This project has been the most challenging one so far, I believe this could be related to man factors which are linked to me but also to external factors. First of them is the we are still living in a pandemic, we are all still doing online lecturers and working from home which effecsts the creative process in a lot of ways. As we are all struggling in our own life due to the pandemic and living in this new normal, we are still trying to be creative and create work that will be up to the standards of being in our final grade but also working towards our degree. However, I believe I have struggled many times, I’ve hit creative blocks felt like I wasn’t going to deliver anything at the end but I did manage to create work that I liked and felt like it answered the brief. I chose a brief that I knew I would be interested in working on, as from last year I knew I was leaning towards social design and it just caught my attention however I didn’t consider that this is not the normal times and everything is 10x harder. I felt negative at some parts but I always just tried to figure out whether it was ideation by contacting my lecturers or asking my peers for help. I knew this wasn’t the normal life and I was allowed to struggled and feel a bit lost.
The brief wanted to identify a societal divide and I chose a topi that was very close to my life, immigrants. As being part of an immigrant family I knew the struggles and I saw the horrible tweets and comments being made on Twitter so I knew what I wanted to communicate and I knew how some people need to change their perspective on group of people in society. I focused on an exhibition to create an empathy through art and design. Through words and poems where people will be targetted for their actions. Using peoples feed to create an personal exhibition sounded good as it doesn’t create the other side as enemy, I was just displaying their words back to them. showing them that they have posted this tweet online and anyone can access it.I thought this would be powerful than telling them they are mean or that they are wrong. I believe this would have positive impact on users as it would make them question for a second. As people who are closed minded, no matter how much you say they will just turn a blind eye so my throwing facts at them wasn’t going to change how they feel. I don’t know how much can an exhibition change someone but at least it will make them think. I used social media as a tool, I used the negative side of Twitter to work against it. It is still related to Twitter but this time I used their hateful comments to create an exhibition. I based my posters my visuals on real accounts, they are real words posted from a real account I used their @ to show that they are existing, they are there and if you search them you can find it. Of course they were fake account with no real name so whoever that is thought no one will see what they say. Tagging users to posters made it real like those words belong to people or groups of peopLe who think this way about a group of people who are running away from a war. All my work is created through research, I researched who are these people, why are they saying that, what made them turn a blind eye, why do they follow these people. Also, I tried to understand Twitter, the algorithm how it works why it works the way it does what does it try to achieve. Along the way I found out facts that made me realise how important is to double check when you are tweeting. I realised how crucial it is to check the posts, the facts search for the evidence just because it fits to my opinion doesn’t mean it is right. I think it was very beneficial for me as a person as well. My outcomes can be easily created into a real life project and I think it would be way more powerful if it was. Physically seeing these words on walls and experiencing it will be powerful. I believe targeted exhibitions could be challenging to do but if it does work it would so different.
Overall, I am very happy with the outcomes and I think it was a very hard brief but I responded using my style and things that I believe that were important. I think there are few things I could improve on and improve but I still have time in future.
I first found a typeface that I felt would fit well with the visuals, I wanted a bold weight typeface which has small details which made it unique. These were the few typefaces I had in mind for the visuals. Some have few details on them which makes it different and theres also one called Bee four which is stretched typeface that is very popular graphics projects recently. I’ve seen it on the many visuals so I don’t want to use it. The Changa typeface reminds of computer comes and technology aesthetic to it which I like, there’s small details on the O and S as it’s not so round and it has sharp corners which I think looks nice.
TYPEFACE
This is the typeface I want to use for the project, Ii think it has good variations which can be used for different types of layouts. I decided to use the extrabold and medium in most visuals and digital outcomes.
Inspiration/mood boards
These are my inspiration and mood board I created for the project, It focuses on typography and other ways which I liked and could potentially use for my project. Each have strengths to what it communicates and I especially like the blur effects on the posters below. It allows you to be interpret it in ways and I think it could be a good way to communicate my project. I want to be experimental as I like typography and i want it to be visually strong.
Pentagram – Words by Voice
A large format installation that uses typography to express words of social justice. I think these installation are beautiful and the layout of each poster is so unique and it experimental with different techniques and layouts. I was looking for inspiration and I knew Pentagram always has amazing work and I came across this exhibition installations they have designed. The installations are typographic posters visual in the London Design Festival, speeches, quotes and notes from inspirational powerful people such Nelson Mandela, Muhammed Ali, Eleanor Roosevelt and more. I really like the design and they have also used black and white as the colour scheme and I think i also made the right decision. As you want people to focus on what those words are saying as they are the most important rather than the colours to be main focus. It’s just as powerful just as black and white anyway.
Pentagram – ‘The Architecture of Closed Worlds’ Book
This is a book designed by Pentagram, the reason I chose this as an inspiration was because oft he way bold beautiful typefaces on the page, it look like a structure, it sits heavily on on the page bu it still works with the photograph and text. I liked the typafaes but as the bold vibrant colors which are for a colour coded bar-graph in the book so the readers cna easily follow.
Pentagram – Exhibitionism – The Rolling Stones , Exhibition design
This is an exhibition design created by Pentagram to explore the 50 year career of The Rolling Stones. The exhibition has variety of rooms which focuses on their style, early fame, their big shows everything related to their career. But photo of the image drew me into the project as I loved the way typography sits on the sides leading you to the photograph of the band. the the text above leading towards the image as well. I think it look simple and beautiful, the white on black cis powerful, the weight of the typefaces is bold and crowded it fits the whole wall. I really liked this image as in m earlier designs I imagined a room like this, tweets on the walls leading up tp the next door. This was a huge inspiration for my exhibition design.
Visual development
Quotes and phrases I found on social media directed towards immigrants in UK. Some are from tweets under videos or news posts. Some are popular meme sayings that circulates around the social media. They are all hateful and negative towards immigrants. Some are also assumptions and misconceptions such as ‘they abuse welfare system’ when potentially there is no/little evidence that they do.
They steal our jobs
Close the border!
We have enough scroungers, potential terrorists
Migrants abuse the welfare system
Go back home!
Visuals development
i started off with placing the quotes on the page and I was playing with the sizes, weights and then I kept decreasing the tracking. The more it did the quote started to lose its clarity and it became very hard to read. I liked this effect, it started to squeeze together and kind of made a box shape. It made me think through out the project I said our twitter feeds and accounts are in eco chambers, we stick to our box and we don’t really let anyone in from other ideologies. So, I linked this to anti immigrant viewers who are posting these tweets, or saying these things about people they are all close minded most likely and they wouldn’t let anyone tell them different. Once the gaps between each letter closed off the words lost it’s clarity and it was muddled up. I liked this visual language, showing off the types of users in words by losing the gaps between letters. Below you can see an example, I used the type face Changa, bold in -54 tracking./kerning. I wanted to experiment on this idea, as it looked strong on the page.
The quote above is the second example of working on the tracking using quotes from Twitter pages. I picked them up from real accounts under comments section. I again decreased the tracking to lose clarity and I think it looks good I want to now add it onto posters or billboards. The reason I am using the quotes are so it catches peoples attention who are using these quotes as it fits to their beliefs but also people are don’t agree with it as they would want to find out information. The visuals below I feel like it could be increased more so it is harder to read.
The posters below are one of first designs I created using the quotes and the visual style. The on the rght is using the quote ‘they steal our jobs’ which is used most commonly by people. I layered the text so it would make it hard to read and crowded so it becomes so bold. The quotes is the centre piece as it would have easy eye hierarchy for the reader. The other information is on the borders in egain same typeface, I used the exhibition and the date as well as that it is powered by twitter. I think i should add few more information and also experiment with the layout. I don’t know wehther layering the text works as it just doesn;t add mcuh as theres too much black in the middle. However , I do like the bold heavy type as the centre piece it is communicating the message. The poster on the left is again using quotes i found from twitter but placed at the bottom half of the page. With this layout I wanted to ocmmunicate the black and white the divide on the page as the text side is all lack and the tracking is low so creates bpx whereas the other half is all white. This always the text to get the attention on all white paper. I like the way text looks there is still some gaps but I think reader must also be bale to read what it is says so they understand. At this point, I feel comfortable with the project however there is still loads of decisions to be made. In couple pf days we have a group tutorial and I think i have some work i could show.
Group Tutorials/SEAN
Today we had a group tutorial with Sean to discuss our visual languages and I attached the pdf below. The tutorial was very positive and he liked my visuals as he said it works well with the concept.I told about my idea of targeted exhibition for each user as they will sign up with their account. He said that idea is really good and it would have more impact. He also asked where I got these quotes from and I said its from twitter accounts so he suggested i should add the user@ so the audience also knows they are real tweets. This is a really good idea as i know they are so the viewer should also as it would make it more real and create a stronger impact. I wil take his suggested and develop some posters with the @.
I did more changes on the posters earlier and this is one of the final posters. I used the quote once without layering as it has more impact like this. I also decreased the size you can clearly see the quote against the white and it has more a box feel. The tracking is decreased more and it created a box. I also added the the date in a larger size on the left so it is important for the users to know. The logo and hashtag is place do the right. I think the layout is structured in many ways and the attention is in the centre. I believe it is very powerful and I liked the final result. The hashtag is #myhome for users to share their experience and thoughts about the exhibition. This poster can be digitally on the twitter page and also instagram accounts. In addition it can be on printed.
These are also other development posters, the one on the right is another variation which can be used in many ways. The type is placed on the centre to catch the eye and I like this one in particularly because I used the layered style to create the box and it fitted perfectly. The quote feels like it has bene stretched and it ends at the bottom. The other parts of the poster are again placed on the corner I like this style as it just creates like a box, it creates borders on the page. The other texts are smaller but still readable. I added the @ of the account o the right as Sea suggested I really like the result. I also wanted to add something different to this poster I used the word ‘why?’ in very light grey as it’s a blur, as a question to provoke a conversation. I like this little addition as it makes a difference to other posters and it’s a small detail. I placed the logo on the top left. The poster on the left is the developed version, I like this layout much more it is still in the same style as creating a structure on the page. I am very happy with the result.
The posters below are another variations, but they focus on the twitter to question the spread of the misinformation. You can instantly make the connection to that symbol below to Twitter. The idea behind this poster is to focus on constant act of retweeting, people sharing information constantly, there is no consideration whether is it true or not. Whether it will hurt peoples feeling or not. I wanted a busy , too much thing on the page to create the feeling. I used the symbol as it is directly linked to Twitter. The layout on the right is more unstrcutured it overkaps dates. It looks more lose whereas the layout on the left is more steuctures and i like the box shape it creates on the page. The information on the corners. The layout on the left is initial idea and the right one is more developed. I felt stuck between the two and decided to go with the left one. It looks better on the page and it feels more busy. On the right, you can clearly see its the symbol as its too big. I want to develop the one on the left.
Final poster
This is the final poster, I added few things and changed some parts. I added the hashtag as that is a key part for social media, in addition I added a question ‘why are you sharing that’ this is to provoke the viewer and the act of retweeting. I believe it worked really well. The whole centre is covered in the symbol the text is on the corners. I like this effect, the poster makes a difference next to the the ones which are more structures and has way more white space.
Logo development
For the exhibition logo, I wanted a short word to sum up the exhibition but also not give too much away. The few words I was thinking was home or hatred as these are the two the exhibition focuses on or where is home?as the main concept is being at home. I used the same style as extrabold typeface as low tracking to fit in with the consistent branding and visual style. I believe it works well with other visual elements. I want something simple and easy to understand. I believe it works
Final logo
These posters below are also other designs I wanted, however I decided the design on the left I should create a billboard as it is very powerful and short. So i will develop that as a billboard but the poster on the right. I wanted an informative design which focuses on a myth and then some information about the reality. This was the first initial idea I was thinking of as a grapp style, the white section is like the exaggerated assumption it islarge on the page in side ways, but then the reality in light grey in short smaller size. However, I felt like it deosnt work quiet as well. I still like the idea of graph but it just didn’t look right.
This was the final layout I liked and felt like it worked. It is the same layout style as the other posters but it was easier to read this way and when its next to each other the contrast makes it more powerful. I used the same tracking kerning technique and placed the logo etc on the top right. It is a very simple poster focused on myth and reality. I believe the simplicity is the more powerful side.
Billboards
These are the billboards designs which I will be creating a mock up later. I added a ‘this is my home’ to also include the immigrants voices as well but in light grey to show lack of power and clarity. I really like these designs.
Designing the exhibition. VOMA
Once the posters were done I focused on the virtual exhibition. I found a virtual exhibition called VOMA, I used there designs to show off how my exhibition would look like as you can see images of the each room below. The exhibition is so easy to use you click on the circles to move on and click on the art work for more close up. It looks very real you can also go outside etc. It is very realistic it was very interesting.
My idea to have the tweets and posts covered on the walls of the exhibition. It will be a ike twitter wall focused on each user. You can see the development on the images below. I used quotes from loads of different accounts and if you are a user who are against anti immigration and don’t spread negativity you will see a room which is mixture of tweets from other accounts. There will be a filter which sorts who sees what. That will come in later.
Exhibition Room 1 – the twitter feed.
This is the final exhibition room 1, it has text covered on the walls which makes it very powerful. The text is layered so it is hard to read and overlapping which is the same style as other visuals.
Room 2 Exhibition – Celebrating Immigrants.
This exhibition focuses on the immigrants, it has immigrants names written on the walls to focus on them and give them power and voice. This style is completely different to the other room, its the contrast which is the purpose. I carried on using typography as the main element as I was going to do a photography series however speaking to David he said you have a strong typography visual it doesn’t need photographs you should focus on the type again to show off the immigrant section. So I opened the kerning, now the words are easily readable and more elegant. I used colours to celebrate the migrants and they are in fact my friends and families names which is also very interesting as it makes it very personal. The colours are like blurs and splashes of colour. I wanted this room to be vibrant and joyful. I also wanted to add a small section of a poem from Warsan Shire, a young British poet from Somalian origin, in one part of her poem she wrote ‘you have to understand that no one puts their children in a boat, unless the water is safer than the land’ I found this so powerful and heart breaking. I wanted people to feel something when you read and try to create empathy, by celebrating these names on the wall but also questioning their behaviours. Art, design or poetry could be a useful way to try to get people to feel more empathy towards another.
I wanted to do some research on exhibitions focused on imigration for inspiration. I found so many good projects that I found so interetsing anf powerful. I believe thi sia very imporatnt processto research as it can give you ideas but also knowing what already exists makes you stay away from cliche or things already been done. I found exhibitions in USA but also social media campaigns and personal proejcts which aim at photography. There is also a project whcih aims at negativity on social media which I found so intersying.
When Home Won’t Let You Stay, 2020
This is an exhibition in America in 2020 named ‘when home wont let you stay’ the name is frm a poem focused on immigrants. The exhibition is focused o migration and what movement measn to people. This is one of the installations in the exhbitipn which shows the movements from countries. I found it so poweful and interetsing. This installation clearls communicates the message, it was created by Raeena Saini Kallet. When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art considers how contemporary artists are responding to the migration, immigration, and displacement of peoples today. We are currently witnessing the highest levels of movement on record—the United Nations estimates that one out of every seven people in the world is an international or internal migrant who moves by choice or by force, with great success or great struggle. When Home Won’t Let You Stay borrows its title from a poem by Warsan Shire, a Somali-British poet who gives voice to the experiences of refugees. Through artworks made since 2000 by twenty artists from more than a dozen countries — such as Colombia, Cuba, France, India, Iraq, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States — this exhibition highlights diverse artistic responses to migration ranging from personal accounts to poetic meditations, and features a range of mediums, including sculpture, installation, painting, and video. Artists in the exhibition include Kader Attia, Tania Bruguera, Isaac Julien, Hayv Kahraman, Reena Saini Kallat, Richard Mosse, Carlos Motta, Yinka Shonibare, Xaviera Simmons, and Do-Ho Suh, among others. I find the exhibition powerful, it shows movement in all sorts of ways through different mediums that makes us question things for a second. This massive installation is beautiful visually but also captures movement in a simple elegant way.
I want to focus on typography as I believe it fits the brief and my project the most but using another medium would also be very powerful such as photography.
Sole Revel – Nari Ward, 2020
The installation below is the most recent work from Ward’s signature shoelace series. By enlarging the imagery of footsteps, the artist evokes an anonymous presence, eliciting ideas of bodily gesture, mass movement, and migration. The title, Sole Revel, offers a joyful lens through which to view the work as a hopeful emblem of the power in uniting in solidarity. i find this so intriguing and I at first didn’t realise it was small footsteps to me I thought it was like on two big ones as it’s harder to recognise due to laces but I think thats whats interesting about it as well . It is smart and communicates migration in some might say a simple way.
#MIGRANTSPECIES
This project is focused on empowering immigrants by allowing them to create a poster with their details. The website is so easy and visually very bright and joyful. The colours are bright and fresh which makes you feel like you are celebrating something The project is called Migrant Species. The home page is a question which says where do you come from which you can then add your name or your relatives. This is then created into a bold typographic poster with your background. The poster also has a hashtag which people can use on Twitter. They can change the colour system on the side depending on their choice and then save it. I have created a poster seen below, green and blue colour scheme with bold weight typography it is so simple but it shows the message it is personal to me. i also searched the hashtag on Twitter to see what other people have created and what they have said about it. You can see the screenshots below on the right. Users can share something that is personal to them and then share it online. It is e very easy and i think it catches peoples attention as posters are visually appealing and bold. It is a way to celebrate your background with a nice visual poster I think it works really well. This is bot the only project that allows you tot create a poster I have found other campaigns which again allow you to create your own personal items and then can be shared on social media. It is a very smart and clear idea. Like i said earlier, I really like the design system and how simplistic it is. The colour schemes are vibrant and intriguing which it can symbolise countries as well as it has common flat colours which is also a good idea.
Michal Iwanowski – Go Home Polish, 2018
This is another work which i really conected with in many levels. As immigrants are awlays told to ‘go home’ as one of the main things that circluate around social media it ‘go back home’ whenever the conversations are about immigrants, asylum seekers. Iwanowski focuses on the concept of home. He actually lives in Cardiff which was so intesting, his idea stems from the graffiti he saw on a wall which said ‘go home polish‘. I think that is the most common phrase immigrants hear daily, whenever it is something related to them or an inconvenience happens which people don’t agree with instantly ‘go back home’ is thrown at them. He then decided to take a journey back home which is polish but his home is also Cardiff. He decided to walk to Poland. He photographed his journey and his experiences on his way. Below you can see the trailer for the film, his journey to Poland. i found it fascinating but also makes you question the word home. Who can decide whether this is your home or not? who gives people power to tell them to leave their homes and go back. I believe this is an idea that immigrants will never be seen as part of this country, no matter how long they have lived here or even born here. You will always be a foreigner and an outsider.
he also shares his conversations with people on the way, he talks to people about home and what they think home is to them. He walks to Poland on foot so he takes thousands of photographs of what he see son the journey but also p of people. The writing below is Iwanowski’s experience when he was at a small village and his conversation with her lady that works in a restaurant. It tells a bit about her and their journey of two homes as she was married to an english man. She moved to Chippenham for him and she tells a short funny story about how he gave her a coat in the airport when she landed. It is a heart warming memory of him and a lady he meets on the way to Poland.
Excellences & Perfections – Amalia Ulman, 2014
This is a project created by Amalia Ulman about the way social media effects our perception of women, femininity and perfectionism. She created this work in 2014 but she predicted the future as her work relates to us more than ever. Perfectionism is a huge issue on social media as people want to be perfect in every way. The looks, their life, the things they own and the photographs. They are so many perfecting filters for your selfies, there editing apps which perfects your photos colours, angles etc. Everything needs to fit into an aesthetic value which is determined by your likes and retweet. This aesthetic value is also created by the user so that is also an issue and interesting factor. These users are now called ‘influencers’ and well known celebrities. However, I believe celebrities have always been at the top since the beginning this is not a new thing that just evolved but I believe this new concept of ‘influencers’ had a huge effect on people and how we see it. I think this is is because they are normal people like us, they are just people which made us want to be likw them whereas you know you cant be a celebrity just through posting photographs.
The digital artist spent four months curating an Instagram profile that documented the life of a wannabe it-girl trying to make it in LA. We watched as Ulman’s story unfolded, climaxing with a (fake) boob job and public apology. At the point when almost 90,000 followers were invested in Ulman’s life, she announced that it had all been a hoax. The performance piece was titled “Excellences & Perfections” and it was an art world sensation. Not only had Ulman shone a light on social media’s ability to dupe, she had also created what critics heralded as the “first Instagram masterpiece”. In 2016, the piece was included in a group show at the Tate Modern, Performing for the Camera, making her the first social media artist to enter into a top institution. Today, Excellences & Perfections stands up as more relevant than ever, foreshadowing our increasingly unhealthy relationship with Instagram and dubious notions of ‘truth’ online. As a new book is released (published by Prestel) detailing the work, we look at how Ulman’s performance impacted the internet we experience today, but also how it predicted it.
Whatdiversitygivesus.com
This is another project which focuses on diversity in America. A website which allows you to fill in the blank section with any ethnicity or word that you have a question about America. This is very useful and clever as if people have any judgements and assumptions on a particular group living in in America they can find out facts and history of how they have been there. This is like a answer to all the people saying ‘they do nothing for our country’. This is again like other project to empower but in an educational way that gives information about certain topics. I think this is very easy way to educate and give information to people have assumptions about certain group of people living in America. The design of the campaign s very simple and bold. The website opens up the main page which is the question below Then you can type in or it gives you things automatically. Then you click ask and it takes you to another page. I really like this idea and it can easily be expanded with other materials a such as turned in to an app and poster visuals.
I think this research has been so beneficial to me and my project. I was able to develop my knowledge and it gave me so many ideas and concepts which I could potentially do. I feel very inspired and I want to create something as powerful as some of these works. The next step I feel like I should work on my visuals and decide on the visual language.
In this post I researched what has social media platforms have already done and want to do in future to work on issues such as bullying, trolling, misinformation. I especially focused on Twitter and Instagram as they are what I want to focus on for my project. One of the main issues on social media is misinformation especially on Twitter. Twitter is the platform now people use it as the news. People talk on twotter about every single issue you can image, political personal environmental everything that is an issue or any event people will be talking as thats the point. If snapchat or instagram is down the first place you look at is on Twitter as someone must of tweeted something in few seconds. It’s where there’s constant flow of information good or bad. Twitter for the past few years has now seen social media movements some people call this ‘hashtag movements’. One of biggest example is #metoo movement in 2017, this social movement that is against sexual violence and sexual assault. It advocates for females who survived sexual violence to speak out about their experience. Women were encouraged to wrote their strory as a tweet and tag #metoo to show that they have also experienced and share it. The movemnt instantly turned into a massice social media campaign all around the world. There was women in Turkey, Mexico, USA just wolrdwide spread. This was a chance for women who have experienced this to share their story and be heard. Many influencial artists, politicians, writers also joined in and quickly it became ainternational movement. This then turned into physical protests, marches, speeches. Then another very strong and powerful movement #BlackLivesMatter, this was hashtag was also very powerful for poeple o share informaiton especially in the protest in 2017 but also 2020 during May. It spread across the world in couple of days and it allowed people to share information when protests were happening, if people were hurt you knew about it, if people needed somewhere to go or any kind of information it was like as if you were there in that protest live. The circulation of information was quick and instant you didn;t have to live in America to join, this allowed protests to happen in UK and other parts of the world.
#metoo movement on Twitter.
