Active Wear

The emotional dimension of Digital Activism:
Social Movements and Technology

Bachelor’s Project, March – Juli 2023
Augmented Reality, Unity, Graphic Design, Screen Printing
Supervision: Prof. Erich Schöls
Active Wear is an installative examination of the topic of digital activism and the emotionality behind it. The aim was to provide  access to activist practices and to encourage participation.

For activist actions to be successful, it is essential that many different people come together. These people are represented by the 20 shirts. In turn, the shirts should reflect the emotionality of activism through their material composition and representation.

Each shirt has its own unique print, which is either derived from a clearly activist image or from an emotional, physical image. In addition, the shirts have their own titles, each representing an aspect of activism that plays an important role in the strength of democracy. These prints were created independently using the screen printing process. The insides of the shirts also contain screen-printed text about their theme.
The derivation of the prints from the images was recorded in an accompanying booklet, so that visitors to the Bergwerk exhibition, for example, could see which prints were developed from activist or physical images. In addition, all shirts have been collected second hand in the spirit of environmental protection.

As in social movements, some shirts are more passive, while others proactively call for interaction. Both are important.

A total of 40 different prints were created - including the front and back - as well as 20 individual texts within the shirts. The structure of the shirts is always the same and thus brings the shirts together in terms of design. The shirts are divided into two categories: passive – analog and proactive – digital.
The proactive shirts can be scanned with a smartphone using augmented reality. The digital interactions vary depending on the topic - sometimes they encourage critical questioning, sometimes they provoke with activist practices.
To provide an overview of all the shirts, including their titles and, in the case of the digital shirts, their interactions, they are all listed below.

The applications were created in Unity using C# scripts and the AR Foundation, more specifically the Apple-specific AR Kit.
The target device is a smartphone, in this case an iPhone X, because digital activism is also primarily active in social media, which is strongly geared towards smartphone use. Access to the interactions should be as seamless as possible, which is why the user interface was designed to be as minimal as possible. In contrast to the monochrome shirts, the digital extensions are designed with strong colors, as in the typical visual language of activism.
Especially the exhibition and the resonance to the project showed me the importance of connecting technology with socially relevant issues. I’m convinced, that there are so many potentials, which design and technology can have on democratic processes that aren’t completely explored yet.
Besides the final conversations I had about the project, I enjoyed the creation of analogue and digital elements coming together. One of the hardest challenges was definetly to provide a stable augmentation when the shirts were moving for example. But also the screenprinting without a dark room was quite a challenge.

The connection of Design Democratic values isn’t finished for me personally. In future research I would like to explore even more possibilites to encourage people to take part in democratic structures to safe it.

Click here to read a possible future project proposal.

Close


Hi, nice to meet you! I'm Felicitas but you can call me Feli. Currently I started my master's in Design & Future Making at Hochschule Pforzheim.

I'm always open to learn new things and I'm thriving in a dynamic, interdisciplinary and motivated environment. Gladly, I was able to experience such environments besides university during my work at the Institute Design & Systeme in Würzburg, as well as working with the Fraunhofer IIS.

I'm fascinated by the synergy between the analog and digital worlds. This fascination drives me, as I firmly believe that digital media can support us even more in our everyday lives and in more sustainable decisions.


I'm always open for a nice chat and to connect! :)