The Twilight Zone Process Journal

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Yip Eunice Project 2 1900931 Between the Devil [email protected] and the Deep Blue Sea Glasgow School of Arts “The Twilight Zone” Communication Design Year 4 20/21 2

Zero 04—05 One 06—11 Two 11—19 Three 19—35 —Four 37—38 Summ —ative 3

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea “There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.” Edward Tufte What Dilemma? The circuit breaker in Singapore has reinforced the urge of many to rely on social media to fulfil their societal needs. But the society which social media presents us with is fundamentally different to the society which Abraham Maslow was referring to in his “Theory of Human Motivation” published in 1943. Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” organises a range of human needs in categories of varying significance. The most basic are those required for survival, such as air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing and reproduction. This is followed by our needs for safety, security, employment and health and then for love, belonging, intimacy, connection and esteem and finally; selfactualisation. This is a generally accepted description of the human condition. But where is the vehicle of social media to be situated within the hierarchy? Do the principles of the hierarchy still apply? It has become clear that social media shapes lives and reference points in ways not foreseen by the sociologists of the 20th century. Is society today in part controlled by forces other than nature or the people around us? Intelligent algorithms analyse our behaviour in the digital sphere with superhuman precision: scrolling speed, pauses, reaction times, behavior pattern frequency and so on. Is the technology that was designed to bring us together driving us into isolation? The more we connect with people over social media, the less we tend to connect with them in real life. Is this social behaviour beginning to take its toll? Is there any connection between social media, depression and anxiety? Research in the USA has revealed a gigantic increase in depression and anxiety among American teenagers. Compared to the statistics for the first decade of this century the number is up by 62% for older teen girls (age 15-19) and by 189% for preteen girls (age 10-14). Even more horrifying is the same pattern for suicide. This points to the impact of social media when we observe that Generation Z, the kids born after 1996, are the first generation to go on social media in middle school. So, what leads to compulsive social media use, isolation and depression? This project asks you to explore links between the use of social media and mental health. How is our notion of self anchored in a society that is not defined by boundaries be they physical or moral? What does a like really mean? How do we perceive our significance and define success? 4

Week Documentative approach Zero A short film or video (1-3 minutes) or an illustrated editorial article (or brochure) documenting an experience of depression, anxiety or isolation as a consequence of compulsive social media usage. Do approach this topic with great caution. Offer anonymity, and treat sensitive information with care. Awareness approach An awareness campaign to be delivered through a series of posters, adverts, or - as ironically as it may sound - through social media. Mental illness is often perceived as a taboo subject in Asia. Being a culture less inclined to express our emotions, the fear of being judged, often stops people from sharing and seeking help. The three main areas to overcome the stigma are: awareness, care and prevention. Charity identity To create a visual identity for a charity who is either involved in the support of people with mental health issues, and/or engaged in the prevention of mental health issues. Project Aims Objectives To use primary and secondary To resolve a design problem research to establish new insights on a specific target audience. into the given topic. To establish novel ways of To critically interrogate existing creative expression. concepts through triangulating philosophical, sociological To explore verbal and visual and psychological perspectives. means of communication in pursuit of a design solution. To explore your chosen area of communication design practice To adhere to professional from a professional viewpoint. standards in your chosen area of communication design. To develop proficiency in your chosen area of communication To establish personal design practice. preferences and priorities in relation to visual languages. To increase independence as a creative practitioner. 5

Week Lecture One Pending down my notes after lectures and tips with Jon and Chrissie. They told us how to begin and get the ball rolling. Chrissie suggested to start from understanding what our own pet peeves were—by that, it could help us decide what our motivations were—and how we should go about talking about it. 6

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Research Social media forces and/or pushingly encourages you to have an identity. What are you? A student, influencer, content creator, Creative, yoga/gym enthusiast, a business? This is represented by how we specifically need an ‘art acc’, a ‘private acc’ and a ‘public acc’ etc. When you post something more personal, and non art related work on an art acc, people raise questions. It slowly shaped how social media is slowly becoming into; that people would think twice when uploaded content. “Is it appropriate to post this here etc” “this is too personal for my main acc.... private acc instead?”. We could’ve started and can’t from a place where a social media account was just to upload things we like, to upload special memories etc, but gradually, it became the other way around. You have to post what you think people would like. Social media = a place for us to ‘perfect’ things. Like how we have command Z on our laptops, we are always continuously striving and trying to perfect things, until we are satisfied. The amount of undo(s) till perfection are limitless. Similar to social media, we have all the authority and power to perfect, to build this facade, this identity (that could be far from what we really are) and only present things when it matches our ‘standards’ (or social media’s and the public’s standards, which is of another discussion) when we’re satisfied. We don’t (or rarely) put out things that are ‘bad’. With this power, we all know that with great power comes great responsibility. There are no boundaries, making us vulnerable to the toxic toll/effect it takes on our health. Boundaries. It’s either you set boundaries to be outside of social media OR you’ve subconsciously set boundaries to be trapped in the world of social media. Concept on memento mori. Inevitable black hole. Halloween; Seasonal campaign Metaphorical representation. Pencil shavings. The more we use and produce content, the more shaved we are; the more weak we become . Target Audience would be parents. Their fear would be the future, of children. I wouldn’t say it’s too late to educate teens, but I agree with what you mention last week that we know social media is bad, but we still let them get to us. We allowed ourselves to be vulnerable to the toxicity online. I feel right now the most vulnerable group of people, are kids. It would be easier to teach them, start cultivating from young. Children are always very interested and curious in everything. Reminded of this advert I saw on YouTube, because of Covid, the parents lost their jobs, Covid had a negative impact on them. But for the child, it was a good thing. More time spent with parents at home, more memories were created that wasn’t possible before. It ended with this scene where the child scribbled on the mom’s certificate which states ‘Best employee of the year’ which she had gotten from her previous job but was fired because of Covid, but the kid scribbled over the words where just ‘Best year’ was visible. It’s really intriguing, how children thinks. They’re so unaware of the world, yet so aware somehow at the same time . They are the best, at living in the present. In contrast, adults, us, we are technically very aware. I’d say too aware of every single available information around us. We worry about the past, we worry about the present, we worry about the future, about everything. 8

