"Black Sheep"
#Technology #Labor Value #Science Fiction
#Social Class #Hierarchical Solidification
#Education System
#Humanity
When technology causes a reordering of priorities in social values, social hierarchies reorganize accordingly. What will be the future role of education as the current powerful means of breaking social hierarchy/class rigidity?
We now divide the world into social classes based on the economic benefits produced by human labor. Gradually, the elderly and the disabled, who have less labor output, become vulnerable groups in our society. In the imagination of the future, if this criterion is broken, how will people labor be valued？Let’s read a future story together: In the context of blockchain technology, humans need to rely on "intelligence" to obtain virtual wealth such as Bitcoin, hence the evaluation criteria of the social class are reconstructed… ….
Iteration 01 02: A booklet of the future story “Black Sheep"
Iteration 03: A TikTok short video
I focused my audiences on traditional Chinese parents, so the serious and high-fidelity visual form in iteration 02 is particularly distant from the lives of my audiences. Rather than asking participants to try to understand my design, I realized I should be more proactive in approaching their lifestyle. So, thinking about the content medium they're used to, I made another visual version of my story in the form of TikTok short videos as below. Actually this works really well, the familiar visual language made them more willing to participate in my interviews and led to interesting conversations.
Semi-structure interview
Four round dialogues were conducted with: a mother; an educator; a mother with her son who is under the huge pressure of the university entrance exam; two master students. Interview structure: 01 Watch the video together -> 02 Imagine T's ending -> 03 Start the conversations with a question framework
- What do you think will be the ending of T? Why?
- What do you think of T's talent in music？
- If we lived in this world, what level of the city do you think you/your child would be in? How's your feeling?
- What role do you think education plays in this world?
Insights from the project
1 When we do design relates to a future background, two sides are the essential elements of our design: Technology and human nature. Technology is always the role of pushing us going forward, setting up the future context. But humanity is the role always following its inner rules and principles. With those 2 dimensions, we can push the imaginary scenario to the extreme future, and also reflect on the present.
2 designers value their design baby a lot, so sometimes, rather than consider the audiences we consider more about the work itself. This situation happens more often when the topic is related to a future scenario because it looks like there are no specific target groups under a future context. BUT! We definitely found that stakeholders are even more essential when we design. Not only help us do better narrative imagination but also take the abstract work to the ground.
3 When the participants connect the imaginary future plot with reality (like a trigger), the reflection begins, and all descriptions return from the utopian fantasy to the real problem. The shift is exciting.
4 The master of technology is always human ourselves. Don't try to talk about technology without people's desire. It's not technology that alienates people. It is people who are dissimilating the application of technology and then shaping the culture and values we hate.
Designer: TingtingJiang (Original Photo credits to Burn Crew, Kim Høltermand, Max Löffler)