Strangers Need Strange Moments Together

Melissa Mongiat and Mouna Andraos

What happens when strangers step outside their routines into unexpected moments of joy and connection? Strangers Need Strange Moments Together is a podcast by art and design studio Daily tous les jours, and the name of our recently published book, documenting our 15 years of experience designing public interactive artworks. Hosted by co-founders Melissa Mongiat and Mouna Andraos, the podcast dives into the playful, poetic, and often surprising ways we can connect with one another in the built environment. Through conversations with leading voices in design, art, urbanism, and architecture, each episode uncovers how creative gestures, big and small, can re-enchant our cities and invite us to imagine a future we can look forward to. Guests include Jason Bruges and Ilana Altman. Whether you're a designer, urbanist, artist, or someone craving a deeper connection with your community, this podcast offers a new lens on how we live together.

Episodes

  1. The City as a Canvas

    5D AGO

    The City as a Canvas

    How do you build a city that makes people feel like they belong?  In this episode of Strangers Need Strange Moments Together, Mouna and Melissa sit down with Ilana Altman, CEO of The Bentway, an ambitious public space and civic organization transforming the land beneath Toronto's Gardiner Expressway into a laboratory for urban life.  They dig into The Bentway’s landmark research into loneliness and the city, and how public programming and design for public space belong in conversations about public health. From a life-size domino trail snaking two and a half kilometres across the city of Toronto, to a post-pandemic season at The Bentway that reimagined play for adults, this episode is about what happens when the potential of existing city infrastructure is harnessed to build community in unexpected ways, and turn people into active participants in their public spaces.  Topics covered:  Urban loneliness, public health and public space, interactive art, participatory design, play in cities, collective memory, civic programming, community resilience, infrastructure and urban transformation.  Find out more about The Bentway: https://thebentway.ca/  Walk Walk Dance, our artwork presented at the Bentway in 2021: https://www.dailytouslesjours.com/en/work/walk-walk-dance  Buy Strangers Need Strange Moments Together, the book: https://www.setmargins.press/books/strangers-need-strange-moments-together/  Find Daily tous les jours online:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailytlj LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dailytouslesjours  Website: https://www.dailytouslesjours.com/en

    41 min

About

What happens when strangers step outside their routines into unexpected moments of joy and connection? Strangers Need Strange Moments Together is a podcast by art and design studio Daily tous les jours, and the name of our recently published book, documenting our 15 years of experience designing public interactive artworks. Hosted by co-founders Melissa Mongiat and Mouna Andraos, the podcast dives into the playful, poetic, and often surprising ways we can connect with one another in the built environment. Through conversations with leading voices in design, art, urbanism, and architecture, each episode uncovers how creative gestures, big and small, can re-enchant our cities and invite us to imagine a future we can look forward to. Guests include Jason Bruges and Ilana Altman. Whether you're a designer, urbanist, artist, or someone craving a deeper connection with your community, this podcast offers a new lens on how we live together.