Entrance to the design exhibit, courtesy of Demi Moore
By The People: Designing a Better America is the living host of a series of works attempting to achieve an equitable society by way of design. The exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum showcases both the elemental features of realizing design measures that work for all people and highlights the vast inequality that has spanned the history of the United States. Showcased projects address a wide array of social concerns that range from probation and parole department spaces lacking a positive ambience to the growing need for communal living for grandparents and grandchildren in the Southwestern part of the U.S. As a whole, the 60-project display coalesces to form a voice for diverse innovation.
New York City-Based Exhibition
In conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Civic Data Design Lab, the New York City Department of Education teachers and students, and Brooklyn College, Laurie Rubel and Sarah Williams mapped lottery players in urban neighborhoods to critically examine economic injustice. Students serviced “City Digits: Local Lotto” data collection in order to learn math through real-life, hands-on applications. Lottery spending patterns around NYC were then logged in a virtual visual to truly investigate the operation of the system using the mathematics of probability. The map presents figures showing the breakdown of how much out of the average player’s median income is spent on lottery tickets in addition to average winnings per store by region. To date, City Digits program manages to support several urban investigation modules.
Local Lotto used geospatial technologies to reveal telling truths about the lottery system in their neighborhoods—but the project seems static. For the class of math students who benefitted most from visualizing patterns, it seems as though there was no tangible takeaway from the findings besides the fact that the system compromises whole communities. The messaging the system uses works. The glamor in winning is targeted and everything but ephemeral. By tagging the lottery with the tagline ‘mathematics of probability,’ people may feel slightly detached, but the overall expectation of a paradigm shift may be too farfetched.
Adaptable or Implementable Civic Project Outside of New York City
Though it may seem as if New York City does not have any more room to accommodate civic spaces, it is critical that we start reimagining already existent and failing spaces that seek to do just that—keep young minds civically and culturally engaged. The Edcouch-Elsa Fine Arts Center by Kell Muñoz Architects would act as a fine adjustment to the metropolitan area to bridge major divides in communities with regards to education, intellect, age, and discipline. The Texas center aimed to satisfy the requests of teachers, students, artists, folklorists, and historians alike so that they may be provided a structure to cultivate the visions of their immigrant community. The civic space is more than just a traditional public edifice. It features vertical color bands to mimic the sound patterns of La Maquina Amarilla (the border folk song) and the vibrancy of the region’s surrounding auto shops.
“Edcouch-Elsa Fine Arts Center” Display, courtesy of Demi Moore
Before perusing the exhibition, I thought of how desperate New York City millennials have become in the wake of the intense political climate of 2017 to find camaraderie in urban spaces. Many have used sidewalk chalk to denounce the current administration and have resorted to covering ads featuring Donald Trump in the cityscape with remarks calling for an end to fascism in the U.S. Students from Hunter College take to Lexington Avenue and amplify their concerns using the backdrop of the campus as a stage. I am interested in political performance as it exists in public and private institutions as well as in homes, mosques, bodegas, hospitals, and other places people of all kinds gather. If there were a civic space that transcended conventions using color, the advantage of physicality, an assorted set of resources, etc., we’d be taking a new approach to art. After all, two heads are better than one. And, two heads from two varied backgrounds are definitely better (and stronger) together.
Beyond New York City
Water station and blue flag setup used along the Southern border, courtesy of Demi Moore
Unlike states like Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California, New York does not share a border with the third country to comprise North America. As a result, problems that arise in the Southern region vary greatly in comparison, especially with respect to the people involved. The Southern border, especially the Sonoran Desert, is home to many migrants who go to and from Mexico and the United States in search of work and solace. The Humane Borders water stations and warning posters have been functioning since the year 2000 to respond to the myriad deaths (nearly 3000) that occur along the border due to dehydration. The Humane Borders program methodically engineered a water system to be placed in the desert for those who travel by foot, but not without kick-starting a campaign that highlights the dangers of migrating on foot in shelters.
“Border crossing may be illegal…but it shouldn’t be a death sentence.” —http://www.humaneborders.org/
Something I scribbled on my entrance ticket, courtesy of Demi Moore
By The People: Designing a Better America engages the layperson so that they may understand that regular people can participate in civic design. Regular people can dream up innovative structures, places, and spaces to better the lives of the 46.7 million who live below the federal poverty line and beyond if they simply think to respond instead of condemn.
