Category Archives: External Advisor

Exploring intersectionality through object-based learning with Dayna Tohidi

I’m aware that I only have left 5 days at uni and that tomorrow I have my final presentation. The fact is I can’t change much of what I’ve done and what I’m going to present these few days at uni, but I’m still committed to keep on learning about different angles on inclusion and intersectionality. That’s why I decided to be part of the workshop that Academic Support was offering. The name was Exploring intersectionality through object-based learning and it catch my name immediately because my project is deeply related to intersectionality.

The workshop was today and when I got to the meeting point, I was the only student that appeared! I basically had a personal session with Dayna Tohidi, she’s a teacher at UAL and works also at the CSM Museum, she’s doing a research related on object based learining for neurodivergent students through action research methodology! So we talked loads about each other projects and she seemed very interested about mine. We did an exercise about emotional object reading and I picked some prosthetic nipples that were designed by an UAL student last year. It was a very moving exercise knowing that they were designed for breast cancer patients and have included the melatonin of the hair those patients lost during chemotherapy.

At the end we exchanged contacts and I received some feedback on how to make my exposition more inclusive considering the accessibility aspects I’ve pointed out before. She liked my idea of placing a disclaimer about the colour- filter aspect of my exposition.

Still sad about leaving uni but very happy I’ve had the possibility of sharing this type of spaces!

Monica Bueno – Chat

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Last Wednesday, I had a conversation with Monica Bueno, a service designer who has worked with agencies like IDEO and is now based in Boston, running her own consultancy. I reached out to her because she’s Colombian, and I thought she could provide valuable insights into how she applies concepts like averages in her design practice.

I introduced myself and explained my research topic, and she shared some of her experiences with using “extreme users” when designing services at IDEO. When planning a project and talking to users, they always included extreme interviews. Monica explained that designing for the average doesn’t allow you to understand the extremes, which is necessary for creating an effective product that avoids generalizations. Instead of relying solely on data, she conducted very deep interviews and anthropological exercises to gain a profound understanding of user behaviors.

In another consultancy she worked with, the focus was less on individuals and more on behaviors. This approach was more psychological, analyzing consumption patterns and creating behavior archetypes.

Lastly, she talked about using a “jobs-to-be-done” approach, which is more practical and focused on efficiency. This method allowed her to quantify decisions more easily, which is often a priority in the corporate world. She emphasized that the depth of user understanding depends on the client’s appetite for investing resources in knowing their customers.

I found the conversation fascinating because, based on my own experience in a design agency, I could relate to what she was saying and understand how it applies in practice. However, I realized that for my project, it might be more useful to speak with a product designer.

At the end of our chat, Monica kindly offered to connect me with people in London, especially to help me explore job opportunities.

Design Transforms – Monica Blanco

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Elizabeth, my tutor, sent me this event that happened at the university, since she knew I was interested about the design practice.

I went to the event and for my surprise, Monica was Colombian! She talked about her projects working in big design agencies, as IDEO, and her practice as a service designer. I took the opportunity to ask her a couple of questions about what challenges has she faced as a Latina in the industry and asked awe if I could contact her after the talk. She shared her email and now we are having a chat next Wednesday!

Festiva Ideas + Dragon’s Den Feedback

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Since the beginning of Unit 4, I’ve had the idea of creating a mirror with the silhouette of an average person, surrounded by data and information on design biases and the issues they create. I shared this concept in my tutorials and with Carolina, the MAAI student who helps with our creativity activities, and she suggested it could even work as an exhibition piece. I thought this mirror could really bring my research to life by allowing people to engage with it directly.

In the picture, my first prototype of what I thought it could be the mirror:

As deadlines approached, I started to panic about actually bringing the idea to reality, realizing I needed to figure out the logistics quickly. I asked Zuleika for help, and she challenged me to think about making the installation more interactive. She asked, “What do you want people to do with this information? How can you give them agency in this subject?”

Later that day, I presented in our Dragon’s Den session. I felt unexpectedly confident, even though I was nervous, since I’ve been discussing this topic all year. Emily, one of the dragons, was especially impressed by the branding for “Flag the Gap,” saying, “Your project is about making the invisible visible.” That completely resonated with me and she even suggested to make another intervention about using red flags in the space, and I think that could be an activity for the exhibition. I saw it as a chance to bring again Flag the gap and that excited me so much!

While reviewing my notes for my reflective journal, I rediscovered a metaphor I’d noted earlier—giving people glasses that allow them to see the red flags we often ignore. This is a random drawing I made after a tutorial and it says “that allows me to identify new realities”.

Concidently, a random post made my bring click: as a millennial, Twilight was a big part of my teenage years, and the simple trick of looking through blue plastic to see a “Twilight world” seemed so smart. Could I create a similar effect for people to see the “red flags” we miss due to lack of awareness?

