Final Project Proposal
I will be asking Christians to fold (agree) or crumple (disagree) a piece of paper that has a Christian belief system. At the end, I will combine the papers into a poster to create a representation of the diversity of thought even in a conservative belief system. The goal is to reveal the diverse interpretations and belief systems of Christianity to inspire an introspective approach to how doctrine is integrated into more secular environments.
This is a project about opening the minds of religious individuals to consider their differences in religious understanding and alignment. We live in a society that is heavily influenced by Christian ideals. This leads to political decisions being made out of a need to appeal to biblical doctrine and moral codes. The discourses and reasonings brought up in support of or against policies are often derived from Christianity. A few weeks ago, I did a walk where I discovered the typology of the LGBTQ+ community in my local city. This meant looking for any symbols or signs that exist to foster love, support, and recognition of local members of the community. As I was leaving a bookstore that served as a haven for LGBTQ+ individuals, I saw a family that had 3 children enter. Just before they stepped foot into the store, I heard the woman say, “It’s one of those stores.” Right before my eyes, I witnessed someone shield their children from a lesson on co-existence. LGBTQ+ individuals live amongst them in their community, and there was almost a disgust when it came to interacting with them. People use the bible as reasoning to vilify others who love and think differently from they do. I seek to question the frameworks of how they apply the conceptual model of their religion to my project. The project form will be similar to my previous project entitled “Social Territory” in that artifacts will be processed to create a single representation through a poster.
As designers, we orient the world around us into digestible, visual formats. During the civil rights era, their skills came in handy to group audiences in support of a single cause. Without them, local demonstrations would be performed without the necessary order to enact social change. In Beach beneath the Street, when discussing the two kinds of collective belongings, McKenzie Wark states “we belong because we are the same” and “we belong because we are not” (Wark, 2011). These contrasting views put into perspective the importance of appreciating the different people who make up a cause or way of thinking. The form this project will take is contingent on this idea. It builds upon and supports the notion that there is no such thing as being the same when you live in a community. So, what happens when individuals are faced with the reality that other people of different cultures exist within their communities? This is the essential question that will shape my project. Will they fold the piece of paper to show their support, or will they crumble it? Each paper will have a word or statement on it that describes a left-leaning principle of Jesus Christ. They will be given the choice of crumpling the piece of paper (showing distaste) or folding it in half (showing support). There will be multiple instances of each statement to see the frequency at which these statements are agreed upon or disagreed upon. At the end, these papers will be placed side by side to form a visual representation of the diverse mindsets of the locals of my city. When pieced together, the final piece will have a unifying message that is often repeated by Christians: “God is always watching.” The point is to show a physical representation of the diverse ways of thinking within the Christian faith. This project is not created in any way, shape, or form to shame Christians. It stems mostly from a deep desire to understand how their faith works and is applied in a conceptual framework. It is created to show them that faith isn’t a thing that is copied and pasted — it is different person to person. There is a possibility that all papers will be folded. If that is the case, the questioning falls onto the viewer of the piece to question whether they agree with this rhetoric. No sane human being who has not been indoctrinated into opposing critical thinking will one hundred percent agree with anybody. So, when Jesus’ beliefs are placed before them, will they agree or disagree out of the social contexts of the Bible and the church?
3 Sketches
Materials
Digital Software (Acquired)
Printer Paper
Printer (Acquired)
Glue (Acquired)
Poster Board
Steps
Get Supplies (ordering online or art store).
Design Pages + Plan a bigger display in Illustrator.
Print.
Public performance (combining “Walking in your Name” and “With(in) Daily Life”).
Paste them onto a Poster board.
