Tools of Protest

Brief

Design a way in which activists can effectively deliver their message without causing harm to the carrier(s).

Narrowing it down

A further look into past protest occurrences from Uganda were these images and they sparked off a debate of thought about the tools protestors use and a design opportunity they could avail.

Existing design explorations

Symbolism

Playfulness

To rally against climate change, the Eclectic Electric Collective started sending giant blow up balloons, instead of people to different protest sites around the world.

Protest lighting tools

Illustration

Installations

Silent Activism

For thirty years, Barbara Holub's socially and politically engaged art has linked urban development, social issues, and artistic interventions. As an accumulative process of participatory action, Holub's projects question the role of art in society, whether in the context of art itself, in urban public space, or in relation to corporations.

Her monograph below offered a detailed view of her extensive body of work as well as her projects with transparadiso at the interface of art, architecture, and urbanism, for which she coined the term Silent ActivismRather than directly propagating activism, Holub persistently creates performative s ituations for dialogic action with the aim of questioning norms and crossing boundaries.

Paintings

Whom it is intended for

I would be designing for people who will encounter the need to a protest, get involved in a protest and activists whose methods rotate around protests initially targeting communities with lower freedom of speech and expression. I would be designing with people who have been involved in, are planning to carry out and have carried out a protest or other forms of activism in likeliness to protests. This would be done by reaching out to people on both ends of the freedom of expressionspectrum like XR's Claire Farrell and other Activists from Uganda while interacting with the general public.