DATES May 2017 - May 2018
LOCATION Woodside, Queens, NY
ORGANIZATION New Immigrant Community Empowerment
MENTORSHIP Armando Somoza Dreamyard
PARSONS FACULTY ADVISORS Lara Penin Elliott Montgomery Eduardo Staszowski Patricia Beirne Georgia Traganou SPECIAL THANKS Transdisciplinary Cohort 2018 Transdisciplinary Cohort 2019
TRANSPEDAGOGY IN THE EPHEMERAL DESIGN THINKING THROUGH SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART FOR COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION by ร ngel Lรณpez // alopezdesigns.com // @alopezdesigns
IN MEMORIAM During the culmination of this work, the reality of humanity takes place. I celebrate those who are dear and have passed. Rest in power: To my niece, Alani Lopez Orozco, you are celebrated and cherished everyday. You trully taught our family what it means to be a resilient fighter. To my cousin, Angel “Chaka� Hernandez, the family remembers you for all the good times. The struggles you faced will always remind we can be stonger.
ABSTRACT The following project explores how design thinking through socially engaged art might support the development of community agency for a Jornalero community in Queens, NY that has been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Confronted with impulsive changes to policy in the United States (US), the Jornalero community, also known as “Day Laborers,� have to address their most pressing problems of wage theft, unjust labor practices, and job security. At an exterior level, the Jornalero community exemplifies resiliency and buoyancy as the complexities of transnational polarities confront their humanity as immigrants in the US. Dozens of Jornaleros are active members of a nonprofit agency called, New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), in Queens, NY. The agency provides advocacy that responds to the most pressing Jornalero problems. Through this agency, I was able to practice a transdisciplinary design thesis that offers an engaged learning experience and puts design thinking into practice. With complex issues surrounding the Jornalero community, I utilize the thesis to address how design can support or facilitate a targeted Jornalero community. The initial intention of the thesis project was to introduce a problem-solving process that supports undocumented families. That didn’t happen. Instead, the project evolved into a ten-week pilot program running under the theory that design is postcolonial due to the impacts of systemic designs such as US segregation and mass incarceration. In order to introduce design thinking to the community, I theorized the need to use an unconventional art form called, socially engaged art (SEA), as a way to ground and translate the process. My third theory was the practice of Ubuntu from South African cultures to support the building of community. Through the practice of these theories, the program accomplished an outcome geared towards human liberation, project proposals, and democratization of work.
INTRODUCTION
Above Example of people patiently waiting for job opportunity at a street corner.
Brief Biography of Ángel López
Combing the streets of New York City, I found myself practicing my ethnographic approaches. I stepped into local business and places where people conjugated. I went in during strategic times and spoke to people about nothing in particular. Just made a point to get to know people and empathize with their everyday New York journey. In turn, I also attended events connected to my interests of intersections concerning technology, human welfare, civil rights, and immigration advocacy. After weeks of exploration, on a humid summer morning, I noticed a group of men standing at a street intersection in Woodside, Queens, NY. Public transportation would make the local stop, and none of the men would take it. The group of men continued to wait. From afar I observed their wait with curiosity. I would leave and come back, and the group of men were still there. –-It finally clicked! The group of men were Jornaleros. I was aware the community existed but did not know that there would be a large concentration of people. I knew I had to work with them. Anyone with the amount of grit is in alignment with my values. But that is easier said than done, it was going to be a challenge to gather Jornaleros for a design intervention when their priorities are more pressing than any requests I may offer. Luckily, before engaging any further with the Jornalero community, I was able to make a connection with a local Queens organization, NICE. An organization that works in great detail with the Jornalero community to address wage theft, employment opportunities, and rights of (undocumented) labor workers to name a few initiatives.
Ángel is a first-generation Mexican American who is a practitioner of art and design mediums. His background is in studio art focusing on fine arts and communication design. He has previous experience working with sub marginalized communities and the federal government. His work focuses on areas of service, human-centered approaches, emerging technologies and speculative design. Aspects of his work bring fluidity across disciplines, collaborative approaches, and creative enthusiasm. Most importantly, he co-creates with communities at the forefront of the issue and in spaces where not just one discipline can tackle alone. His process creates a genuine transformative outcome through artifacts, distribution of knowledge, publication of knowledge, community agency, replication of models, or storytelling. The design of his work is to activate social change.
What is a “Jornalero?” The Spanish language word is translated as “Day Laborer.” Characteristics of the community identity is an undocumented adult immigrant living on day-to-day income. Each NY borough has a group of Jornaleros seeking employment at street corner intersections. According to primary and secondary research findings, members from the Jornalero community often make as low as $450/month working in New York. The Jornaleros exist throughout the US, but the project study focuses on the Corona/Elmhurst neighborhood in Queens, NY. A location with the largest immigrant population, and Hispanics accounting for 54%, according to NYC Planning. 1
Thesis Background Many of the people from the Jornalero community work in carpentry, construction, agriculture, electrical, tiling, interior design, home landscaping, and domestic cleaning to name a few specialties. Migrating to the states, some of the Jornalero community practiced nursing, education, and other accredited specialties in their home countries. Through primary research, I was able to understand the severity of living on day-to-day income. But the story of the Jornalero is far more complicated. Before deploying any design intervention, I examined the history of latinx immigrants in relationship to the US, the impact of designed US policy, existing initiatives, and developed theoretical frameworks. The preceding sections help illustrate a narrative around the Jornalero community.
Terms to Consider Culturally Responsive It is the practice of acknowledging the way in which students, or in this case, participants of the workshops, have developed their semantics in a frame of their subculture. It is advantageous to leverage the interests and resources used within the subculture to support the pedagogy in any classroom. Design Thinking The way I interpret the term is the perspective of thinking with design to solve problems. A thinking using methods, frameworks, approaches, or mediums of design to facilitate the implicit nature of problem-solving processes. Dialogic Pedagogy How I practice and interpret the term is through culturally relative prompts to develop collective dialogue. Dialogics that become generated conversations from both teacher and student allows for a multiperspective approach to distribute and acquire knowledge as well as create an entry point into conversations outside the classroom.
