Visualizing the academic immigrant trajectories
I would like to thank the MxD graduate studio, especially my colleagues Flory Sanabria, Santana Nyanje, and Aazadeh Jalali. This series is advised by Maria Rogal and Dr. Frederick van Amstel who introduced us to Lego Serious Play and Crisis Deck.
Sprouting designs from our bodies
Product design aims to negotiate efficient functionality to users/consumers. This process implies that users are the problems to be solved, while designers are situated as saviors (Gonzatto and Van Amstel, 2022). While users are alienated during the product manufacture and commodification, designers are not seen beyond products - efficiency-based, disposable, and voiceless. This activity was engaged as a brainstorming activity of the Package Design project in Typography I to seek for the alternative design process. From projecting and reflecting on embodied experiences, graphic design students positioned themselves as both users and designers of certain products and design accordingly.
This activity was inspired by MFA thesis projects of Flory Sanabria and Brooke Hull.
Countering Coloniality in Design
Coloniality is engraved in making through the justification of modern, digital tools that replace handiness and contextual origins of making (Saito, Freese Gonzatto, and Van Amstel, 2024). As designers from countries of being colonized and exploited through globalization, we engaged conversations against coloniality in design through a collective quilt making and counter-narrative weaving. By telling multiple stories and speculating design as a practice of perpetuating and challenging coloniality, we held difficult conversations on design and its designed lack of space for critical consciousness.
Materials in use: clothes from the local Goodwill, color markers, paints, buttons, fabrics, threads, label stickers, and a construction paper roll.
This activity was co-facilitated by Hien Phan, Madison Roberts, and Elsie Ofori-Addo, supported by Dr. Frederick van Amstel in the MxD Seminar, Spring 2024. We would like to thank Flory Sanabria for material supports in this process.
Repositioning international student experiences
United States is a popular country with multicultural education policy that attracts global citizens to pursue professional advancement and social class upgrades. While educational success of immigrants are highlighted through the image “American dream”, challenges were often undermined and stigmatized.
Understanding the common positionality of being international students in the United States, the graduate cohort in Design and Visual Communications gathered to share lived experiences, including highlighting moments and challenges of seeking belonging and professional developments. Our lived experiences are complexly situated in the wicked system of the United States legislations in education and immigration, as well as social issues in local community resources. Through reflecting on our experiences and repositioning ourselves in the institution, we recognized the co-design activity as a gradual act of community building, at the position of diversely shared struggles.
This series of activities was co-facilitated with Santana Nyanje and advised by Maria Rogal. We would like to thank our colleagues at the MxD graduate studio as well as Dean Marta Wayne’s initiatives in inclusive globalized education at the University of Florida International Center.
Tracing the roots of social issues through low-tech materials
Design education tends to focus on product design based on efficiency- and solution-oriented curriculum. However, as education is stemmed from social structure and hijacked by political policies, design education is committed to engage problem-posing design as citizens’ responsibilities and rights.
Inspired by codesign and accessibility in social movements, especially Free Palestine international protest waves, we emphasized concrete languages in communicating social messages. We also engaged low-tech materials such as recycled cardboards, color markers, label stickers, and color threads to collectively analyze the common enemies of these social issues. To name a few, they were institutionalized oppressions and capitalism.
This activity was inspired by promblem-posing design curriculum from Dr. Dori Griffin and Dr. Frederick van Amstel whom I attended or shadowed.
Cultual identities or Asian diaspora counter-narratives
The zine open call was co-facilitated by Flora Wang and Caitlyn Wong as a part of the 3rd APIDSE Annual Cultural Fair, 2023. This series was inspired by Dr. Margaret Galvan’s course “Intersectionality” in Fall 2023. We would like to acknowledge the zinesters Luke Han, Charlie Classe, Damien Shane, Isha Khan, Sabrina La Vopa and other local community members who were invaluable parts of this series.
Embodied mapping in design education
This series of activities was co-facilitated with Brooke Hull and VoxGraphis officers 2023-2024, as a part of Hull’s MFA thesis.
Redefining our homes at the marginal positions
International students from Global South countries often seek for inclusion in the local communities and institution in the Global North, as we advance our professional developments. This transition promises knowledge co-productions while living with others. This transition is also referred to as a roadmap of
This activity was co-facilitated by Cassie Urbenz and Hien Phan, inspired by the previous collaborations with Madison Roberts, Elsie Ofori-Addo, Dr. Frederick van Amstel as well as Santana Nyanje and Maria Rogal.
What makes you feel safe in your community?
Gainesville is a campus town in Florida, U.S.A. where social segregrations can be observed through education and economic gaps among neighborhoods. In order to address social impacts on local youth development, especially the aftermath of gun violence, the MxD graduate program partnered with Dr. Anne Wolf on national initiatives in engaging arts in counter-narrative storytelling, community-building, and alternative future seeking.
This collaboration included a series of participatory design activities with materials in use such as sticky notes, pamphlets, collage materials, and buttons.
This series was co-facilitated and co-designed by Isabella Arrazola, Hien Phan, and Dr. Anne Wolf in collaboration with Project YouthBuild, City of Gainesville, and One Nation One Project in 2022. We would like to acknowledge the tremendous supports from Dr. Dori Griffin and our colleagues at the MxD graduate studio.