Part 2: Civic Design Workshop Co-Hosted by Florida Gulf Coast Student Leaders and The Move
“They tried to bury us but they forgot we are the seeds. The Move” — Quote from Student Leader María Andrea Avendano Valderrama
Last week’s post on the Civic Design Workshop hosted by Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) student leaders and The Move team shared four creative activities that FGCU students developed to engage workshop participants around four principles of Civic Design: The Margins, Collaboration, Systemic Change, and Analog and Digital. FGCU Student Leaders also created activities, presentations, and performances to dive into the principles of designing for Equity, Ecological Solutions, Multiple Forms of Expression, and Healing, recounted below. Altogether , the students’ work around these principles contribute to the workshop’s goal of illustrating how these Civic Design Principles may be used as tools to advance more inclusive, authentic civic engagement.
Four Civic Design Principles
Design for Equity
Lewis T. Gopher and María Andrea Avendano led a small group activity related to the principle of designing for Equity. In contrast to equality, equity means giving everyone what they need to succeed, understanding that our shared histories and traditions mean not everyone has had the same opportunities or ability to raise their voice. Lewis and María began with a presentation in English and Spanish about the importance of designing for equity in all different areas of our society, such as our education system and housing policies. A discussion followed about what equity and inequity looks like across these different areas. Participants were then invited to post and group their answers to this question on the wall in the appropriate categories. This activity revealed the many ways that individual people and groups experience inequity, as well as the importance of integrating an equity lens in our civic processes and interventions. Read more about designing for equity here.
Design for Ecological Solutions
Facilitators Dehlia Slizyk and Jessi Drummond lead a dynamic, 3-part session on the principle of designing for ecological solutions. The two student leaders took the group of participants outside of MIT, to sit underneath a tree and discuss the natural origins of one essential everyday object: paper! The conversation continued back inside, where Dehlia and Jessi shared some of their work around sustainability in Florida, and emphasized the interconnectedness of both social and natural systems. The session concluded with a creative activity, where participants got into small groups to design a building that would support social and environmental relationships. Together, this series of activities highlighted how we may care for these relationships in design and civic interventions. Read more about designing for ecological solutions here.
Design for Multiple Forms of Expression
Student leaders Kyra Swain and Jonathan Appolon (Apollo) facilitated this session exploring multiple forms of expression. Considering the many different non-verbal ways that we communicate with each other, the leaders asked the crowd to think about a time where they felt stuck — and to then turn to a partner, and express this feeling in gibberish to each other! After some laughs and a brief collective cacophony of gibberish, Kyra and Apollo then prompted the participants to express that feeling of being stuck to their partner using the expressive media they felt most comfortable with. In this task, participants used movement, spoken word, art materials, and even Play-Doh to express their original “stuck” feeling. This exercise demonstrated both the many beautiful ways that we communicate, and the need to allow space for all of these forms of expression in any engagement process. Read more about designing for multiple forms of expression here.
Design for Healing
Prisca Morisma led a performance and two reflective activities related to Design for Healing. In order to make meaningful progress towards a more equitable society, it is necessary to provide spaces for individual and collective healing of past traumas and injustices. Prisca’s performance (supported by Kyra Swain, María Andrea Avendano Valderrama, and Jonathan Appolon (Apollo)) used song, dance, and spoken words to profoundly express a personal healing journey. After the performance, Prisca invited workshop participants to fill in the sentence “I am human, therefore I am…” written on the wall — and to write down a struggle they are going through, which would be incorporated into one of Prisca’s participatory research projects on healing. Both the performance and reflective activities demonstrate the overlap between creative, and oftentimes vulnerable, self expression and the healing process. Read more about designing for healing here.
