Shall Make, Shall Be

Group Information 

  • Group Members: John Chomack and Jackie Sabillon
  • Project Mentor(s): Luke Dubois (New York university)
  • Acknowledgements: Federal Hall Rotunda (Renee Barnes), National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy, New York University (Karl Greenberg), The New School (Will Wilbur), Carnegie Mellon University (Golan Levin), Exhibition Venues (Laine Nooney)

Main Point of Contact

  • Jackie Sabillon
  • John Chomack

Meeting Schedule for the Semester

  • As of February 10, 2022 weekly meeting will be held on Thursdays during lecture.

Project Description

The Federal Hall National Memorial is commemorating the 230th anniversary of the Bill of Rights expressed through 10 unique games at the Federal Hall Rotunda in Summer 2022.

The Bill of Rights is one of the most influential documents of the American people. Regardless of race, gender, social status, or religion it guarantees the innumerous rights and liberties of each American within our government. The document consists of the first 10 Amendments of the United States Constitution. This year marks the 230th Anniversary of The Bill of Rights conception. To denote the significance of the document and all it has bestowed upon the American people, the Federal Hall along with the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy have created, “Shall Make, Shall Be: The Bill of Rights at Play”. This event will showcase 10 exhibits consisting of games developed to representing each of the 10 Amendments within this bill. This exhibit will become open to the public in Summer 2022.

Overview of Significant Achievements

02/17/2022: To date the team has reached out to the project mentor, and researched the Shall Make, Shall Be event along with its main center of focus, The Bill of Rights.   

02/23/2022: To date the team has met with project mentor Luke Dubois to get an overview and ask questions about our role in the exhibit. We have also researched the artists participating in the exhibit as well as the Federal Hall.

03/02/2022: To date the team has met with the project mentor and received the master guidebook for the event. We have also received the layout of the exhibit and have plans to visit Federal Hall the week of 03/13.

03/10/2022: To date the team has met with Luke Dubois and John Sharp, coordinators of the exhibition. We spoke about where the exhibition is at and have been requested work on mockups of the didactics.

03/23/2022: To date the team is researching methods to showcase the didactics (i.e. exhibit stands and QR codes). We are also rewriting the exhibit guidebook game descriptions in plain language and translating it into Spanish.  

03/30/2022: To date the team has updated the mentor on a plan for making the exhibit and website accessible with options to move forward. The team has completed the midterm assignment with these updates.

04/06/2022: To date the team has presented our midterm and have reviewed the feedback provided by our peers. Overall the feedback is positive, however we still have a good amount of work to do. Jackie will be proceeding with designing the informational posters and John is wrapping up the plain language of all amendments.

04/13/2022: To date the team has begun working on a final document of guidelines for the Shall Make, Shall Be. Work has continued on plain language and poster designs. The final guide will include suggestions and mock up designs for the website’s game and accessibility sections, QR code instructions, and game instruction guidelines.

04/20/2022: To date the team has continued to work on the final guidelines document. They have also visited Federal Hall and are able to create a spatial map of the location to be included in the guideline. They have also learned of the lack of game instructions and are working on a template for the game designers/artists to fill out and allow for easy translation to the posters and website. Signage has also been purchased and will be assembled to model the poster design.

04/28/2022: To date the team has continued to work on the final guidelines document. We printed the informational poster for the First Amendment and have added it to the stand we purchased last week. We also printed on the Braille machine and got feedback from Amy and Anita on how to incorporate Braille into our information stands.

05/08/2022: To date the team has created a final protocol to showcase the written descriptions of the games in plain language, created physical posters and mockups of poster options, created a spatial map of the space, and have designed a mockup and design of the Games and Accessibility page for the Shall Make, Shall Be webpage.  The team is also working with the mentor and collaborators on how to continue the project and hand off aspect of the aforementioned work in leading up to the exposition.

05/12/2022: To date the team has finished creating and editing the final document to be handed off to the Shall Make, Shall Be’s staff. The team is also working with the mentor and collaborators on how to continue the project and the aforementioned work in leading up to the exposition.

Learn More about this Project