The Cutting E.D.G.E.
Enliven Discourse through Grounded Experience
2025–26
The Divas
PALOMA
SIENNE
SABLE
BIJOU
CASS
DELPHINE
ROSCOE
STERLING
VESPER
KIT
ARLO
PEARL
BLAISE
DOTTIE
LUX
17 hand-turned wooden figurines with embedded NFC chips and custom AI agents, reactivating forgotten sites of queer history across San Francisco.
Context
MS Thesis at Stanford d.school. Queer history in San Francisco is being erased as sites are demolished, communities disperse, and institutional archives fail to capture lived experience. Through 15 qualitative interviews, four key insights emerged: a huge generational divide exists but formal mentorship feels awkward; people want to be a part of history, not observe it in a museum; queer history is shared and experienced on the streets, where it happened; and being an outsider shapes queer identity in generative ways.
My Role
Sole designer and researcher. Conceived, researched, designed, fabricated, coded, and deployed the entire system end-to-end.
The Challenge
How do you reactivate forgotten history in a way that’s personal, embodied, and community-driven—not institutional? How do you bridge generational divides within the queer community through low-stakes, meaningful connection?
Process
Conducted 15 ethnographic interviews surfacing insights about intergenerational connection, outsider identity, and the limitations of institutional memory. Hand-turned 17 wooden figurines on a lathe, embedding NFC chips into each base. Built 17 distinct AI agents using Anthropic’s API, each with their own personality, voice, and knowledge of a specific site in San Francisco’s queer history. Wrote original historical fiction narratives for each character. Designed the full user experience including a community pass-off system for intergenerational exchange.
Outcome
17 Divas deployed and in active circulation across San Francisco. Each figurine, when tapped, initiates a conversation with its AI character who tells their tale and guides the user to a site of forgotten queer history. The pass-off mechanic creates an ecosystem of intergenerational storytelling. Exhibited at the 2026 Stanford Spring Arts Festival.
Reflection
This project is the most complete expression of my design practice. It blends physical craft, AI, systems thinking, creative writing, and community engagement into a single system. The Cutting E.D.G.E. reframes queer history as existing not on the fringe, but at the cutting edge—and it puts that history back in people’s hands, literally.