Matching Items (6)
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- All Subjects: Visual Communication Design
- Creators: Sanft, Alfred
Description
"Many Faces" is the result of a year-long exploration of online harassment. It includes multiple graphic design projects which reference the phenomenon of online harassment and attempt to solve it (or at least contribute to a solution), all in different ways.
According to a survey performed by Pew Research in 2014, 40% of Internet users have experienced online harassment. 18% had experienced severe harassment – stalking, sexual harassment, physical threats – while 22% had only experienced less severe harassment, such as name-calling. Women ages 18–24 receive a disproportionately large percentage of all severe online harassment. The emotional trauma suffered from severe or long-term harassment can lead to (and has led to) fear, depression, and suicide in the worst cases.
The anonymity of the Internet partially enables online harassment, since it allows perpetrators to hide behind usernames or false images while they harass others — there is little accountability. However, 66% of online harassment happens on social media platforms, where people's names and images are usually readily available. This indicates that anonymity is not the only factor, and not even the main factor. Rather, the separation of the Internet from the physical world, that which makes it less "real," is what enables harassers to treat it as entirely different experience. They can say across a keyboard what they might never say face-to-face.
To increase my understanding of the problem, I made two three-dimensional pieces – a functioning clock and an exhibit wall. Each project explored different aspects of online harassment and implored the audience to keep compassion and kindness in mind while interacting with others digitally.
Another goal was to create a campaign which could tackle the problem on a larger, more definite scale. To learn from others' attempts, I studied two recent, real-world campaigns against online harassment, Zero Trollerance and HeartMob. Each of these received significant amounts of good press on online news outlets, but people who enjoyed or were helped by those campaigns were grossly outnumbered by those who criticized and even lambasted those campaigns, for various reasons.
I determined that the reactive nature of those campaigns was the main cause of their failure, so I created a proactive campaign with the goal of preventing online harassment, rather than correcting it. I designed the beginnings of "You & I," a multiplayer online game for children ages 4–6, which would encourage positive interaction between players through its very game mechanics. Ideally, the habits formed by the children while playing this game would carry over to their future Internet experiences, and a new generation of kinder, more cooperative, "native" Internet users would arise, reducing the amount of harassment seen on the Internet.
According to a survey performed by Pew Research in 2014, 40% of Internet users have experienced online harassment. 18% had experienced severe harassment – stalking, sexual harassment, physical threats – while 22% had only experienced less severe harassment, such as name-calling. Women ages 18–24 receive a disproportionately large percentage of all severe online harassment. The emotional trauma suffered from severe or long-term harassment can lead to (and has led to) fear, depression, and suicide in the worst cases.
The anonymity of the Internet partially enables online harassment, since it allows perpetrators to hide behind usernames or false images while they harass others — there is little accountability. However, 66% of online harassment happens on social media platforms, where people's names and images are usually readily available. This indicates that anonymity is not the only factor, and not even the main factor. Rather, the separation of the Internet from the physical world, that which makes it less "real," is what enables harassers to treat it as entirely different experience. They can say across a keyboard what they might never say face-to-face.
To increase my understanding of the problem, I made two three-dimensional pieces – a functioning clock and an exhibit wall. Each project explored different aspects of online harassment and implored the audience to keep compassion and kindness in mind while interacting with others digitally.
Another goal was to create a campaign which could tackle the problem on a larger, more definite scale. To learn from others' attempts, I studied two recent, real-world campaigns against online harassment, Zero Trollerance and HeartMob. Each of these received significant amounts of good press on online news outlets, but people who enjoyed or were helped by those campaigns were grossly outnumbered by those who criticized and even lambasted those campaigns, for various reasons.
I determined that the reactive nature of those campaigns was the main cause of their failure, so I created a proactive campaign with the goal of preventing online harassment, rather than correcting it. I designed the beginnings of "You & I," a multiplayer online game for children ages 4–6, which would encourage positive interaction between players through its very game mechanics. Ideally, the habits formed by the children while playing this game would carry over to their future Internet experiences, and a new generation of kinder, more cooperative, "native" Internet users would arise, reducing the amount of harassment seen on the Internet.