This led me to explore anaglyph effects, using two colors. I think this concept could work well, but I still need to figure out the practical side. My idea now is to create a room where people can wear glasses or use another device to reveal hidden red flags around them. Here are some referents I found on internet:

Zuleika thought it was a clever direction but pointed out some important aspects to clarify:

Think through the symbolism of using blue and red—how does it tie into my message?
Define a clear call to action.
Make the installation affordable and portable.

Interestingly, I realized that during Unit 1, my first intervention touched on ignorance, referencing the red pill/blue pill choice from The Matrix. It’s funny how things connect in the end.

Interview with Sinem Grocu

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Continuing with my project, I reached again to Sinem Grouch, she is the Cofounder of Feminist Design. I contacted her at the beginning of the year and we had a very interesting conversation about a possible collaboration if my research aligned to the projects they had as an organisation. I reached to her again because I wanted to show her what I accomplished in the summer and maybe restart the conversation of a possible collaboration.

We had the conversation yesterday before class, and it was very brief. I gave her a brief description of my interventions and asked her if she had any feedback or suggestions to my new approach of the project.

She mentioned how she had started a project about the ergonomics and politics of bodies in the office, all about the office posture, what it means in an office space to be professional or informal and the power dynamics behind it. She was open to collaborate but was very clear about how there is no budget for assigning people to it and being honest, she didn’t feel as convincing and reflecting on it, I think it was because I was not very clear either with my intentions of contacting her. I think I used my chance too soon with her or without a clear outline of what I was expecting from her in representation of Feminist Design, and in a way it’s a reflection of what I’m dealing at the moment with my project: there’s still unclarity in a way and still too broad.

Still, I invited her to the festival in December and she seemed keen to, so I hope that’s not a lost opportunity.

The mutation of a research question

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How do the research question and interventions interact?
That’s a key question in this process! The research question is the materialization of your inquiry, just like the interventions — they are all interconnected. I can see that now, but I still feel like I have two branches of questions, as I’m uncertain about which direction to take.

My first attempt at a question and the one I finished my Unit 1 was: “How can we help people identify and question designs that reinforce power structures and inequality from a gender perspective?” Which led to FlagTheGap and the collage workshop with Skaped.

After those interventions, my second attempt was: “How can participatory interventions help people, especially women, recognize, question, and challenge normalized gender norms in their everyday environments?” Which led to the idea of making a board game about this, where we placed on a piece of cardboards the red flags of the environment we have normalized. It didn’t develop much after that.

After conversations with Sofía Díaz and Emilia Márquez, my question evolved into: “How can participatory interventions help individuals recognize and challenge invisible gender norms related to the concept of ‘average’ bodies and their impact on daily life?”

But now, reflecting on the interventions I’ve carried out, my biggest insight is that people often struggle to identify these gaps because they are difficult to articulate without prior awareness. The gap is in the gap. Additionally, a recurring theme is how to use this as an opportunity to encourage people to tap into their creative and speculative sides. I’m concerned that the reference to ‘average bodies’ feels a bit disconnected, but it was my attempt to narrow the focus to something more concrete than just gender norms.

As for what’s still pending, I have two or three potential conversations lined up with experts:

Rebecca Ladbury, the communications representative of TimesUpUK, an organization focused on gender violence, (We’ll have the meeting this Friday)
Sinem, the CEO of Feminist Design. I spoke with her at the beginning of my project, and she was very open to collaborating, (She’s back from holiday this week)
Asma, from the East End Women’s Museum, to get her opinion and feedback. (She’ll be back from holiday next week)

My goal is to create a project that could spark interest and potentially be showcased on Futuress, with the hope of eventually collaborating with them.

Interview with Emilia Máquez

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I had a conversation with Emilia Márquez, who was the director of the gender department at the NGO where I worked in Colombia. She has always been involved in gender and advocacy issues, especially in topics related to public policies and inclusitivy.

I told her a bit about my project and asked her, from her experience, what gap she thinks is still not being addressed or what we should pay more attention to. She shared the following insights:

She challenged me on the lens through which I’m understanding gender and how I’m considering an inclusive perspective, since these conversations usually have a cis-centered and white-centered focus. It assumes an idea of gender based on what is understood by white people: a thin, petite woman with a body shape different from the average man.

She mentioned that an interesting topic for her could be the creation of clothing sizes, based on a study done by two people in the USA, which gave rise to the statues of Norman and Norma, the model of what was considered “normal” in the USA in the 1950s. This still has a direct impact on how we relate to sizes today.

For her, a relevant issue is: what are the definitions of “normal” in statistics? Because this creates a huge bias and directly impacts how we relate to things.

The materialization of objects ends up materializing us in return. Materiality ultimately produces us.

What if we create a lab to explore new ways of relating to objects?

Regarding intersectionality: clearly, you won’t be able to test your intervention on all body types, but it’s important that your theoretical framework be applicable to all bodies, so that each person, through their life experience, can relate to what you’re proposing. That’s intersectionality.

