Environmental Design 4A – Performance Based Activism

ED4A students at UC Berkeley took to the streets for a performance-based activism assignment. Using the artist Sharon Hayes' work as a precedent, this assignment asked them to combine body, speech and public space to stage "speculative protest actions" as a way to investigate:

1) the figure of the protester; 

2) the speech act of the protest sign; and
3) the contemporary political construction of public space and public speech.

They were to "design the activism" to highlight the relation between VOICE + MARKET or their life as a design student. Here's a small sample of works from these highly engaged freshmen and sophomores!.

(Mitchell Squire, Visiting Associate Professor, UC Berkeley, ED4A "Design and Activism" Fall 2015)