Connection

a synthesis of research and explorations by an IxD voyager

I n my last post, I shared my passion for rollerblading and more importantly, as a metaphor of how I look at life. I think it’s essential to try to integrate and merge with other people in the world. It’s this thrill for adventure and delight that keeps us alive. New York is an exciting place for this. It’s a metropolis of cultures and languages. I love the feeling of participating in the Women’s March for example, amongst a wonderful variety of people, supporting a similar mission for love.

For our Entrepreneurial Design course at SVA, we were assigned to research a community of interest and discover challenges with the goal of designing an offering. I am interested in using art and education as a way to expand people’s understanding about diversity and to exercise empathy between each other. After interviewing 9 people from various backgrounds, it became increasingly clear that I need to design for a certain type of people, that is, those who feel disconnected and want to join in a dialogue about respect and the acceptance of diversity. This blog is a synthesis of my research.

It’s my wish that revealing these discoveries will inspire initiatives to bring people together through the power of art and education.

My first interview was with Chris Hellman, Leading User Experience Design at The Boston Consulting Group.

In our conversation, he said “we must connect as a design community to help with the creative approach. pushing concepts further solves the challenge of innovation.” As designers, we have many open source tools and a wealth of resources available to us, but the magic can only happen when we join forces to “push concepts further.”

Shortly afterwards, I spoke with James Suber, Digital Content Specialist at the Longyear Museum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

We discussed the obstacles surrounding accessibility in history museums, and more specifically, how visitors could be better engaged in their experiences with the space. Suber commented, “the challenge is how do you appeal to your niche while also expand outside of that niche?”

Our interview felt very relevant to my question of how to expand people’s outlook and build bridges between them.

Then a pleasant talk with Amy Sylvester, Office Administrator at the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College connected more of the dots.

She remarked which aspects visitors enjoy the most about special events that they organize. She stated, “people really seem to love any behind-the-scenes events we put on. they are interested in the intricacies involved in running a museum.” These events serve as valuable resources to the public.

These events also connect people more with the knowledge offered by the art museum, and they gives people an inside look into the museum’s operations.

Another interview was with an anonymous patient of Crohn’s Disease, which pointed out the difficulties of managing life’s hardships amidst the further immensity of a chronic disease.

The interviewee said, “about three times in my life now I have had to start over. I have had to start from scratch and build my life from nothing.” Their testimony showed how they’ve overcome societal assumptions and carved their way in life.

I want to create a way to lessen the occurrence of people feeling left behind like this in life, and to support them in the face of such challenges.

When chatting with a friend named Jazzy, who is from Beijing and has been living in Long Island for several years now, she touched on the frictions that she has encountered when trying to find a job.

She said “in order to process paperwork for a job here, it has to be in direct parallel with my major and include a reference from that major.”

While the job search process is tough for all, there seem to be more hoops that immigrants have to jump through, and even if for one reason or another, I don’t think such an extent supports the talent that they have to offer.

This also ostracizes them from opportunities.

Hyeonjooin Chung from Goyang-si, South Korea spoke to me about the nature of misunderstandings.

This was an illuminating interview that shed light on how many assumptions between individuals tend to manifest on both ends. He said, “it’s all about misunderstandings. When I’m taking the subway, I prefer not to ask anyone for directions because it gets more confusing. I get shy and afraid that people won’t answer me.” Why is this the case?

I think the feeling beneath it all is fear. There’s a sense of fear with regards to what the outcome will be as a result of certain day-to-day communications.

In contemplating the challenges that immigrants face in trying to integrate and be accepted, I talked with my husband, Aníbal Nobel Ibáñez Risso who is originally from Uruguay about this issue.

He said that “people sometimes, when I’m saying something, notice that I’m taking more time than a native speaker would. People get bored or don’t pay attention or assume that I can’t communicate because I can’t find the words. I don’t listen to them. I follow my instincts and dreams. I get up every day and do what I do, working hard and trusting that there is a reason why we all have these dreams and that there is a purpose.”

