Anti-Surveillance
Revised
Taking surveilance further. I explored how to make it more abstract and less one dimensional. The previous version though effective gets 'old' fast. In taking another stab at this project, I made the background slightly transparent in draw. This also changes the colors in an organic shift towards the background color when objects arent moved.
Design Process
Targetted zip code 11101
This week’s project is based directly on my response from last week about social media being shut down in the Kashmir state of India. I wanted to use a stroke variable to be able to conceal a free VPN account and password. I used a set of circles that represent connectivity. Across the canvas there are names of the Indian states, all represented except for Kashmir, this is replaced by the VPN info. When you scroll over the state on the map, the name of the state would pop up in a different color. The issue was that this version was missing a layer, the message wasn't hidden. I decided to take a different route, using patterns from type to 'conceal'. I used the text to point feature with an input so that it is disguised as a playful shape generating exercise. When a specific zip code is entered the shapes reveal the free vpn account. The link for the vpn login shows up and scrolling to that location reveals the username and password. This feels more appropriate and hidden.
Sketches and trials
Reflection
The government of India has constantly tried to shut down social media access in the state of Kashmir, and a way they can bypass this is through VPN. The government's reasoning is that there is harmful information being spread across major social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and instagram. They may have a good case for this, there have been several fatal incidents involving false information spread through these platforms. It makes this project slightly more complicated, on one hand people's voices must not be suppressed and on the other peoples lives could at risk. I am not sure what the solution is, but it will be a very grey area. I wonder if cases of social media violence has been amplified to justify the ban on social media. This becomes such a delicate and complex issue that as designers we have to be careful into providing solutions without proper research. It is easy as outsiders, to think of quick solutions if we do not take the lasting consequences to that community.