This was how it all began on Twitter and it spread through countries and more celebrities and women from all over the world got involved.
Twitter during these movements or elections realised they need to stop the misinformation from spreading especially after 2016 Trump Elections. This new feature would fall in line with other measures Twitter has been taking to slow the spread of misinformation on its service, including a recent change to how retweets work. On October 20, 2020, Twitter began to prompt anyone who goes to retweet something to share a quote tweet instead. In addition, Twitter also rolled out a series of new policies ahead of Election Day in the U.S., to further guide its handling of misleading tweets. Beyond just labeling misinformation, it applied more aggressive warnings and restrictions on tweets from U.S. political figures, including candidates and campaign accounts, as well as other U.S.-based accounts that met certain thresholds in terms of followers, or tweet engagements.
I believe the new feature would look like this and it would notify people before letting them post. There is also another feature like this on Twitter, before retweeting an article the feature asks the account to make sure and read it before sharing. These are good featyres than can make social media a better place for all users. So for my project I realised I could do something that is different to plug ins or other features. I don’t have much experience with algoarithms or social media platofrms however leanring more about the lagoriths could give me an new idea and a new path for me to follow. I started to do some basic research on Twitters algorithms by using my account, seeing different features that it focuses on misinformation and hateful speeches. These are some screenshots of the settings, privacy and other features. With this, I also learnt new features on Twitter that i didn’t know about.
There are features like mute words, you can pick a word you wan to mute then you wont see nay tweets about it on your feed. This could be a good way for people to block out some things they don’t want to see such as negative content. You can also block accounts which is also a way people deal with hateful things. There is a safety section, which if it the account holder activates it, it will mark media you tweet as containing material that may be sensitive. I think this feature means you can mark your tweets sensitive which warms other users before viewing your tweet.
The algorithm is always changing, for each social media networks they all have differetn algorithms they work with and create their feeds. Twitter has had few chnages in the past couple of years. Twitter, like many social platforms, doesn’t share a full breakdown of its algorithm. However, a Twitter blog post from 2017 helps highlight a few other things to keep in mind when planning your content for Twitter:
Recency: How recently a Tweet was published.
Engagement: Has to do with how many Retweets, clicks, favorites and impressions a Tweet has received.
Rich Media: The type of media you include in your Tweet, such as images, videos and GIFs.
Activity: Refers to how active a user is. For example, how long its been since the user was last on the site, how many followers they have and how much they use the platform.
These are the ways twitter feed is organized:
The algorithm ranks these tweets with engagement, the amount of likes retweets it gets which then goes to the top of the feed. It might not necessarily the newest tweet but it is the most popular. So this means its reverse chronological order.
“In Case You Missed It” feature is where the Twitter algorithm presents older Tweets from accounts you frequently engage with. It doesn’t always show up, because it’s meant to only contain a small number of the very most relevant Tweets that you might have missed since your last visit, ordered by their relevance score.
However, you can make your feed a real time feed where you see the tweets with time order, I recently discovered this feature through my research on algorithms. The star at the top right side of the screen, if you click it allows you to change it to real time feed. You can see the image above, ‘latest tweets show up as they happen’. I think it’s good to have a flexibility as it allows people to create a personal platform where they feel more comfortable.
Fake Accounts
I believe from my research earlier, fake accounts is a problem on Twitter which feeds into anti immigration and hateful speeches circulating on Twitter. I wanted to see if Twitter had any features they are planning to bring on. In 2018, Twitter has shut down up to 70 million fake and suspicious accounts since May, according to the Washington Post. As you could see from the misconceptions post, there are loads of fake accounts posting hateful comments and spreading it on Twitter. They could be doing this to increase their engagement and become popular. Most of them are very extremist on other politics or other issues. The extreme fake accounts get reaction from people by posting hateful rumors or comments under people tweets which people react to then it gets to be seen on more feeds. It’s like a cycle due to the algorithms that benefits from popularity and engagements.
Del Harvey, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, said that it was now erring more on the side of “preserving safety” rather than supporting free speech at all costs. They started to take action since Brexit and Trump elections in 2016. Twitter has the email confirmation section where you can confirm your account however many people today have loads of different emails which means you can have several different accounts. I think this is something I could work on in my project.
Instagram Algorithm
In one of the articles about instagram it says they are also working on the issues that are rising from the platform such as hate comments and trolling. Instagram is working on AI powered algorithm that will start warning users when they’re about to post a “potentially offensive” caption for a photo or video that’s being uploaded to their main feed, the company has announced. If an Instagram user posts something that the service’s AI-powered tools think could be hurtful, the app will generate a notification to say that the caption “looks similar to others that have been reported.” It will then encourage the user to edit the caption, but it will also give them the option of posting it unchanged. This makes the users in charge of their post still and allows them to rethink that comment however this might not make a change for the real bullies who are so determined to post negative hateful things. Allowing the user to be in charge still is I believe is still a good way to work on it however like I said I don’t know whether it will have an impact on a some group of people on instagram.
