overview
As part of Bruce Nussbaum's Design at the Edge course (The Ethnography of Design and the Design of Ethnography series) we were tasked to explore a theme through ethnographic research and mapping that relates to our every day lives and surroundings as sources of inspiration. Our group decided to focus on NYC street art culture and explore the relationship between their medium, messaging, legality, and aesthetic.
(Medium: markers, spray paint, wheat paste, stickers, or mixed. Messaging: pop, political, religious, or ambiguous. Legality: commissioned vs illegal, and Aesthetic Form: icon/picture or text.)
Objective
What started as a joke of dropping cash off the Empire State Building turned into an idea as part of our project. We decided to create an anonymous art group titled “The Change Project”. We designed a stamp featuring the Monopoly man, an iconic symbol of wealth and greed, whose cane we replaced with a devil-liked trident. The stamp would be placed on bills and distributed through out NYC as a way of sparking conversation. Through Kickstarter we were aiming to raise $20,000 to make this project happen.
Team
Dayton Rinks, Sofia Brunner, and Vicki Sotiros
addendum
Nussbaum’s class focuses on the forces of demographic, technological, cultural, economic and political change that are disrupting our social organizations and personal lives. Through a series of talks, videos and other engagements by a roster of design stars from around the world, both inside and outside Parsons, the lecture series pushes students to think widely about the forces shaping their lives and critically about how to harness the tools and methods of 21st century design to deal with them. Learn more.