Resiliency Andrew Zollie identifies two critical aspects: continuity and recovery in the face of change. It is “the capacity of a system… to maintain its core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances.” 2 Socially Engaged Art (SEA) Pablo Helguera describes the unconventional art form as a pedagogical and community service-based experience. An experience crafted around the personality of an artist, in this case, myself, whose values oppose capitalist ideals and leverages history in their approaches. It is an art form where the artist abandons their independent approaches to work with communities in a professional capacity. Characteristics of SEA consist of a time-based conceptual process, a gathering of community, and a socially engaging experience. 3 Transpedagogy A teaching practice that works across disciplines to blend various approaches to deliver an engaged learning experience. Very similar to Pablo Helguera’s definition meaning “artists and collectives that blend educational processes and art-making in works that offer and experience that is clearly different from conventional art academies or formal art education.”4
CONTEXTUAL RELEVANCE Complexity within the Latinx Diaspora
Above Jornalero’s celebrating Dia de los Muertos at NICE
My family has participated as Jornaleros at one point or another, and I know the challenges of working day-to-day, especially in agriculture. Not only do I empathize with their living conditions, but I also recognize the severity of stress it is to live in an expensive and demanding place like New York. Why would anyone want to endure living in a stressful manner? But to respond, it is necessary to evaluate the history of oppression in the Americas from the last five hundred years. From colonization to the most current problems that extend beyond borders, better known as transnationalism. The colonization of the Americas generated migration patterns that have pushed people across the globe. Centuries after catastrophic colonial wars, the new millennium continues to confront people with multi-layered forms of oppression constructed by power, dominance, and fear. For example, citizens of Venezuela are in protest for the inhuman way the government is treating them. Hyperinflation and an economic disparity are creating food shortages, increasing crime and poverty, as well as impacting health services. 5 Venezuela is in a state of crisis, but who is impacted the most? How do people overcome the intertwined social problems? What problems transcend beyond the country’s borders? Places like El Salvador and Honduras can prompt similar questions. For both countries, the tension between government and people sit at the mercy of local gangs. 6 El Salvador, Honduras, and Venezuela are examples of countries that have become physical battle zones and is a cause for the migration of people. Leaving a country for another country, is a difficult, as loved ones are left behind, and the road to a new country is dangerous as many will have to face theft, hunger, rape, dehydration during their migrating journey. In some cases, migrants may benefit from organizations like Pueblos Sin Fronteras who are helping communities from Central American countries with shelter, food, basic needs, and transport. 7 Attempting to resolve any problems of migrating people requires a focus on inclusivity and acknowledgment of history to allow for people to heal from the hurt from the designed infrastructures that have further marginalized them. Systems that reflect a substantial form of designed infrastructures can be found in US policy. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented the first ethnic group of people from entering the US. The 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act is a policy that allows a change in demographics in the US. Despite the policy allowing more immigrants into the country, the policy is intended for superb immigrants. And the latest policy, the Patriot Act of 2001, grants authorities to search personal properties of immigrants without consent or knowledge. Because the policy is in response to the September 2001 attacks, authorities are given more autonomy and power in regards to surveillance and border protection. All three of the policies have had an impact on US immigrants. Making designed infrastructures in US policy to be oppressive by continuing to reflect colonial characteristics such as power, dominance, and fear. As people are now being targeted, stories of dehumanization are documented and broadcasted through online portals. Therefore, the impact is forceful and dramatic to say the least.
Case Studies: Measuring the Impact as a Targeted Immigrant Take the following case studies from Fatima Avelica and Jackie Rayo. Three months into 2017, Fatima from Los Angeles, CA, uploaded a video onto social media documenting her immigrant father being detained and taken into custody for deportation. The event happened only half a block away before 13-year-old Fatima was dropped off at school. 8 A little over 375 miles east of Los Angeles is Phoenix, AZ. Where 14-year-old Jackie Rayo fearlessly speaks in front of an ICE facility to defend and justify the rights for her mother’s welfare. 9 Rayo’s mother was also abducted just like Avelica’s father and are at the forefront of fighting for their immigrant parents. Across the US, similar stories are occurring. Families are being separated and have to justify their human welfare. Immigration reform is nothing new in America, and potential solutions teeter from one end of the spectrum to the other, but the only solutions that matter are of those made through policy. On January 2017, the US government administration made it transparent to target undocumented immigrants in physical and digital spaces. 10 The last four US government administrations have had their strategies to deport undocumented people. But the latest administration designed an entire campaign using hate as their driverless vehicle and allowed for a specific demographic of US citizens to support the deportation of immigrant people. To be specific, lower-class whites. The first executive order by the 45 th US President affirmed people would be targeted, but its loose terms left undocumented communities to become severely vulnerable to deportation. Some critical questions in response to the executive order: What does it mean to be a ‘criminal’ in the US as an undocumented immigrant? How will the economy respond to jurisdictions losing funding if they do not adhere to the federal law? What does it mean to be a ‘victim’ of crimes committed by “removable aliens?” How will deportations impact immigrant families? What is the measure of impact in detention centers due to undocumented immigrant detainment?
THE DEHUMANIZING OF IMMIGRANTS If the separation of immigrant families is not enough to measure hurt, the prison detainment experience delivers ice-cold cruelty to detained immigrants. The Detention Watch Network (DWN) has documented and investigated cases at detainment centers that have failed to provide the “safety and dignity” of people. 11 Advocacy groups ranging from attorneys to grassroots organizations, also contribute to the investigation. “Inadequate medical care, mistreatment and abuse in its many forms, poor quality of food and sanitation, language access concerns, and lack of accountability for problems at the facilities.” 12 While the methods seem simple or perhaps irrelevant, the methods exploit the basic needs of anyone placing people’s humanity at risk.
