One of the core principles of transdisciplinary design is co-creation and engaging in work as a single unit, leaving space for the work to determine where participants should move next. The collaboration between us—Judy Park Lee and Lucas Teixeira Vaqueiro (both MFA Transdisciplinary Design '22)—culminated in our thesis project, The Cabinet of Bureaucratic Wonders, created in partnership with the National School of Public Administration in Brazil.

In the project, we merged our interests and experiences, establishing routines and structures that fostered accountability and sharing our interests in a way that allowed our emerging practices to evolve and grow organically.

An interview with the creative practitioners expanded our concept of practice, transforming our perception of work from a mundane process to a liberating one—especially valuable for design research. We highlight the importance of translation and adaptability in relation to our work, which we hope will resonate in different contexts and with diverse audiences. The core of our project is an investigation of institutional power: We reveal the inevitable inequities in offices through an installation that asks participants to reflect on the subject, using interactions inspired by real processes and systems in corporate or government settings. Questions explored include: What is an institution? How does leadership differ from authority? The cabinet served as a space for civil servants to critique and understand the tensions in their roles. It highlighted the importance of maintaining and transforming existing infrastructures rather than demolishing and rebuilding them. Our work focused on developing ways maintaining institutions that were transformative rather than colonial.

Our project culminated in a zine that extends the dialogue beyond the thesis, allowing the work to continue developing through new discourse. Our key collaborators at the National School of Public Administration allowed for these continued discussions in and beyond the Transdisciplinary Design studio.