In the first of this two-part conversation for CAA Conversations, multidisciplinary artists Lindeadeluz, aka Darleen Martinez, and Edgar Fabián Frías examine the intersections of pedagogy, performance, and institutional power. Drawing from their experiences as educators, artists, and cultural workers, they reflect on how institutions shape bodies, knowledge production, and lived experience; often through mechanisms of trauma, exclusion, and legitimacy. The discussion considers the performative dimensions of teaching and scholarship, particularly within digital and interdisciplinary practices that remain marginalized in traditional academic and museum contexts. Martinez and Frías explore questions of accessibility, representation, and cultural stewardship, emphasizing that inclusion alone is insufficient without structural transformation. Through examples of performative and speculative art practices, they highlight strategies for reclaiming space, redistributing authority, and imagining institutions as evolving sites of possibility. Together, they propose speculative frameworks that challenge inherited hierarchies while opening pathways for more accountable, embodied, and future-oriented forms of learning and engagement.