Disobedient Objects & Subversive Play

(4 Credits)

What does design look like as an activist practice? One answer was shown in the 2014-2015 Victoria and Albert Museum exhibit called Disobedient Objects, which centered the act of making occurring in social movements. Many of the posters, textiles, barricade formations, and place-making featured were made cheap, fast, and focused on a specific applicable purpose, providing a counter to typical aesthetic values of polish and expense. As activism grows in creative fields, game designers also wish to contribute to social movements with their craft, but often feel inhibited by development processes and costs. This course is part seminar and part practicum, where students will read different perspectives on activist design, study political sites in their daily lives, and create disobedient objects of their own to encourage the subversive play necessary for social change.