Class discussion What exactly is your design problem? Don’t find a solution first. A design is suppose to communicate an idea. What are you trying to communicate? What are you trying to solve? This is called being a designer. Have a strategic objective (vs tactical objective: just plainly raise awareness. That’s it.) What is your strategy, what is your objective? Far from just raising awareness? Target parents going to baby fairs where they are for sure visiting to buy things? What is your main goal to achieve? Awareness: Getting people to get interested in science? Purpose: To drive sales? Parents anxiety: What if my children will be bad at science? How should I introduce education to my kids? Read up on Simon Sinek. I’m targeting parents’ fears of the future for their children (young children). Their fears of technology, social media, addiction, frauds online, fake identities. And I want to show the parents’, adults the possible realities of our future and the devices we are holding. Depict the future of their children (addiction, isolation from the real world. It won’t be a strategy of like asking parents to stop their children from interacting with a device, but more of inciting fear... (Haven’t thought of an objective yet) Because right now, I don’t think there is a solution, because we can’t really avoid social media and technology, since this is where the world is going, we’re going digital, we WILL fall back and possibly be MORE isolated if we cant keep up with it and avoid social media. So I will avoid saying “Stop using social media”. But more of really telling you how scary our future will be... “Ask better questions” 9

Netflix documentary; Connected. Looking at screens, surveillance. From being concern to plain curiousity. Watching has become so fundamental, that our survival as a species depends on it. If we just observe nature, there is so much more to learn. E.g. veers birds vs technological devices on predicting hurricanes. Tinder and/or dating apps can actually track your vulnerability point (activeness, messages and connections etc.) Privacy paradox; we all say we value privacy. But virtually everything we do online contradicts that. We are born watchers; a baseline survival instinct. But these new fangled technology has thrown this into hyperdrive. It’s all so seductive, that we’ve neglected to protect a lot of what makes us singular and special; as simple as our faces, desires, vulnerabilities. Like social media, we tell the world when we’re sad, when there’s something to be celebrated, so on and so forth. Paradox; We’re giving government and tech companies more of our secrets than ever before. But in exchange, we’re making more connections than we ever have. Is this trade-off worth it? Maybe one day when we’re at the brink of extinction ourselves. We’ll have to surrender aII our privacy and its our job to make sure it doesn’t happen. Insight & problem It takes a toll on you when you don’t know the reason why you’re feeling certain emotions. There’s no ‘diagnose’. There’s nothing you can ‘blame’ on other then just bluntly and plainly saying ‘Oh it’s because of social media’. Its difficult to find a solution when you don’t know what the problem is Intention To inform people why we’re feeling this way (cons of social media). Explain and introduce the concept of our survival as a species, even animals when they’re hunting or mating, is to watch and be watched. Trying to normalise things and spell it out for people. Dissect this taboo into simpler terms. Like if you have a flu it’s because your body is weak, your immune system is failing. Build up emotions, sickness from the virtual world, it’s because we’re just humans too, the need to watch and be watched. Honestly, we have always been watching and being watched since the prehistoric days. You’re kaypoh for what the other village is planning. You got to update whoever is above you in hierarchy. You got to plan and hunt in concentration. It’s just that now, it’s another platform(obviously times have changed), and we’re expose to more connections than before. This has how the world have become and developed. There’s no escape, we can’t run against it. 10

Design Message Let’s take another look at the ‘toxicity’ caused by social media. Don’t look at it negatively (pinpointing bluntly of depression, anxiety and isolation) Like how mother’s always use the same exact reason of ‘you’re on your phone too long’ even when you have a sore throat, or when you’re feeling heaty? Must be the damn phone. Since we can’t avoid it (digital world, and there are pros of connecting online), let’s understand ourselves as humans more. Accept the need of social media (virtual world) and the development of our species (vast technology, digital connections, etc.) But of course, knowing our boundaries and not entirely relying and falling back on the reason of survival in this world (to watch and to be watched). Week Two Social Media; How has it impact creative thinking. On one hand, it exposes us to the world; connections and encounters. But on the other hand it limits us, from being inspired to manipulated, and slowly we lose a sense of self identity, uniqueness Echo Chamber talks about polarization and divided opinions. Social Dilemma; Pick 3 big quotes/ideas. Limit to 1. Pick themes and/or areas Summary; what is it saying? Condense it into 1 line. Anything general?; Where the point can be expanded more; concepts that can be broaden out) into non condensed form (key words, phrases, words) A working statement An initial image (could be literal, more or less a description of something based on the quote) e.g. a slot machine that represents that social media is a gamble, a jack pot waiting for likes Find a metaphor To represent the concept, e.g. Slowly addictive, gradually, seemingly harmless Pinocchio Pleasure Island is a hideout for the boys to play. They always want to go back for thrills; an escape from their lives. They only know the fun, but don’t know what’s at the end for them. In the end they turn into donkeys in return Sketching Start with a human head (a protagonist). Start with A3 high resolution 300dpi sketch (digital). If traditional, canvas should be bigger than A3. 11

Jon’s Lecture Metaphors for ways to look into Mythology Philosophy History Religion Popular culture Science Literature (e.g. kid’s literature like Hansel & Gretal or Pinocchio) Illustrators to look into Dave Mckean Jack Unruh (how he pieces the images together) Wisnu Tan (Digital) Desmond Wong Darren Tan (Wraithid) Cellar FCP Maira Kalman Matt connigham (Moon petrol art) 12

