Follow my journey as a multimedia designer, completing my undergraduate capstone project consisting of two case studies of speculative design.
ABOUT:
she/her
Vidyarthi is a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago studying Interdisciplinary Education in the Arts major with a double minor in Museum and Exhibition Studies and Global Asian Studies.
PROPOSAL 1:
I hope to innovate an architectural celestial space which will eventually be used as a blueprint for resilient spaces that center communal living, solidarity economy, sustainability, technological advancement, and equity within the rapidly changing dynamics of our future.
Time and time again I have seen science fiction world building exclude marginalized people, like myself, and discussions around space exploration become largely out of grasp of those of us who do not fit the billion dollar income bracket. However, I want to pull from BIPOC-futurist thought to envision a vibrant and equitable sanctuary that refuses to leave us behind. The project is an imagined safe haven for women, non-binary, and queer BIPOC individuals exploring the galaxy.
The colony is designed for up to 1,000 residents, including singles, families, children, and pets. It will be made from 3D printing using filaments found on the planet itself and consist of different spaces, gyms, labs, indoor farming, recreational halls, creative spaces, classrooms, residences, etc. It is a community that celebrates celebrates queerness, resilience, socialism, collaboration, and empathy.
I feel it’s important to note that we may never make it to living on Mars nor do I propose abandoning Earth but this project hopes to be a practice in speculative design and world building.
- Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life – How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow Exhibition at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan
- Dunne, Anthony., and Fiona. Raby. Speculative Everything : Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. The MIT Press, 2013.
- Beyond Speculative Design: Past – Present – Future written by SpeculativeEd.edu
- Spektor, Franchesca, and Sarah Fox. “The ‘Working Body’: Interrogating and Reimagining the Productivist Impulses of Transhumanism through Crip-Centered Speculative Design.” Somatechnics, vol. 10, no. 3, 2020, pp. 327–54, https://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2020.0326.
- Aimi Hamraie. “Alterlivability: Speculative Design Fiction and the Urban Good Life in Starhawk’s Fifth Sacred Thing and City of Refuge.” Environmental Humanities, vol. 12, no. 2, 2020, p. 407–, https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-8623197.
- Sustar, Helena, et al. “The Landscape of Envisioning and Speculative Design Methods for Sustainable Mobility Futures.” Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), vol. 12, no. 6, 2020, p. 2447–, https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062447.
In Progress Portfolio
Project Graphic and 3D renders displayed at UIC CADA Open House
Proposal 2-
Pink Museum-Jaipur Design Proposal
My love for the arts and community building united with a reluctant, yet necessary, embrace of my familial legacy of urban planning and architecture influenced my Senior Capstone. I delved into speculative design, which is the creation of innovative solutions that center future concerns, such as social unrest, technological advancements, climate change, etc, to create two case studies. The first case study was called Martian Village, in which I envisioned a celestial community-oriented space inspired by BIPOC and queer futurism. For my second case study, I brought my attention back down to Earth with “The Pink Museum and Sculpture Park, ” a research-based design project which aims to solve issues around arts erasure, museum education, public space, and water body conservation.
I propose the creation of a contemporary art museum for the princely city of Jaipur, India, my hometown. Fondly known as the “Pink City” for its specifically colored architecture. The colors chosen are representative of that history and the cutting edge contemporary art scene developing. Not only is this an arts space but also a gateway into a larger public waterfront redevelopment project to aid in the necessary conservation of its chosen location, Man Sagar Lake, which has for years been neglected. The Pink Museum is an ode to the love I hold for Jaipur, the city where my parents built their life together and all the beautiful memories they have given me.
Place-keeping AI generated architecture to serve as inspiration for the final design of the museum and sculpture park.