Below An illustration of the nearby train stop where Jornaleros wait for job opportunities
Human Detainment for Profit According to USA Today, 54,000 immigrants were deported by ICE within the first nine months of the 2017 year. A 43% increase of the prior year. In the same time frame, ICE has arrested over 28,000 undocumented immigrants without a criminal record, a 179% increase from the previous year. 13 “On average, taxpayers spend $90.43 to detain a person in a private immigration detention facility, compared to an average of $72.69 in a municipal jail.” 14 The current US administration requested for the 2018 fiscal year a $1.2 billion increase to support the detainment of immigrants. The country already spends $2 billion a year. In America, there are 250 detention facilities and close to 200 of them are for profit. 15 So who is benefiting from the detainment of immigrants? In a study by the Center for Migration Studies, 62% of the detainment facilities are run by private companies and Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO group taking the largest ownership. 16 Both companies initiated the foundation of building detention facilities in the 1980s and have political influence over people in Congress. 17 According to the US Census, there are approximately 327 million people in America, and 11 million are undocumented immigrants. 18 The outskirt cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Miami and New York have densely populated cities with the most undocumented immigrant populations. 19 As of 2011, New York City accounts for over 3 million immigrants where 32.1% are from Latin America, 19.4% are Caribbean, and the rest are non hispanic. 20 With the growing population of citizens and immigrants, what are the challenges and opportunities of hosting conflicting citizen binaries? What is the justest immigration reform or reconstruction that the American country needs? The longer the reform or reconstruction is left unresolved, many people’s lives will be at the mercy of policy and government officials.
RESPONSIVE INITIATIVES Because of the long and nonlinear process of obtaining citizenship as well as the abrupt changes to policy, a form of support and advocacy has developed and evolved over decades. The most prominent immigrant support has come from legal representation alongside educational toolkits, mobile technology, sanctuary cities and churches, as well as activist and advocacy groups.
Legal Representation For 2017 was a year of profound systemic changes in the US government policy pushing immigrant communities further away from access and resources. Attorneys, advocacy groups, and activists are exhausting their energy and time to respond to policy changes. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, “without counsel… only 3% of detained, unrepresented immigrants avoid deportation, but providing public defenders can improve an immigrant’s chance of winning and remaining in the United States by as much as 1000%. 21 Because of the measured impact, New York State now supports immigrants with legal representation if detained and facing deportation. Vera Institute has pushed the defense further by developing a network of cities that also support immigrant detainees in 8 major cities throughout the country like Austin, Chicago, and Oakland. The challenge of legal representation is time and cost. Not everyone can afford the legal services, and by the time someone has to acquire legal services, it may be too late.
Educational Toolkits With so much changing policy it is essential to communicate the changes to the people it impacts the most. Various amounts of initiatives and resources by advocacy groups have been developed to deliver updates on policy. Infographics, step-by-step posters, and flyers are among some of the multilingual artifacts. For example, the Immigrant Defense Project in New York City is an organization that has created a range of resources to respond to ICE raids as well as comprehension of human legal rights. 22 Educating immigrants about their rights and mitigation of problems takes a lot of work to craft by advocates. Abrupt policy changes make it difficult to keep up with information making it challenging for both immigrants and citizens to understand and internalize.
Mobile Technology The integration of social media into normative social behaviors has added complexity to the way people communicate in their everyday lives. For example, surveillance and privacy are the invisible problems people in America face every day. How might technology support the undocumented immigrant community? With a press of a button, undocumented immigrants who are the subject of a raid by ICE will be able to use an app called, Notifica. 23 The app sends a custom message to a network of contacts to advised them of detainment. The app has recently launched and has been long awaited as developers have been putting large efforts to improve usability. Arrived is another app known to be a hub for the latest immigration policy changes and news. 24 The app is an educational tool with additional support elements like resume builders and where to find a sanctuary city. Another app is Tarjimly, a Facebook messenger bot devoted to translating in real time for immigrants and refugees by a network of supportive agents. 25 Also, crowdsourced apps like GetCell411, RedadAlertas, and BienvenidosApp add to the list of supportive technology. In particular, BienvenidosApp intends to provide pathways for entry into the US/Mexico border. The intention of the app is to provide “safety and ease” for border crossing by exposing surveillance, food, and shelter. 26 GetCell411 and RedadAlertas are intended to inform users of ICE raids nearby. All applications building blocks to support the immigrant community. Despite the support, technology has limitations. Surveillance and privacy play a complex role. Users may be able to document their life in one perspective, but every step and action is documented, recorded, and distributed by those who own or surveil technology. Border Patrol and ICE agents have obtained access through these channels and consequently will reveal parts of immigrant’s identity that was not originally meant to be public. Which then prompts questions surrounding the development of tech. Who has control over mobile technologies and who is making counter-narrative technologies?
Sanctuary Cities and Churches What does sanctuary spaces mean for immigrant populations? What are the challenges and opportunities? What has been the benefits? Undocumented people are able to live with less stress because sanctuary spaces exist. For example, some immigrants have found refuge at their local churches. Reports have found people staying inside the church for months despite their families living close by. New York being a sanctuary city, allows for some protection of immigrant families by preventing surveillance or searches. The challenge that federal law makes, is that “criminals” are embedded within those being protected by sanctuary cities.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION For the project, I began my work with assumptions that transformed into theories for practice. Working with a sub marginalized community, I tread softly in my approaches. I questioned if I was the right person to be working with the community My initial experience felt colonial because I was sharing my educational privilege as a way to improve someone else’s life. But being transparent with my intentions, the Jornalero community validated and supported me. The Jornalero community appreciated that I was using my education to give back to communities in need. The acknowledgement they granted me, allowed me to think about their humanity in the forefront. Therefore, I identified three key theories to the foundation of my project: Socially Engaged Art, Decolonization of Design, and Ubuntu.
