The 100 screengrabs centred around randomised mixing and matching between images and quotes. Using the previously rendered 3D model from Elaborate, I moved around the camera inside the set to generate all the images from different angles and timestamps. Quotes were gathered from news, journals and even science textbooks to juxtapose with the generated images. The parameter of picking the captions was that they must be more descriptive than opinionated. The short iterations were meant to explore if the information, in terms of its lexical content and the images, would change within those combinations. Some shown accidental correlations, yet some shows nonsense. Though the attempt claimed to be as randomised as possible, some decision was made subjectively. As suggested by others, how I put my quote inside the picture, how I picked the captions are all decisions made by me. It was still a conscious intervention of supposedly randomised iterations. The form of the iterations was still unclear, it should have been anchored into a certain form. The iterations is yet to compare and exploit the malleability of information. 

I have a tendency to explore the malleability of information that is composed and interlaced between its lexical content and other visual contents. The latter is very much controlled and manipulated by designers. Designers have the authority to determine in presenting a piece of information. Fonts can reinforce racial stereotypes; colours can imply certain emotions; condition of pictures itself reveals its circulations. Whether it is conscious or not, the content cannot be separated from its design. “Shaping itself is a profoundly affecting form” (Rock, 2009) as how it was contained, processed and presented is also part of the information. I believe there is a vulnerability or susceptibility of people’s perceptions on manipulated information. Opinion is inevitably during the process of designs. My position is that there is an inverse correlation between accuracy of descriptive information and the proportion of added opinions. It is important to explore what is the threshold that makes design unethical when information is manipulated. It is also parallel to explore automated design as a mean of subtracting human intervention on opinionated facts. As it may be a way of a more ethical. 

Opinions are necessary and part of the culture. However, in my position, it will become critical when opinions are disguised as fact. When these are distributed, it raises the concern regarding the ethics and responsibilities as a designer.  Graphic communication design is a spcialised discipline to deliver messages by different means. What does it mean to deliver the “right message” when sometimes the message is unprecedented or speculative? Is it designers’ responsibilities to deliver the speculative nature of the information. One of the examples is when Dr. Michael E. Mann used proxy and approximates in configuring global warming. Chun commented on the controversy on global warming and wrote that it “reveals the insight and limitations of twentieth century semiotics and cultural studies”(Chung, 2017) .  

To become self-aware and critical regarding the ethics and responsibility as a designer. Ramia Mazé suggested three areas of critical graphic design. One of which is “building of a meta-level or disciplinary discourse” (Laranjo, 2014). I hope my project could be developed into a self-aware design that concerns myself as well as the general discipline of graphic communication design.  

Reference 

Laranjo, F. (2014) ‘Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What?’, Modes of Criticism. Available at: https://modesofcriticism.org/critical-graphic-design/(Accessed: 27 April 2021). 

Rock, M.(2009)  Fuck Content’ Multiple Signatures: On Designers, Authors, Readers and Users, Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/2009/fuck-content/ (Accessed: 25 April 2021). 

Chun , W.H.K. (2018) ‘On Patterns and Proxies’ ,e-flux architecture,  Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/accumulation/212275/on-patterns-and-proxies/ (Accessed: 27 April 2021).