The artifact that my group was assigned to was a passport. The first task was to try to explain what a passport is in simple terms and in a way that is easy to understand. The definition that we came up with was:

A passport is…

• A piece of paper – a mini booklet – that signifies where on Earth I was born, what nation-state I belong to and the legal privileges that comes with it.
• Every time you enter a new country, you get a stamp in the passport thus creating a track record of all travel.
• A standardized picture of me is in it along with my fingerprints and signature.
• It is the only thing that will make people believe who I am no matter where in the world I am.
• It allows me to travel across country borders but some passports are better than others. Singapore is #1, USA and Denmark share #2 and Kenya #58. Afghanistan is the worst. I can update it to let me stay longer than usual.
• I have to buy it from my local government but it expires after a certain number of years. Usually ten.

 

The next part of the exercise was to redesign our artifact from a feminist perspective. The experience was quite insightful. I realized that the knowledge I had on feminism was quite limited. While researching on the subject, I got to learn about the various feminist movements throughout history (I’ll break them down below):

• First-wave feminism: It a period of feminist activity that occurred during the 19th and early 20th century throughout the Western world. It focused on legal issues, primarily on gaining the right to vote. (Wikipedia)
• Second-wave feminism: It drew attention to a wider range of issues: sexuality, family, the workplace, reproductive rights, de facto inequalities, and official legal inequalities. (Wikipedia)
• Third-wave feminism: Embraced individualism and diversity and sought to redefine what it meant to be a feminist. It saw the emergence of new feminist currents and theories, such as intersectionality, womanism (within black feminism), sex positivity, vegetarian ecofeminism, trans-feminism, and postmodern feminism. (Wikipedia)
• Fourth-wave feminism: The focus of the fourth wave is justice for women and also opposition to sexual harassment and violence against women. Issues that fourth-wave feminists focus on include street and workplace harassment, campus sexual assault and rape culture. (Wikipedia)

 

As a group we decided to focus on fourth-wave feminism given its significance in today’s social climate. We then asked ourselves: how can the passport be used to curb sexual misconduct and harassment?

Drawing from research, we found that women are less likely to travel alone due to safety concerns. We agreed that an additional goal of our solution would be to empower women to have the freedom and independence to travel without any fear. To achieve this, it was proposed that in case of an emergency, it was necessary to find a means to quickly alert local authorities and other emergency services.

Finally, we questioned whether or not a passport had to take the physical form of a booklet. Could a passport be a digital chip? What are the security concerns of transforming a passport to an electronic device? What are the variety of ways that the chip can be embedded in objects or attached to the human body?

Solution

From these insights, our solution is a wearable, digital passport that can be worn as a necklace or bracelet depending on a person’s preference.

Uses:

Travel device that doubles up as a safety device – Calls emergency responders when triggered.

Information included in chip:

• Emergency data i.e. contacts, blood type
• GPS locator (can be switched on and off)

 

This new proposed passport would have the following features:

• No gender at all (gender status is opt-in)
• Nationality (or community – should be easier to obtain legal status is local issuer of the feminist passport)
• No name policies. (You may choose as you like)
• Age/date of birth (not included)

 

Overall, this experience emphasized Making by Making Strange (Genevieve Bell), by taking an ordinary object (like a passport) and reimagining it and its functionalities without any limitations. It also touched on  Do Artifacts Have Politics? (Langdon Winner), by demonstrating that through simple design alterations and features, people are able to politicize technology and other artifacts.

The exercise was done in under 20 minutes, therefore, the solution isn’t without its flaws. For me, the objective wasn’t necessarily how feasible the solution is but rather understanding the process and learning how as a designer, I can inadvertently create power imbalance through products that I create.