As I was exploring my Tokens of Kindness method, I realized I should test it on a different audience using goods appropriate to that audience. I decided to try a nightlife setting with pizza as my giveaway to make the interaction much simpler—one slice for one kind act. These events were successful because people engaged with me and each other in a way they normally wouldn’t on a Friday or Saturday night out: committing kind acts.
Tokens of Kindness Project Statement
I love connecting people through art and design. I have been investigating the idea that a single kind act can start ripple effect of kindness that radiates through a community. My research aims to trigger that initial kind act. I began experimenting with a community design piece aimed to solicit kind acts in exchange for goods and services. I began this work with this pop-up booth selling handmade goods in exchange for special tokens on which customers wrote kind acts that they did or promised to do.
This experiment was the main focus of my research at Iowa State University and is the basis for a method about which I’m currently writing and designing a workbook.
Tokens of Kindness Experiments and Related Works
Experiments:
Tokens of Kindness Ames | Tokens of Kindness Des Moines | Tokens of Kindness at the Mall | Pizza for Kindness | Tokens of Kindness Mixtape Drop | Tokens of Kindness Cookie Drop | Tokens of Kindness Watercolor Class
Related Works: