Three Questions with Christina Moushoul

Architecture & Urban Design Student Christina Moushoul incorporates her love of opera into her work

April 12, 2018

During her time at UCLA, Christina Moushoul has accomplished things she never imagined would be part of her college experience. She found ways to design a unique educational experience that combined her interests across a variety of disciplines, which led to a job working for media artist Refik Anadol (M.F.A. '14, Department of Design Media Arts) on his ongoing collaboration with the LA Phil. Through producing major events with professional artists and working late into the night on demanding projects alongside her peers in the architecture studios, Christina developed the passion, confidence, and drive to take on the challenges facing artists and architects today.

How do you feel about studying in a large public research university?

Growing up, I went to a fairly small school, and I was warned against going to a large university because it's such a dramatic shift for many people, but I actually found the transition to be amazing. I've had so many opportunities that came from the fact that it's a large institution. I had no problem with the large lecture sizes and once I was accepted into the architecture program during my junior year, all my classes have been around 20 people, so I’ve gotten to know the faculty well.

I’ve also taken advantage of resources that may not be available at smaller schools. I have had the opportunity to be on the Student Committee for the Arts (SCA) through UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance for three years and serve as it's co-director for two years, which has totally altered both my college experience and my life path. I've had some really great opportunities to do things that students and other people my age don’t typically get to do. I think those opportunities are directly related to the prominence and the size of this institution.

In the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, and across the UCLA campus, you have the opportunity to engage with students and curriculum in a huge variety of disciplines. How has it led you down paths that you didn’t expect?

Ever since I was little, I’ve had a bit of an obsession with opera music—which wasn't something imposed upon me by my parents, they never played it in the house—it was just something within me. At one of my first SCA meetings, they emphasized that each member could plan any event that they wanted. They encouraged us not to feel like we needed to cater to what we thought the student body most wanted, but instead do something that we were most passionate about. So I started doing some research on the LA Opera website, and by April of my first year on SCA, I planned a recital with the LA Opera. It was by far one of the most amazing experiences of college and of my life. I remember introducing them on stage and then going off into the wings and just sobbing out of pure joy and pride. I never thought I'd be doing something like that in college. I remember at one point, they sang a duet from “La Boheme” where they sing from the wings. They came off stage and were right next to me, belting out the song, and I couldn’t believe I got to have that experience.

Around the same time I was taking a class with Refik Anadol, and for his class we made an immersive video installation in the Broad Art Center. I set my piece to an opera aria, and was inspired to try to create a live opera experience with an immersive video installation. I really like the way that the immersive visuals can be as arresting, as emotionally enveloping as opera music, and the two can work together to create a highly emotional experience for the viewer. I also loved the idea of relating opera to contemporary technology and art forms. Nowadays, many people assume that it's an outdated type of performance art, but historically, opera always been associated with the most cutting edge technology of the time, and often technologies were developed specifically for use in the opera house.

Finally during my senior year, I have been able to figure out how to secure space and funding, and put it all together for a project I am very excited about that combines all of my passions. On April 19, it will be presented in the Royce Hall rehearsal room. I rented three projectors, three screens, created an immersive installation, developed the animations, and then there will be two singers from the LA opera performing live. Presenting a project I've been trying to see to fruition since my sophomore year that brings together a bit of everything that I study—design, architecture, and my Italian minor—is an incredible way to finish my time here at UCLA.

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What inspired you to pursue an education in Architecture and Urban Design?

After developing an interest in architecture through summer courses in the Departments of Design Media Arts and Architecture and Urban Design, I began reaching out to students and faculty in A.UD to learn more about the program. A Ph.D. student told me that this program is so challenging it will change you as a person. I was really kind of excited by that idea, and I really wanted to find something that would push me and help me to grow as much as I could in these few years that I have here.

Each quarter, my understanding of architecture changes and it's absolutely not what I thought it was when I came in, and I know by June it will be different yet again. It's inspiring to work in a field that's dynamic in that way, because you feel like you are constantly contributing to the discourse and helping to further the discipline. That's really exciting. In a way, you have to have that sort of excitement in order to do this work, because at 4 a.m., when you really want to go home, if you're not really passionate about your work it's hard to get through. I think most of us in the studio share that passion, it's really great to be around people who are so enthusiastic about what they're doing and having fun even though the sun may be rising.

I also appreciate that in this program, there is less emphasis on what’s technical or practical. It puts our intellectual exploration and curiosity at the forefront, and we're not held back by certain practical concerns. As important as those concerns one day will become, it is nice to have this time to experiment, and be creative, and to push our thinking as much as we can before we have to go in the real world and think about the more practical constraints.

In architecture there's always more to learn and always more to do, and that's what keeps me motivated. Even after a building is built, an architect wouldn't say that that project is completed and solved. That goes for our studio courses as well. We can always keep thinking about our projects, and we're expected to keep developing them even after the academic term ends. The more time and effort you put into it, the better it will be, so there's no limit. You see how far can you push yourself, how far can you push a project and that’s what keeps you going, what literally keeps you up at night.

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