Socially Engaged Art (SEA) SEA is an unconventional art practice that places the artist at the forefront of facilitation. The relevance of putting the artist at the forefront is because design does not exist in my immigrant community from which I identify. As a first generation Mexican American, I understand design is not a common term within Latinx people. More explicitly, design is a form of post-colonialism. Design is a form of coercion and is pervasive without permission. When the intentions of design are exposed, trust and loyalty are disrupted. As a member of a marginalized community myself, trust and principles of building community are vital to the sustainment of a community. It is an ingrained philosophy since birth passed from generation to generation. Through art, there is a form of understanding. It is the explicit nature to ground a community. Practicing SEA celebrates the natural state of being, an awareness of history, and a gathering of a community of people to display vulnerability, healing, transparency, and open communication. SEA allows for the uncertainty of design to take form. SEA projects allow people to tinker and explore to develop their narratives and solutions without imposing direction. Something design cannot do. It is through this approach that will be the vehicle to transport messages. More specifically, the message of introducing design thinking. SEA allows for the artist’s potential to expand just as the potential of the community will also grow. What is the dynamics of an artist working across disciplines and skill sets? Let alone be equipped with a graduate education. Part of the SEA theory is in alignment with James Baldwin’s provocation. “The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through vast forests, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” This transdisciplinary design project proposes to work under a similar artist framework. One who practices engaging the public through multiple participatory actions that lead towards collective responsibility.
Decolonization of Design Coming from a marginalized community, I speculate that design is not a common term among marginalized communities. If I ever heard the term design utilized, it is describe systemic forms of oppression within capitalism or government policy. I theorize that if systemic forms of oppression are designed to benefit a class of people, than the design carries power, dominance, and fear. I theorize, design is not an ally to the oppressed. Therefore, an unconventional practice like SEA, will allow people to express themselves and promote a collective dialogue. Using a SEA approach will also allow a community to acknowledge their own human existence. One that has been negated by systemic designs.
It is challenging to trust the process of design when the stem of its evil has been ever so present within history. Take examples like segregation and mass incarceration. Two systemic designs that continue to impact communities of color in the US. Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow profoundly argues how design is intentionally charged to affect a class of people. In one example she states:
“Segregation laws were proposed as part of a deliberate effort to drive a wedge between poor whites and African Americans. These discriminatory barriers were designed to encourage lower-class whites to retain a sense of superiority over blacks, making it far less likely that they would sustain interracial political alliances aimed at toppling the white elite. The laws were, in effect, another racial bribe. As William Julius Wilson has noted, ‘As long as poor whites directed their hatred and frustration against the black competitor, the planters were relieved of class hostility directed against them.’” 27
Again, a reminder of how power, dominance, and fear play a critical role in the these types of colonial design practices. Making a fair argument, that if design is an incredible tool to enable change that systemically damages and deconstructs communities, there should be a decolonized process when introducing design to marginalized communities.
Ubuntu Through my past experiences, mentorship, and practice, I have discovered a genuine and authentic approach to working with people and that is to recognize people for their powers, their differences, and for their majestic humanity. It is my personal duty to teach and embed the approach so that individuals are celebrated in a community, but a method to build community with values of trust and collective responsibility. The approach I practice is from South Africa, Ubuntu. To begin to understand the term is by storytelling the spirit of Ubuntu and not defining it. Human rights activist Archbishop Desmond Tutu describes it as, “I am because I belong.” Ubuntu is about “recognizing people for the gifts that that we do not have.” 28 In a service ceremony for the late Nelson Mandela, President Obama described Ubuntu as “...a oneness to humanity. ...We are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye. ...We achieve our selves by sharing ourselves with others.” 29 Ubuntu is about being selfless, and Nelson Mandela was known as the embodiment of the spirit. There is an association with Ubuntu, and that is, “I am because we are.” Working with communities, their struggles are bound by my struggles. Beyond the project, Ubuntu is a way I carry myself. The way I practice Ubuntu can be witnessed during humane transactions like my tone in conversations, the type of words I use to communicate achievement in people, continuously showing transparency in my work, and showing respect towards people.
PROJECT: TRANSPADEGOGY IN THE EPHEMERAL
Below During my ethnographic practices I would illustrate as a way to document information
After months of research and planning, I was able to implement a series of workshops in partnership with NICE. My collaboration with the agency began with a conversation around the development of an app called, Jornaler@. An app initiated from an art residency program at NICE. The app integrates technology to support workers against wage theft. 30 During the development of the app, I offered my practice as a designer and artist to support the Jornalero community. NICE was able to open a second iteration of an art residency program where I was granted the autonomy to implement workshops aimed to practice problem-solving using design thinking and art-making. I suggested working to problem solve within the spectrum of a large issue; the separation of immigrant families. Alternatively, I could facilitate developed interests that were inspired from the workshops.