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Research Simon Senek mentioned there’s nothing wrong with social media, it’s the imbalance. Gambling is fun, but too much is dangerous. Drinking alcohol provides temporary relief from stress, too much is bad for your health. Social media is great, it’s powerful. You get news from around the world, you can connect with people on the other end of the world, is basically having the world in our hands. But if too much, would take a toll on our mental health. With great power, comes great responsibility. So really, where should we draw the line? Where exactly is the line? People now (Generation Z). Always have access to instant gratification since we’re young. We are built and slowly developed to become impatient (from the instant gratification we are always provided with). Amazon next day shipping. Quick tinder dates by just a swipe. You want something, you get it. This is why when things happen around us is becoming slow, that takes time, that is difficult, (perhaps like getting jobs) we get affected tremendously, mentally. This is where technology comes in. Problem (Generation Z); Exposed to technology and social media right from when they’re young. Even started with this dopamine device right away before they can form relationships in the real world. They know how good it is, they turn to it for self confidence, for gratification, for everything. At a young age, with little experience and hardships from life, they could fine all sorts of solutions they need or want online. Social media provided the solutions they needed. Since young, they’ve lost the ability to form deep meaningful relationships and communicative ability in the real world. Because they don’t speak to the people around them, they have no experience of building deep connections and relationships in the real world. And when they slowly realised social media isn’t a place that could help them solve problems as you’re older, with more real world hardships (like jobs, relationships, family, etc) they fall into a pit. There isn’t anything they can fall back onto anymore. Social media isn’t working for them since it doesn’t answer to their problems anymore. And they can’t speak to anyone about it too, because they don’t know how. 14

Film research The Giver (2014), based on a novel by Lois Lowry. A film depicting a ‘perfect’ world/ society, with no ‘bad’ parts, no ‘negative’ aspects, only a stagnated world. People were stripped off emotions (love, hatred, happiness, suffering, freedom). Extremes of hot and cold are eliminated through climate control. Racial difference is eliminated through colour blindness. Sickness and old age doesn’t exist because of euthanasia; practice of intentionally ending a life to relive pain & suffering (Basically like a legal suicide). Hunger and poverty doesn’t exist because of equal employment and housing assignments. The film makes us question that by sacrificing and eliminating the so called ‘bad’ parts of what worsens a society, is it really worth it? Is the trade-off worth it? You can’t enjoy rainbows because you can’t see colour. You can’t play in the hot sun and have your mom rubbing lotion on your back because there isn’t heat. I personally think it’s not worth it, by taking away things that only makes us human, that keeps this world going. If there are no debates, no arguments, no opinions, this word is just boring. There is no thrill. Although the people in the film are protected from harm, they are also not exposed to the wonderful and explorative aspects of life Same for our relationship with social media (and technology in general). I watched ‘Connected’, and something that intrigued me was the phrase ‘We are born watchers’. Humans (and animals), for us, watching is fundamental, something that our survival as a species depends on it. It is actually our baseline survival instinct to watch. From just being plain concerned to being gradually becoming curious (of happenings around us), we watch, and watch and watch, and gradually, we like to be watched too. This is what makes us humans. Being curious. We want to see what others are doing, we want people to see what we’re doing, we’re curious of their reactions of us, we’re curious of everything. That’s being human. Its not possible to categorise and sum up symptoms of compulsive use of social media. Like depression, anxiety and isolation. But its a build up from many emotions, which is from watching, and being watched. One will experience jealousy, envious of someone’s lifestyle. Angry, agree to issues, you disagree and you debate. Confident, you want to flex, show off etc. And from all these, its a never ending cycle of curiosity. And in the midst of this, there’s also possibilities of losing one self/our identity, while we’re perhaps inspired by someone and want to be the same, you want to imitate. 15

Problem Some sort of privacy paradox. We say we value privacy, but virtually everything we do online seems to contradicts that. We provide personal particular details (D.O.B, birthplace, mom’s name etc) when you register for something. That information is given tech to government, to tech companies. We put location tags on instagram to tell your friends where you went for a coffee. People upload travel/house tour probably because you want to flaunt your accomplishments. People nowadays even share birth labour and death vlogs. At the brim of someone’s death or a new life, they want to be watched (its a 2 way relationship), there are people who feast on watching too. We also have people talking to the screen for 40mins explaining the reason of their divorce All these actions and (development of content) are because we as curious human beings, feast and survive on watching, and being watched. My intention for this project (in my illustrations and supportive text content). Introduce and inform why people are fleeing all sorts of emotions from the digital world (cons of social media). Explain and spell it out, normalise their emotions; mental illness, normalise the fact that we feel things, and get affected by things because we are humans. And its because of our survival instinct to watch and be watched. Similar to what Simon Senek mentioned about social media imbalance. A speaker once said ‘We don’t have a choice on whether to do social media, but the question is how well we do it.” What I don’t want to advocate is to strip social media off from people, be an advocate that advocates ‘social media only cause harm! Stop it! Burn it!’. Because I don’t agree with that, we can all agree that social media have actually helped us connect with many happenings in the world (from the people beside you, to a street away, to another country, to climate change and even to political issues). And I agree to certain extend, that without the use of social media, without the accessibility of connections around 16

