The City of Gainesville, Florida has a community-based engagement strategy called IMPACT GNV as the next step in citywide efforts to prevent gun violence. I was happy to contribute a bit to their branding. While I have never been to Florida, Brittany Coleman, their Gun Violence Intervention Program Manager, is a fellow Obama Leader whom I met in a Zoom breakout room last year. I love random meetings like this that lead to meaningful outcomes! Thank you for the merch; I wear it with joy. Thinking of you, dear friends in the US, especially those who care deeply about this issue.

More about IMPACT GNV here: https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/Community-Pages/Community/Community-Interests/Gun-Violence-Prevention-Efforts/IMPACT-GNV

It’s been a fun few weeks and here are some of what’s happened in May:

I spoke in a panel for Sydney Build 2025, Australia’s largest construction and design show, with Michael Bird, CEO of urban.com.au; moderated by Ann Austin, Executive Director of ESG Strategy, on the future of the construction industry:

I spoke in my dear friend Zoe Bezpalko’s class in the MBA in Design Strategy in the California College of the Arts about my art practice. Zoe was one of my models for the Climate Change Couture project I did in Singapore back in 2013 when I was artist in residence at the Singapore-ETH Future Cities Laboratory:

It was also the kickoff meetings for the Obama Leaders Network, and I am super stoked to be part of the Virtual Events Committee with fellow leaders Liangyi Chang, Amanda Morrell, Joseph Nguthiru, and Victoria Anastasia Belle. I’m looking forward to the year ahead!

A 3AM bedtime in Sydney for me that was worth it for a comms training by Terry Szuplat, one of President Barack Obama’s longest-serving speechwriters and author of Say It Well, with fellow Obama Leaders from the United States, Belarus, Greece, and Thailand. I was looking for tips to improve how I write about my art practice. My biggest takeaway from Terry: “The messenger matters so much.” Art takes the form of many messengers — great lesson, thanks so much!

Thank you, UN, for the kind words and for the opportunity to contribute to last year’s exhibition, “Are You Ready?” I’m grateful to use art as a way to engage with global conversations and help us steer our planet to a better path for all.

Thank you, USAID, for inspiring me to bring art and design to social change and international development. This was back in 2016 for the Climate-Resilient International Development Exchange in Bangkok, where I was invited by a USAID director to speak about The Sewer Soaperie and run a cybernetics workshop.

Thank you dear friends, artists, curators, leaders, and doctors for a fantastic month in the Philippines! I am looking forward to future art and design collaborations in this region. Important on this trip was my hand delivery of my PhD diploma to my Mom and Dad. Thank you for all the lumpia, pancit, and ube we inhaled. I’m stoked and ready to start teaching this term in Sydney, and to make all the projects for this Year of the Snake!

Jesús Armas is a Venezuelan activist, Obama Foundation Scholar, and McCain Global Leader who is currently under unlawful detention for his human rights work. Read the statements of the Obama Foundation and the McCain Institute.

The Obama Leaders Network and Jesús’s friends and family are currently mobilising for his immediate release. Please follow the news from the official campaign on the website and on Instagram.

Over the holidays, I designed the logo for his campaign — a small contribution to the big efforts of everyone else. Here is a quick note on the design process:

As with Hong Hoang‘s campaign, the goal was to humanise Jesús to provide a three dimensional glimpse into him as a person beyond his activism. After collaborative meetings hosted by the Leaders Network, I learned that Jesús loves rock and roll music, and the universal hand gesture with the index and pinky fingers sticking out came to my mind.

I had an exchange with Liangyi Chang whom I worked with on the Free Hong logo, and we were debating between whether the thumb should stick out or not as we have seen rock fans use both though the first image is the actual symbol for rock and roll. The second image also means ‘I love you’ in American Sign Language, and so I stuck with the first hand. My third and fourth fingers kind of form a heart anyway, so love was not lost.

I thought of Jesús going to rock concerts with his friends and imagined his hand sticking out with this gesture wrapped in paper wristbands typical of concerts and festivals, and substituted this with barbed wire as a symbol of his activism.

When I showed this to the team, one of Jesús’s fellow scholars sent a photo of Jesús doing this with both hands, so I took it as a serendipitous sign that this was the direction to go.

A few exchanges with the team about Pantone colours…

And here we go:

I am honoured and sad to have made this and I hope that Jesús gets returned to his family as soon as possible.

Thank you to the Obama Leaders Network and friends of Jesús Armas for all their efforts.

My PhD dissertation can be read here, and the documentation of practice (screenshot below) can be viewed here.

Last week, I co-organised a pizza watch party with my friend and fellow Obama Leader Jackson Rowland to watch and reflect on President Obama’s speech on pluralism during the third Democracy Forum by the Obama Foundation held in Chicago. You can watch the speech and more here, but here are the key takeaways:

“[Pluralism] is the idea that because we live alongside individuals and groups who are different from us, we commit to a system of rules that helps us peacefully resolve our disputes, and not only tolerate each other, but join in collective action.

 Here are a few principles to consider as we move forward: 

1. Building bridges isn’t contrary to equality and social justice. In fact, it’s our best tool for delivering lasting change.
2. Pluralism doesn’t require us to deny our unique identities or experiences. But it does require that we try to understand the experiences of others and look for common ground.
3. Pluralism works better when it’s about action and not just words.
4. We’re not born with the muscles to make pluralism a habit. It takes practice, and we need to rebuild the institutions that give us that practice.”

— President Barack Obama

We had a nice group of six attend the call. Clockwise from top left: Jackson Rowland (New Zealand/Australia), Catherine Sarah Young (Philippines/Australia), Kyaw Thu Htet (Myanmar), Dan Ilic (Australia), Dina Jezdic (New Zealand), Skye Riggs (Australia).

Using a Miro board, we collaborated on the pizza. The pizza toppings reflect what we think pluralism is:

I had the pizza base made in my favourite local cafe and arranged the toppings according to the board above:

This was harder than it looks. And the blue flower around the pizza stumped me for a bit until I realised I had lavender at home. As an artist, I saw this as an edible sculpture, and it was 10/10 delicious (lavender included)!

We’ll likely do this again in the future. Thank you all for coming!