Ode to Barelas: Supporting Youth Agency Cultural Expression, and Community Engagement Through an Interactive Mural
Alyshia Bustos, Nanibah Chacon, Mia S. Shaw, Fiona Bell, Leah Buechley · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · 2024
Community mural projects provide youth with the opportunity to learn new skills, have a voice, and deepen their connection to their communities. This pictorial reflects on a participatory community-based STEAM project in which a group of teenagers collaborated with a muralist (Author 2) and two interaction design researchers (Authors 1 and 5) to create an Interactive Mural—a traditional mural with embedded electronics. We analyzed students’ experience of agency, expression, and connection to community throughout the project. We discuss how large-scale community-centered projects that provide opportunities for student agency and expression are rich learning environments that can promote technological fluency.