After a couple of failed attempts at bringing people together via design, I needed to do some thinking. Fortunately, I had a couple of “a-ha” moments.
First, I attended an on-campus lecture, given by social designer John Bielenberg, director of Project M. Bielenberg gave three points of highly relevant advice:
1. “…regular people can do amazing things.”
You don’t have to be a millionaire or invent a cure for cancer to make a difference in the world.
2. “Be bold. Get out. Let go. Make stuff. Bet small. Move Fast.”
It’s important to make stuff and put that stuff into the world. If you sit around thinking about making stuff, you’re not making a difference and can’t see what people’s reactions are. These ideas reinforced what I learned from the previous design experiments.
Finally … the game-changing piece of information:
3. “Try not to piss people off … [your work] needs to be wholly positive.”
This is what completely changed the direction of my work.
After hearing Bielenberg speak, I began to think about what I could contribute to society.
And a-ha moment #2 …
Around this same time I watched a documentary about Kurt Cobain entitled Montage of Heck. Unlike other Cobain documentaries, Heck focused on Cobain’s sketches, writings, drawings, paintings, and other non-musical work that Cobain made. According to Heck, Cobain was fearless in his making, and everything he made was inspired by a desire to change the world.
I was so inspired by Kurt’s making that I decided to start making things with less judgement.
Write more.
Sketch more.
Sew more.
Create more.
Judge less.
As a result of exposure to these creatives, I began making objects while working towards creating a new immersive design interface to bring people together. Ideally, this interface would entice people to interact with the researcher and — most importantly — the community.
While making, an idea sparked:
What if, instead of asking for money in exchange for a handmade item, an act of kindness was requested?
- Would people be willing to promise an act of kindness?
- Would people recognize kind acts that they already performed?
- Would the handmade goods be enough to coerce people into acting kind?
- Could a sense of community proliferate?
- Would people’s lives be positively impacted enough to facilitate additional kind acts?
I was intrigued by this idea, so I decided to explore this direction.
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Who knew that my 90s obsession would come in handy? 
