For this week’s reading on Ch. 7 of Artful Design, I want to first respond to the concept of “designing for strangers”, discussed on pg. 360. The page discusses how Ocarina’s globe feature allowed people to connect with others without knowing who they were. This made me reflect on how powerful anonymity in a safe, controlled environment could be. Especially during this past year and half, I struggled a lot with maintaining connection with the friends I made at Stanford and found myself withdrawing socially since everything was virtual. It was fine for a short while for an introvert like me, but there was a point when I started to spend a little too much time in my own head. A friend introduced me to a few games that we could play together, and since that point, I discovered the joy of random co-op games and connecting with strangers via play. I found myself joining other people’s worlds, having fun, and not wanting to part with them. I met two friends back in April that I still talk to on Discord regularly today! :) None of us know what the other looks like, but that layer of anonymity makes it more comfortable to connect with each other. I resonated so much with the statement on pg. 363 that says, “anonymity can be powerful and liberating”. The combination of technology providing the medium, while anonymity mitigates the inhibitions (pg. 365) has been so powerful, gratifying, and beneficial for me this past year and a half. 


In a more general sense, “music, dance, art can bind and connect people without affiliation and politics” (pg. 290). I grow much closer much faster with someone if I make art with them or communicate with them through some artful medium. For example, it took me so little time to grow close to the members on my current dance team compared to the friends I have outside my dance team. In high school, I also had a dance team, and there was one year where we recruited a new member that had just moved from Japan. She could barely speak English, but it didn’t matter -- as cliche as it sounds, we all understood her through movement and music, and that was more than enough for her to find a home in our team, and for us to find a home in her. This week’s chapter in Artful Design made it especially clear how grateful I am to various artful mediums and technology for allowing me to connect with people so quickly and so deeply.