The next step I wanted to research campaigns that already exist focused on exercise, families and people living in poverty. I just wanted to gain some inspiration and do some research to see what;s already been done. On Friday, David told us about an agency which does really good social projects focused on communities so that was my first stop. Think Public design agency located in London. Thinkpublic was the first social design agency, established in 2004. The inspiration to start thinkpublic came after Deborah Szebeko volunteered at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. They use experiential methods to entertain and engage communities whilst also delivering new services and ventures. The agency has 4 core values one of them is positive impact, they want to work on projects that will have a positive impact and difference on the society. Collaboration is also a key value they believe working with other creatives to create trust and togetherness. Creativity is also very important value and then it is sustainability. They usually work on projects which are focused on health, education, sport, environment. This is really good as our project is focused on these areas as well to gain some inspiration from their work would be really beneficial to me. I need some inspiration to what path I want to take in this project as its a social campaign that targets a disadvantaged group of people in society. I went out and picked out works that really inspired but also was intriguing.
This is the first project I found really interesting and meaningful I wanted to include it in my research. Loneliness is also a huge part of todays society and there are many campaigns now to raise awareness and try to get people more involved. ThinkPublic saw it as a challenge and focused on Inner-city loneliness is a mental health issue which needs more light in society. There approach was to create a service for people who feel lonely or they don’t have strong family connection. They use the phase as ‘Allowing individuals to choose their family, as well as their friends‘ I think this is a strong concept and clear fits the needs of these individuals. Often we feel like we don’t belong to something, the place we live or our school, university so creating a service for people to come and choose their own relationships with people who are feeling the same thing can be really beneficial. The service is called ‘Relative Friends’ .
How can we address loneliness? – Relative Friends
This is the first project I found really interesting and meaningful I wanted to include it in my research. Loneliness is also a huge part of todays society and there are many campaigns now to raise awareness and try to get people more involved. ThinkPublic saw it as a challenge and focused on Inner-city loneliness is a mental health issue which needs more light in society. There approach was to create a service for people who feel lonely or they don’t have strong family connection. They use the phase as ‘Allowing individuals to choose their family, as well as their friends‘ I think this is a strong concept and clear fits the needs of these individuals. Often we feel like we don’t belong to something, the place we live or our school, university so creating a service for people to come and choose their own relationships with people who are feeling the same thing can be really beneficial. The service is called ‘Relative Friends’ . They create events in locations where people can come have few drinks and talk to people. They create a community together which they can all feel safe and belonging. These people can come from different backgrounds, in their website there is a video from an event which they speak to people who attend these and some are people who lost a partner or moved away from home or just want new set of friends and get to know people. As I mentioned earlier, I think creating a community feeling is key these kind of social issues as it helps people feel connected. To apply it to our brief, if these families to find it difficult to work out, exercise with their kids if they feel like there are other families like them they can all motivate each other and encourage the activities. This would also be good for people to find out about these activities they can tell another family they might want to join as well.
This Girl Can celebrates active women who are doing their thing no matter how they do it, how they look or even how sweaty they get. Launched in 2015, we have successfully persuaded nearly three million women to get more active – but our work isn’t done yet. Women come in all shapes and sizes with all abilities and from all backgrounds. Some of us are expert sportswomen, some of us are a bit rubbish. It doesn’t matter. We’re just happy that you’re getting active. And if you’re still not sure that you can, we’re here to help you to figure out the way of getting active that’s right for you. Our research shows that many women are put off taking part in physical activity due to a fear of judgement – this might be about the way the look when they exercise, that they’re not good enough to join in or they should be spending more time on their families, studies or other priorities. One thing I find that is so heart warming about this campaign is it created a community for women as they call the hub. In the website, you can find many stories from different kinds of women from different careers, backgrounds life styles and how they stay active in their own way. It gives motivation to different types of woman not just one specific category. The website has a feature called ‘activity finder’ this allows the audience to search up their location and find activities that are happening near them. There are online classes as well which are easier for some women. The campaign is uplifting and motivational to keep women active. I think this campaign us a great research as it has few features which can be ideal for our project like creating a community feeling. As David mentioned in our feed back focus on community, if people feel like they belong to something it will make them feel netter to do something and they will actually want to be part of it .
The website has so many features from stories about women’s life and how they exercise to activity finder in their location and also they have an app which has sessions for different types of needs. One of the weaknesses is it doesn’t really focus on women in under privileged backgrounds, women living in poverty who don’t have the money for membership or have a laptop for online courses. This campaign is so useful to women who has good means and a lifestyle that does involve exercise.
