete with footage from student performances and design sessions. Satellite Sessions are events meant to allow students to explore the future of design through music and art.

“The video really caught my attention. It all looked really cool, and I’m loving the environment here,” Esperanza Collazo ’27 said.

The d.school was dressed up for the occasion — complete with dynamic purple lighting, artistic prints scattered across tables, artmaking supplies, design activities, free food and an open bar for attendees who were 21+. 

“Shoutout to whoever did the lights, they set the vibe perfectly,” Sawyer Niehaus ’25 said.

Following the introduction was a screening of “Gang Sweet Gang,” a mockumentary-style short film created by students as part of Stanford Arts Intensive. The screening was sandwiched by two comedy skit performances from the student sketch comedy group Robber Barons. 

“Before this, I’d never been to a Stanford event that is both a showcase and an entertainment event,” Niehaus said. “Usually it is one or the other.”

The d.school’s sex, drugs and rock ’n roll event was a mix of both, designed with student groups and party attendees in mind.

The event also partnered with Stanford Improvisers (Simps) and experts from the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, as participants and hosts, respectively, of the “Pickle Jar experiment.” Based on the idiom of being “in a pickle,” the project prompted the Simps with ethical dilemmas for improv performances to be evaluated by the ethics scholars. On theme with the night, the dilemmas were all about sex, drugs and rock music.

Throughout the evening, attendees could submit ideas for d.school elective courses, with the goal of collecting over 100 course ideas of the theme of sex, drugs and/or rock ’n roll. Announcer Seamus Yu Harte, the head of learning experience design at the d.school, aimed to emphasize designing for the human experience “in a world where robots already participate in all those activities,” he said.

During the informal intermission, students socializes, submitted course ideas and looked at various programs and activities the d.school was promoting. The venue and organization were conducive to making new connections, with open seating, engaging activities and the shared experience of watching student performances. Attendees were also able to bring along old friends and meet folks connected in various ways to the d.school.

The event was a sensory experience — complete with pleasing visuals, constant music and bits of comedy for the audience’s sense of humor.

To close out, student band Peach Fuzz performed covers of several popular indie songs, and opened for the next student band The Move. The performances fulfilled the evening’s final promise of rock ’n roll.

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