Transformation of Hypothesis Utilizing my theories and considering the research I had done, I moved forward to present defined problem to solve with the community. I developed an infrastructure to facilitate the experience by designing a pedagogical framework to carry out five two-hour workshops over a span of ten weeks. As the word got out about the art residency program in the Jornalero community, NICE and I had to limit how many people could participate in the workshops. It was assumed that there would be a cohort of people but time frame of the workshops prevented consistency of people. The workshops began with 15 participants but resulted in impacting close to 50 Jornaleros. As I attempted to follow through with design as a way to problem solve, I quickly understood my project was not going to be about resolving a problem; it was introducing design to a community that would not normally ever use design thinking. Therefore, my project explores how design thinking through socially engaged art might support the development of community agency for a Jornalero community in Queens, NY that has been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Scope of Project The project objective is to 1) design the infrastructure of the workshops in relationship to the project goals. 2) Translate design thinking by using a pedagogical facilitation approach with the Jornalero community. 3) Utilize my studio art background to curate culturally relevant art-making practices to activate collective dialogue, collective memory dialogue, and enter a space of collective responsibility and critical thinking. The project purpose is to 1) introduce design thinking through an engaged learning process. The approach is to use art as the vehicle for understanding and delivering a message; for art is a way to understand the world. 2) Access community strengths. 3) Celebrate art and culture. 4) Practice capacitybuilding. 5) Lastly, work towards developing a collective responsibility. The project goals are to 1) exercise and harness modes of expressive thinking to activate critical thinking. By activating critical thinking participants will question their problem-solving approaches during the workshops and consider alternative perspectives. Often from shared knowledge developed during collective dialogue. The approach will be by designing holistic workshop experiences of “I feel, therefore I think.� It is there, the entry point to begin using design to problem solve. 2) Practice community building principles to enable collective responsibility. The approach will come from developing accountability and exercising autonomy between participants of the workshop. 3) Deconstruct the design process towards a decolonized process. The method is to prevent oppressive forms of facilitating and introducing design thinking. The process of community facilitation has to utilize an ethnographic, sociological and anthropological approach to assure proper community and human-centered design. The project is not about communities creating art, more specifically, from a fine arts perspective. The production of art-making by individuals and as a collective may be interpreted as art forms, but the art-making is what will ground the project and the transaction for building a collective responsibility. That is why the approach is called Socially Engaged Art. Through the conceptual process of generating art, the process of creating allows for members to enter a space of flow. Therapeutic interpretation and the development of emotional intelligence naturally emerges.
Gears and Mechanics of Ephemeral Experience
Below Illustration capturing multiple Jornaleros
Introducing design thinking to marginalized communities requires a distinct set of elements that create the movement of a design process. The key elements in my project are represented as terms, values, principles, and goals that serve as gears and mechanics to facilitate the transdisciplinary design project. Much of these elements were pre-identified in partnership with external institutions and experts working at the intersections of equity, social justice, education, history, art, design, community building, and human rights. I identify the partners and experts in the mentorship section further below.
waiting for a job opportunity
“One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.� – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Design Values
Design Principles
Grit According to Dr. Angela Duckworth it is having the “passion and perseverance for long-term goals.” 31 It is about developing a target ambition and working relentlessly towards it regardless of the pace, the challenge, or the mistakes involved in the process. Grit is a skill that develops resilience.
Capacity-Building The practice of building community at local and large scales. It requires genuine transactions of giving and receiving to build alliances and trust essentially.
Love and Power A hybrid of values best articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.” Solidarity A process framed by Paulo Freire that “requires that one enter into the situation of those with whom one is solidary…” It “means fighting at their side to transform the objective and reality which has made them these ‘beings for another.’” Aspects of the process is “witnessing” the “humble, loving, and courageous encounter with the people.” 32
Ceremony and Ritual In order to facilitate the chemistry between people, it is essential to acknowledge the ceremonies and rituals already in place with a community. Leveraging them will provide routine, patterns, and mutual communication that becomes the grounding transactions for human movement and agreements. Community Ownership A crucial component to building community trust. It is an opportunity to allow experts in the community to apply their skills sets and knowledge. It is also an opportunity for the community to take over the creative process in gains of creating a sustainable outcome. Exercising Empathy What is the correct measure and type of empathy in approaching any human being? I suggest the word exercise, as a way to bring what may be a dormant emotion at times, to come into an active form of participating and experiencing people. It is a vital emotion that will allow for community growth and understanding. Trust and Immersion It is a process that requires vulnerability, curiosity, and openness or acceptance into another person’s life. It is allowing for comfort in the unknown of one another and development of new shared experiences.
Above Photo taken near Jackson Heights, NY
Designed Conditions The most critical condition is the leadership and guidance of NICE. The organization has developed a joint practice with the community of whom they service and advocate. It would be crucial to leverage the insights and approaches used by the organization. The second condition is time. During the project length, five workshops were facilitated to carry out a framework and interests of the community. Each workshop was a two-hour time frame and spread across a ten-week period. Additional conditions were based on access to materials, project funding, and consistent transparency. The core structure of the workshops consisted of ceremony and ritual to open and close group dynamics that included continuous feedback from the participants. A review of the previous workshops, sensorial exercises to prepare for activities, project-driven activities centered around SEA practices, and optional requests for homework.
Design Goals My own goals with the project were to 1) immerse myself in an ecosystem stemmed from the Jornalero community. 2) Bring into practice the fun and curious parts of ethnographic research. 3) Celebrate my creative strengths by building complexity of measures that come across critical intersections like human rights and equity. 4) Lastly, work with people whom I have never worked with before. Practice what capacity-building looks like across disciplines, skill sets, and generations of people in a short amount of time. As for community goals, my most critical goal was to 1) activate critical thinking. 2) Facilitate a problem-solving process using design approaches that can be used to support a collective. 3) Access the strengths of the Jornalero community. During the implementation of these goals, I discovered my natural approach to self-actualization. It became my responsibility to deconstruct Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to access the strengths of a sub marginalized community. In the critical analysis section of this thesis writing, I elaborate my approach to self-actualization.
Workshops Transpedagogy Framework The framework from Figure 1 is the designed process of the pilot program. The bottom portion labeled “Infrastructure” is the transdisciplinary application in the design. The “User Experience” is the exchange between students and educator. In a humancentered approach, the community involved is leading and helping educate me how to design and facilitate. The framework was drafted and then updated as each workshop progressed, to be able to capture the process and feedback updates of the work co-created.
