Context
This design experiment was a part of the IGS project, conducted collaboratively by Hien Phan, Santana Nyanje, Cassandra “Cassie” Urbenz, advised by Professor Maria Rogal and Dr. Frederick van Amstel. This project is a part of the long-term collaboration between the MxD graduate program and the International Center, University of Florida.
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 and adapting to the local institutions and communities. When inclusivity and inequality is promised but not yet to be experienced, we felt that our existences as Global South immigrants are “out-of-place”. Our complaints filled in the institutional space that we finally claimed for ourselves – the space that professional aesthetics is no needed.
In this design experiment, we redefined the definition of home, which was overused by industry and institution to marketize service and product through the idea of belonging. We realized that whether home is linked to our home country in Global South or the host country United States, it is not at all a place of pure love and warmth. Rather, home is a nuanced embodiment of social issues, where sexism and racism still manifest through everyday interactions. Home is where we revisit after the constant race towards professional success. A new home represents our ability to independently build a life, while also our forced loneliness while pursuing educational milestones.
Through creative making and dialogues, we realized layers of social discrimination and alienation as female immigrants in the United States. This design experiment repositioned us from diverse designers with problem-solution to underrepresented social group in the institution.
Hiền Phan 