Stele-urban memorial

Using design to raise awareness of gun violence.

Gun violence across our nation, particularly in our urban areas, has reached a critical mass. The sites of these murders soon after become laden with token offerings from family members, friends and empathetic citizens. Strewn on the ground are tall candles in glass cylinders, stuffed animals with epitaphs written on them, flowers, T-shirts, photos, permanent markers and ribbons. Their epitaphs written in available zones on the toy tattooing grief permanently. The clash of popular culture and memorialization is distinctly American.

The Stele project stands as a tall monument to a very American problem where legal gun culture and criminality intersect. At this juncture innocent bystanders are often the victim. As an urban memorial, the Stele gathers the emergent leaving of tokens into a vertical arrangement.

As a prototype, the Stele attempts to answer how can urban memorials call more attention to a significant American problem while simultaneously addressing its relative urban culture?