"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." Buckminster Fuller
My thesis topic is about social change and how people become empowered. I want to study the way that design can draw attention to a social issue and also transform the problem at the same time. Because design can be used to create awareness and call people into action, it can also be an agent of change by transforming people’s lives directly. This will help my reader hear the voices of an under represented demographic or social issue. And at the same time be empowered to help change the problem.
I plan on approaching this topic from several directions. One is by volunteering at the office of City Councilmember Brad Lander. He is active in working with developers in the the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn. I met with his District Director, Catherine Zinnel, last week to discuss what I can contribute. She was very positive about bringing my design into their projects. I will be meeting with her again this week to move things forward.
I watched the film Wasteland, about the artist Vik Muniz. The film is about his work in Brazil at the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, outside of Rio. Muniz befriends a community of garbage pickers and transforms their lives through his artwork. I hope to incorporate a Muniz's methodology into my own thesis. I like the way he collaborates with the community he is trying to transform. The garbage pickers have a vested interest in the success of the art project because it could result in an improvement in their quality of life. They are eager to participate in the project and contribute to its success. Something that made Muniz’s project successful was his plan to auction the artwork in London at Phillips de Pury & Company. The quantitative value of the auction price was a clear indicator of the success of the project.
Finding a cause is proving to be difficult. Some options that I've been exploring are the growing amount of plastic in our oceans, affordable housing, and natural disaster relief. I'm not sure what of the 3 topics will lend itself to the creation of a thesis. But I'm exploring.
Plan of action:
Research:
Interviews
Create a forum where members of a community gather and share ideas.
Study a community. Do an ethnography.
Projects:
Build awareness through PSA and Social Media
Create an event where likeminded people gather to raise money and awareness
Create a product to sell to the public (shirt, sticker, keychain)
Awareness:
Celebrity endorsement
PR
Lobby for political influence
For next week:
Identify a community
Write a solid introductory paragraph.