The Tag Project

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The Tag Project was featured in the Spring 2013 edition of the Current Design Research Journal.

Design students were asked to collaborate with children with special learning needs to create an interactive textile-based artifact or system that would encourage sustainable practices within Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School. The resulting design would be gifted to KGMS and its students for implementation in their school.

Combining social media exchanges with the act of graffiti, The Tag Project uses tangible symbols, similar in aesthetics to apps and icons, to create a social forum that enables children to influence both their physical environment and each other in manners similar to how they would in the virtual domain. The tags, which consisted of three-dimensional, reusable symbols that could be affixed to an object or surface directly or with the aid of a clothespin, allow KGMS students to lay claim to or create a dialogue about their surroundings without physically damaging or adversely affecting others’ enjoyment of it. Students would use these symbols to “tag” or comment on an object or area. Other students could agree, disagree or alter these declarations by moving, adding to or subtracting from the original tag.