(cont.) Problem the world, we will become more isolated, because we would be clueless of so many things. With the world developing forward, it’ll be more of cons than pro if you stay where you are and not process together with it. Strategic objective So I’m not intending to provide a solution that says ‘Ways to use social media effectively so you won’t be vulnerable to mental illness’, because it’s already out there, and the fact that nothing is improving or making a difference says something about it. As I mention humans are curious and stubborn creatures, what we are told to do, we won’t do. What we are not told to do, we will go out and find ways to do it. Like when you mention, people know the harms of social media, and we still still expose our vulnerability to it. As the saying goes “it takes a wrong turn to get us to the right path”. And obviously as stubborn humans, we only know what when wrong and come to realisation when we’re hurt. So I just want to provide an outlet, an extra piece of information for us to think differently, spell it out for the society to see, we are only humans. Just like there are reasons and cure to flu, built up of emotions causes mental diagnoses too and it can be improve and cured I’d want to focus on adults who don’t understand why tweens are feeling a certain way. I wish to illustrate an utopian—dystopian tale, which best describes social media, being flipped from utopia to dystopia, and it’s just a fine grey line between these 2 worlds. “What is their 2am issue?” What does Chrissie have to say? What’s something new? Figure out an assumption. Don’t just based it on what you see online. What’s your analysis? What are your original thoughts after looking at the research? Start with research until you find something surprising, so with this and this and this, what is your evaluation? Brief? Topic? Research it, connect dots. Form an assumption (an evaluation from the research) So who are you exactly talking to? What are you going to talk about? Their pain points, problem, anxieties at 2AM? The Giver in relation to social media talks about growth centric vs comfort centric. Whats the awareness? > CTA > Make a change for themselves mentally? Gaining validation through significance? About privacy paradox, What is your assumption? Use a vent diagram to segment and discriminate into better possibilities. What is the love language of your target audience? Target audience to aggravate, inspire, make them do an action or to help them ask better questions? What’s their 2AM Issue? 17

An assumption Slacktivism (modern activism, online). Supporting a political or social cause through social media (online petitions) but involving very little effort or commitment. E.g. Posting a black background image to support #blacklivesmatter. A ‘click’, a share, a like, a tweet, questions what exactly is being accomplished Some are being an activist online without knowing what they’re supporting. Just to fit in, to show people they’re aware of things, although they might not be. Questions our identity, being someone we’re not. Trying to fit in, like what you said earlier ‘To be good enough’, to look good in people’s eyes. To be good enough for someone, possibly even for a stranger, says a lot about the relationship of social media between ourselves, that we’re doing something not for ourselves, but really just to look good. More research Something Surprising. Started off with the concept of privacy paradox. We say we value privacy, but virtually everything we do online seems to contradicts that. What Chrissie mentioned was that it isn’t something surprising, we all know it, with this concept I won’t be putting anything new on the table From this concept, I analysed it from how we’ve been putting so much information online. I’m not talking about basic personal details and data given to tech companies (like your date of birth, or location tags, your browser preferences). But intimate information of our private life (which most of time time is filtered to show only the goods). Like where and when and how and who you got married with. How your baby is born (people upload labour vlogs nowadays and it just makes me question about life, and the content people put online—but the ironic thing is, I still watch it). There are even content of a 40minute video explaining a divorce that people didn’t asked for. Topic here talks about cynicism. It categorises into cognitive distortions, behavioural distortion, comparison envy, inadequacy and mom’s guilt (creative lunch box/parties, etc.) The cynicism of social networking—we obtain these information that we won’t be able to, offline. Social media and our device is like a conveyor belt of information, tragedies, accomplishments, good news and news, basically any and everything possible in this world. 18

(cont.) More research 2AM issue here that keeps us awake at night; you start to wonder how real are the things you see online. It could be because of envy, of inadequate in one self… You can’t understand how can someone life be so perfect when you compare it to your own. You become judge-y. The information you consume online, releases this demon, this ugly side of our personality. Although again this might not be something new to us, but we never really knew it existed, and how it slowly accumulated from one emotion to another. We don’t know the root of it. This is possible only from endless training interacting online, which spelt out is addiction. Which also explains why, how the older population most of the time could not distinguish real and fake situations or news, because they don’t spend that much time with these devices. Week Three More more research Focusing on perpetual adolescence/pasts (Internet marks the end of forgetting). The internet never fails to confront us with traces of our past, making it less possible to remake ourselves; perhaps to build a new identity. How social media is hindering possibilities to edit memories, destroy traces that needs to be destroyed to move on and transition. Impossibilities of forgetting. How ours pasts, stays fresh. Also how adolescents are in the phase of collective identity crisis, taking risks without the fear of consequences. The internet actually scales up such development, possibly mistakes from immaturity, and even putting them on permanent records. On the contrary, most people have the mindset that early internet users are more prone to loss and disappearance of childhood. But, it is actually the opposite. With the internet, childhood and adolescence are more visible and pervasive. Started off with the concept of privacy paradox; we say we value privacy, but virtually everything we do online seems to contradict that. What Chrissie mentioned was that it isn’t something surprising, we all know it, with this concept I won’t be putting anything new on the table. Analogue media; If you’ve got your picture taken, you can easily destroy it, burn it—there will be no traces left. There probably is only 1 copy, and you don’t have to wonder if there are any more you want to trash. And slowly without the physical traces of it, it’ll fade on your mind, and most importantly, in the minds of others. This is actually an underappreciated features of analogue media that we never knew how great it was until digital media and social media came about. 19

(cont.) More more research Assumption of social media and the internet is that it is permanent and pervasive, you can’t avoid or erase your past or any identity constructed as when you want to. Could be pictures, or could be statements/opinions (Like a Tweet). It includes potentially embarrassing and debatable documentation of their lives. It is almost impossible to know if the image or any form of documentation is gone for good even one tries to delete such documentation. It might exist on more than 1 device through circulation, it could be downloaded by someone, the picture could be tagged etc. Destructing of past traces now, becomes impossible, which could’ve taken just a few seconds in the past with analogue media. You can’t wipe out your online presence now. The internet makes it nearly impossible to build a future where unwanted pasts can be forgotten both by ourselves or others. Documentation on the internet are so stubbornly persisted, with out without one’s intention. Time to time social media also provides reminder of memories against your will. The fears 2AM issue here that keeps us wide awake and haunts us at night (Targets target audience’s anxiety, to convince them). You enter a new transition in University, from polytechnic, and want a new identity/clean slate. So you delete pictures of your past (possible embarrassing ones or documentation with bad company all the way back from primary school). But recently pictures are still surfacing on Facebook because of tagged photos. You get worried people might find out about your past that you now want to hide; because it doesn’t define you anymore right? But you’re afraid people will label and define you from what they see. Friendships that didn’t worked out. You want to remove possibly bad memories of them. You want a clean slate. You’re afraid your current partner will see your pictures of your past relationship surfacing on Facebook although you already deleted them— but you might have friends who still have those group pictures up in their profile. You get upset because your significant other still have their lovely dovey pictures online. You’re worried people might think you are the 3rd party in a relationship. You always find yourself going back to look at those pictures and comparing yourself with your partner’s previous relationship. It affects the relationship between you and your partner. 20

