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Week 11 - Design and Develop

Updated: Sep 27, 2023

This week, I will explore how different disciplines can offer further insight into social issues and how global-thinking can be used to influence the design process of a local issue.



RESEARCH //

Lecture

Interview with George Lee and Jonathan Collie

Georgina Lee and Johnathan Collie are co-founders of social enterprise 'The Age of No Retirement' and a community project 'The Common Room'. Lee has a background in psychology, design strategy and communication, whilst Collie specialises in health and service design.

Real Art was a design company that Lee started in 2002, which was famous for its disruptive nature. And she decided to launch Commonland in 2012 in order to create social change through creative thinking.

It's interesting to see that both co-founders studied within the health sector. Collie graduated as a medical doctor but by chance entered a design competition for 'living well with dementia', which introduced him into the creative world.


The Common Room started off community based, which started off looking at how different age groups are divided within the London community and turned into creating physical spaces across the urban parts of the UK that allows all ages to interact with each other. The double diamond process was used.

Age doesn't matter festival

This festival involved an audience of all ages attending talks, exhibitions, design labs and research activities, which allowed the designers to create a better understanding of how they might approach creating an inter-generated world.


E, Manzini., (2015) ‘Part 3: Making Things Happen’, in Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation.

  • Green Map system: a non-profit organisation that promotes sustainable community development. It's filled with community resources such as socially conscious businesses, heritage sites, recycling centres, etc. This started in 1995 New York City and has spread to over 885 cities worldwide.

  • We use stories to pass on wisdom, beliefs and values. One example of this is LifeStories, which is a series of videos about how mobile techniques have solved concrete problems. Its investing when they suggest the filmmakers can misinterpret the story being told by the person being interviewed because they refer to a problem specific to their own community, it's difficult for someone outside the community to understand. Interviewees need the freedom to express themselves and direct the nature of production. What is cultural leapfrogging? Story Bank project used cameraphones to share audiovisual stories within a village community.


Visual Tools for Social Conversations

Conversation subjects: can result from workshops and seminars, activism or traditional channels such as movies showing possible futures.

Conversation prompts: communication artifacts used to facilitate social conversation.

Experience enablers: prototype, experiments or pilot project to show people what a solution could be like and enable them to carry out constructive criticism.


Strategic Design Scenario is a design agency based in Brussels that use these 3 categories within their work. For conversation subjects, the agency invited 6 families to imagine what their own live might look like if their city followed sustainable cities in using short food networks, slow mobility and energy / water conservation. This project was called 'City Eco Lab exhibition'.


Conversation prompts were used in the 'CORPUS, sustainable street 2030, European research project', which involved a series of posters showing teasing sustainable solutions for food, mobility and housing - acting as context for conversation on sustainable transition.


And experience enabling was used in 'HiCS European research project, 2001-2004' that prototyped a platform providing customisable food services for people with reduced mobility.


Making Things Possible and Probable

  • Infrastructuring. Infrastructure in design enables us to highlight how design could move beyond the design project and enables a diverse group of stakeholders to come together- but this is also a long term commitment and requires flexibility in time and resources. Pelle Ehn collaborated with stakeholder for the Media Living Labs to explore how new services would tackle social issues.

Infrustructuring elements:

  • Digital Platforms

  • Physical spaces

  • Logistic services

  • Information services

  • Assessment services

  • Communication services

  • Design expert services


Making Things Effective and Meaningful

Car sharing idea originated in 1998, which developed into Zipcar, Car2Go and Buzzcar. This is an example of how a prototype designed for a local community can be applied in different contexts in terms of function, cost and behaviour: Zipcar is more suitable for long journeys whilst Buzzcar is budget friendly and available for short periods of time. As a step-up, Bike sharing has been carried out as people start to think more about environmental and wellbeing, and businesses have started using this system for food deliveries.


Redesigning existing products and services, which brings me back to the GoodNightOut Campaign and how it needs to be promoted more, especially in communities that are expanding. Perhaps I need to create a community based charity group, enabling me to form a partnership with this group of specialists. They are able to send flyers for me to spread their message, but what more can be done? Other local communities would need knowledge of the website / organisation in order to receive these flyers.


Making Things Replicable and Connected

Collaborative organisations create concrete steps towards sustainable ways of living.

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WORKSHOP CHALLENGE //

For the week's challenge, there is a choice between carrying out my own brief or collaborating with a fellow student. I have decided to carry on from my own because I am in contact with a local activist that is able to give me insight into what is possible to carry out - and I want to make this project into a reality. I also feel that the idea of collaborating with students from different parts of the world is to expand a potential local solution and make it global, however, the issue I have chosen is global - a death that has happened in London has triggered conversation across the globe.


This task will involve looking at relevant media (social media, public installation, viral product, digital innovations and new technologies) to strengthen the idea and influence change - I will analyse examples of global campaigns to influence my decision making.


After looking at different strategies already taken place as a response to Everard's death, I think the app medium is overused and I need to think beyond this platform. Another campaign response that is overused is hashtag movements, although it is a good way of spreading awareness across global platforms, I think I need to do a forward thinking approach to show that we are no longer in the past.



24th April Hoax: National Rape Day


The University has informed me about a negative campaign, which encourages people to participate in National Rape Day. Local newspapers have informed the public about a WhatsApp group from Falmouth students with the intentions of turning 24th-26th April into a competition for sexual assault. I think this shows how relevant my brief is and how it has become normalised to the point where people are making jokes about it.

This reminds me of a video game that was launched in April 2019 called 'Rape Day'. April is known nationally as a sexual assault awareness month, throwing many support lines for victims and spreading awareness. This video game however makes gamers part-take in sexual assault to move up a level or gain extra points. With all this in consideration, I am fuelled with anger and determinate to denormalise this once and for all. I think what makes this worse is how people go out of their way to make victims feel unsafe all over again.


At the moment, Falmouth students have created a Facebook group to arrange a two day buddy system that escorts women home during late hours. However, despite the buddy-system being a mixed group of people from different genders, many women feel unsettled by this idea.

Instead, there is a march this Saturday night to support awareness charities and extend awareness past the alarming 'rape day' campaign. Good Vibes Cafe called on fellow business owners to act, asking them to be in their premises on Saturday evening with the lights on, both as deterrent to the alleged plans and as a protest against violence against women. This tells me that if I were to reach out to local businesses, I would receive support and participation with much enthusiasm.


A group of students set off rape alarms and placed it in someone's letterbox. The alarm was heard by a few households and police were called.


So how do you denormalise something?

  • The media normalises things. Romantic comedy films display men behaving in a stalker-like manner. This reminds me of something I read about how actors in films are shown to have recovered quickly after sexual assault or rape, which isn't realistic - what would happen if people show the aftereffects of their actions? A bit like how a packet of cigarettes shows a picture of lung cancer before you smoke.

Other things this video has made me think about is the lines being blurred between sexual desire and access. I hadn't really considered music industry as a factor before because it is something that I grew up listening and watching, however, research suggests that it would be difficult to change the music industry. Below is an extract from Kayla Gray's CLA Journal, 2019.

"

In the music industry, producers encourage artists to become what they consider provocative and to have explicit lyrics in order to sell more records; if an artist goes against what the industry wants, the industry may reject the artist (Weitzer and Kubrin, 2009). Mark Anthony Neal, a hip-hop scholar, states “the industry thrives on sexism, and asking artists to promote a feminist vision would be asking them to drop their contracts and start selling fewer records”(Oikelome, 2013, p. 87).

  • Shifts of collective perception can be achieved through language: 'extreme right' has been replaced with 'alt right' and normalising extreme political views on the media.

Last week, I looked at how re-using messages can be an effective way to communicate because this message is familiar and has already been approved in society. So, baring in mind that media has normalised negative behaviour, I am going to use media to send out a positive message. Below I have reused and changed the context of the new Coke Zero's Yes and No advert.

Reflection on how society sexualises gender

So, researching the different keywords in rape culture has made me more aware of how I have been sexualised in society. During college, I was a bar assistant (the youngest) with the majority of staff being women, and the locals would always throw sexual comments at me and normalised this by saying it was just 'banter' - now I realise I was going through sexual harassment at the time. I always prided myself on my physical feminine appearance because I was bullied a lot for not following to societal norms of wearing makeup and being skinny. It's weird how society makes you feel worthless either way.

I question whether being sexually harassed influenced me identifying as non-binary. Whether it was a way for me to disassociate from the sexualised gender? In discussion with another non-binary friend, he mentioned this was 'pretty much what non-binary lesbians do...it's a whole thing'. It's a bit weird to know how much gender identity can be influenced by societal behaviour - it's almost as if gender identity sometimes acts as a political statement. I realise this concept has come up throughout history, for example, women pretended to be men so they could earn more and have access to rights they didn't normally have. Hua Mulan is featured in a Disney film, however, this was based on a Chinese legend that spent 10 years training as a male solider.



Black Lives Matter Movement

Reflecting on recent events, I feel that Black Lives Matter and Sexual Assault have something in common. Both have been an on-going problem that have been normalised by society, which has sparked conversation after the police cause a death. So, I am going to look at the different mediums being used in Black Lives Matter and reflect on what went wrong and what worked.


Preserving Black Heritage

Identifying and preserving landmarks related to Black history through 'the Los Angeles African American Historic Places Project'.


Portraits of victims & activists

Artists have been painting portraits and street murals.


Jordan Casteel and Kerry James Marshal Paint Covers for Vogue magazine. Casteel portrayed Aurora James, a design and activist that supports black-owned businesses. Whilst Marshall has created a fictional character of a Black woman dressed in a white formal evening dress.

Artefacts return to Africa

French museums voted to return 27 colonial-era artefacts to Benin and Senegal. The Neverlands is also in the process of identifying and sending 100,000 objects back to Africa.


Jigsaw Puzzles

More than 70 contemporary artists have created 'Puzzles with Purpose' with profits going to Artist Relief and Black Lives Matter charities. Other types of artwork have also given profits to these charities.


All Black Lives Matter march

In tribute to the BLM march, a giant mural with words 'ALL Black Lives Matter' was painted long Hollywood Boulevard. What was meant to be temporary has now been accepted by city council as a permanent symbol.


Statues of Bristol

A state of a slave trader named Edward Colster was removed by the public in Bristol. Marc Quinn installed a sculpture portraying a local BLM protestor, 'A surge of Power' as a temporary installation.


I love the symbolism behind the status, however, the way the public handled their statue protest resulted in the government creating more restrictions on public protest.


Database for Anti-Racist Street artworks

The University of St. Thomas has created a database for global anti-racism artwork to be remembered.


Black Cube

Black boxes were posted across all social media channels for everyone to participate and show support after the death of George Floyd. It is seen as a symbol of 'online activism for non-activists', which I think was a very effective method during the lockdown because some people were still self-isolating and unable to take part.


This movement initially was for 'BlackOutTuesday', which placed emphasis on the music industry and how they have profited from Black art - this was a day for music to be paused. However, many people changed or got confused with the context by including hashtag 'Black Lives Matter', a political movement about police brutality.



D & AD awards: Design for Good

The VR vaccine solves the problem of children being afraid of vaccines by changing the context that the vaccine is being received; the vaccine is transformed into a shield using virtual reality that equips children on their adventurous quest.


Sip Safe: shortlisted 2019

An interesting project was introduced to me in the ideas wall. This reminded me of a straw that changes colour when it is spiked, however, I think testing your drink on a wristband is safer because drinking through a straw makes you more drunk and in a vulnerable state faster.


Date Rape Awareness Umbrella: Graphite Pencil 2006

This is a simple way to bring awareness into the bar, which places cocktail umbrellas into people's drinks when they weren't looking. It's an effective demonstration, however, I think the effectiveness could be enhanced by allowing the umbrella to change colour if the drink was spiked - this could be supplied by many bars.


New Blood Entry - Yes Starts with Durex (2019)

I like how this project plays with the stereotype of condoms only being for men to purchase and places the power of consent into the women's hands. I also like how accessible this idea is in terms of being able to place it in multiple discreet places - Its given me another way of considering how I would go about using my environment to spread awareness rather than everything being digital.



How could I utilise my resources?

Knowing I have a local activist for support, I feel that I should be making use of the local environment.

Shop windows? Bus stops? Planting barriers around town? Symbols with a QR code to resources? I like the idea of manipulating the local environment. How could people interact with it?


I need to be aware that families are also present in Falmouth, so I maybe I need to be aware of what kind of content gets presented in public environments.


  • Create a QR code shaped like a finger print

  • Public installation

  • Posters that play with familiar imagery - like the IRAQ poster from last week's post

  • Bus stops

  • Shop windows


Group Crit Session

I found the session very helpful. The group seemed to be very interested in my chosen topic and excited to see how I would go about using my environment to influence behaviour.


A few resources shared with me:

  • The Yorkshire ripper - public vilianising women for their clothing choices

  • Netflix has a documentary called 'liberated: the new sexual revolution'.

  • 'Boys will be boys' quote reminded someone of a project were women clothing would be hung up from when they were assaulted to show how clothing doesn't influence the assault.

  • Male Gaze study - women are photographed differently in the press compared to males.

  • Kickstarter funding available for projects. I also remember sharing on the ideas wall 'Weston Art Space', which was funded by Art Council to reduce the amount of empty shops and rebrand the town for its creative community.

Exhibition: What they were wearing

Being the victim of sexual violence often ends with being asked what the victim was wearing, implying that the victim was responsible for the assault and could have prevented it. This exhibition was created to fight against victim blaming by displaying clothing of the victims from a diverse group of people, which includes men and children.

Dr Wyandt-Hiebert and Ms. Brockman was inspired by a poem by Dr. Mary Simmerling called 'What I was Wearing', and the first installation was held in 2014 at the University of Arkansas with multiple exhibitions to follow.


Liberated: the new sex revolution

  • Sexual revolution contrasts with today's sex culture because now there is less emotion for the other person and it has turned into a hookup culture. 'Love doesn't exist anymore'

  • It is the human condition to want attention and being recognised as part of a social group. Men rely on their peers for social approval or validation, whilst women equate their value to their sex appeal. The documentary showed a scene were a man validates a young woman with a compliment and she was willing to sleep with a complete stranger - at the same time, peers were close by to validate the man's behaviour.

  • Women are used to demonstrate the emotional detachment and power that comes with being a man - it is now about the quantity of times you've had sex and the idea of virginity has bad connotations. There seems to be a lot of social pressure around sex, which is being used as a form of validation from peers.

  • The media plays a large role in spreading gender roles.

  • Girls pressured by boys into being more sexually available. Sexual intrusion

Bearing in mind I have a young sister of 11 years old, I feel that there needs to be education on consent at a younger age because recently she has received a message from a boy trying to pressure her into sending him photos. My own experience of sex education involved one lesson on sexting at the age of 15, and according to a recent survey, children are still being taught too late.



The education curriculum needs to change

A couple of years ago, a school wanted to teach children about non-straight sex education, however, this was shut down after complaints from parents. So, I need to convince the parents on why teaching consent early is so important by providing them information on today's sex culture. To make sure this method of persuasion was accurate, I first practised on my young sister's father, explaining my recent findings of today's culture and gaining his permission to educate his daughter early. I think the knowledge of what his daughter went through (almost when through) has influenced this decision, so maybe there needs to be a survey showing children of 12 years experiencing sexual harassment.


I also think gender roles / stereotypes need to be talked about because this plays a large role in rape culture. There needs to be a promotion in self value and equality as children of that age start to think about what social groups they want to fit into. Since the media plays a large role in gender norms, perhaps there needs to be a filter that takes away the photoshop effects.


How to explain consent to a 12 year old?

  • Consent isn't just about sex, so there is a need to use non-sexual examples when explaining to tweens. It's about respecting personal boundaries and not encouraging peer pressure, which is usually associated to drugs or smoking.

  • Should it be up to parents to teach their children? If so there needs to be a resource to help them explain and start the conversation. Parents need to be able to answer questions so the child feels that they are able to go to them at a later stage.

  • Parents could teach children about consent by asking them, 'would you like a hug' rather than expecting to receive one from their child.

  • Parents need to know whether protective behaviours lessons are part of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum.

  • Safe4kids.com.au specialises in child protection education designed to combat child abuse by teaching children. However, this is based in Austraila and the UK version only looks at bullying.



2 steps for denormalising sexual assaults

  1. Long term- Teach children early about the concept of consent, which will prevent and denormalise sexual abuse in the future. Need to team up with parents for their consent on their child's education by explaining how sex culture has changed in terms of attitude and technology being used.

  2. Short term - The town is filled with university students, I need to teach students about consent. Issues include unwanted touching, rape and spiking of the drinks.

In hindsight, I think planning these stages should have been done last week when I was creating my brief because this would have acted as a clear guideline on how to approach the idea generation process. However, I also understand that this is a large issue to tackle and it takes a lot of research to get to grips with knowing what resources are already out there.


I need to research different ways of communicating with secondary school children compared to university students. I would say university students would appreciate having the message as direct and not undermining, whilst I would need to do research on what children already know in their sex education programs and be more discreet without making them feel like I am talking down to them (communicating in a similar way to a pre-schooler).


Giff consent campaign: New Blood 2019 entry

Although this is a good example of a campaign being aimed at freshers, I am wondering whether there is an app that is used for children. Maybe messenger apps could detect someone being pressured into sexting, or maybe it could decline inappropriate imagery before being sent?


The Dirty 2018 - New Blood

I like how this project highlights how outdated sex education is and how technology has become an important influence in a child's development. I also love how disruptive and blunt it is, which is demonstrated through its use of expressive typography.

It mentioned that parents are awkward in providing valuable information about sex education, which is why children turn to the internet for advise. Im wondering whether it would be better to provide parents with the tools to do this so children feel like they are able to go to them if they are feeling unsafe in anyway. This app mainly talks about reproduction and contraception, which is great, however, it also needs to address other issues that can lead onto sexual assault.


Short term plan: University Students

Fresher's week would be a brilliant opportunity to educate people because this is the week where they drink lots of alcohol and experience freedom for the first time. By using this week, studies are not disturbed and it is a way to introduce students to the university life safely.

  • Freshers lectures can introduce an hour into their fresher's programme. Would need the presentation to be entertaining for short attention because there will be a lot of new information to take in. A short film / advert?

  • Could play with the campus environment and see how I could present information. Student halls, library, cafeteria, statuary, campus shop.

  • Make use of student mentors - they plan events and have knowledge of student resources. One problem is that mentoring is voluntary, so there are different levels of commitment depending on schedule and enthusiasm for their role.

  • University allows students to book and set-up stalls within the campus. Many students by-pass them though and they often come across as dull

How do I grab the fresher attention?

  • Beer bottle label? Show the side-effects of sexual assault on another person. Could this be a sticky label that overlaps the original label?Penryn Campus Store and Stannary sells alcoholic beverages.

  • Cafeteria - could come across as disturbing imagery. 'lost your appetite?'

  • Barriers in front of doors to make it difficult for a student to exit.

  • Costume: my experience of promoting the 'vote berry' campaign involved wearing a strawberry costume, which came across as strange but definitely got people's attention. I remember one student walking along the cafeteria wearing a period pad costume. Could I design a costume to display the side effects of sexual assault?

  • Fresher's fair. Freebies usually work to quickly grab attention.


What is my main message?

  • Think before you drink- sounds too much like a driving advert and places too much responsibility on the alcohol rather than the individual.

  • Actions have consequences - I feel that this would be a good campaign to show victims as the consequence and really play with the finger print concept from last week. Before and after images : A photo of someone being touched in a club and the impact it has on the individual. Animation of people made out of play dough that shows grabbing someone leaves a mark - the more hands touch and grab, the more deformed the person is.

  • Have fun but be safe - This phrase usually means to be aware of others, but what if I redefined it into something that ensured the safety of others? What if there was a fresher's night where everyone had to wear stray jackets and everyone had drinking hats - stop individuals the temptation of abusive behaviour.

  • This is what boundaries look like - Educating students on boundaries

  • It's a crime - could revert back to the fingerprints from my brief.

  • I am not food, don't grab me - Play with the idea of women feeling that they feel like a piece of meat. It also goes well with the 'fast, easy and convenient' student diet, which seems to describe today's hookup culture. I could definitely play with food in the cafeterias through personification - placing visible fingerprints and underwear on the packaging - but maybe that will have the opposite effect. 'grabbing of piece of pizza' can be linked with grabbing individuals by leaving a slice carved out of the individual (a pizza shaped hole) - metaphor for psychological hole that gets left behind.

My initial thinking behind this imagery because real imagery of someone being abused could be triggering for some students.

I thought this Instagram post solidifies the idea that women are seen as a 'piece of meat' as the opposing comment suggests that you have to 'be on the market' to look good. When I hear 'market', I think of an animal farm or something that is for sale, which could be interesting to play with. Maybe 'out-of-date' could be labelled on women that are not looking for abuse.










This idea was inspired by the IRAQ poster I looked at in week 9 because I loved how it disrupts imagery that we are use to seeing. I've used the student diet and linked it with modern attitudes towards sex through the words 'Fast,Easy, and Convenient '. There will be a spread of posters with different fast foods but amongst them will be a silhouette of a woman being assaulted.


I am planning on looking more into the colour psychology for hunger, however, so far the McDonalds colour palette does use red to associate the assault as a crime. I don't think this will educate people, however, it will create conversation within the campus environment.

I decided to research global brands that are recognisable in the UK because I wanted to have a collection of colours that are associated with the fast food industry. The collection of colours I have would work well with the idea I have above.

Because my brief started out as a local issue, I decided to look at the local fast food restaurants and see if I could grasp a local identity. My proposal is to do exactly what I did in the second week and extract specific characteristics. So far most of the brands are caps with low contrast.


This idea revolves around consent and takes the feeling of objectification very literally - it's time to bite back! Using posters and packaging to bring objects to life and bring awareness of consent. Perhaps for the packaging I could produce stickers or tattoos to place on each piece of packaging.


'Oi ...at least buy me a drink first' does suggest that women can be bought or owe something to the person that bought them a drink. However, my main aim from this was to encourage students to at least introduce themselves before make their intentions known.


For me, the felt-tip type feels like a natural aesthetic to choose for this subject because I associate assault with sloppy and heaviness, which also suits the fast food theme.


Long Term plan: Secondary schools

Need to inform parents of how sex culture has changed and gain their consent on educating their children early.

  • Local Workshops. Maybe rent out an empty store and turn it into a resource centre for parents.

  • Provide resources for parents to home school their child

  • Petition schools to run the child protection program - could I design a program? Topics would need to include consent and gender roles in the media.

How could I communicate with parents?

Text notification

Postage

Parent Blogs

Radio or Podcasting

Parent group meetings


REFLECTION //

The recent campaign 'rape day' was created not long after I created my brief with reports of Falmouth students wanting to turn it into a competition for sexual assault. Knowing this is sexual assault awareness month and that this isn't the first time people have attacked this awareness month, this enraged me made me wonder why people do this. This widened my brief from the club environment being a safer place towards denormalising society attitudes toward this important topic.


Reflecting on recent events, I feel that Black Lives Matter and Sexual Assault have something in common. Both have been an on-going problem that have been normalised by society, which has sparked conversation after the police cause a death. So, I am started to look at the different mediums being used in Black Lives Matter and reflect on what went wrong and what worked.


After much research, I managed to breakdown how to tackle such a large issue into two stages, which focus on the young generation and university.


REFERENCES //

Research

  • Age Doesn't Matter Festival, Oxo Bargehouse, Southbank, London 2016. Age of No Retirement. Youtube. https://youtu.be/5AQ6mNaGpm8

  • E, Manzini., (2015) ‘Part 3: Making Things Happen’, in Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation. pg 119 -202.

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