Kevin Ruiyang Xiao

Designing For Agency: Participation Through Making 

In a culture where convenience replaces process, this project argues that making — even when inefficient, imperfect, or unnecessary — enables forms of engagement that buying cannot. Technologies and Services nowadays are able to fulfill human’s desire for travel and exploration at ease. However, this convenience comes at the cost of immediacy, our experience with the world around us is hence diminished. Our engagement with the world becomes heavily mediated, regulated and controlled. This project investigates how hands-on engagement with water can reintroduce + restore our sense of joy, curiosity, consequence, and presence. Exploring Ocean as a unique domain where immediacy is unavoidable, it is seen as both a stage and as a teacher. Each individual decision and its effect is directly visualized. Through a series of making, testing, and reflecting, how might we regain agency over how we experience the world.

Milo on Kev Dinghy Prototype 

Kev's Sailing Dinghy 
 

Dinghy Named 'Knot So Fast'

Skiff Restoration