Project Title: “Distorted”
This project seeks to create awareness among a general audience regarding the challenges faced by different races due to stereotypes. Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington, developed a platform called “Project Implicit”, which consists of an Implicit Association Test, that discovers the hidden bias within people. In my project, “Distorted”, I want to expose users to these same bias and stereotype-related issues, but on its specific relationship with inequality in education. As an a mixed Latin-American, I have been exposed to much inequality regarding race and labels, specially when it came to choosing my “identity” for college applications. For this reason I wanted to address this issue that I believe is of general conflict, but controversial to talk about. “Distorted” is meant to embark the user on a simulation of answering the famous “what race do you identify with” question that frequently appears on college application platforms such as the CommonApp. Through this immersion, the project is made to make the audience feel how their identity is distorted due to the stereotypes surrounding their race. Regardless of being directed to a general audience, the project focuses specifically on each user, as it creates a different experience for them depending on what their answer is.
My project aims to make people reflect upon the stereotypes and difficulties linked to their race that exist, specifically while applying to college. In order to achieve this, I plan to firstly display the question “Please indicate how you identify yourself (Select one),” and give them the 5 options of “A. Native American, B.Asian, C. African American, D. Hispanic, E. White (Middle Eastern),” which are the ones more commonly displayed on application platforms. After the user inputs an answer, I plan to make them simulate “taking a picture for their future college photo ID,” with the help of a laser-cut vintage camera that will be placed near the display. The camera used will be vintage-style to induce the concept of how discrimination by race despite being an outdated idea, it is still existent. Lastly, the “photo ID” picture that the student takes, will be processed in such a way that the pixels of the image will be manipulated and converted into text. Therefore, the image of the user will be drawn with text rather than normal strokes. The text that will be used are stereotypical phrases regarding the users race, therefore they will depend on their first response. For example, if a person inputs “D. Hispanic”, then their image will be drawn with the words “Mexican immigrant”. Hence, distorting the original image and showing how the labels that surround race, many ways change the true shape of who we truly are.
In my preparatory research and analysis, I included projects that regarded game and assistive technology, as I initially wanted to develop a project that was more oriented towards helping other people’s needs. However, as the development of my ideas continued, and after attending the Machine Learning Workshop, I realized that the best way to help others, was first to help myself, and address the problems I encountered on a personal level, which could relate with others as well. After listening to artists such as Vytas Jankauskas, who developed antique objects inspired in social problems/inconsistencies he has observed since his childhood, I was inspired to create a camera that reflected how racism in society was an outdated concept. At the same time, this new change of aim in what I wanted to achieve through my project, aligns with my definition of interactivity as it involves a user interacting with technology and in return receiving a response of a processed image of themself. My definition of interactivity also included an aspect of needing to have a purpose. This project in particular, even though it doesn’t have the most clear purpose of “helping someone”, as it was originally planned. It will still have the significant purpose of creating awareness and educating people regarding how the outdatedness of race and stereotypes can still be encountered within education; as well as facilitating the talk about “race and labels,” that many times is hard to address.