The Art of Assembly: Script, Platform, Document

ABSTRACT

Drawing on fieldwork conducted with the designers of and participants in a new fellowship program to connect globally distributed grassroots leaders, this article defines a core set of communication-design practices that support emerging collectives and projects. The three practices detailed – creating a script, building a platform, and inventing protocols to document activity – can be understood as part of an “art of assembly” that is yet to be fully and systematically articulated.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication design
• community development
• experience design
• international development
• public rhetoric

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the Gather team, the Global Fellows, and DePaul MA in WRD graduate Meg Palmer for their assistance with this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Dush

Lisa Dush is an associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse at DePaul University, where she teaches courses in professional and digital writing. She also serves as Faculty Director of HumanitiesX: DePaul’s Experiential Humanities Collaborative and coordinates DePaul’s Graduate Certificate in Strategic Writing and Advancement for Nonprofits.