#ThisIsPE Campaign
The campaign supports teachers, parents and carers to deliver PE at home during the coronavirus lockdown. #ThisIsPE is a series of short videos with activities. These free, fun and easy to follow videos are for the whole family to enjoy together. They are all linked to the primary PE curriculum and can be repeated at home, using things around the house. Each video lasts around two minutes. It introduces an activity, with tips for how to progress, depending on the age and development of your child. It is also supported by leading national organisations, the Association for Physical Education, and the Youth Sport Trust. It is an online campaign which they release videos on youtube and facebook. This campaign is really great for families which has access to internet, they can do these simple exercises everyday and keep fit and healthy. The website is easy to follow each day has several different activities with the time. It also tells you who it is targetting as some activities are aimed at older people whereas there are activities aimed as young children and parents to do it together. I think this is really nice to involve parents and different age groups backgrounds as not only young kids need exercise adults should also exercise to stay healthy. They are free sessions which you can just sign up during lockdown also it is good that there is something to do everyday as many adults go to work or they work at home most days of the week. I think this is a good campaign that has been beneficial to many families during lockdown. However, there are few gaps and weaknesses in the campaign.
The campaign misses the children which don’t have a laptop or phone and I think this isa huge issue. This creates an inequality as the under privileged children miss out on activities which could help their fitness and mental health. On the website, it doesn’t say whether the teachers are doing something for children who don’t have access to internet or not which means most likely they aren’t. I believe the campaigns and services should also think about individuals who don’t have the luxury items such as phones and laptops so accessibility is very important in this brief. This is why I want to create something that can reach to those people who don’t have a laptop or phone printed media is a key essential for this.
Sport England – Coronavirus home activities
This is another campaign which focuses on staying active during lockdown, it is created by Sport England. This Girl Can is also a campaign by Sport England, they have many campaigns which encourage individuals to stay active during lockdown. The website gives few tips on how to stay active and things you can do to help your mental health. The campaign again does the same things as other campaigns there online activities which individuals can join both at home or outside.
StreetGames harnesses the power of sport to create positive change in the lives of disadvantaged young people right across the UK. StreetGames’ work helps to make young people and their communities healthier, safer and more successful. StreetGames’ work is delivered in partnership with the StreetGames Alliance of around 1,000 Locally Trusted Organisations, working in disadvantaged communities across the UK. The collective power and reach of this alliance enables unparalleled access to young people growing up in over 4,000 poverty-hit localities. These organisations are the lifeblood of their neighborhood They have earned their spurs, built trust and won the right to make a difference in their community. This campaign focuses on the target audience our brief focuses on which is kids living in poverty.
They have many events and activities for different types of needs whether it is healthy eating which is Fit and Fed, to help kids living in poor families have the healthy nutritious meals. The event was launched in the summer of 2017, the programme succeeded in reaching 15,500 young people across 251 sites, in just its first year of operation. During that time, a whopping 90,000 meals were served to young people in need! Fit and Fed sessions are designed around groups of 20 participants, each of whom can expect to enjoy around 4 hours of daily games and activities, alongside a healthy meal. These campaigns are created by donations made by people which means the more money is donated the more children they can reach in deprived areas. However, these activities are not possible due to the current pandemic in the world. So, we should think other ways to reach to these kids and try to keep them active.
Shift Agency is just like ThinkPublic agency they focus on social problems and use their design to make a difference and tackle these issues in society. They work on very abraod projects such as collective impact as improving social housing services that support women with their finances, healthier and affordable fast foods for families. I looked at few of their projects and one of them caught my eye which was supporting new parents that just had a baby in lockdown.
They focused on the new parents in lockdown who don’t have the support system as they normally would have due to Corona Virus outbreak. They identified a problem in society which people are facing with and answered the brief by collaborating with parents and baby charities.
They responded to the brief by collaborating with parents and charities focusing on babies. The website is actually a self care page for parents to go on and have some time for themselves. Each month they will realise a ‘Care Package’ which is filled with simple ways to ground, energise and inspire. The package includes short videos on how to feel better such as reflecting, or a short video of dance moves for positive energy.
There are three simple tasks on the website some are pdf files which consist of writing down things you’re grateful for today and what are the reasons. These simple tasks can make people feel better and realise the things they usually forget or get blind to it. These kind of campaigns are very personal and it allows the individual to connect with themselves. I think the campaign aiming at parents mental health is really important and so needed in society. Especially key worker parents who have been dealing with Covid, these small tasks can make them feel positive and encourage them to stay motivated. I think the features are very simple but effective, the activities are very easy to do and designed in simple but efficient way. The website is designed to be bright and energetic to engage the viewer and motivate them. I like the bold simple types and the layouts very easy to navigate around the website. I think it is missing something though I believe it would be good to add some real life people, to create a community add their stories maybe anonymously to share peoples feelings and lockdown stories. I do think it could really take the campaign to another level and would create more depth.
Busra Yildiz 