Design for Discomfort

Design for Discomfort: Final Project

December 19, 2018 Design for Discomfort

In preparing for my final project, I ended up adding a component that I hoped would strengthen the project. While I still like the idea of having an interactive web based memorial that (I feel) would reach the most people, while allowing me to convey the most information, I also wanted something that would have a big visual impact. Something that could quickly and clearly show the person I’m memorializing, convey the public’s disgust with the system, and create aRead More

Design for Discomfort: Reading Response #4

December 19, 2018 Design for Discomfort

I find that lately I’m really interested in storytelling, discussing privilege, and helping people to tell their own stories. Or at the very least, telling stories that allow people to see themselves reflected in them. While I wasn’t familiar with Sam Durant’s “Scaffolding” installation, I was amazed that the artist hadn’t (at least from what I could tell), considered the fact that replicating gallows that were used in government sanctioned executions, would be traumatic for some people. What didn’t surpriseRead More

Design for Discomfort: Reading Response #3

December 18, 2018 Design for Discomfort

The Limits of Virtual Reality: Debugging the Empathy Machine was an interesting read for me. Through discussions I’ve had in my Socially Engaged Art & Digital Practice class, I’ve become increasingly interested in using vr to engender empathy in the user. To share lived experiences. I wasn’t aware that empathetic feelings fell into two categories. Emotional, occurs immediately, without conscious thought. When we see the commercial about abandoned animals, with the sad Sarah McLachlan song, for example. And “conceptual empathy” whereRead More

Design for Discomfort: Reading Response #5

December 5, 2018 Design for Discomfort

I initially had a really hard time putting how I felt about Jordan Wolfson’s VR piece at first. It wasn’t just the gratuitous violence, though that was certainly a large part of my discomfort. The more I sat with the idea of the piece, I realized it was that I perceived the artist as being irresponsible. It felt like the artist was creating work that didn’t serve a purpose other than to shock the viewer, or perhaps for the artistRead More

Design for Discomfort: Final Project Proposal

December 4, 2018 Design for Discomfort

Idea: Memorial/Interactive exhibit around police brutality, that seeks to provide discomfort, education, and perhaps empathy. Description: Interactive exhibit that aims to serve both as a memorial to those affected by police brutality, and as a wake up/call to action. So many of these people are either held up as either the “good person that pulled themselves up by their bootstraps/person from a good family” or as a “thug”, where their police record is mentioned almost as a defense, when allRead More

Design for Discomfort: Unusual Surveillance

November 14, 2018 Design for Discomfort

This week’s assignment was to surveil our fellow classmates, and use that information in an unusual way. My group agreed to use instagram for our surveillance, agreeing to post insta stories over the weekend. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we would post stories at 12, 4, and 7pm. Admittedly, I don’t usually post stories on instagram. I mostly post pictures, and the occasional video post. In fact, I forgot to post on Friday. So I tried to post some extraRead More

Designing for Discomfort: Response #2

November 8, 2018 Design for Discomfort

Throughout both of the articles that combine exertion and interactive experiences, I kept thinking that it would be helpful if there was a way to let users have the same experiences, while making them more accessible to a larger number of people. There are certainly health benefits to having interactive games tied to physical exertion, and I really liked the idea of only being able to completely hear the poem if you’re accelerating along with the poem/hand-clapping, etc. I alsoRead More

Design for Discomfort: Response #1

October 31, 2018 Design for Discomfort

In almost all of the readings for this week, the themes of obedience and ethics were the ones that stood out the most for me. While the use of discomfort in art for the purpose of growth is, in my mind, a good thing, it’s also important to remember that we have a duty to the people who participate. Discomfort for the sake of discomfort isn’t needed, or helpful. It needs to be a carefully planned tool, rather than usedRead More

Design for Discomfort: Social Media Truth or Dare