Studio: 5 Precedents.

Lovability Condoms

http://www.lovabilitycondoms.com/

Founded by Tiffany Gaines.

Two women came together to realize the lack of condom use was a setback for women’s health and empowerment. They wanted to break the trend of condoms being marketed as a masculine product and challenge the many masculine stereotypes associated with condoms.The conducted focus groups and researched how women would feel more comfortable carrying a condom around with them. They got answers that said that women would feel more comfortable carrying a condom if it was more stylish and that made them feel ‘fabulous’. Their overall goal is to de-stigmatize the purchase of condoms for women and redefining condoms as a positive symbol for women for protection and self love.

 

VA w.o.w (still in development not ready to purchase)

http://www.medicaldaily.com/pulse/va-wow-female-condom-and-sex-toy-claims-100-orgasm-rate-329172

Founded by Oliver Goldberg, Dr. Greg Rosen, Brian Osterberg

These founders are taking the idea of the female condom that is widely unpopular and designing it with women’s pleasure in mind. The female condom is a way for women to have the responsibility for contraceptives when their partner doesn’t have one or they are not willing to use one, however this method is still very unpopular and has poor reviews. With VA w.o.w, they intend on creating a female condom that contributes to the pleasure of women because so far no female condom has been made with women’s pleasure in mind. Will this change how we view the female condom? Female pleasure is often and after thought when designing contraceptives and VA w.o.w. plans on linking both protection and pleasure and heighten female condoms in the United States along with heightening the visibility of women sexuality and pleasure when the condom is released for purchase.

 

Trojan Condom promotion by Lil Dicky “The Big Talk”

In March of 2016 Trojan condoms released an advertisement with rapper Lil Dicky called “The Big Talk”. The ad was an awkward and funny shoot while still sending the message that wearing a condom should be a priority. Trojan uses rapper Lil Dicky as a tool to try and connect to the younger crowd and the use of condoms. Lil dicky says ‘masculine things’ like “I practically get girls thrown at me every night”. He addresses condom use as something ‘cool’ where if you don’t use a condom then you’re dumb and not cool. This ad uses a person that people idolize to make condom use a ‘cool’ thing, it’s effective but has questionable morals. They are addressing STDs while still promoting their brand, and it’s unsure that they bring up the topic of STD to only promote their condom or to raise awareness.

The Condom Project: http://www.thecondomproject.org/howwework.html

The condom project works to bring lifesaving information to the public about condoms by using nontraditional approaches through art, performance, and educational programs. They set out to break social stigma by opening the door to conversation and promote the use of condoms as a life saving tool. The condom project uses educational and treatment organizations around the world to teach local volunteers how to ensure their communities know that condoms are life saving. They work in communities of all types some including truckers, sex workers, executives, social workers, AIDS awareness clubs, health workers, women, youth and community groups, incarcerated men and women, and schoolchildren.

 

National Female Condom Coalition http://www.nationalfccoalition.org/mission-and-history

Their mission is to bring awareness and access to female condoms through education advocacy and collaboration. Their current campaign is called “Create the Future of Female Condoms” It talks about how female condoms are currently classified as class III along with breast implants and pace makers. Male condoms hold a class II status which allows them to reinvent and come out with new technology for their condoms while female condoms cannot. Moving female condoms to a class II would remove unnecessary barriers that female condoms inventors face and would bring new, effective and widely available female condoms to the market.

 

Studio 2 Homework 4/6

Daily Exploration:

System Map:

Summary:

My research topic is Gender Roles in the use of contraception and my research question is how gender roles are a factor to whether or not heterosexuals wear condoms or not. While doing my research I found that women are more likely to get HIV from unprotected sex over used injection needles. Also, women under 25 are the most likely to get any STD from unprotected sex. This research appalled me and when I furthered my research I found that gender roles play a huge part on whether or not condoms are worn during sex. Women often feel like it is more of an act of persuasion to get their male sexual partner to wear a condom rather than a shared request. Some men feel that the ‘risk’ factor feeds to their masculinity and some females also feel ashamed or embarrassed if they ask the male to use a condom and they say no. I wanted to change this feeling of shame by created a system in Studio class.