ContributorsWilliams, Peter Ross (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Adolescence, a period of life characterized by drastic physiological as well as psychological development, is undoubtedly daunting. With the rise of social media, this period has become increasingly difficult for teenagers to navigate as social media continues to transform the way they develop psychologically. By increasing their need for social validation, creating a sense of hyper-connectivity, and encouraging an unprecedented lack of empathy, social media negatively impacts self-esteem, a pillar of the social and emotional development endured by teens in these formative years. The result of this impact, low self-esteem is linked to a plethora of serious outcomes ranging from eating disorders and anxiety, to substance abuse and depression. These outcomes are the reasons why social media's effect on the self-esteem of teenagers is an issue worth addressing.
ContributorsBradshaw, Sydney Brenda (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Fueled by fear in the post-9/11 United States, American intelligence agencies conduct dragnet data collection on global communication. Despite the intention of surveillance as preventative counter-terrorism action, the default search and seizure of global communication poses a threat to our constitutional rights and individual autonomy. This is the case especially for people who may be thought of as in opposition to our current political climate, such as immigrants, people of color, women, people practicing non-western religions, people living outside of the United States, activists, persons engaging in political dissent, and people with intersecting identities. Throughout the Fall and Spring semesters, I have done research, conducted visual experiments and designed exploratory projects in order to more thoroughly identify the issue and explore the ways in which visual communication design can aid in the conversation surrounding global surveillance. It was the intention of my fourth year social issue projects to explore the role of visual communication design in the dialogue surrounding surveillance, principally focusing on the responsibility visual communication design has in spreading ideas about how to globally subvert surveillance until governments disclose information about their unconstitutional actions or until whistleblowers do it for them. My final project, the fourth year social issue exhibit, focuses on how improving our personal password habits can help us gain agency in digital spaces. Using the randomness of rolling a dice to generate entropy can help us generate stronger passwords in order to secure sensitive information online. Using design as a method of communication, my fourth year social issue exhibit shared information about how encrypted passwords can act as the first line of defense in protecting ourselves from invasive data collection and malicious internet activity.
ContributorsBailey, Lauren Nicole (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The overall purpose of this study is to address how graphic design can begin to solve the particular social issue of the effect of screen time on child development. In order to reach that particular conclusion, the research begins with an exploration of theories of child development themselves, both physical and cognitive. After establishing their relevance and importance, the issue of the predominance of screens in this current culture is discussed. When it comes to the main point, that screen time affects how children develop, there are two polarized sides to the argument: pro-screens and anti-screens. After reviewing the valid points from each position, the discussion moves to the solution: graphic design. The specific solutions of the pixelPLAY campaign website, the Start Them Young promotional video, and the exhibit, Playing With Pixels: How Screens Can Affect Your Infant's Development, are described in detail as to how they can effectively communicate this social issue and spread awareness. Overall, the argument stands that screens are not going anywhere. It benefits this current generation of new parents to properly educate their child on the correct way to use this omnipresent digital medium in order for them to grow up as healthy, independent, socially responsible and capable individuals. The best chance for success emerges if the parents themselves become aware of the right and wrong ways to use screens, lead by example, and halt unhealthy habits before they even begin. Graphic design can be the match to the flame and set fire to getting this extremely relevant and important issue into the public eye.
ContributorsDella Corna, Gabriela Margarita (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Heywood, William (Committee member) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
With our personal mental and physical well-bing in decline at home, in the workplace, and in the world, the interactive exhibition "STOP and play with plants" gives people a solution. Plants! Plants have been proven to improve one’s well-being. Through visual communication design an exhibit, a book, and a presentation were created to display the research on how plants benefit humanities well-being were created.
ContributorsMier Holland, Olive Clay (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Montgomery, Eric (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
“There are plenty of other fish in the sea,” goes the old cliché. But are there, really? 1,616 species of fish are on the brink of extinction; 989 are endangered and another 627 are critically endangered. Habitat loss and pollution are significant factors in the decline of these species, however, overfishing is spearheading extinction rates. It’s time to reel in reality on one of the biggest threats to our seas inhabitants. The gutting truth is, if they die, we die.
ContributorsElqadah, Rania (Author) / Sanft, Alfred (Thesis director) / Montgomery, Eric (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / The Design School (Contributor)
Created2022-05