As a Designer that focuses on a practice that allows spontaneous and playful experiences, I decided to create a system to pass on messages that required interaction from the audience. This was done during the pandemic when human connection and touch were limited. Through this experience, we got closer without being physically with each other.
PROCESS
1. INTERACTIVITY
Interaction is a characteristic that you can often find in my designs. This comes from my learning experiences, where I am not a passive learner and need to be involved in the process to enjoy and learn. Thus this experience required the audience to be actively engaged in the construction and the experience itself.
2. SETTING UP THE SYSTEM
During this experience, the community constructed a pulley system using only yarn and creative solutions between houses. We had two plans set in place: Micro that went up and down the same building and Macro that went sideways, crossing over to other terraces.
3. HUMAN CONNECTION
Needless to say, I grew up in this community, and all of the participants are long-time friends who, because of the pandemic, were forced to interact through our balconies and terraces. We all were longing for connections, conversations, and spending time together. We started physically and emotionally connecting each of our homes through this game.
THE MESSAGES
MICRO
While sending messages, I thought of how to make it light, fun, and a simple escape from the lockdown everyone was experiencing. When working in a micro setting with five homes to reach, it would be nice to create a drawing together where the player had to draw what the instruction said and cross it off before working the pulley system to pass it on to the next home. This game was played by different generations, including children and adults.
MACRO
In this experience, I had to think of a message that would bring joy to people and just loosen up after a day of stress and confinement. The word "Báilame" means dance to me in Spanish, and for a Latino community, this is deeply rooted in our memories, especially connected to happy celebratory times. Watching the reactions from people when receiving the message was extremely rewarding because a bit of happiness was spread during tough times.
MICRO SCALE
MACRO SCALE
WEBSITE
