As part of the Design for America RISD|Brown chapter, I attend weekly studio meetings and work on a project team. The weekly meetings often include talks and mentorship by designers and researchers at large technology firms or design groups. The project team I am a part of works to increase voter and civic engagement, especially among college students and others in Rhode Island. Before the election, we created physical and digital art and engagement projects. Now that the election is over, we are working on long-term civic engagement via art installations in Providence and online forums to share personal stories about political issues and learn more about those issues and biases.
By participating in DFA and working on this project, I have leared about barriers to voter engagement and techniques to facilitate dialogue between people with different political stances. I have also learned about the design process, from ideation to implementation, and used several design and collaboration tools I was not previously familiar with.