Marcela Godoy and I are partnering up. We have started a tumblr with images that inspire us. Check it out! We are impassioned by work that is wearable, scalable, transformable, functional and socially conscious. We would like to empower the user to physically transform and change the way the data identifies them. Our initial effort of finding a data source and thinking about the object turned out to be a little more difficult than we thought. We were trying to think of both concurrently but this wasn’t as fruitful. Finding the right data set along with the formal intent isn’t as easy so the following sketches and data sets are not matching or rather missing. I have emailed some people who might know where I can collect certain sources like rape stats and am waiting to hear back from them.
Social Mask - Twitter 4J. We are using twitter to inform the nodal points of a generative necklace. The larger your digital network the smaller the necklace. However, if your network is small the necklace is larger and covers your face. You are indistinguishable. The idea here stems from thinking that your social network validates your existence. OR we can also argue that if your network is larger then the necklace covers more of you, etc. You are who you hang out with or rather by who you know.
Here are some visualization of social networks. Some of these are also on our tumblr.
Chocker – Is a generative necklace that uses the lack of statistic on actual reported rapes versus reported rapes. Formally the piece cuts off your ability to speak and grows further along your face to cover your mouth. Reported rape crimes are the negative spaces between the built/formed shapes which represent that which goes unheard/unreported. This might have to change as finding stats for this is difficult and as mentioned above we are waiting to hear back from people who might know social groups who collect this kind of data.
When I was younger I was a part of VOW Arts, a group of young female artist, and we made Listen in response to the lack of action by the administration in our school. One of the girls in the group had reported a sexual assault and admin did nothing to address the her complaints. As it turns out when the group was formed many of the members had similar stories and felt that their voices weren’t being heard. Out of it came that piece.
“According to the American Medical Association (1995), sexual violence, and rape in particular, is considered the most under-reported violent crime.
The most common reasons given by victims for not reporting rapes are the belief that it is a personal or private matter, and that they fear reprisal from the assailant. A 2007 government report in England says ‘Estimates from research suggest that between 75 and 95 percent of rape crimes are never reported to the police.’”
Wiki provides some rape stats on reported rapes in 2008 per country. If we don’t find better data we will use this.
Women In Power or Lack of Power - Is a generative dress that uses women in power statistics to dress a woman. The more women in power the more patterns and the better covered she is. If however the statistics are disproportionate and there are very few women she is forced to wear less and choose what she wants to cover precariously.
In Isabell Allende’s TED Talk Tales of Passion March 2007, she states that women work two thirds of the worlds labor but own less than one percent of the worlds assets. “They are paid less than men for the same work if they’re paid at all, and they remain vulnerable because they have no economic independence, and they are constantly threatened by exploitation, violence and abuse. It is a fact that giving women education, work, the ability to control their own income, inherit and own property, benefits the society. If a woman is empowered, her children and her family will be better off. If families prosper, the village prospers, and eventually so does the whole country.” We are still looking for a data set for this. We found this article. But it’s not what we really want.
Original post posted was posted on our class blog.