User:Kenah/ResearchDocumentHTBH

Forward/Introduction

As a graphic designer, you design and create for communication. But in the traditional sense, you do it for clients and it's either in the form of print or a screen. As a creative, I always wanted to dabble my feet in other media like photography, film and the physical world. At this point in time, I feel the traditional way of graphic design is very limiting. There are many senses the human species can use to get communicated to that don't get to be used if you just stick to print and/or screen, or complicated behaviors and situations that you cant provoke or comment on. I work to discover and learn new ways of expressing and communicating my ideas and findings in other materials and mediums, so in the future, I have even more freedom to think outside the graphic design box. Though limiting, being a graphic designer does give me the advantage that I already have a clear understanding of what to do to have something communicate ideas, principles, and feelings.

As a craftsman, I'm a conceptual creator. I find a story, a metaphor or a happening and create a project around that. we as humans are very complicated creatures. How we interact with each other, the physical world and the digital realm, created a lot of opportunities to discover, highlight or enhance different corks and characteristics that we possess. Doing this, I hope to bring more awareness to how humans interact. This can be taken into consideration when developing new products or technologies. Or if newer technologies get produced I can take them and let people reflect on the situation either positive or negative to create a better understanding of what really makes people tick in the progression and development that we experience.

Abstract

Now that internet is widely accessible, it has become an intricate part of our lives. It has streamlined our lives by making it easier to do all kinds of things. one of the interactions that I find most interesting is our social behavior. We are connected 24/7. That means we can also communicate and share our lives with the world posting anytime, any place using social media and these get a rating after by the amount of likes you score or followers you acquire. This changes how we see, interact and behave around each other.

This research project I will research our relationship with social media (Instagram) and how it affects our behavior, lives and the interactions with each other and world around us. With the findings, I will conduct experiments to exploit or control these behaviors and try to bring awareness or a better understanding of what it can do to us.

Central Question

How do I use the digital (interactions) to influence human interaction/behavior

Relevance of the Topic

On September 2017 Instagram recorded a number of 800 million active users on their platform. It is the third biggest social media platform being used. People use it on a daily base for personal and professional use. You even have Instagram celebrities and influencers that have millions of followers. So the platform has become a world of its own and with its rating system (followers & likes) and the algorithm in play, it can have a big effect on the users and how they perceive their lives. There are a lot of reports already written on mental health, addiction and other issues related to Instagram use. Because of all this, it is important to reflect on the behaviors and look at all angles of the interactions between the users and Instagram with a critical view

Hypothesis

mine intention is to make my work people question the platform. I want them to see beyond the pretty pictures the followers count and the number of likes they get on their latest post. I want them to question their view and behavior and reflect on it. Thus creating a more aware and critical user that can decide where they place their value.

Research Approach

My research will consist of reading papers on mental health and addiction related to Instagram and social media. I will also do artistic research to find related projects. But the biggest part will consist of testing codes and prototyping experiments.

Key References

(how does your work relate to contemporary makers? what a key analogues/works of inspiration?)

Literature

(what texts will/can support this investigation?)

Experiments

(what are you going to test out and why)

Insights from Experimentation

(what have you pulled from your hands on practice based research?)

Artistic/Design Principles

(what is your own criteria for designing?)

Artistic/Design Proposal

I propose to make three experiments around features and extensions that come with Instagram. In this case I wil be using data that users provide on Instagram and a bot that automates user engagements.

with the first experiment, the visitor will have to enter his/her username into the installation that guards an entrance. Based on the number of followers the user will be granted access to enter or not. This experiment comments on future situations where social segregation could be a thing.

my second experiment the visitor will be given the opportunity to get new likes. they will have to enter their username and then do an action to get the likes. I hope this installation will put the people in a situation where they question if it worth doing the action to get the likes (feed their addiction).

The third experiment will use a feature that bots use. I will use its automated comment feature to make a mirror for your narcissistic needs. the mirror is installation that is ment to make the visitor reflect on the overly positive comments that are given by people and bots. So is it real? is a way to get more engagement? Do you need it for you narcissistic needs?

Realised work

(what did you actually make)

Final Conclusions

(what was the point? what do you take away?)

Bibliography

(what did you reference in this text (other texts, images, films, exhibitions)? Remember to use proper in-text citing!!!!!!!!!!