It would be interesting to look at it from a participatory methodology where people can express how they relate to the subject, using experiential methodologies that spark curiosity to imagine parallel worlds.

What do we need? To talk about new sizes? To create new sizes? To not care about sizes? Size justice for overweight people?

This was for me one of the most important conversations I had during the masters becuase she invited me to challenge an specific issue that I can relate too.

Interview with Sofía Díaz

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After taking time to think carefully and prepare the presentation for the assessment, I realized I still needed more feedback from external advisors. So, I took on the task of reaching out to even more people.

I have a spreadsheet where I have a track of anyone who I have ever contacted. Here’s the link.

The idea I have so far is to create a board game as a tool to spark conversations about behaviors we’ve made invisible. This was my major insight: How do we identify what we don’t know? How do we imagine something that doesn’t exist in front of us? Very complicated, right?

So, I already have a list of people whose opinions I want to hear. I’ve sent out many emails, and I’ve had a conversation with Sofía Díaz.

She is a great university friendwho has dedicated her professional career to working on gender-related issues, specially from the sustainability focus. I reached out to her because I’ve always respected her opinion, and I know she has experience working with communities in Colombia, always with a gender focus. Right now she’s working with a charity that do workshops on gender and sustainability in rural areas of Colombia.

During our conversation, I shared my creative process, and I think what stood out most to her was the perspective on the design of objects as a reproduction of the oppressive system. I tried steering the conversation back to gender norms, but she kept circling back, genuinely surprised by something she had never considered before.

Here are some key points from her comments, which also reflect much of what I think about my project:

Objects evolve with the populations, and we all interact with them in different ways.
There’s a clear difficulty in inventing something new, but above all, what are objects really?
How masculinized are our thoughts?
The feminine struggle lies in the fact that we’ve never truly known what our bodies need. It’s hard to recognize those needs and fight for them because we were never taught.
She asked me, What happens after the game? The encounter alone is already positive, but how can we turn this into something bigger?
What do we do with so much frustration?
What can we do together? The sense of togetherness makes us feel like we can handle anything. We need to awaken that emotion. En manada
What we can’t see, we can’t change, but we’ve never liked inhabiting rage and frustration.
Going out into the streets with a group of women responds to impact and change—transforming the gaze.
But definitely, I would make the target group even smaller because each population has a different relationship with objects.
Thinking about carrying a little red flag all our lives—this is the fight to recognize what we deserve.
There’s no dialogue with our bodies, and we are afraid to talk about what we feel and what happens to them.

At the end she was very happy to be part of the conversaion but was not sure on how much she could add to what I’ve done.

I have a feeling that most of the times when I reach out to experts it becomes a little bit like a tutorial and it’s hard for me to cut that habit.

Dragon’s Den

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After the Dragon’s Den presentation, I feel very motivated to continue my project. I am very proud of myself because I worked so hard to feel as confident as I did presenting my project in another language. The Dragons congratulated me on my presentation, its aesthetics, and how passionate I am about my subject.

I think they noticed there are still some aspects to refine, and I’m aware of it, so it was helpful to get their insights and perspectives on my project.

One of the Dragon’s asked me why did I add stickers to the presentation. Being honest, I just like stickers. LOL.

My favorite piece of feedback was to think bigger about the impact of my project. It showed me that my idea has a lot of potential. I still don’t know what that could be, but I’m trusting the process and enjoying it as it goes.

Another sweet thing that happened after presenting was that one of the guys from the masters who saw me present reached out to me and said that he felt inspired after seeing me do it with so much confidence! It was a nice comment to recieve.

Dragons-Den-1 Download

Bruna and Sinem – Interviews

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This week, I reached out to two different experts, both designers but with different focuses: Bruna, an expert in speculative design and the other, Sinme, an expert in feminist design.

I decided to contact Bruna becuase a friend from the MA in environmental narratives works with speculative architecture and recomended me to contact Bruna, since she works at the university as a tutor and her focuse is in speculative desing.

I decided to contact Sinem, since she’s the CEO of Feminist Desing, an organization focused on creating collaborative projects focused on feminist desing and education.

Both conversations gave me new insights into my own research:

They were impressed by my background in Law and encouraged me to continue exploring the intersection of the legal system and design. Both of them expressed a “wow factor,” saying they had never heard of this combination before.

They suggested that I should focus my ideas more specifically on a particular group, community, or problem to have a greater impact. They advised me to concentrate on collecting stories because, according to them, it’s all about storytelling. Design biases operate through narratives.

The expert in feminist design made me question the purpose of speculating. She pointed out that often in speculative work, we lose touch with practicality. She emphasized the importance of being critical about how to bring these ideas into reality and not disconnect them.

I was encouraged to explore speculative writing: presenting written stories that challenge our realities.

They also opened me up to the idea of hosting a talk about the impact of design into the legal system, as well as the possibility of conducting workshops.