Deconstruct: Designing Beyond Border Imaginary
Berkeley Center for New Media • Spring 2018
Background
Born out of Berkeley Center for New Media and featured in Made At Berkeley 2018 Publication, Project Deconstruct is situated within the messages of social movement actors and communities that call for the abolition of the U.S. Mexico border wall during a politically contentious time. Our provocation argues that the language, ideologies, and discourses used to promote border walls create barriers in our understanding of other communities.
Role
Concept Generation
- Whiteboarding
- Dot voting
Product Design
- Colors & Materials
- Concept sketches
- Prototype & Fabrication
- Laser cutting
- Painting
User Testing (Public Engagement)
Documentation
Problem Statement
In consideration of the U.S. Mexico Border wall, we started from, "how do we create a protest object?" as our class prompt to "how do we create an interactive prototype that compels people to acknowledge and look beyond their own biases?"
Prototype
The wall exterior is inscribed with common stereotypes and xenophobic myths regarding U.S. immigrants. Inside each brick are inscribed statistics, graphics, and facts with citations that disprove the corresponding stereotypes.
Concept Generation & Interaction
To break down the wall, simply turn over each brick to its adjacent side and uncover the truths behind these common myths. This interaction allows you to take part in the physical experience of deconstructing the brick wall.
As part of our ideation sessions, we kept in mind several important elements that we wanted to incorporate into our provocation. We didn't want this to simply be an art piece that looked good. We wanted our provocation to elicit an interactive, engaging, and transformative experience that will provoke individuals to think and feel deeply about controversial issues that aren't always so easily discussed. The goal was to make this a talking piece for new and open dialogues, not to impose one's political stance on others.
Public Engagement (User Testing)
We were curious to see the public reaction so we took our wall to the streets of Berkeley. We hoped our project can spark conversations surrounding important and relevant issues that affect members within our very own community.
Some responses we received . . .
"I come from an immigrant family so those messages really stood out to me
I really like the idea that you can literally be part of taking down the wall, piece by piece. "
- Noura, a phd student at UC Berkeley
"What does it mean to reach humanization and take ownership of your own liberation?
. . . we're always so subdivided."
- - Architecture Graduate Student, CED