My system in studio is intended for all women who are having heterosexual relations especially those who feel powerless on the topic of condom use. Condoms are primarily known to be for male use, yes female condoms exist but the system isn’t as popular as the male condoms. What I have noticed is male condoms are strictly marketed towards males. The most well known example is Trojan, where you have a picture of a trojan warrior and countless battling commercials that almost scream masculinity. I want to have part of a condom company rebranded so that it is marketed towards women. Im and still taking the original system of the condom but redesigning the box to make women feel empowered to not only buy them but to not feel intimidated to ask to use one.

I hope that this system can break the thought that men should be in charge of whether or not they wear a condom. I hope that this system empowers women to speak up even for what they believe in and for their own health.

Social Justice in class Q’s

  1. My proposal is productive and somewhat empowering. It’s productive in the sense that it does it’s job in informing the intended audience. It empowers students to consider going to the to more social justice events and to get involved. The scale of the impact of my proposal is smaller but I think it’s necessary to the hub and the students who are uninformed. I thought of the proposal because I have social anxiety and it’s easier to get information if it’s right in front of me rather than putting myself out there and asking around. Also, being the daughter of immigrant parents I know how important it is for there to be events posted for people that are marginalized in any way.
  2. The audience I intended on targeting were students who aren’t very involved with the social justice hub but would like to learn more. I wanted to empower students in the hub doing homework or students that are walking by. A monitor is such an easy way to catching someone’s attention and informing them easily. My proposal targets students in the Social Justice Hub as a whole rather than few.
  3. I created my monitor prototype on illustrator and tried to incorporate things I learned in making an infographic into each slide. I kept simple colors using orange white and black and tried to utilize the whole screen without making it overwhelming to look at in the short period of time.
  4. How I would document this process would be through a survey. First I would show a random student in the hub my monitor (on my laptop) then I would let them answer an anonymous three question survey on google forms in order to receive their genuine answers.

Social Justice Hub engagement

 

For the Baldwin-Rivera-Boggs Social Justice Hub system I created, I wanted to make something that was both practical and effective. I created slides that would be screened on the monitor that’s located in the Social Justice Hub.

On the monitor would show a screen that says ‘Welcome to the Baldwin- Rivera- Boggs Social Justice Hub!’ along with pictures of James Baldwin, Sylvia Rivera, and Grace Lee Boggs. This slide does it’s job in telling people that don’t already know that the section of the 5th floor they are in is part of the Social Justice Hub. The next slide is a schedule mapped out of what clubs are booked on which day for each of the two meeting rooms in the Hub. This informs people of what kind of clubs are being held there and the day and times incase they want to go and attend them. The last slide is social justice events that are held in and outside of The New School. People can see the monitor and get involved with events and speeches for whenever they want.

A problem I encountered while figuring out the logistics of my system, was a system to display the screens on the monitor. I found a website system called Dashman that you can project any screen you want on any monitor for any period of time you want. This system should make it easy to update and keep track of what is displaying on the monitor for everyone to see.

For the engagement process, I showed 10 random people in the social justice hub my slides and gave them a survey of two questions. First question was “Do you know more about the social justice hub more than you did before viewing this monitor?” 80% said yes they know more after viewing the screen. The second question was “Do you think the Social Justice Hub needs a monitor?” and 80% said yes while 20% said maybe. Overall, everyone in the Hub agreed that it would be a good idea for the hub and that it couldn’t hurt to have something to have easy accessible information.

DESIGN JUSTICE PRINCIPLES

We prioritize a design’s impact on a community over the intentions of the designer.

  • I tried keeping my design to directly impact those use the SJH but I always decided that it was also important to inform those who don’t know what the Hub is for because before this assignment I hadn’t known.

The strongest solutions happen through the process, not in a moment at the end of the process. Thus it is important to us to open up the design process to those who will be most impacted by its outcomes.

  • Yes, I hadn’t known about problems until I was actually submerged into the assignment. Gail, who runs the SJH gave me insight to what the issues could be with my system, which was having a program that was easy to update the monitor when needed. I wouldn’t of thought about this aspect of the system until she mentioned it from the Hub organizer point of view.

We use design to dismantle structures that marginalize, dehumanize, subjugate, and oppress others while centralizing voices that are most marginalized by institutional racism, patriarchy, and colonization.

  • I feel as though my system doesn’t give voice to those who are most marginalized  because it is a system that is meant to give information. But on the other hand I could also see how it could empower some students who feel marginalized because it gives them information easily about events or clubs that they could get involved with.