(cont.) The fears These issues happens because we always have been constantly excessively documenting parts of our life online, until it has become impossible to erase them off the web—which brings us back to the topic of privacy paradox. Thoughts and worries like this, keeps us awake at night, because you don’t know what people will think of you, how they will judge you base on a segment of documentation of your past, whichever identity you constructed and put up online at that point of time (which could be different from now; but who will care and who would know if you’re different now? Since humans are all judge-y and selfish people.) In transition, when someone is looking to refine or establish a new identity. Most people sought for a clean break of their past (could be visually, or just character-wise). They tend to delete pictures and documentation of their past, trying ways to disconnect with things they were once happily connected with. But with how permanent the internet is now, you can’t avoid your past identities. Its impossible to wipe out your online presence now. It will always be there, either for positive preservation of memories, or in the worse case, which is what I’m focusing, is that a past that haunts. It becomes hard to move on This 2AM issue will keep us stressed, depressed, anxious, thinking of all sorts of possible scenarios that could happen if found out—about the things you once publicised them—but now want to hide. Or you really just don’t want to be reminded of the past you want to forget, but it becomes so impossible because doesn’t mean you removed them visually online means its gone forever. Those past memories don’t just belong to you, we aren’t the only ones documenting them, but our friends, family, whoever was part of your life at that point of time; what about their documentations? Scenarios Medium scale You’re looking for jobs, but your employer saw you before on a mutual friends’ tagged picture, drunk at some party, or possibly a video of you shouting at your parents 10 years ago, they will label you as ruthless, and deny you this job role. Bigger scale Celebs that are doing well now—suddenly gets backlash for their social media history; ‘bad’ pictures taken and posted up online 10 years ago. Even larger scale You have things like painful traumatic experiences; sexual harassment, bullying, naked photos all publicised online, for the world. 21

Target audience 1. People coming of age (those who are transitioning possibly from adolescence, last stage of adolescence 17-19). What’s done is done; what is left to do is not to hover around worrying about the past, but perhaps looking at it differently, a lighthearted way. Since the topic is so heavy already, the last thing I want is to present heavy illustrations. 2. Parents To inform, shed some light so they can educate themselves and their children about such possible effects on their life, ways social media shapes identities and that it could make it difficult to transition in life. And also parents are the first ones to expose their children on the internet, posing cute or embarrassing pictures of their kids. Announcing everything that happened at school about their kids etc. But then the 2AM issue wouldn’t apply to them first handedly anymore. But I thought it will have the same impact towards them; to let them imagine if it were happen to anyone in the family; their children (less mature and more vulnerable online) I thought of targeting parents as stakeholders, so they can educate their developing tweens. Sounds pretty ideal since parents’ greatest anxiety is their child’s future. People only come to realisations when unfavourable events happen. However when you tell someone to do something, or to not do something, it will always be the opposite. Because humans are stubborn, rebellious, and curious in nature . And its a part of human nature/experience to be curious, to try new things. Referenced from ‘The Giver’ film , where a society is stripped off human attributes; to feel, love, hate, be in pain etc., and it makes us wonder if the trade off is worth it; to be in a ’safe and perfect’, comfort-centric society with no bad parts, but are stripped off what makes us human. I won’t want to advocate a society that is comfort-centric, but instead let them explore their growth-centric life. I don’t feel that it is ideal to strip off such experiences from them, be it if it may turn out good or bad. Referencing the film ‘Bubble Boy’, talks about this child who was born with a disease and was forced to be live in this bubble/dome in his bedroom which is a sterilised zone for his entire life. As he grew up he met this girl he really love, but because of his living circumstances, always have to live in his bedroom, their love was impossible. So the girl was moving away to another state to get married with another guy. So this main character decided to create a portable dome so he can make his way out of his bedroom to find the girl. He was met with a lot of circumstances because its so hard to travel with the big bubble. In the end he reached the girl, ripped the bubble to kiss her, thought he’d die right away once exposed to the atmosphere, but he didn’t. It was revealed at the end that when the boy was 4, he was already cured of this disease, but his parents still was protective and decided to keep him in his safe bedroom. It’s not always good when we’re always protected & sheltered. It might cause more problems instead and could hinder you from accomplishing things. 22

Intention and objective To inform and convince why this is the case of you staying up at 2am. Spelling out (undiagnosed) emotions. Informing that constant excessive documentation of your life, could result in greater isolation and alienation in the future (in later parts of their life). As compared to not documenting it. People have the misconception that if they don’t document their life for people to see, they will be left out, will be isolated by their friends, by the online community, etc. Which is not the case. Illustration could be a spread of a magazine (Speculated magazine: WIRED, The New Yorker). Illustration to accompany text. Either write my own, about how social media is hindering people from growing up. Referenced Kate Eichhorn’s, “The End of Forgetting: Growing Up with Social Media” which talks about the same issue Or perhaps a children storybook—with children as the target group. Stakeholders are parents who will be introducing such content to them. Concept—Oddity & macabre. Since I’ll be touching on specter of a childhood that can never be forgotten—dystopian & folklore. Imagery—Like an accordion; pasts can be pushed forward, reappearing before us. Like sugar; It never expires, even if left in a cupboard 10 years. When resurfaced and put at wrong places, ants will get to it, a mess will appear. But yet when it works in our favour; which is good memories in this sense, would be sweet and nice. 23

