I explore the intersections between design, art practice and social science, which helps me understand myself and/in the worlds I research better. I have conducted participatory art and design workshops as part of my ethnographic method, and use visual modes as a part of my grounded theory analysis process.

Participatory Design Workshop: Work/Lives of Independent Creative Workers

With Catherine Wieczorek-Berkes, Ingrid Erickson and Melissa Mazmanian, I conducted a design workshop in May 2024 with ten independent workers in a variety of creative fields (studio art, writing, photography, trades). We posed questions and activities to learn about the challenges independent creative workers face and the workarounds they develop to make their work-lives doable. We then facilitated groups to construct designs that materialized what they imagined for an idealized future. Funded by NSF grant 1928573 “Augmenting Work.” Haley McDevitt produced graphic representation of the workshop (above) and Isabella Corieri provided logistical support.

Compost and Participatory Art

My participation in my local community compost & garden in Sunnyside, Queens since August, 2020, has been a generative exploration of sustainability, coming together as neighbors, and grassroots organizing. On February 13, 2022, along with our weekly compost scraps collection, we facilitated the creation of a group collage focused on the theme of “community wellbeing.” We also served empanadas and hot drinks from Borimex Tamales. For more on our work in Sunnyside follow us on instagram at @resistance_is_fertile

Ethnographic Comic: affect hacks

I blended ethnographic writing with charcoal sketches to create an “ethnographic comic” that weaves together the ways that independent workers get through their days with mental clarity and affective wellbeing. In interviews and diary studies conducted between September 2020 and December 2022, workers told us that they often live in “mind fog,” have back pain, feel lonely and overwhelmed, and have too many tasks to do in a particular day. At the same time, however, these same workers tell of small, often overlooked actions they take to find control and to feel better. This “ethnographic comic” is made up of two parts: ethnographic writing and charcoal drawings. The writing brings together our participants’ words about their breakdowns/responses, ethnographic vignettes, and writing that reflexively details our position as researchers. Aesthetically, we collaged charcoal sketches that we made to visualize the actions our participants take and the worlds in which they live and create. These sketches served a double purpose as both analytical and visual storytelling tools. With Ingrid Erickson and Melissa Mazmanian.

Archival Listening

In collaboration with Sa Sa Art Projects (Phnom Penh, February 2019) and the Book Café (Battambang, March 2019), I ran two participatory art events in which I played two historical radio pieces from the late 1960s (classical music pieces) and one from 1984 (a spoken comedy) that I collected and digitized from the Cambodian National Radio. We listened on a device that resembled a 1980s style radio but had a USB port so we could listen to the digital file. We recreated the practice of collective listening by sitting around the spaces on mats. The radio comedy was in Khmer and I also distributed hardcopy translations in English for English-speaking participants. We asked participants to consider three guiding questions while we listened (presented in both English in Khmer) around history, memory, materiality, and collectivity.