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The CIP 2021 challenge is to identify an area of ‘crisis’, which has competing elements and ideas of ‘truth’ and design ways to engage with the potentially complex conversations that emerge to propose a positive contribution.
In this research subject, the medium of the critical E-business magazine will be used to explore and mediate the controversial area of modern slavery, with the theme of service human trafficking in the UK.
Using the characteristics of a business model magazine, we combine entertainment culture such as advertising, games, character interviews and comics with the theme of slavery, placing this sinister issue in a familiar context and exposing the fact that exploitation and exploitation are blatantly present in all corners of people's lives in a satirical and provocative way, exposing the fact that people are immune to and ignorant of the atrocities. It resonates with people and invites them to re-examine themselves. In doing so, we seek to make the subject debatable without the need to judge or fear of being judged.
BACKGROUND
In the UK, a country with a relatively advanced economy and national mindset, a great deal of interest in human rights issues such as modern slavery. People actively follow the news, organise rallies and marches and so on. But at the same time, for many people it is difficult to tell if exploitation is happening to their surroundings.
People talk more about exploitative incidents that are reported in the media, but see such things as very distant from them. We also found that many people tended to place themselves outside of exploitative relationships, seeing themselves as a solider, in the role of helping the underdog. But this may not be the case, and when you hire a domestic worker to clean your home, you may have become an unconscious exploiter.
ANALYSIS
So are people really concerned about this crisis?
Having identified the contradictions, we went to study the social groups in the hope that we could correctly analyse their feelings and thus find a breakthrough in the design. But individual behaviour is not indicative of racial attitudes and that we cannot easily distinguish between groups and looking for alliances. For example, we could not define, on the basis of a few examples, whether the white British community was superficially concerned but actually blind to the conditions of exploitation. Or is it simply the hidden nature of oppression that forces the suffering of these victims to be hidden from visual detection by gangs and exploiters.
This became the beginning of a shift in thinking as we began to try to get people to look at themselves and self-assess rather than us defining the group.
IDEATION
We decided to create a work that not only conveys the message of modern day slavery exploitation, the modern human trafficking, but also allows people to reflect and evaluate themselves. The public, especially those who claim to be concerned with and spread the word about human rights themes, will be able to use it to become more aware and conscious of the issue of service trafficking in the UK, while judging whether they are a hypocrite and whether they are truly aware and concerned about the crisis. It has a critical connotation.
Because of the wide range of people targeted, we wanted to reach a wider audience and close to the design, so we wanted to set it in the context of people's everyday lives, where most people are more likely to be in their living spaces than viewing the exhibition.
We looked for many references to give us inspiration and we finally decided to use the format of a business magazine.
MAGAZINE DEVELOPMENT：
Take a crossword as an example
Crossword puzzles are common Western word games in which English words are guessed from clues and put in their corresponding places.
Usually people interpret the clues of 'cross' and 'down' according to their own life experiences and values, and guess at the words. However, it was clear that the life experiences of ordinary people and exploited people are completely different. So I decided to choose between a number of proposals: to set up a set of words and have two characters each interpret them according to their own life experiences to provide clues. One character is our Avatar, the other is a victim of modern slavery.
FINALIZATION
Preliminary programme: Magazine page style.
Preliminary programme:
Magazine page style with
right answer.
AR EFFECT
I used the software ARTIVIVE to create a 3D effect answer page. Once people have completed the game, they can scan the page to find out the correct answer and the identity of the person who provided the clue, giving people a sense of shock and prompting them to rethink whether their logic is biased.
OTHER PAGES OF THE MAGAZINE (PARTS)
Merchandising
Combining the product campaign with Vietnam, a major source of foreign workers in the UK. Using the product as a proxy for the scenario, raises awareness of human trafficking - and its relevance to our daily lives.
Character Interviews
People can see the hidden words in interviews with characters through ARTIVIVE, a mobile app. Exposing performativism, the information people see is often not the full picture of what is going on, it has been censored and reshaped to be what others want them to see.
Shop Advertisement
Use the shop advertisement - collect badges and give away passports - to expose the oppression of migrant workers and the fact that their documents are being withheld. No one really wants a passport from someone else, and the irony is expressed in the form of this uncomfortable giveaway.
Brand Advertising
A series of cleaning service products using cheap labour as a gimmick and describing the persecution of slaves in a light-hearted tone gives a creepy feel.
Comics
Scenes of people's encounters with the exploited in their daily lives are documented in the form of comics.
- Nail salons: inexpensive nail salons with all expatriate staff that get replaced from time to time.
VAGUE
Project Theme: Critical design / Magazine Design
Period: 1.2021-2.2021
Project Type: Group
Members: Charles Park; Chalukya Samarawickrama; Derk Ringers; Mattia Grison; Yu Duan; Yanmin Zhao
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