Jon’s feedback Metaphors; If you were a candy, you would be a cotton candy. Fluffy? Light? If your dad was a villain, he’d be like Darth Vader. Doesn’t raise his voice. Don’t get what he is thinking all the time. A past that haunts; Internet that marks the end of forgetting. Memories still stay fresh online. How to show time has pass yet we’re still affected by it? Social media in relation with passing of time, how to show over period of time? Research on Dorian Gray; Like our memories. We are fine until a memory pops up on the internet. Our past is never forgotten. We are all Dorian Grey emotionally. Modern era Dorian Grey? When a picture of Dorian Grey appears on social media, we die on the inside. We are shown our pasts that we’ve thought or wished we had forgotten. Look into illustrators George Tooker Edward Hopper (Nighthawks) Elias Kafouros Roderick Mills Neil Webb 24

The picture of Dorian Gray Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an artist impressed and infatuated by Dorian’s beauty; he believes that Dorian’s beauty is responsible for the new mood in his art as a painter. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled by the aristocrat’s hedonistic world view: that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and records every sin. Over the next few weeks, Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian grows stronger. The youth becomes a disciple of the “new Hedonism” and proposes to live a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure. He falls in love with Sibyl Vane, a young actress who performs in a theater in London’s slums. He adores her acting; she, in turn, refers to him as “Prince Charming” and refuses to heed the warnings of her brother, James Vane, that Dorian is no good for her. Overcome by her emotions for Dorian, Sibyl decides that she can no longer act, wondering how she can pretend to love on the stage now that she has experienced the real thing. Dorian, who loves Sibyl because of her ability to act, cruelly breaks his engagement with her. After doing so, he returns home to notice that his face in Basil’s portrait of him has changed: it now sneers. Frightened that his wish for his likeness in the painting to bear the ill effects of his behavior has come true and that his sins will be recorded on the canvas, he resolves to make amends with Sibyl the next day. The following afternoon, however, Lord Henry brings news that Sibyl has killed herself. At Lord Henry’s urging, Dorian decides to consider her death a sort of artistic triumph—she personified tragedy—and to put the matter behind him. Meanwhile, Dorian hides his portrait in a remote upper room of his house, where no one other than he can watch its transformation. Lord Henry gives Dorian a book that describes the wicked exploits of a nineteenth-century Frenchman; it becomes Dorian’s bible as he sinks ever deeper into a life of sin and corruption. He lives a life devoted to garnering new experiences and sensations with no regard for conventional standards of morality or the consequences of his actions. Eighteen years pass. Dorian’s reputation suffers in circles of polite London society, where rumors spread regarding his scandalous exploits. His peers nevertheless continue to accept him because he remains young and beautiful. The figure in the painting, however, grows increasingly wizened and hideous. On a dark, foggy night, Basil Hallward arrives at Dorian’s home to confront him about the rumors that plague his reputation. The two argue, and Dorian eventually offers Basil a look at his (Dorian’s) soul. He shows Basil the now-hideous portrait, and Hallward, horrified, begs him to repent. Dorian claims it is too late for penance and kills Basil in a fit of rage. While entertaining guests, he notices James Vane peering in through a window, and he becomes wracked by fear and guilt. When a hunting party accidentally shoots and kills Vane, Dorian feels safe again. He resolves to amend his life but cannot muster the courage to confess his crimes, and the painting now reveals his supposed desire to repent for what it is—hypocrisy. In a fury, Dorian picks up the knife he used to stab Basil Hallward and attempts to destroy the painting. There is a crash, and his servants enter to find the portrait, unharmed, showing Dorian Gray as a beautiful young man. On the floor lies the body of their master—an old man, horribly wrinkled and disfigured, with a knife plunged into his heart. 25

Consultation with Chrissie Resurfacing of unwanted memories, a past that haunts, perpetual memories. Internet, marks the end of being able to put our past behind, basically marks the end of forgetting (in this case, unwanted memories). Online, our past remains fresh. To sum it in, that the pixels do not fade with time as our memories do About social media and the internet is that documentation is so stubbornly persisted and pervasive(with or without intention), you can’t avoid or erase your past completely as compared to analogue media. Where you can physical burn it, rip it throw or bury to completely destroy traces of it. Obviously without physical traces, it’ll fade on your mind, and most importantly in the minds of other who shared that moment of life with you. Imagine digital footprint, it’ll always be on the mind of yours and others. Our digital artefacts could be pictures, or opinionated statements/arguments (Like a Tweet). Which could be potential embarrassing and immature documentation of our lives, which becomes unwanted in the future. It is impossible to know if the image or any form of documentation is gone for good even if after deleting it. It might exist on more than 1 device through circulation, it could be screenshot-ed, the picture could be tagged etc. Destructing of past traces now, becomes impossible, which could’ve taken just a few seconds in the past with analogue media. It is impossible to wipe out our online presence now My comparison of analogue vs internet. Previously digging up memories are done consciously; digging out a box of memento, flipping through things you reminisce. But with the internet, social media and the presence of reminders/notification, your past just gets served to you even when you didn’t asked for it. My assumptions about social media is that its a place, which never fails to confront us with traces of our past. As I mentioned social media hinders possibilities to edit timestamps, destroy traces completely and disconnect with our unwanted past. Also, once things goes online, it doesn’t just belong to you anymore, but people who shared those moments, people who have access to them (Friends, friends of friends, even strangers which could include potential future employees etc.) 2am Target audience issue Young adult—full grown adults (19-35). Documented pictures of relationships, possibly posted rash decisions that were embarrassing or immature. Could have also posted opinionated views, be an advocate of something not encouraged etc. A heavy category would be something like bullying... or leaked pictures. Now, they’re haunted by unwanted past that they tried to forget and put behind. They stumble upon failed relationships be it partners or friends, remembrance of deaths, resurfacing of immature moments, etc. You could have long forgotten about it, but soon right after an unfortunate stumbling or reminder from Facebook. Heartaches, agony, anxiety, PTSD; you’re basically re-living the past; all unwanted memories started flooding back because of how permanent the internet is, and how social media doesn’t fail to remind us chronologically “What happened on 29 May 2010, 7:45pm, at Kallang”. Of course you will have that percentage of adults who do not get affected by it, but there’s also this percentage of adults that falls into state of depression, anxiety and isolation, affected by the resurfacing of unwanted and possible painful memories; reopened wounds. 26

