The Past
Everything is OK began as a simple project in our design studio. Faced with the mounting inequities in our world and culture, we set out to assemble a list of resources that would point people toward positive action. We launched a simple website (everythingisok.com) as a means of sharing these links. To promote the site, we created barricade tape with the incongruous message "everything is ok."
The tape was first deployed during the 2006 US election, and then again during a massive pillow fight in San Francisco.
The response to the tape was overwhelming, and we quickly realized that people were more interested in the tool we had created than the project it was designed to promote. It started showing up in design annuals, museum collections, books and blogs. People started writing to us asking for tape of their own. Gradually, we became interested in exploring the possibilities represented by this intersection of design, art and activism.
The Present
Today, Everything is OK exists as a kind of social design experiment in subversive positivism. It explores the relationship between medium and message, challenges accepted modes of communication, and provides everyday citizens with tools for social commentary.
We read "Everything is OK" as both an affirmative phrase and a condemning indictment of mediocrity — a tension that is amplified when delivered through the cautionary medium of barricade tape. Once deployed, the message takes on additional layers of meaning as it becomes an interactive caption, modifying spaces, objects and events.
The Future
Everything is OK is a testing ground for new ideas in design and social interaction. It is a place for us to explore the connection between visual and verbal communication, and a space in which we examine what constitutes "average" in a culture that promotes conformity as a form of unique expression
