To Truly Reap What They SOW:
ROOTED HERE is a survey of legacy, landscape, mapping, and memory. It presents twenty transmedia projects that use communication design to tell the stories of a place. Inspired by the words of Harriet Tubman, “We’re rooted here, and they can’t pull us up,” shared in August 1859, when she addressed the New England Colored Citizens’ Convention (Tremont Temple, Boston, MA), ROOTED HERE reimagines, chronicles, and honors our intersectional histories and our trace in a given space.
As designers this project challenged us to examine, investigate, and reflect on how place defines our way of living, language, and food, and how it impacts our identities, culture, and bodies.
Project ········ Senior Capstone
Medium ········· Print/Screen Based
Published ······ January - May 2023
Language ······· English
Got food? Thank farm workers!
Almost everything we eat starts with farm workers. They keep us fed and are a critical part of this country’s ecosystem, but we do not treat them with the decency or human dignity they deserve. On December 9, 2021, two dozen people were indicted in Georgia for smuggling Mexican and Central American immigrants to the United States and forcing them to live in camps and work on farms. Authorities say this is an illegal enterprise closely related to “modern-day slavery.” Workers are treated inhumanely, some dying; as a result, others are raped, kidnapped, threatened with death, forced to work at gunpoint, and sold unwillingly to farms in other states. Perez-Coral will explore the issue through multidisciplinary visuals to highlight them to the public and create not only awareness but reform for Latinx migrant farm workers to improve their treatment and conditions both publicly and privately.
Narrative Rationale:
In approaching the three different possibilities for mediums a great deal of consideration was how each would affect the ultimate goal. Having this in mind, each medium was decided based on the narrative and perspectives in which each would deal with these aspects successfully (data, historical, personal). The first medium, an 18in x 24in (8) poster series, allows for a more brief but bold and impactful perspective of the narrative as it was data driven. With the poster series the vision was to immideiately catch the viewers attention being data driven. Typically, the medium of posters allow for that quick but impactful presentation to audiences. Knowing this and also heavily referring back to the narrative, color and collaged imagery was used to create cohesiveness and dimesnionality with the data. The second medium of a 8.5in by 11in book was chosen for the historical approach. Print is traditional, tangible, and is typical for the presentation of heavily historical/text based information. Print also allows the viewer to sit with the narrative, go through it as fast or slow as they want, as well as pass it down. Finally, the third medium, was an interactive ipad kiosk 1024px by 768px. Through the kiosk, the goal was to have the audience be more hands on as if they were in a grocery store simulation. This would allow them to then be more connected and go through the personal stories of latinx migrant farmers themselves whilst they’re immersed in the medium. Moreover, in being interactive it also allowed for a more immediate prompt to take action given the option in the kiosk to extend impact.
Narrative Application:
Poster Series
With the poster series the goal was to highlight imagery of latinx migrant farm workers in combination with statistics to have the audience understand the true physical and human cost that these farm workers expereince [narrative presented through data]. The presentation of this data through poster form was ideal so that the facts and numbers as well as imagery was too “in their face” to ignore.
Book
Through the book the goal was to educate through visuals and text a deeper understanding of the historical basis of this narrative and how long the fight for change has been going on [narrative presented historically]. With this the audience would be able to contextualize the importance of the topic and understand the urgency and further importance of the matter.
Ipad Interactive Kiosk
The kiosk was intended to serve as means to break this narrative into produce (as if it were laid out at store) connected to stories where the user can click on pieces which would reveal the human faces and short stories relating to the narrative [narrative presented through personal lense]. Through this interactive kiosk the audience would put one of the many faces behind each item, this hopefully creating impact on a personal level as they would understand it’s ultimately about the people.
With the poster series the goal was to highlight imagery of latinx migrant farm workers in combination with statistics to have the audience understand the true physical and human cost that these farm workers expereince [narrative presented through data]. The presentation of this data through poster form was ideal so that the facts and numbers as well as imagery was too “in their face” to ignore.
Book
Through the book the goal was to educate through visuals and text a deeper understanding of the historical basis of this narrative and how long the fight for change has been going on [narrative presented historically]. With this the audience would be able to contextualize the importance of the topic and understand the urgency and further importance of the matter.
Ipad Interactive Kiosk
The kiosk was intended to serve as means to break this narrative into produce (as if it were laid out at store) connected to stories where the user can click on pieces which would reveal the human faces and short stories relating to the narrative [narrative presented through personal lense]. Through this interactive kiosk the audience would put one of the many faces behind each item, this hopefully creating impact on a personal level as they would understand it’s ultimately about the people.
