"Strange Fruit Market" is an interactive installation examining the stark realities of food apartheid, casting a critical, satirical light on Walmart's intricate role within the food stamp ecosystem. This project isn't simply a critique; it's a reflection of a system where Walmart emerges as both a significant employer of SNAP beneficiaries and an international retail giant that strategically targets and profits from low-income communities, especially those that are Black and Brown. Here, Walmart stands as a symbol of the cyclical exploitation prevalent in our food systems, a poignant representation of the complex interplay between corporate interests and the struggle for food sovereignty among marginalized groups.

The project's title, inspired by Billie Holiday's powerful protest anthem "Strange Fruit," a haunting yet beautiful euphemism about the lynchings of African Americans in the American South, serves as a metaphorical bridge connecting the historical atrocities of racial violence to the contemporary struggles faced by African Diasporic communities. These legacies do not require a noose to oppress Black communities. Instead they do so through insidious policies, a militarized police state, underfunding predominantly Black schools, emboldening health inequities and straight down to the food we eat. Strange Fruit Market stands as a metaphor for the ongoing struggle against a system that continues to bear 'strange and bitter crop' of racial-environmental injustice, all under the deceptive guise magnolia's sweet scent.

In my two-hour study at a Richmond, CA Walmart, chosen for its significant Black population, I explored food accessibility and cultural dynamics. This Walmart's unique location and design starkly contrast with its surroundings, emphasizing disparities in retail experiences. My personal history as a lifelong beneficiary of EBT/SNAP informed my approach, allowing me to critically assess Walmart's role as a major employer of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries and its impact on low-income communities.

This ethnographic inquiry aimed to uncover the complex realities of food access at Walmart, particularly its strategic targeting of low-income demographics and the implications for systemic food disparities. My research questions examined Walmart's product selection and pricing strategies, revealing a trend towards affordable but less nutritious food options, and how the store's layout influences consumer choices, especially among a diverse community. The findings highlight the need for a deeper understanding of corporate strategies in perpetuating cycles of poverty and food inequity, and the importance of developing more effective solutions to enhance food accessibility and promote healthier dietary habits in marginalized communities.

This led to the creation of Strange Fruit Market, a project designed to challenge and reimagine the conventional retail experience. Strange Fruit Market is split into two primary experiences to shape the sensory and emotional experience: physical and digital. In the physical, participants are guided throughout the space using spatial navigation cues in the form of vinyl cutouts. As they walk upon the exterior they are met with a bodega-sized store front entrance with the name "Wolmart". The exterior presents as a familiar facade that is welcoming yet has elements that subtly hint at a deeper narrative with an inverted color scheme and subtly distorted logos, hinting at the hidden realities beneath the surface. While the interior design marks the unseen reality of the market by starkly contrasting the exterior with the bright colors of the exterior giving way to darker, more muted tones, creating a sense of being in a different world. Audio elements include overlapping announcements in distorted tones and sounds that evoke a sense of urgency and disorientation. Before participants are allowed to enter they're given one of two cards at random: a Blue card indicating an approved food stamp application or a Red indicating a denied food stamp application. Regardless of application status, both cards allow admittance but come with a unique set of restrictions and a new persona as detailed on the card. Once inside participants realize they've entered a different experience from what they were perhaps expecting.

Digital experience: The card participants are handed before entering is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) card that uses radio waves to identify people or objects. This card will be with Blue and Red card recipients throughout the experience. As they enter the space they're surveilled and projected via a GPU plugin in touch designer called MediaPipe, that uses machine learning for skeletal analysis and image segmentation to track movement. As they're guided from the surveillance projection to the next and last projection, participants come upon a projection of food items that can be purchased through the market. RFID scanners provide numeric identifiers for each projected food item and it is here that the cards come into play.

The RFID cards allow participants to "purchase" items from the wall by tapping their cards against the RFID scanners present for each food item, mimicking the experience of tapping your credit or debit card to checkout. The caveat for participants is that Blue applicants have access to any food items of their choosing whereas Red applicants have restrictions to access basic goods only. Both applicants have restrictions on the number of items they can "purchase". This is meant to reflect the real life scenario of having your purchasing power limited as a food stamp recipient due to how much money you're allocated per month based on your socioeconomic demographic. Which in this case is featured on your persona card. Lastly, Over the course of this installation food items will inevitably become unavailable to reflect the number of "purchases" per item. Which will be indicated by the item becoming grayed out in order to replicate supply and demand.

The installation adopts a facade reminiscent of an international food oligarchy, akin to Walmart. This familiar setting draws participants into a space that feels known, yet the distortion of certain brand elements subtly hints at a deeper, more dystopian narrative lying beneath the surface. The use of Walmart as a satirical punching bag underscores its status as a food giant that targets food stamp recipients, highlighting the complexities and contradictions within the food access system.

At the heart of the installation is "Strange Fruit Market," a marketplace that inverts the Walmart brand, inspired by Barbara Kruger and John Carpenter's 1988 "They Live.", to spotlight systemic inequities, prejudice, and challenges experienced by EBT/SNAP recipients. This inversion serves as a satirical commentary on Walmart's targeted marketing strategies aimed at acquiring employees and consumers from low-income communities, who often rely on food stamps.

In developing the user experience for "Strange Fruit Market," I was mindful of the delicate balance between complexity and accessibility. This process involved critical decisions about simplifying certain elements to ensure clarity and feasibility, while also preserving the depth and transformative potential of the project.

This evolution was catalyzed by pivotal feedback from a respected former professor, who observed that my early concept, though interesting, lacked the provocative depth I was capable of. This critique galvanized me to focus on creating a project that was not just a critique of a system, but a deeply personal narrative intertwined with broader social issues. As someone who has relied on food stamps for most of my life, this project is more than an academic exercise; it's a reflection of my lived experiences and a commentary on the systemic issues surrounding food access. "Strange Fruit Market" is the culmination of this journey, a project that merges personal insights with a powerful social critique.