Figure 1. Transpedagogy Framework
Workshop Approaches -- Use design thinking approaches within the implicit and co-create art (making) through the explicit -- Exercise emotional intelligence through aspects of cognitive psychology -- Practice sensory-based approaches for collective memory experiences -- Provide participants opportunities for ownership over the creative process -- Co-establish trust, community-building principles, and family-like values throughout the creative process Aspects of Integrated Academic Disciplines -- Cultural Anthropology -- Sociolinguistics -- Cognitive Psychology -- Political Science -- Education -- Ethnic Studies -- Business
Workshop Leveraging Points -- Integrate Jornalero skill sets for collaborative problem-solving concepts -- Delegate responsibilities with the community (change agents) or leaders to facilitate smaller tasks -- Co-develop leadership opportunities among participants in the creative process -- Utilize ceremony and rituals to establish routine, structure, reflection, and redirection -- Culturally respond to the interests of the participants -- Ethnographic practices
w-1 : Structure Welcoming -- Food -- Purpose -- Outcome & goals -- IRB (release forms) -- Introductions -- Nametags -- Class Agreement Rules -- Member’s Expectations Exercise: 5 sec. animal drawings Activity: Dichos y Refranes -- Collective memory experiences -- Members write / draw about their relationship to their selected proverb Homework: Photo Journal Assignment -- Members will photograph or obtain existing photographs of meaningful items / people in their day-to-day life -- Photographs will be printed and used for the following workshop
Workshop 1 (W-1) - Getting to Know Each Other W-1: Documentation of the Experience I often celebrate the coming together of people with food. I kicked off the workshop series with music and food, and it was well received. The exercise was a quick five second sensorial sprints by drawing familiar animals. It served as a warm-up to practice working with constraints and quick thinking. As for the activity “Dichos y Refranes,” or also known as proverbs, was developed from my ethnographic research. The purpose was to activate dialogue for collective stories through proverbs. Latinx communities use proverbs across generations as a way to communicate ideas, learnings, and thoughts. The first part of the activity, participants wrote their favorite proverbs to share stories of the first time the proverb was introduced to them. The second part was to break the proverbs apart like a dice game, similar to the Cuban game cubilete. The game was aimed to consider new narratives for their future through writing and drawing. W-1: Reflection The feedback I quickly received was that the exercise is “just what the doctor ordered.” A comment referencing the state of flow participants agree they entered. As for the activity, the community rallied around the concept; there seemed to be potential to expand on this activity. Spread All photos are a documentation of process from the first workshop
w-2 : Structure Welcome -- Community check-in -- Review work from prior session Exercise: natural soundscape and meditation Activity: System mapping via origami Paper Making -- On stickies, members will make a list of supportive agents in a 5 min sprint -- Members will then create origami figures to map on a 2x2 grid -- Group share Activity: Organize homework photo journaling -- Group sharing through storytelling -- Diagram photos to recognize potential pattern Activity: Hypothesis development -- Each group develops their own hyphothesis Activity: Case Studies -- Between videos and summarized articles, members will be able to recognize problem solving approaches by everyday people Activity: Superhero Project -- 9 step project to recognize a combined superpower -- Members will make their own superpower ID -- In breakout groups, members will find combined strengths to respond to developed hypothesis -- Each group will develop a concept with integrate potentials systems such as partner organizations, resources, touchpoints, etc. -- End with group sharing
Workshop 2 (W-2) - System Mapping W-2: Documentation of the Experience With so much excitement from the previous workshop, I was hoping to accomplish many activities, but time went by too quickly. I was not able to carry out the homework assignment. Only a few participants were able to complete the assignment. The two tasks I was able to accomplish was system mapping and introducing the class to my transdisciplinary colleague Oliver Arellano’s project about mobile phone journaling for immigrants. For the system map activity, participants were asked to write on stickies the agencies, organizations, or individuals that impact them routinely. On a 2x2 grid, we were able to document what was useful and accessible. The process required exposure of their personal life, and it caused some people to leave from the workshop. After some resistance of participating, physical spaces to the development of the maps and the addition allowed for a more natural take to the activity. After identifying the spaces, members were asked to create abstract origami figures to complement their categories. As for Arellano’s project, he presented a project proposal to the participants regarding the documentation of an immigrant’s journey. One without surveillance, but would be accessible to family in case of emergency. The project prompted an uncomfortable, yet needed, conversation about immigrant’s life after they pass away. What happens to the digital narrative they have developed on social media? Who can continue to access the information? Living far from their native land, what happens to their belongings if no one is there to respond to them? W-2: Reflection I had a visceral experience of people telling me no with their eyes when it came to this system mapping activity. It was then, when I realized the lack of transparency I was showing. Exposing people’s independent life to contribute to a collective, was potentially hindering the trust that I was building. A week later, a few participants that initiated the cohort let me know they would no longer be part of the workshops without explanation. In turn, those that did stay for the entire workshop understood that artists could bring in the much-needed conversations about politics and complex issues. It was a moment of building trust with some and breaking trust with others. Spread All photos are a documentation of process
Homework -- Members will gather their favorite food spices to bring into the next workshop
from the second workshop
W-2: Development of Project Proposals The fluidness and busy demand of late night thinking began to ignite the outcomes of the thesis project. Synthesizing the map, I was able to conclude the main direction the Jornalero’s were navigating towards were places of liberation. I thought the map would supply a pattern of information to support the collective, but instead, the map reflected nodes of self-actualization. More Members of the community approached me about their independent initiatives. They had projects on hold that needed direction and they felt I was able to support the development of their process. The projects they proposed had a profound relationship the problems of the Latinx diaspora. The specific
issues they wanted to address were 1) teen pregnancy among immigrants living in Latinx communities in Brooklyn, NY; 2) collaborative community contingency plans in response to ice raids 3) community support post family separations due to ICE raids; 4) addressing domestic violence by empowering women, and 5) information clinic to report the grim disappearance of immigrants to their families. Each issue Jornalero’s wanted to address, came with project proposals that hinted a design intervention. I helped them initiate them, but I didn’t not continue developing them with them. Instead, I turned to my transdisciplinary colleague Amanda Astorga to help continue the conversations associated with sex and health.
