Whereabouts encourages and advances new approaches to social impact design.
Our approach privileges design as sociocultural inquiry and provocation over a system to deliver solutions. The project consists of a series of bespoke objects – Clique Din Low, Boda Whisper Helmet, Hush Hush Headset. Together, this suite reframes three everyday sound interactions in order to stimulate discussion and provoke imagination in Kampala, Uganda. At the same time, the representation of the project deliberately subverts expectations and challenges Western designers and audiences to reconsider what design can be in developing contexts.
With collaborator Betsy Kalven, I was named Winner of the 2014 Core77 Design Award for Speculative Design. The jury cited our storytelling initiative as "sensitive, thought-provoking, and exemplary."