FALL20SR-BSPXS
A journey into how Chinwe tackled design, her thoughts, and the community this semester.
As Jay would say, the year is, well, this one. I came onto campus feeling very whack. It seemed like anyone who wasn’t following the status-quo was a genuine threat to society. It seemed (and still does seem) very dystopian-novel to me. I was itching to make this point of mine be known in my design work somehow this semester.
Part 1: Impact, Disease, and Empathy
Our first project was a team assignment; a research project. This project was my chance to get my pent-up thoughts out. The ‘group’ part of the assignment did make me anxious at first; although I was comforted by the fact that the assignment allowed me to make my own artefact, I was not excited by the idea that, whoever was my partner was, would not have a solid conversation with me about all the ideas running around in my head.
Or so I thought.
A Tome about Data != Life
My partner for the project was Jay Li. I quickly learned that we were both chaotic-good kind of people: big ambitions and highly-conceptual thoughts. I told him my feelings about COVID and the media and my distrust with how factual information is being presented to the public. It turned out we both had a lot to say about the underlying principle about the way data is presented to us can alter reality.
Most of our critiques together were kinda like presenting a deep dive into a random page of a sketchbook: a lot of half-baked ideas came forth (due to both of us, also, being subpar time managers) so people sometimes didn’t really know how to respond to a deluge of thoughts that we were presenting in critique.
But we knew what we wanted. A big, fat book about how data does not represent life. Although the process could have been more streamlined, in the end the victory for me was two-fold. One, we were able to create Fig. Vol. -1, nestled on my bookshelf (with Jay’s eyebrow on the spine). Two, I was able to communicate an idea that wasn’t the popular opinion, yet still work collaboratively with someone to produce one big, fat book, together. :)
Part 2: Non-Vote
Our second assignment was the Vote Gallery, and I was just like, “Are you kidding me?”
To clarify, of course, it’s not bad to encourage people to vote. However, why this year, for the first time(!), did my college decide to do a vote gallery? It joined in the nation’s cry for voting eveywhere — literally from the HTC, to Github, to just the most random places telling me to vote. Did we suddenly get very patriotic at CFA? Was I too young to notice that this was the norm last voting cycle? Or was it influenced by the polarization between the candidates running for office?
Me, thinking that it was the latter of the options that strongly influenced this, was not appeased with the solution. I believed (and still do believe) that you can’t simply have a ‘Vote Gallery’ without recognizing the context that voting, as of recent, brings up topics that make people feel like they cannot communicate with someone who thinks differently.
Without any call for action to distill the tension behind voting for either candidate (and, therefore, distilling tension between communities) was like, to me, ignoring the elephant in the room. If anything, I thought it would make people even less likely to talk about differences and increase opposition on either side; something that I felt I could see in some of the students’ posters.
I went immediately to talk to James about it.
When I first reached out to him, I used the words ‘agenda’ a lot, which made it seem as if I meant the Vote Gallery was to push students to vote for one person over the other, which wasn’t what I was thinking at all. I also was not excited that BU had these designs to tell students to vote all over campus and now I was going to have to make my own version of this. I truly solidified what made me not like this assignment after my preliminary talk with (friends and) him, which led to a good conversation with Dana Clancy, the head of SVA who was running the gallery.
Note: I did make posters for this project but it’s nothing exciting to write about.
Although the conversation didn’t go any further, I think all parties in the little Zoom conversation learned something from one another. For me, I was satisfied that I used the assignment as an opportunity to have a meaningful conversation about the world around us, which is an important design thing I guess.
Part 3: Extra Credit
This semester, my reoccurring thought was, “Is nobody thinking about this like I am?” So I wanted to do more design work, but not in CFA.
I started making these multicolor posters (I have random colors of office printer paper at home). I wanted to make jest of the new MBTA posters that I had been seeing around town.
I researched that an MBTA poster was about 46" x 60" (which was way too big) so I tiled posters half the size with some random thoughts that have been cycling in my head. With the help of the wonderful Jangela, I put them out in the public.
But then they got taken down.
It was defintely the weather. Copy paper and tape, I should have known, could not last the torrential Boston winds. The day I went to go clean them up, another kind soul had already done the job.
I wasn’t really satisfied with the posters anyways; they had these random statements that really didn’t make sense to me all the way. It was almost a fever dream on paper. What I did have was questions. A lot of them.
So I ventured to do this again. Big boy style. Seventeen posters to be lined up on the BU Bridge. Questions. Lots of them for the public to see my mind. Weather proofed.
Again with the help with some friends (honourable mentions to Jangela for telling me, “and how do you want the audience to respond?” and Ivan for investing so much time helping me make them and put them up), I was able to make these posters. If anyone asks, no I was not the one who put them on the BU Bridge.
As we were installing, people would come up to me and tell me they have been feeling the same way as me (or not); I could see the whole thing from the 808 building and people would actually stop to read the posters. This was an invaluable experience and will always carry with me. There’s also the gratification of doing a project that’s not for a class — it helps me feel more like I am a part of a community, not just a school.
After two days, it was taken down. Weather, again. The posters were laminated on one side, and taped down with either parchment paper or plastic wrap on the other (budget cuts). And I, very unfortunately, installed the two nights before a big storm. But hey; high risk, high reward.
Part 4: Design in Question
This was another group project. What I was glad to take away from it was practicing how to balance other’s ideas with your own. I am usually always amazed how, with others, your thoughts are actually augmented.
I don’t know how, but it works out. How miraculous.
Conclusion: Onto Thesis
This semester, despite being the one has been very satisfying. I feel like I am opening myself up to my work, which I don’t think I’ve really done, in such fashion, in the past. Yes, I have done work about how I’m Nigerian and how I like technology and code and helping artists be entreprenuers… but these to me (at this point) are more a superficial, easy layer to unpack. I have gone most of my undergrad thinking that these topics will generate the most succint work. Yet, underneath these aspects of myself, I really like to challenge ideas conceptually, and although a few a my friends get to see this side of me, I’m becoming more interested in the idea off my work embracing this aspect too.
And I think that’s it. :)