w-3 : Structure Welcome -- Community Check-In Exercise: Lemon Experiences Exercise: Spices & Memories -- Share Findings & Workshop Progress Activity: Guest Theater Artist (Yadira de la Riva) -- Purpose: Members will learn about role playing through playful interactions Activity: Ideation -- Members will be able to develop a concept based on all the previous activities, exercises or something completely new -- 2D Conceptualization: members will use paper cutting and sketching techniques to ideate -- Alternative approaches are drawing and watercoling ideas Homework -- Feedback form for ideation -- Script out ideation -- Art journal: ideas, emotions, words, drawings
Workshop 3 (W-3) - Game Playing & Problem Solving W-3: Documentation of the Experience In the third workshop, Yadira de la Riva visited the community to introduce a part of her craft. Her art is in theatre performance and developed a workshop that integrated youthful playing and problem-solving. The participants exercised and performed activities centered around identity, culture, and labor. Aspects of her work are in alignment with Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Activities performed were 1) completing the image; 2) game playing, and 3) performing a counter-narrative of the Jornalero image. The Jornalero community and I are in debt for her contribution. Everyone left smiling and exhausted in the work they co-created. W-3: Reflection The embodied experience was much needed. One of the members said, “I didn’t want to be here at first. I was tired. I’m glad I came. I can’t stop smiling.” It was true. I witnessed participant’s attitudes transform throughout the workshop into a positive fun experience. It was a pivot point in my thesis project because I abandoned what I had planned for the entire workshop to support the work of de la Riva. Spread All photos are a documentation of process from the third workshop
w-4 : Structure Welcome -- Community Check-In Exercise: Feel and Touch -- Share Findings & Workshop Progress Prototype Development -- 3D Materialization: art journals, construction paper scissors, cardboard, paper, hot glue, glue sticks Activity: Integrate Systems -- Members will connect systems that will support the concept such as partner organizations, touchpoints, etc -- development of blueprint Activity: Potential Screen Printing Next Steps -- Where does this project go? -- How do we want to tell the story of what was done in the workshops? -- What does the project sustainability look like? -- Future (thematic) workshops? Closing Ceremony
Workshop 4/5/6 - Production W-4/5/6: Documentation of the Experience The initial plan of the fourth workshop was to put into production an idea stemmed from the original defined problem. By now, I had already lost the defined problem and had abandoned or left out many activities. I considered facilitating a prototype activity, but the Jornalero community had different interests. They reminded me that there pressing issues were in regards to wage theft and labor rights. The annual May Day event was coming, and the Jornalero’s wanted to represent themselves at the protest rally at Washington Square Park as one voice. Therefore, we turned our momentum into two more workshops than previously anticipated. The Jornalero community requested to screen print shirts with the NICE logo and develop a painted banner to celebrate the lives of the people who have recently passed as day laborers. W-4/5/6: Reflection The fourth workshop was an important one. The purpose of the pilot program was called to question. The community reminded me what the real purpose and message was behind the practice art-making. The community voiced that art was essential to their work to communicate their unified voice. Members expressed their concern about nonrelated initiatives being a distraction to the work they have been doing. They requested to be supported with the momentum they had already created. It was difficult to talk about the future of the pilot program until the needs of the community were met. Well, May Day came, and the Jornalero’s were able to represent themselves as one voice. Spread All photos are a documentation of process from the fourth workshop
Above The coins were hand made and were given to all who were intimetly involved in the workshop process as a transaction of trust
Exterior Mentorship In a small pocket of the Bronx, a place called DreamYard sits as an epicenter for fostering principles of community. The organization has developed a support path centered around the arts and social justice for students from k-12th grades. The support path is intended to respond to the socio-economic adversities communities face in the Bronx. Over 20 years, “DreamYard programs develop [an] artistic voice, nurture young peoples’ desire to make change and cultivate the skills necessary to reach positive goals.� Most importantly, the organization practices the principles of creating and sustaining community. It is here, where I found a home and a natural language for understanding my theoretical approaches. In a rare opportunity, I became a teaching artist to support youth voices to enact change. DreamYard not only validated my community building approaches but acknowledges my strengths. They foster my personal development through a creative lens allowing me to embed my learnings and quickly deploy teaching strategies fluidly. DreamYard is responsible for establishing the ceremony and ritual into my process, acknowledging my own suppressed hurt from colonial or capitalist ideals, as well as further developing principles of community building. Furthermore, my thesis experience is a sample of the practice I want to lead. The work I was doing required the intimacy from somebody with practice and understanding of the social intersections at play. Someone who has had a richness of experience in a professional capacity. Therefore, I turned to a historian of oppression, an educator of practitioners, an entrepreneur in the space of innovation, a practitioner of architectural systems, a catalyst for building community, an artist at heart, a brother, a mentor, and a friend, Armando Somoza, MFA. Without him, it was challenging to self-reflect in my thesis process. Achievements and pockets of vulnerability in a process need to be well fostered, and that is what he did.