Metaphor The picture of Dorian Gray (Novel by Oscar Wilde, 1890). Dorian Gray, a very handsome and narcissistic young man, one day was sitting in for his portrait to be painted by this painter. While getting himself painted, there was another guy at the side just looking, who shared a belief he lived by, “that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life.” Dorian was really entranced by this painter’s view. Long story short, he was convinced by this guy’s views of beauty, and eventually sold his soul to ensure that the painting of him, will age and fade in replacement of himself. He basically pursued being an immortal, staying young and beautiful. However the story continued, whenever he sinned, the picture will evolve into a more hideous, old and rotting person. So Dorian eventually avoids looking at it and placed it in a locked room; because he doesn’t want to be remembered by the things he have done. In this version of the novel, he died right after he stabbed the picture(where the visuals swapped, the portrait changed back to becoming beautiful, but Dorian rotted and turned into ashes. But there is a movie version, where his enemy forced and pin Dorian down to look at the picture, knowing that it was his weak spot, eventually he wilted and died just by looking at his portrait, which was a hideous collection and evidence of memories and traces of events he had done in his life For Dorian Grey, he initially wanted to retain the beautiful moment of his life at a point of time, but as time passes and he realises the picture/his past isn’t beautiful anymore but hideous instead, he figured he doesn’t want to have any connections with it anymore. Or like the movie version, it can also be a a form of threat, where someone who shared or know off this past of you, may dig it out and use it at your disadvantage. Similarly in relation to social media and the internet. We like to post and contain the beautiful moments of our lives; at a point of time. But as we grow, as time passes, we will reach a period where we’d despised the past we once used to adore. But, unfortunately the internet marks the end of forgetting, memories and documentations are now more permanent and pervasive. It’s not only you that holds the memories of that point of their life, but whoever you were with too. Which also means just because you erased the traces of that part of your life means it’s gone for good. Because others still have them too and would probably use them against you, or basically to you disadvantage in some way or another. Your intimate, personal past doesn’t just belong to you anymore, but the world. Objective Initially I thought I could encourage more of a cautious posting practice. But I’m afraid it wouldn’t be as efficient. It would be challenging to go against human nature; curious, stubborn and rebellious in nature. People only come to realisations when unfavourable events happen. When you tell someone to do something, or to not do something, it will always be the opposite. Referencing ‘The Giver’ film , where a society is stripped off human attributes; to feel, love, hate, be in pain etc., eventually the characters in the film were curious and wanted to feel how its like being human, and to experience things they have not before so they rebelled. It makes us wonder if the trade off is worth it, to be in a ’safe and perfect’, comfort-centric society with no bad parts, but are stripped off what makes us human. I won’t want to advocate a society that is comfort-centric, but instead let them explore their growth-centric life. I don’t feel that it is ideal to strip off such experiences from them, be it if it may turn out good or bad. Its part of life, life isn’t gonna be perfect. 27

Research on film l Perfume: The story of a Murderer; Talks about this young man, named Grenouille, who was an orphan, who have superhuman sense of smell. Basically obsessed with scents. So one day Grenouille came across this women who has a very nice beautiful body smell on her, so he followed her everywhere like a crazy man just so he could smell her. But because he was acting so weird, the girl was really scared so she started screaming for help. To stop her from shouting, Grenouille killed her accidentally. This was when he realised scent fades after death and was so distraught about it, he couldn’t smell that aroma anymore This enlightened him, and he was suddenly very desired to recreate the girl’s aroma, to preserve scents. Grenouille basically started his quest finding ways to preserve beautiful scents, wanting beautiful scents to last forever. Slowly later he met with this perfume shop owner, who taught him that all perfumes are harmonies of 12 individual scents, which could contain a 13th scent. So in exchange for learning the method of preserving scents from another (pro)person, the owner asked Grenouille to create 100 scents for him, since he knew how talented Grenouille was. Grenouille previously showed the owner how great his sense of smell was when identifying fragrances. Deal was made, Grenouille made his way to this new state. During his travel, he found out he doesn’t have a unique scent of his own, which made him fall into a short slump. Be he soon got out of it. Fast forward he met a new girl with a very beautiful scent, and decided she’ll be the 13th scent. He gradually obtained this skill of preserving fragrances while working as an apprentice for a perfume place? So Grenouille murdered and experimented on other different woman, until it was successful. When it finally did, he made his way to that new girl whom he adored, the one with the beautiful aroma, for his 13th scent. Finally, he managed to murder her and preserved that scent (so he has all 13 scents mixed together now). But was soon captured because villagers found out he was the murderer that have been killing the girls all awhile. On the day of the execution, with the entire village watching him, Grenouille applied that final mixed perfume on him. And it turned out the perfume was so overwhelming and so beautiful, it kinda hypnotised and made everyone speechless, including the jailers, who released him. Grenouille escapade that state, and figured that with this perfume, he can practically rule and control the world (technically using preserved beauty; the scent; to be the best). But he came to a realisation that the perfume still, doesn’t allow him to love, or to be loved like a normal person (since this beauty is artificial, and its not his to begin with) Basically feeling very disenchanted, Grenouille went back to the state where he was born, and by chance saw this group of villagers who were starving. So he poured the entire perfume on himself, the villagers were enchanted by this scent, slowly crowded around him, and devoured him in the end. 28

