top of page

THE PERCEPTION:

BLACK MEN

IN AMERICA

Role

Sole Designer

Concept, Research, and Design 

 

This exhibit is a project that delves into the realities and perceptions of Black Men in America. The design will allow visitors to connect with Black men through dynamic multi-sensory interactive elements in an immersive environment that changes from room to room. They will leave with a connection, understanding, and a more modernized and relatable view of Black men in America.

There were two rounds of interviews done with 11 black men in order to have a more accurate understanding of what some experiences of Black men in America are like.

FEATURED SECTIONS

DR6_edited.png
Living Room Elevation7_edited.jpg

Set in a home environment the walls of this exhibit represent America, a place in which these men live. The visual works of art and information displayed in this exhibit will peel back the layers of both complex Black men and America’s ideation of them theoretically. Physically there will be peeling paint on the walls that expose parts of America's negative structure for what it is.

CLICK TO VIEW SLIDES

Narrative Arc

Narrative arc image.png

Walkthrough Journey

CLICK TO VIEW SLIDES

Positioning and Personas Diagram

positioning.jpg

My preliminary research found that many people outside minority communities don’t have personal connections with Black men. This knowledge helped me better understand who I should design this exhibit for and how to connect with them.

FloorPlan5-01.png

Featured Sections

360 Dream State Room

FloorPlan7-01.png
25.jpg
DREAMSTATE_DEVELOP_SKETCH.png
7.png

Key Experiences

  • 360 projection of a black man running around the room chasing a symbol

  • Symbols representing home ownership, freedom, justice, equality, and education

  • Dressers will have lifestyle 3D-printed models of what the man believes his life would be like if he could take hold of the symbols he continues to chase

  • Statistics on walls of bias' that  have affected black men; big or small

  • The running man will have a stereotypical version of himself chasing him to represent the visions of himself, that America views as bad, that he tries to leave behind

3D Models in Dressers Examples

  • A Black man standing outside of a  new home he just bought (Or repetition a bunch of black men standing outside homes they just bought)

  • Black man with his family at graduation

  • A black man his kids to all their after-school activities

Conversation Inserts

FloorPlan8-01.png
24.jpg

Key Experience

  • Comfortable place to start conversations

  • Game Experience: Card game and Video response from a Black man in America

  • Personal Artifacts with digital descriptions accompanied by a short film based on the item

Card Themes

  • Spiritual (Beliefs, What do they wish could change)

  • Political

  • Racial topics; About Black Men 

  • Emotions (Comfort zones, Openness, Self-aware etc., Pain, Joys)

  • Physical (Exercise, Sports, Attraction, Limits)

  • Personalities (What do they think of themselves, Whats their favorite quality or trait)

  • Humor (Jokes, a funny memory)

  • Interests and Talents (Music, Art, Dance, Glass blowing etc.)

PHYSICAL BUILD PROCESS & SKETCHES

5-01.png
CARDS1_edited.png
CLICK TO VIEW SLIDES

Cookin’ Up New Perceptions

FloorPlan6-01.png
Screenshot (46).png

KEY EXPERIENCES

  • Large scale photos 

  • Smell box near photos (Connecting Smell and imagery)

  • Smells relating to the photos

  • Sounds

​Option 1: Sounds related to the Kitchen (Grease popping, Oven closing, Refrigerator opening- Reprents New thoughts being preped and cooked)

 

Option 2: Isolated sounds near the images relating to those images (EX: Barber Shop scene sound is clippers, the flap of the cutting smock/cape)

Reconstucting Perception Images

  • Hair (Barber Shop, Braids or Dreads)

  • Domestic Work (Cooking, Laundry, Folding baby clothes)

  • Getting ready (Shaving beard, putting on make-up, doing hair)

  • Parental (Rocking a baby to sleep, Playing dress up, doing childs hair, carrying a stroller and baby up subway stairs)

  • Hobbies (Knitting, Dressing in drag, Ice skating wearing makeup, dancing: modern, ballet etc.)

  • Laying head on someones lap getting their scalp rubbed

  • Teaching Math or Science

  • Playing Instruments

36.jpg

COMPLETE PROCESS BOOK

CLICK TO VIEW LARGER IMAGES

A SPECIAL THANKS TO

THE 11 BLACK MEN THAT ALLOWED ME TO INTERVIEW THEM

​HAKEEM,
SAM,
CRAIG,
LAMARR,
TREVOR,
MARCUS,
XAVIER,
TERENCE,
JOHN,
AND THE OTHERS WHO WANTED TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS 

bottom of page