The Princess & The Beast: Worlds of Storied Experience in the Ribbon City

In an effort to combat isolated, inflated, and artificial images of misrepresented marginal identities, particularly those of the Potawatomi Native Americans of Northern Indiana, this paper hypothesizes a design practice that intervenes as a world of storied experience. Using methods of subversive fantasy as defined by Freud, and folklore as defined by Jack Zipes, this paper argues that graphic design and storytelling can function as mechanisms for change in communities of long-standing de-personalization and stereotype. Advocating co-authored storytelling and exhibit design as an intersection of voices and space for critical engagement with fable, design for change can then center on a dialogical story, where the story is transmitted by many voices speaking together: a blend of history, folk legend, community myth-making.

Following this argument is a description this designer's contribution to the aforementioned discourse in the form of the thesis exhibit 'The Princess & The Beast: Worlds of Storied Experience in the Ribbon City.' Provided is a description of components of such an exhibit.