More Research
1. The Daily - Is More Violence Coming?
"Social media platforms have raced to bar organizers of the attack on the Capitol. Will that make a repeat less likely, or just harder to prevent?"
2. The Daily - How Facebook is Undermining 'Black Lives Matter'
"The company publicly supports the racial justice movement. But content on the platform may be compromising the cause."
"The intersection of art, activism and immersion was the subject of the “Dreams of the Future: Social Justice and Equality” panel"
After finding out about Are.na during class, I spent the next hour on are.na and I honestly love it. There's so many new and unique projects that I have never seen. I also appreciated the wide variety of sources I could find: there were images, articles, links to videos. I think it really helped broaden my research. HERE is a link to my are.na board (I think that's the name)! I really wanted to focus more on design and activism as well as how that can be translated to AR. If anyone wants to add more to my board I would totally appreciate it. I think it would be cool if we started a class board or create different types of boards for different mediums or topics.
I did a lot of thinking this week and I wanted to focus more on what I wanted to do. I know I want to do something that involves social movements and social justice so I decided to take a closer look into that. I found that social media has been the start of a lot of the social movements that we have today, from #BlackLivesMatter to #MeToo. This summer showed how powerful social media can be for activism. It is a new tool to reach thousands of people instantly. It allowed people to get involved in social movements while staying at home and quarantining. So, I want to use social media as a sort of platform for my project. I want to explore how AR filters on social media can be used to help social movements and activists.
I think my project will be more focused on young adults who are active on social media. People post on social media because they want other people to know what they're doing they create a facade to create a perception they want other people to see. So, I thought I could use that to create an AR experience on social media (Instagram and Snapchat mainly) that educates people about social movements. In some way, I want to hack social media to get a message across.
Your central research question/statement?
How can AR features on social media influence Social Justice movements?
Your research so far, and the background/context of your research?
Right now, my research is mainly focused on social media as it relates to activism, different social movements, and AR projects that are being used to educate people. I also did some research into how effective AR is in educating people about a topic. I wanted to research really broadly to start off so I could narrow in on something I was interested in. I also thought it was really important to focus on different projects, not just AR, that discussed the balance between social justice and interactive environments. I thought it would be helpful to see what work is being done now so I can use that information as a basis for my work.
Why you’re interested in this research?
I am interested in this research because this summer, I had to stay at home and quarantine because my dad was at high risk for covid. I really wanted to get involved int he Black Lives Matter protests, but I couldn't because of my dad's condition. From that moment I wanted to explore different way in which I could still get involved in movements while stay at home. I wanted to make being an activist more accessible. Activism isn't just protests, it's educating people, it's learning, it's organizing, it's suppose to make people uncomfortable. So, I wanted to find a way to get involved and educate people in the best way possible. I want to create something that can reach a very large audience. For my senior project, I created an AR book about social movements. However, I realized that it wasn't accessible because people would have to download all of my working files to use it. So I found that using social media as a vessel for my information would probably be the most effective way to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time.
What initial research/prototyping directions you have for your research?
For prototyping, I was thinking of creating v simple 3D models to mimic what I want to do. Maybe using photoshop to show the intended results. I also want to start interviewing people about how they feel about social media and activism. I feel like a lot of people have a surface level vision of what social media could really do.
A rough schedule/plan of your research/prototyping for the semester?
2/17/21 - 2/24/21: Continue Research and Develop Research Question
2/24/21 - 3/3/21: Finalize Research Question and Develop Ideas Further - create prototype?
3/3/21 - 3/10/21: Continue to Develop Prototypes and Try to Interview a few people
3/10/21 - 3/17/21: Develop Prototypes, do more research, interview more people
3/17/21 - 3/24/21: Continue research and finalize research question and idea for project
3/24/21 - 3/31/21: Being Second Research Phase and continue to develop research
3/31/21 - 4/07/21: Look for organizations to reach out to and begin interviews
4/07/21 - 4/14/21: Continue to Develop Prototype and Research further and evaluate a research framework
4/14/21 - 4/21/21: Start to create final prototype
4/21/21 - 4/28/21: Finish final prototype and final report
This was one idea I had that I want to explore further:
Hacking social media but creating AR filters that resemble type or powerful quotes/ saying - they can be integrated into peoples pictures - artsy, spreads a message, educates. All you would need is a flat surface to image track onto - it can be a wall, a bench, a building etc… it would link to a website that could help educate more on movements or help plan movements. Maybe it could be a way to send messages to elected officials.
