; breaking personal bubble by shared experience

Harvard Graduate School of Design | 2018
Instructor: Malkit Shoshan
Team: Daniel Shieh, Delaram Rahim
Duration: 3 months
Role: Ideation, research, implementation
Featured: ︎ Project Research Paper

| Goal |
Creating social interaction between strangers on public transportation without causing discomfort. 

>> By creating simple, shared experiences,
we create a sense of connection between riders

Background

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The space between people, or interpersonal distance, creates and defines the dynamics of social interactions. Public transportation, as a social infrastructure, serves as a platform of having all different types of people together, but sometimes it causes discomfort.

The breach of physical distance on a personal and intimate level often causes disturbance and even undermines passengers’ personal territories, yet in the context of the subway, it is normally accepted as a non-intimidating situation. When passengers breach each other’s personal distance, it also causes minimizing personal territories.

Shared Experience

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A space of solidarity in the context of public transit needs to be able to respond to the tendency of personal territoriality.

Toolkits

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Passengers are invited to create art together with others. The experiments were conducted over two months to create a culture rather than a short-lived spectacle.

Drawing workbook






Small art workbooks placed on the subway seats








| Drawing Book |


Drawings created by the participants









| Poetry Book |


poems created by the participants

#artontheT

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The passengers’ artworks are then compiled onto Instagram, so the participants can later look at others’ works and stay connected as an online community.





︎ Instagram account





Proposed exhibition on a T station

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