TRANSDISCIPLINARY ANALYSIS
Above Banner to celebrate
EVALUATION OF FRAMEWORKS AND MODELS Overall, the project felt genuine, and the work is much needed in the Jornalero community. Practicing capacity-building was doable and in most cases easy for me. But it is also exhausting. It is as if you have to perform a character continuously. My challenge as an artist/facilitator was the curiosity of where people were taking their ideas and allowing the state of flow carry over the objective of an activity. The Transpedagogy Framework did guide most of my process. Perhaps, that is why I use SEA as an approach to my transdisciplinary design practice. Translating design can be part of my ongoing transdisciplinary practice. I like the tinkering and sense-making and working with a community confronted with layers of oppression, I cannot demand to complete tasks when I am witnessing a physiological transformation into self-actualization. For instance, Figure 4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theorizes that each layer beginning from bottom to top must be completed before arriving to a person’s self-actualization. In my process, decolonizing design, leading with the concept of Ubuntu, and grounding art as the messenger deconstructs the order Maslow’s theory. Further articulated the thesis is more than just solving social problems, it is about liberating minds. Figure 4. Maslow’s Hierarcy of Needs, Wikipedia Source
the life of those who passed away as day laborers
Co-Creating Therapeutic Experience
Incoming Exterior Expertise
Sensorial Prac tices
Co-Learning
Human Existance Towards Liberation
Interpersonal Beautification
Democratization of Advocacy Work
Pilot Program theory of change
Individual Fostering Unique Intellect
Advocacy Institutions
Community
Socially Engaged Art Accessing Community Strengths
Collective Responsibility Promotion of Selflessness
Design Thinking
Ubuntu Entry Point To Problem Solving
Emotional Intelligance
OPPORTUNITIES
“I am because WE are.”
IMPACT
EXPLICIT
Possibilities <> Realities
Capacity Building Principles of Building Community
IMPLICIT
Figure 5. Path to Measuring Impact
Path to Measuring Impact The task is to not only to teach design thinking to a resilient community but to acknowledge the various ways a project like this can create an impact in their ecosystem and beyond. Figure 5. Path to Measuring Impact is a potential way to measure impact for the program and more iterations of the program. The left side of the diagram shows what currently has transpired from the workshops. The right side of the diagram is the larger scale goal. Continuing to practice projects like this allows for the democratization of work and the support of the collective.
Replication of Elements The most critical question I was asked from mentors was the replication of process. How might this project continue with or without me? My first step will be to deliver a document to NICE and the Jornalero community that tells the story of our work together. In the document will be the methods used during the workshops. What I found most important was who will continue to facilitate workshop with the Jornalero communities if it is not I? During my process, I was able to identify key elements that are suggested to place into practice towards a decolonized design process when working with communities. Figure 6. Replication of Elements identifies nine elements. The figure model was further developed by inputs from transdisciplinary colleagues, Parsons’ faculty, and a workshop at DreamYard. The workshop at DreamYard focused on “Decolonizing the Maker.” The workshop took diverse creative disciplines and evaluated the oppressive elements in their own processes when working with communities. The workshop concluded by further supporting the model in Figure 6.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have to talk about liberating minds as well as our society.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Angela Davis
Experts and Autonomy Bringing in culturally relevant experts is essential when working with communities. It is an opportunity to bring someone else into the community, that could teach or supply resources that a facilitator would not be able to do. Searching for the right person should be a natural process. A good expert is not just one with a skillset or discipline specialty, it is someone who shares similar values of the community. Therefore, a facilitator can grant autonomy to outside experts. During the workshops, I celebrated the contribution that colleagues and experts contributed to the Jornalero community by giving them a coin that represented trust. At the conclusion of the workshops, I also provided the participants with coins for their involvement and the co-development of trust as a collective.
Above Photo is from the 2018 May Day protest in Washington Square Park, NYC
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7 8 Figure 6. Replication of Elements
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Community-Based Design is a design medium that uses human-centered approaches to support collective interests and initiatives. Common types of collectives are sub marginalized communities.
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Grounded Process A consistent and approachable form of an engaged learning experience. A metaphoric language to convey a message or teaching.
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Transparency Communication is keen when working with people in general. People are in search of the truth. Withholding or expressing dishonesty when building community, will jeopardize relationships.
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Access to Resources Experts can support a community by bringing in open and closed sourced resources. Types of resources can be material, technological, forms of information, etc. Resources can be within in reach or something not often available.
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Ceremony & Ritual It is important to celebrate the opening or closing of events in a process. Establishing ceremony and ritual contribute to mutual agreements and develops a form of respect.
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Culturally Relative Experts Experts relative to communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interests, subculture, or ethnicity; someone with similar values to the community. The process requires a person who can be entrusted to allow for their autonomy to take place. An expert can be from within the community.
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Access into Community Communities have entry points with gatekeepers at each entrance. An epicenter or experts or leaders within the community are examples of entry points.
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Community Epicenter A place where learning, sharing, and vulnerability are often expressed. A place for togetherness and gathering.
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Community History & Developed Initiatives The communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s history and initiatives have to be acknowledged to scale and exercise empathy. It is a step towards developing respect and trust.
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Shared Knowledge Coming together as a collective is an opportunity to dialogue and dissolve assumptions and distribute information.
“... how do I live free in this black body?” – Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me Above The Jornalero community presented themselves as one voice at the May Day stage with all their artwork including shirts
NEXT STEPS As mentioned earlier, I need to compose a document to deliver to NICE and the Jornalero community. It is part of the process of transparency. I firmly believe people should put more into a community than they take away. Also, I plan to implement a second phase of the pilot program with the Jornalero community or communities alike. Programs that continue the practice of decolonized design approaches. The idea is to arrive and complete a product or service design intervention. To accomplish the plan will require grant funding, partnering with advocacy institutions, and developing a team of experts. The work with the Jornalero community is an example of designing for inclusivity and an articulation of human-centered approaches. This thesis was not about designing for one specific thing as the problems that are confronting the people’s humanity are multi-layered faceted and are oppressively triangulating people. Transpedagogy in the Ephemeral was about re-engineering design to self-actualize people before inviting itself to be a supportive ally. It was a transformation to show the process of liberating minds and designing for hope. The hope for liberation and a humanized world. That is how I intend to practice transdisciplinary design.•
ENDNOTES
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