47 Ways to Build a Bridge

“47 Ways to Build a Bridge” is a facilitated exercise between members of a group meant to heighten themes of strangeness, anonymity and imagination to let these all be a catalyst for intimacy and healing.

My project partner and I began by interviewing 5 users who’s perspectives and lived experience pertain to our prompt:

Mental health amongst professors and staff at the Claremont Colleges as the community re-enters in-person learning.

Our primary extreme user was an administrative member at Pomona College.

Their point-of-view statement:

A raging extrovert in a high-up leadership position who values meaningful relationships with students...

feels targeted for holding a position of power that interferes with their sense of individuality, marked by the growing chasm between students and administrators during controversy...

thus losing the ability to enact long-term culture change in their position that is inherently overshadowed by student mistrust.

Key Themes in Solution:

Anonymity

Strangeness

Imaginative

Alternate reality

Self-visualization

47 Ways to Build a Bridge intends to lower barriers that certain social positions create in relation to one another, such as “Dean of Students” and “Student”. To address the need of unbiased communication with students on the part of our user, we suggested that this exercise be incorporated into Pomona College’s community engagement programming, primarily for rising 3rd-years. Incoming students receive an orientation, but after a couple of years on campus, a student can better visualize their place on campus and how they wish to get involved. This is a key moment in letting students get in touch with their professors and administration in an effective, intimate and low stakes format. 47 Ways to Build a Bridge lowers the stakes as it allows participants to get to know one another, but alleviates the burden of choice that can sometimes deter people from conversation with strangers. This exercise also allows for conversation topics surrounding academics to not take precedence over a random topic such as, “What are three things that you’ve learned through friendship?”.

“I really did feel like we were all riding away from the beach in a truck together! Like I could visualize that and it definitely made me feel closer to everyone else.” - HCD student

47 Ways to Build a Bridge

Experiential Design, Creative Direction

We tested our prototype “47 Ways to Build a Bridge” with a group of four: 2 Human-Centered Design students, a staff member at the Hive and one Human-Centered Design professor as other students, staff and professors observed. There was then a third-party facilitator (myself). The third-party facilitation was a tactic adapted from A Thousand Ways, a three-part production by 600 Highwaymen which explores new forms of intimacy through distance and prompted conversation between audience members. As the facilitator, I invited them to close their eyes as I lead them through a series of questions asking each person individually to respond. In tandem, I situated them in an imaginative scenario that they are experiencing through their mind’s eye; the scenario was that three of them were sitting at the beach waiting for the fourth to come pick them up in their truck- once this occurred, the exercise concluded.

Take-aways:

• An unexpected outcome was the positive feedback we received regarding the fish bowl method of the exercise. A by-product of the presentation of our prototype actually became apart of the prototypes next iteration. The fish bowl addresses our key themes and user’s needs in that it amplifies participants comfortability in joining the exercise by offering them an opportunity to observe others first. This also indirectly makes for more opportunity for community members to get to know one another in a low-stakes, fun and psychologically safe format.

• People respond well when invited to engage their imagination. Forming an alternate reality creates for a new environment, a new dynamic and form of intimacy between people.

47 Ways to Build a Bridge is now offered as an exercise for students, faculty and staff at the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Innovation at the Claremont Colleges.

A sketched mood board of the design process, concept mapping and mental imagery of the exercise as participants experience it.

Participant feedback: