To proceed ahead we all divided work amongst ourselves depending on what skills and strengths we all had. I had taken up the responsibility of creating a few comics and the brochure which would be given to our audience on the presentation day.
It was a bit intimidating to get into the comic making process as I did not have any experience in that area and it took some time but, as I progressed ahead with visualizing the scenarios which we had created it became easier to communicate those ideas, to highlight the disparity between the classes which were created by a non-human object. The idea which I had for the comic was to complement the video we were creating by showcasing contrasting perspectives. I can certainly say that I will be willing to work more with this medium in the future, and be more open to exploring different visual art forms. The artifacts which we decided on were the comics, an advertisement video for the chip, and a diary belonging to a character from the future.
After figuring what we wanted to make as our future work, we then had to tone it down and reach a scenario, we decided to create a shared document where we all created a more concrete base for our scenarios and put them in writing.
One of the scenarios which I wrote when I started noting my ideas down was where all the workers in an office have been replaced by servers and machines to process information, and the servers are now sitting inside the cubicles where the workers used to sit, yet the head office (pun-inteded), was housing a huge 3D printed brain to monitor and generate ideas for the server. This scenarios is meant to portray that despite machines taking over the jobs of workers, a human touch is still necessary in work as these machines where after all created by the ideas of a human. brain and need instructions on where to go. When I explained my ideas to my team mates, they encouraged me to put this scenario visually as it could be possibly used by us during our work on this project and at the same time also shows my personal views on the issue at hand. This image was created by me with the help of license free vector drawings and Autodesk sketchbook software.
After our visit to the Market, our group regrouped and decided to boil down the topic which we wanted to work on, many things were coming to our mind such as
Post capitalist society view
Work includes invisible work such as household work etc
Knowledge economy
Hierarchy of Value
Structure of labour
These were the few ideas which we decided to build further on:
Mental Health flagging system – app or a headset
More privacy in certain jobs
Cards against humanity – future of work
Dungeons and dragons based game
Chip on your brain idea
Boundaries in the work space
Gaze
Healthcare Industry
Eventually we decided that we liked the idea of creating a product/service which enhances human performance, as much we thought more about it, totally futuristic ideas seemed a little much, and predicting the need for future that isnt here yet was a little difficult, thus we decided to make a product which not only fits the corporate working population but which also helps out the invisible jobs such as domestic labour, the idea was to create a chi, but the conflict remained that chips are already here, AI is already here, what is the thing which isnt here yet but someday could be? in a society which is still capitalistic, as the idea of capitalism going away in the near future did not seem very plausible. So we now had to figure out what concept of the chip was going to be.
We decided to visit the Canopy Market in Kings Cross. At first it appeared a bit jarring to just approach someone and start talking to them but it turned out to be a good experience as it made me feel more comfortable and confident in doing it. As one of my group members was talking to the owner of a knitting stall, the knitting stall was being videotaped by a lady with a professional camera, thus as that seemed interesting to me I decided to approach her, who turned out to be a social media professional helping her friend, after that we interviewed a jewellery stall owner and a baker.
After learning more about them and their work, I asked them what the future of work looked like to them and they believed that even though machines will take over, their role in the job was also important enough to not be replaced. I also got to know many new things, such as the process of making artworks by one of the stalls, who told us that he sent his art to a chinese manufacturer who then had workers replicate it in an assembly line and sent back to the uk to be sold, which was interesting to me as I never imagined independent artists doing that. Overall it was a good experience as I learnt more about interacting with strangers to get their views on a subject.
In Mango Groups’s first tutorial with Alison we discussed many things, and how our group was still quite unsure where to proceed with our future of work project. Many scenarios came up for us such as how AI could take over 9-5 Jobs, and maybe working would not be a must for people anymore, other scenarios which we discussed were what would work look like in a post-capitalist societhy, in a knowledge economy or in a society with universal basic income,
Whereas all the possibilities of these projects were interesting, the thing which enagaged me a lot was where we all discussed our own personal journeys with work, and thing which all of us mostly had in common was the fact that none of us actually found the work we had done fulfilling. It seemed as if we were all doing what was necessary but it had no passion or room for learning, and work was just a means to an end. This led just to more conversations about where we wanted to take our project. As there were many things that we were all interested in it led us to a brainstorm session where we all sat around the table in our tutor group and started noting down ideas on a paper. This was quite helpful as it allowed us all give our input on what we should base our project on.
After the brainstorming session, we decided that to get more insight into where we want this project to go we decided to do the activity which was to visit a place of work, which was a market.
The unit 2 brief asks us to create a “Future of Work” scenario, through the method of speculative design, and allows us to freely come up with a project. When I first read the brief many different scenarios came to my mind, as speculative design allows us to imagine and anticipate a futuristic solution to a problem. A few ideas which I had were futuristic modes of organisations, re-imaging workspaces, AI and it’s role in work ahead, the effect of automation on the labor force etc. To get ourselves educated with speculative design we were asked to do some reading around the topic. The reading I chose was “Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative and Alternative Things” by Bruce M Tharp, Stephanie M.
This book has given me the understanding, about how good design can provide solutions to many problems, such as in construction, pharma and medicine, education etc. This book gives us a much more deeper incite into how discursive design can help in improving societal problems. They have mentioned how the problem with design is the communication behind it, while they commend designers who create designs which speak for themselves, they believe that the writing, speaking and gesturing is what reinforces the effect of the work done by designers.
The thing which I found interesting about this book is that there are contrasting view points provided, the authors have included one whole chapter just to point out the things which are going wrong in design, with the chapter aptly named, “What’s wrong with design”, which has given the reader a view into how chosing commercialisation and functionalism has led us to ignore the intellectual contribution of design. I particularly found the case study about the Yog headset very interesting, which was created in the Global Futures lab at RISD, which focuses on evoking non-western versions of the future. This made me think about the future of work, and how we might have to go backwards in history to evolve ahead and how maybe the future is back to analog.
For the second part of project 2, we were supposed to come up with our research question and a summary for our intervention.
Research Question: What is the impact of fast fashion on consumer behavior (mainly gen Z)?
How can Question: How can more sustainable choices be made as consumers?
I decided to do 2 interventions as I was unsure about the success of my initial idea which was to create a poster, with a link to a survey and paste it around college. The questions in the survey were designed collect more data about the consumption of fast fashion and at the same time also inform the surveyees about the shocking effects of fast fashion, as well as to understand the how much fast fashion was actually being consumed by in this case just students, and if they were or they weren’t aware about the effects of fast fashion on the environment and if they were aware of the conditions of the sweatshops where these products are manufactured. As this was a public intervention where the decision to take notice to the poster was completely on the passers-by’s, I was unsure about the amount of responses I would get. Hence I decided to do to another intervention.
My second intervention was where I reached out to people from my target audience specifically. As to get a more well rounded feedback I decided to first make them answer a few questions to gage their knowledge about the harmful effects of fast fashion, then show them a video which gave them more information about the subject, and then ask them a few more questions after showing them the video to undermine whether after getting to know more about this topic has changed their views on this or not, and also to find why are they are not making better choices.
My key findings were that many people are still unaware of the cons of fast fashion, and the majority are also not interested in buying pre-loved as they feel the item is used. The main action which people felt needed to be taken was to expose the methods of production used by the big companies, and the way that this issue could be reformed is via having brands who adhere to sustainable production practices while maintaining an affordable price. There is a need for more awareness about the issue to make people join the cause and stricter regulations on practices of these mass production companies.
After a lot of brainstorming on where should I focus my box of uncertainties as space and art together were huge topics, as on advice from my tutor David, I decided to focus my energy on finding areas where art and space interlap. While thinking about these things I decided to think about more things that I am uncertain about. Such as
Uncertainty about thrift shopping? Is it as sustainable as it is advertised? Or is it just as harmful and mis-leading as fast fashion.
After a lot of beneficial feedback from my tutor, it was clear that it was important for us to arrive at the conclusion of what our uncertainty should be by ourselves. The feedback I received made me pin point as to what is my final uncertainity, which I chose as the effect of capitalism on consumers of art, shopping and culture. As I felt the common thing in between thoughts for art and thrift shopping was how purchasing of both are interconnected. Capitalism has made art into a commodity to be sold, as well as how these items have become a way to distract masses from social conflict and anything which requires them to focus deeper. Consumerism refers to the tendency of people living in a capitalist economy to life in excess and wasteful over consumption. Thus this is where I arrived with my box of uncertainties. Which I chose to represent via a paper shopping bag.
A collage made by me to represent my box of uncertainties.
A shopping bag.
A paper shopping bag which screams eco-friendlyness, sustainability, but at the same time also screams consumerism, elistism, identity.
A shopping bag, a means to end product but in the end product, same as anyone in the world, but what is the factor that makes it different?
A shopping bag, represents my box of uncertainties very well, as one can not be sure of what goes in the bag or what is in the bag, the only thing that makes the bag different is it’s print, where its from, what it represents?
To get a more deeper understanding of where my uncertainties for space and art can interact, I looked this article about the book called “The Dialectics of Art” by John Molyneux.
The book talks about how art is affected by the conditions of how the world was when this particular art was created. The author approaches art with the understanding that, creating art is a social process, All art is produced in particular circumstances and the various attitudes it expresses the society and its ideas. The author’s opening argument centres on Marx’s concept of alienation, that unlike most other forms of work or labour in capitalist society, the work process of the artists is unalienated.
For Marx, alienation under capitalism is the way the system works. Alienation is a product of the fact that capitalism is driven by blind, competition, the competition for profit. Marx argued that capitalism has deformed art in a number of ways. Learning more about this book made me come across an interesting term called, “art-washing”, The tax-free endowments given by big corporations to the big art galleries shows that leaders understand the importance of what has come to be called ‘art-washing’.
This word made me think about the term “greenwashing” which is being used quite a lot in today’s time due to decieving nature of corporations wanting to seen more sustainable than they actually are. The pressure of being sustainable is actually being put upon the consumers instead of the big corporations which are actually the ones who are harming the environment.
To get more information about consumer sustainability, I read an article by sartorial magazine, titled, “Thrifting is not guilt free”. “Gentrification and high-jacking of thrift store items is a reflection of the larger, systemic inequality that arises from exploitative capitalism which values profit over narrowing the wealth gap and protecting the planet”.
“No ethical consumption under capitalism” by many anti-capitalists because the very nature of capitalism is to exploit those on the bottom. Every worker is paid less than the value of their work, in order for those who own the means of production to make a profit. In other words, as long as this capitalist structure exists, a mass shift into thrifting may solve some ethical dilemmas but will inevitably cause others to surface. We as people of this generation are trying to make conscious choices as consumers. This is not enough to combat the major issues such as climate change, unfair wages, and outsourcing of labor if we don’t address the larger source of the problem. Many companies come to mind when I hear about mass produced fast fashion such as shein, h&m etc. As pointed out by one of my classmates, who witnessed a canada goose display at oxford street covered in plants, that none of these tactics are actually very convincing in make the company look better.
