Soft Power In A Digital Third Space
By Corrina Espinosa and Molly Valentine Dierks
As designers/artists, we were–alongside many of you–shaken to learn the Trump administration was in the process of destroying public monuments that celebrated inclusion and diversity. The administration’s erasure of inclusive public culture
has continued, from federal monuments to museum programming to public art. In response, and in the spirit of creative defiance, in March of 2025, we began discussing how we could use design in virtual space to resurrect those same monuments.
The first of these was the BLACK LIVES MATTER PLAZA, a beautiful street mural with letters thirty- five feet high and two blocks long in the political heart of Washington, DC. In response to a movement to recognize the importance of Black lives and citizens, the installation was commissioned by Mayor Bowser to acknowledge “people who are craving to be heard and to be seen and to have their humanity recognized.” An act of unity, it was painted by seven artists, working with the DC Department of Public Works and the MuralDC Program, in 2020
Five years later, it was destroyed, not by direct federal order, but under threat of losing federal funding, demanded by Republican congressman Andrew Clyde as the price of DC’s compliance. The removal was part of a broader white nationalist agenda that includes the sanctioning of a violent ICE paramilitary, the censuring of diversity initiatives and narratives, and decreased access to and funding for essentials like education, health, and clean environments.
The scraped, vacant blacktop where the monument once was left us feeling disheartened, angry, and powerless, both as
artists and US citizens. After discussion, we decided to take action, using our skills in digital media, and passion as designers and public artists. We created “Soft Power” to digitally revive, in altered form, two chosen monuments through augmented reality: the BLACK LIVES MATTER street mural in DC, and the Orlando, Florida rainbow crosswalk, created in memoriam to the forty-nine people killed at the LGBTQIA+ Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016.
