These familiar slang phrases introduce a deliberate exploration of America’s unyielding gun culture and its deep-seated ties to industrial design. By repurposing standard school facilities and materials from RISD store—using high-precision lathes and everyday components—the work exposes the unsettling ease with which a near-functional firearm can be fabricated within an academic setting. When the very tools that drive innovation also build instruments of violence, a dissonance emerges between the narratives of progress and the realities of power.
Engaging in this act within the controlled environment of a school, the work challenges the institutional boundaries that have traditionally distanced design education from the ethics of arms manufacturing. Every cut, weld, and assembly not only demonstrates mastery over industrial processes but also serves as a symbolic act of defiance—highlighting how the normalization of arms production underpins the very fabric of American industrial history. This subversive utilization of academic resources confronts the sanitized discourse that often excludes a frank discussion of militarism from design curricula, urging a reflection on the paradox of a society that both venerates and vilifies its legacy of violence.
Through this multifaceted inquiry, the act of creating a near-operational firearm within a school setting transcends mere fabrication. It becomes a call to confront and reexamine the cultural and industrial narratives that continue to shape—and sometimes obscure—the true foundations of American society.