LO 8: The Creative Practice of an Individual

Sasha Costanza-Chock’s work focuses on amplifying social movements and transformative justice through design. They are currently based in Boston. After studying at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and University of Southern California, they taught Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and continued on to the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. They describe themselves as “a researcher and designer who works to support community-led processes that build shared power, dismantle the matrix of domination, and advance ecological survival.” I admire their interrogation of white supremacy and colonialism specifically in the context of visualization. I also think it’s important to note that they put their work in conversation with the communities it serves as well as people who have undertaken similar projects. They focus their attention toward on-the-ground organizers who can genuinely create the change rather than some academics who prefer to keep their distance. Their transmedia organizing design is meant to be “cross-platform, participatory, and linked to action.”