After our interview, I observed that my research project was taking a little turn, from speaking to a Leading UX Designer, art and history museum professionals, someone who has worked to overcome health problems, and then immigrants in New York. However the common thread between these individuals is a lack of feeling like an integrated part of the fabric of society.

On the opposite spectrum, another friend of mine from Brazil, Olivia Perricone who also now lives in Long Island spoke about her experience in New York in comparison to life in Rio de Janeiro.

She said, “I have always identified more with New York than Rio due to its lifestyle and the city pace. It is faster and I find that people are more productive in comparison to Brazil, not only Rio. As for the differences between both cultures, I think that Americans are more hardworking and reliable. Also more polite and respectful to other. In New York, I think there is a sense of freedom on all levels that I don’t feel in Rio or the rest of Brazil.”

In reflecting on this conversation, I wondered how we can heal the way people view each other, Brazilians and New Yorkers alike. Perhaps this is too grand or idealistic as a hope, but it could be practiced in even the smallest degrees as a start.

Then, another friend of mine Maria Clara from Uruguay who is now living in New York commented on how her experience has been since recently moving here in July.

She said, “People are nice but sometimes too stressed, or in their cell-phones all the time instead of talking in real life. To meet people is also a challenge. You can meet for a day or some days, but they are transitory. I’m getting used to it more with each day. Fortunately, I can travel sometimes and that makes it easier.” I know Maria Clara through my husband, who as mentioned earlier, is also from Uruguay.

I’m wondering if a physical experience with the arts could bring people up and out of their cell-phones and into a real, meaningful interaction that offers the opportunity to understand each other on a more substantial level.

After interviewing these individuals, I quickly iterated a prototype based on feedback. I began to prototype an idea to digitize participatory art on an online collaborative and publicly visible board where people can write, draw, place a picture, create a shape or scribble what “world peace” means or looks like to them, as an example. This was an exploration to encourage more interactions between different types of people. However, after attempting this prototype it proved to be unsuccessful because there wasn’t really a definite incentive.

I proceeded to iterate another prototype in the form of a survey that consisted of five quick questions. These questions were as follows:

Do you talk to strangers on the street?

If so, what prompts you to do so? If not, why not?
Are you curious about people’s stories, and if so, why and what triggers this interest?

Would you participate in collaborative street art for passersby, and if so, in what way or ways would be the most enticing?

What do you think are the challenges of face-to-face interactions between people?

I became inspired by various movements that have all been a widespread success, being the name tag project, freehugs, story beads, Yoko Ono’s “Imagine Peace” map. These are acts of sharing a moment or connection with strangers, which ultimately can give people the feeling that they’re not alone, that we’re in this together, and that we are human.

In what form would a unifying movement like this begin in getting people to interact in a short, sweet moment with street passersby?

One answer from the survey in particular offered incredible insight.

The insight was in response to the question, “would you participate in collaborative street art for passersby, and if so, in what way or ways would be most enticing?”

The participant’s answer stated, “probably not because I’m usually walking and don’t have time to participate. I think I’d be more likely to participate if I was with another person and if it was a day off.”

I learned from this that people are busy, so to get them involved in something in the midst of life’s craziness, such as participatory art on the street, would need to be integrated into their routines, pathways, and behaviors.

So I asked, “what draws people in and catches their attention enough to spark involvement?”

As a result, I began to imagine several wild approaches that could build on the idea of integrating collaborative art into the routines of people on the streets of New York. The question still remained as to how these approaches could be incentivized. The following ideas show works that have been successful by other artists, as well as the building blocks of my own creative wanderings.

So my offering is this in itself to you.

This is a repository of stories from my journey in exploring how we can, together, create an integrated experience that inspires more connection between people in the city that never sleeps.

Along the way, I have learned many valuable truths that I believe can be useful, golden, and insightful to you, dear readers.