(cont.) Research on film l Metaphor; moral of the story talks about the irrationality of human behaviour, about how we are so obsessed on being and wanting to be accepted. It also questions “Does my own scent, consciously or unconsciously perceived by others, govern how people act towards me? Is my scent unique?” Perfume in this film acts as a mask of perfection. Tying relation back to social media and the internet. We are always obsessed, to retain beautiful moments. Always on this quest, to document and show the world how beautiful and spectacular our lives are. But what we don’t realise is that so what? What do we get from this? A never ending continuous boost of self esteem that eventually leads to a decrease of self control which leads to addiction? From the film, it explains that after achieving what we need or want to achieve in this life, there is no more meaning in living since you already done what you had to do. What would be the purpose of your existence no that you have already achieve things, and found no more joy and fulfilment in them? People are too focused so much on being and wanting to be accepted. Research on film ll The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. It talks about the mental state between reality and fantasy. An episode of ‘Where is everybody’ talks about events happening in the mind of a hallucinating astronaut, preparing for space travel, which is normal. The man was always on a run as he felt like he’s been watched the entire time. While on the run he mistakenly knocked into a mirror, thinking it was an available path. Hey, don’t go away up there. Next time, it won’t be a dream or a nightmare. Next time, it’ll be for real. So don’t go away. We’ll be up there in a little while. Similarly to social media, we always feel like we’re being watched, but we’re probably watching yourself (about how others feel about us, and literally how people are really watching you). Intentionally enter this realm of self destruction where everything is bound to be blurred and destroyed; which is our mental health. 29

Message To advocate emotional growth (Practice being present). “The power of letting go” by John Purkiss, which talks about how humans, we always want/ feel safe to be in control of things (comfort-centric). So when life presents us with uncontrollable situations that we have absolutely 0 control of, that’s when our fears and anxiety kicks in Uncontrollable situations refers to social media and the internet. Because of how stubbornly persisted and pervasive our documentation on the internet is, it is almost impossible to wipe out one’s online presence or know where our information is accessible by who is accessing or watching what we document. And obviously how social media and AI is slowly overtaking and fucking us over, its hard to control information on the internet. Fear here like what you mentioned, isn’t the resurfacing of information, but the anxiety of—“what ifs”, who’d will see it, how will it resurface—all these uncontrollable situations. Information here can be pictures (personal/by friends), immature tweets. Part of the book also mentioned that you can either allow your mind to run wild, or you can be present. Obviously if we’re gonna think of the past, or the future, we’ll be pulled away from the present moment. So social media, is making us cling onto things, intentionally or unintentionally, like a digital memento. Physical memento; we consciously dig it up with intention. But for social media, it’s unconscious. By getting pulled away from the present moment, it causes humans, to be frustrated, angry depressed, because we aren’t going any further. Because we have functions like download, saved, archives, sharing, it makes us fear, about who is accessing or watching what we document (human nature as born watchers) People feel stuck, and life is terrible, because we realised that life isn’t comfort but a growth centric experience. I also researched that journalists actually uses social media as a platform to resurface old content. This is the power the device holds. Target audience ‘Victims’ protagonist—those who couldn’t let go of their past. I agree to only to a certain extend, about what you mentioned that death of friends or families are welcomed memories. Yes, its welcomed, yes its probably the only form of memory left, but research by a psychologist (Juli Fraga) shown that it depends on how personal and vulnerable one feels about the loss or that memory. People will still fall into that short pit of feeling depressed, holding on to the past, basically unable to let go, having thoughts like, “could I have prevented it…” etc. That is the fear of not being enough. People also shared their experiences of awkward condolences, and those are encouraging, but uncomfortable Not just deaths, but immature, embarrassing past probably posted during your tweens, documenting weird selfies, which isn’t the beauty that is “socially accepted” now, or even derogatory comments ‘Culprits’ antagonist—those who dig up people’s past. Because common sense isn’t common anymore, I’m putting this out to spell it out for them and say, “Yeah believe it or not, this is happening to people,” Research from a child psychiatrist said that early access to the internet could lead to confidence and self-centredness, possibly leading to showing very little regard to feelings of others, showing no compassion. So stop spreading and stirring shit, stop clinging to anyone or anything and show some compassion. 30

Concept Using metaphors from films; which have characters that represent exactly what I’m putting out there. So it’ll be easy digested and also understand through looking at characters . Also because the topic is heavy already, I don’t want to use more words and opinions to confuse people, but using context that is already out there, easily recognised and understood. Categorised into 3 spreads— Facts; human nature to watch and self destruct (metaphors used here are films referenced from The Twilight Zone and Annihilation); human survival instinct to watch, and be watched. Specific character development; consequences of holding on and not letting go Message; to practice being present and to understand the power of letting go Visual Research 1. Raymond Sheppard - Illustrations done for Jim Corbett 2. Nestor Redondo 3. Bernie Wrightson 4. Sergio Toppi 5. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not illustrations 31

Development Inspired by editorial and newspapers spread, I attempt a similar composition like such. Jon’s feedback A modern day infographic—try Ripley’s Believe It Or Not layout. Add more glass fragments, use lesser text and blow up the illustrations. 32

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Development & improvement Before the final artwork, I prefer doing sketches together with the layout and text wrapping of the content, so I know how my characters or objects should look like base on composition, scale, position, motion, etc. Also, it would be more convenient to resize and adjust how I like it to be—as the pixels and resolution will decrease— I don’t have to worry about it as it isn’t the final artwork. On the downside, it took me awhile before I can finally start working on the final illustration, however the pros are that I would not need to worry if the content would fit or not, and I can just focus only on defining the specific illustrations and characters. 34

Final Did up the final sketch and colours for the spreads. 35

Final Amending it from feedback from crit and formative—this is the final attempt. 36

Summative With an intention to express the contrast of a modern issue and its form of expression, I wanted to experiment its paper and form, attempting it in a form of a medieval scroll. 37

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