We are reimagining the role of a designer as that of a creative facilitator rather than a creative expert.

  • My system isn’t as creative as another system is, it’s more simple and practical with a certain purpose that it fulfills.

We are not just creating new solutions — we are looking for ways to adapt what is already working in other contexts as well as reviving ancient approaches that have been erased by colonialism and capitalism.

  • My system takes information that is already there and surfaces it so everyone and gain more knowledge. It’s not a new idea to create a monitor but it’s an effective one.

 

We use design processes not just to address problems linked to various forms of injustice, but to build community, to heal, to experience joy, and to bring our visions of the future to life.

  • My system doesn’t really fulfill this principle because it doesn’t necessarily bring joy to anyone although it could. My intentions were for it to build more community because it would get the Hub known and more people would show and everyone would know where and what the social justice hub is for however for a system like mine it’s hard to build the whole community rather than contribute to it.

We are finding low-resource, non-extractive solutions that enhance our connection to the earth.

  • My system doesn’t really feel close to earth because it has to do with technology, however I think because the Hub already has a monitor that works, it doesn’t need a lot of resources to achieve this system.

Social Justice Hub Prototype

I created a prototype of a monitor that played slides of what is going on in the hub, what social justice events the school is holding, and potentially other things like quotes from those who the hub is named after (James Baldwin, Sylvia Rivera, and Grace Lee Boggs. The intended audience would be anyone who is in the hub whether they know the details of the hub or not, and students walking by. Students who are in the hub are usually working on projects or socializing and the monitor will be something that plays non stop so even if you catch a glimpse of it then it’s doing it’s job.
For a test run I would have to either rent out a monitor or use one that’s there to play the slide-show. Anyone walking by or looking around will be able to see and read what the monitor has on.  Although it’s hard to see if people actually get use out of this system so I thought about the idea of some sort of feedback system to tell us whether they enjoy the monitor or whether it’s useless.

Studio2: 25 Questions

  1. Who uses this space regularly?
  2. On average how long does a person normally stay here?
  3. What do people do when they are in the hub?
  4. Who runs this daily?
  5. How often are the rooms inside the hub booked?
  6. What makes this space different from that of the library besides the fact that you are able to talk?
  7. For the people that go there, is it a comfortable safe place?
  8. Do people go there for just another place to study?
  9. Do people that visit there often know the story behind the hub?
  10. Is there enough information to inform people what the social justice hub is all about?
  11. What are some of the student run events held here?
  12. Does the design of the hub have any significance to the people that use it.
  13. Does the white floors and white walls make it feel unwelcoming?
  14. If so, would it feel more comfortable with colored walls or artwork hung up everywhere?
  15. How can we make students come together and communicate more in the hub?
  16. How often are there events for students in the social justice hub?
  17. How can people learn about the social justice hub without doing their own online research?
  18. Do the professors know about the social justice hub?
  19. And do they tell their students about it?
  20. Does the set up of the hub give a library kind of setting? If so is it good or bad?
  21. What are the type of conversations that are talked about in the hub?
  22. Is the social justice hub ever filled up completely with students?
  23. What was the creator’s vision for what the social justice hub look like today?
  24. How can we personalize this space better for students?
  25. If the creator saw what it looked like today what would they change differently?

Social Justice Hub Info Graph

I sat in the Baldwin-Rivera-Boggs Social Justice Hub for over an hour and observed and talked with students who actively use this space to do homework and interact with fellow student. This space in located on the 5th floor of the university center and it was created by The New School and Brianna Duck who talked with committees to create her idea of this social justice space. She wanted to create this space “for all students, especially those who are often left out because of their race, gender expression, sexual orientation and/or socio-economic status.”

In addition to socializing and doing homework, there are many events held in the rooms located on this floor including the Antithesis (an E-newspaper type of club), New School Social Justice club, Students of Color Meet Up, Lang Civic Engagement Social Justice, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Dream Team Meeting (immigrant rights and safe space).

I made many decision in making this infographic. Keeping the color pallet simple I only used the colors black, orange, and purple because infographics with less color everywhere are easier to read. I wanted to include the color orange because the Social Justice Hub is written on the wall in orange on every corner of the hub. I included icons such as a person reading a book and a couple at table talking to each other. I wanted to keep the design simple but still informative so included important facts about the hub and the creation of it.