ZINE:
VIDEO:
During our field trip, we decided to do non-participatory observation study to investigate the clothing production pipeline from the perspective of local vendors in Shanghai.
The ZINE is a ‘fashion’ inspired magazine style series that gives a brief overview of our experience at the two Shanghai Fabric Markets. The influence of True Cost is noted, because the whole day we were conducting our observations we repeatedly referenced the documentary. Through the size, we wanted to attract the viewers – thus choosing the aesthetics to be appealing to someone interested in style and clothing shopping past the basic need. We targeted this audience for the precise reason of informing them about conscious shopping. As I was editing the visual references, I often took myself as an example (past me/ prior to learning the information form this course) – this allowed me to explore the most efficient ways of raising awareness. The information I am absorbing through these practices is really resonating with me, and I would hope this wave spreads on, thus brining me to the video influence.
I am a big fan of watching Youtube, I could even go as far as to say – a big percentage of my daily consumed information comes from this platform. Acknowledging how influential these influencers are to me, I wanted to role play and experiment with the technique of raising awareness through empathy. I wanted to video to feel very personal, as if I am talking to “my audience” as they were my friends. Through this I was able to express my feelings, as well as add visual aid from the 800 photo album we collected during our observations. Reflecting now, I could have approached this part of the assignment a little bit differently: talking through our study the way we conduced it. The issue with this is that no one past our class would be interested in seeing something as such, and I really do feel passionate about these topics – especially the ecology issues – therefore my mindset with the assignments go beyond getting points on a rubric. This plays a big part in our final project development on conscious consumption.