This work has been created in collaboration with science and technology studies scholar Christy Spackman, and cultural geographer Kevin McHugh. Through a series of fieldwork interventions, this workexplores people of Mesa’s feelings of belonging, intending to contribute to bridging cultural divides within the community. During the Spring of 2023, we partnered with the Mesa Arts Center’s Mobile Arts-Based Engagement Lab (MABEL) which allowed us to foster connections with diverse communities in Mesa. We engaged with two the Washington Escobedo and District 2 neighborhoods and their communities by inviting people to engage in two focused activities. 1) The making of scented collages for participants to examine which scents they feel belong in their life or are displaced 2) The creation of message boards asking participants to express the scents they observed and didn’t feel belonged in their neighborhood.

Credits
Photo: Lauryn Mannigel (Escobedo Park) & Domo Brown (District 2)
Video: Domo Brown
Postproduction: Ri Lindgren
Partner: MABEL

Supported by: Humanities Institute & Creative Constellation and Design and Arts Corps grants, Arizona State University, Tempe (US)
Thanks to: Cecilia Darter, Naina Misra & Oluwabukola Makinde for helping on the ground