Before the Interventions project saw the light of day, Monica and I participated in a collaboration between the Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths and INCITE. This provided an opportunity, in April 2005, for designers to work with sociologists over the course of an intensive week. The product of our collaboration was the Colour Beads project, a design intervention that set out to address issues raised within Monica’s research.

Commonly dismissed as just ‘the way things are’, Monica has spent years researching and writing on racism in Mexico to understand why discrimination amongst the population is so widely overlooked.

We set out to find ways for design to help improve public understanding of racism in Mexico and muster enough attention to encourage the government to recognise the issue and address it publically.

Rather than lecture people through campaign advertising, we devised a ‘system/campaign’ to prompt discussion around experiences of injustice and racial discrimination among small groups and communities at a local level. A contagious cathartic exercise, a platform for ideas and action, moving information around through storytelling.

With the sense that the outcome should compliment rather than interrupt the normal flow of everyday life, the system is built around a simple set of beads that make experiences ‘visible’. People participating begin by wearing a single distinctive bead around their neck to symbolise their association with this project. However, each time they feel victimised because of their appearance, they add another bead to the string around their neck. The bead represents that experience and the story attached to it. Over time people may accrue many beads, each connected to a different story that generated sadness, rejections, offense or that denied opportunities or access.



Discussions occur when other people ask about, or comment on, the beads. This provides the opportunity for the wearer to tell a story behind one of the beads to someone that may not be aware of the issue or understand it, or someone with similar experiences who can offer support and advice. At this point the wearer hands the bead over to the listener, in reflection of the story has being passed on. The person who receives the bead is now carrying that story around and can retell it to the next person who enquires.



The experience is now ‘out there’, ‘in the world, circulating in the public domain as an issue that concerns and involves more members of society. As the beads are passed around, people may end up wearing and sharing the stories of individuals close to them but also of some they didn’t personally meet. This dialogue will reveal that the experience is not as personal and unique and that the idea that this is ‘the way things are’ can be challenged.