Tie Down Discrimination
The nature of the project, Tie Down Discrimination, was to develop an interactive site specific installation investigating discrimination and interconnectivity. This experiment was designed to connect strangers through their prior experiences with discrimination. The interactive installation allowed participants to visually show how they have been discriminated against along with an opportunity to verbally share their experiences. Graphics were created to promote and engage participants in the experiment. The graphics created included a flyer, banner, email blast, and Facebook event page. The entire experiment was recorded and created into a video that documents the entire interactive installation.
Collective Equality
Collective Equality explores equality among all people and the idea of everyone being connected. Interactive graphics were created to gain awareness to social issues of equality and demonstrate how everyone is connected regardless of their background and/or situation. The final pieces are displayed in a public urban space within the Orange Mound community in Memphis, TN. The outcome will hopefully result in a change in the viewer by raising their awareness to equality. Collective Equality will combine public art with activism and introspective to improve the community and community members.
Anonymous
Anonymous is a public interactive installation that was created in the Fall of 2013 that allowed participants to share their thoughts on discrimination through social design. This was an experiment about the effects of discrimination on the Memphis and surrounding communities. Anonymous was created on the assumption that many individuals have been discriminatory at some point in their lives, knowingly or not. I wanted to investigate what responses would be collected if participants had the opportunity to anonymously share their thoughts about a group of individuals different from themselves.
Participants entered the booth where they could privately and anonymously share their thoughts. Inside and outside vinyl wall graphics were created and displayed on 4’ x 6.5’ MDF boards to create the structure. The inside wall graphics prompted participants by displaying various races, social classes, religions, and other demographics. The participants were instructed to write their thoughts on male and female undershirts. The purpose of the undershirts was to tie into the idea of labeling others on a hidden layer since many of the responses would not have been shared if the project did not allow the participant to share anonymously. An enclosed submission box was installed inside of the booth to further the anonymous aspect.
I installed the booth at three different locations: (1) Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, TN; (2) Orange Mound in Memphis, Tennessee; and (3) Johnson Park in Collierville, TN. The locations were chosen on availability and the intention to gain responses from participants with different backgrounds. The responses collected were overwhelming negative and mainly consisted of racial slurs.
Once all of the responses were collected, the garments were displayed on clothes lines in Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, TN. People passing by the clothes lines were interviewed about their initial thoughts of the words being displayed. Then I created a video to document the public’s reaction. #Anonymous
Participants entered the booth where they could privately and anonymously share their thoughts. Inside and outside vinyl wall graphics were created and displayed on 4’ x 6.5’ MDF boards to create the structure. The inside wall graphics prompted participants by displaying various races, social classes, religions, and other demographics. The participants were instructed to write their thoughts on male and female undershirts. The purpose of the undershirts was to tie into the idea of labeling others on a hidden layer since many of the responses would not have been shared if the project did not allow the participant to share anonymously. An enclosed submission box was installed inside of the booth to further the anonymous aspect.
I installed the booth at three different locations: (1) Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, TN; (2) Orange Mound in Memphis, Tennessee; and (3) Johnson Park in Collierville, TN. The locations were chosen on availability and the intention to gain responses from participants with different backgrounds. The responses collected were overwhelming negative and mainly consisted of racial slurs.
Once all of the responses were collected, the garments were displayed on clothes lines in Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, TN. People passing by the clothes lines were interviewed about their initial thoughts of the words being displayed. Then I created a video to document the public’s reaction. #Anonymous
Investigating Racial Differences
Investigating Racial Differences is a public interactive installation that was created in the Spring of 2014 as a continuation of my research from Anonymous. Since many of the responses from Anonymous dealt with race, I decided it would be beneficial to explore this aspect further. This installation investigations racial differences through demographic questions, audio recordings, and photographs that were all collected on a local network based website.
A collapsable tent was created to allow participants a private space to answer various questions. Outside graphics were designed showing intersecting lines of different skin tones with red lines running though the design. The red symbolizes the blood connection everyone has, regardless of race. Inside of the tent a chair and table containing a release form and laptop that participants used to answer various questions was displayed.
A local network based website was created that was designed to be easily used by the participant. The step-by-step website consisted of the following:
Once all of the responses were collected a video was created to document all of the information gathered. #InvestigatingRacialDifferences
A collapsable tent was created to allow participants a private space to answer various questions. Outside graphics were designed showing intersecting lines of different skin tones with red lines running though the design. The red symbolizes the blood connection everyone has, regardless of race. Inside of the tent a chair and table containing a release form and laptop that participants used to answer various questions was displayed.
A local network based website was created that was designed to be easily used by the participant. The step-by-step website consisted of the following:
- A multiple choice form to gather details of the participants’ demographics
- An audio recording page that allowed participants to record their response to the following question: Do you ever feel stereotyped by other because of your race?
- A photo page that allowed participants to take a picture of their written response to the following question: How are you breaking the mold of stereotypes for your race?
Once all of the responses were collected a video was created to document all of the information gathered. #InvestigatingRacialDifferences
clearing(a)way
Clearing(a)way is a typographic projection-based installation that showcases the derogatory thoughts of Memphis and the surrounding areas’ community members in a bold visual statement that elicits immediate reactions from the viewers. This project is heavily based on research from two previous public interactive installations, Anonymous and Investigating Racial Differences. Clearing(a)way consists of the typographic projection based installation, a social media aspect, and an overview design brief.