POST 10: Reflection and Proposition

I came into class this week prepared for feedback on my proposal. Personally, I believe that my current proposal was not strong enough for two main reasons:

• Strength of the proposition: While my proposal has a solid base for interpretation, the concept in general is not where I would want it to be. At the moment there is only two main qualities of the proposal that is holding the structure together, which is the interpretation of the space and the message. In order for this proposal to be achievable, the space needs to be supportive of the message.
• Reaching out to appropriate demographics: I would prefer to also commit to a third party resource so my targetted deomgraphic (18-24 year olds) has the best possible chance of realisation. Embedding that into the process of the proposal is another topic I would like to address.

While working with these potential discussion points in mind, I teamed up with a partner who was very opened to the fact that my proposition was planned to be installed for public use. While explaning this proposition to my partner, I had placed him in a mindset that he was a potential user of the project. This allowed the both of us to review what I had in mind and converse about feasible stepping stones to take my proposal to an level of intrigue, and not just a response. Not only this, but I discussed my proposal with my tutor also to discuss the progress of my idea.

As a potential user, my partner and I came up with focal points for my project:

• The installation needs to be more detailed. Maybe the project can have more added depth if the installation was positioned on glass walls, so there’s more added meaning behind the walls.
• The structure of the installation needs to have another level of meaning visually
• Because the main focus of my research is media information infiltration, a form of social media to link with the project is essential.
• There needs to be a better understanding on what type of refugees are targetted. While the research and explanation stretches across all borders, the focal points needs to be on a personal level, not a generic level.

As I explored these options, I decided to frame my research and tasks into maps that would be used in assessment 3A and 3B. For this analysis however, framing this research now rather than later was more beneficial. Further, the series of images that run below are a condensed version of my working progress to a more improved and articulate proposal.

Refined Design Proposition: “We’re All Strangers”

Experimental Installation and Social Media Campaign.

Each year there is a conflict between the arrival to Australia on an asylum seeker boat, and the government enforcement that is placed upon these people. Because of their seemingly illegal attempt to flee their home country in search for asylum, Australia is currently in a position where they need to manage accordingly to the numbers. Moreover, the lack of substantial and pure information through social media networks and media news has allowed the public to shift their perception to information that is consistently outsourced.

Because of this conflict and this perception, the group of resettled refugees in Australia face the trauma of starting a new life. While most believe that there’s a sense of unwelcomeness and invasion, we fail to recognise the repetitive anguish and ordeals that refugees are constantly challenged with. Some of these ordeals involve:

• Racism and discrimination
• Employment
• Housing affordability
• Disruption of education
• Mental health issues
• Financial difficulties
• Language and communication barriers
• Separation from family members

Currently, many young Australians take the time to use social media to express outrage and dissatifaction of these values and processes. Even though social media is such a powerful option to use to express opinion, this discomfort isnt improving. There is continual outrage on the policies in place and while refugees are gradually being resettled for the better, the filtration of information that the public view on social media is more negative and more enforced. How is this doing any good to Australia as a nation?

I am proposing an experimental installation to take place in noticeable locations in Central, as well as a positive social media campaign for the project. Festooning multiple locations around the Central area with ‘detention camp room sized’ installations, this allows the sense of imprisonment and restriction that resettled refugees have experienced in the past and/or are currently experiencing. I propose to create a voice on social media, expressing the support of this issue, enhanced by the hashtag #We’reAllStrangers.

The function of the hashtag is to standardise the reputation of refugees and the public, ultimately recognising acceptance. By combining the functions of the installation and social media, the data generated will be considered to be implemented in two different forms:

• The opportunity for users of the installation to then use social media to express their support of the cause and,
• The information to be collected and documented for further campaigning and support.

This will then start to form opportunities to take the project to a much larger scale.

By challenging the demographic to express their view in both an interactive way and a social way (physically and through media), it allows the public to create their own voice on the issue, and express this message on multiple levels. While this remains an active support mechanism, it prevents the tarnishing of the government and starts to improve the Australian reputation that we currently hold. Yet again, such an intervention holds the potential to gain attention by the media and superiors, in the hope of creating a new language and a new voice for Australia. Furthermore, this exposure will optimistically have a plausible outcome of promoting positive change and an improved public voice.

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

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BLOG 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

As outlined in post #8, the individual and group tasks performed helped me shape my understanding of the attitudes towards refugees and how this attitude / perception has been shaped. Outlined below is our collaborating brainstorm, as well as factors involving the activity:

Positives:

 – There was a relation of ideas with all our brainstorming combined. Not only is the mind mapping stage just of my micro issue, but adding more information from other segments of the issue bring together a story and a timeline of possible outcomes of actions.

 – The members that I worked with were focusing on very similar topic, thus allowing our brainstorming session to be more of a discussion and conversation. This allowed us to think more broadly and consider more factors than just the most available ones to mention.

 – One coincidence that we came across was that one of our members in our brainstorming session has a family member who once seemed asylum. This was of a massive advantage as I could allow myself to realise the effects on a personal level, to a certain degree.

 – The brainstorming session allowed me to direct my attention to the situation as a whole, rather than bring fixated on one aspect of it. This benefitted all of our ideas as well as giving us a direction for our design proposals.

 – The ability to start a new brainstorming exercise without having any previous brainstorming sessions together was great, as it allowed for more conversation.

Negatives:
– The lack of diversity between the issues we were facing restricted the conversation a few times. Some things were repeated rather than reiterated.
– While the opportunity to work with new people was going well, our personal views on the issue were different. This created some valid points to put on our brainstorming exercise, but also created some heated discussions, as we occasionally found ourselves defending our views, rather than combining them.

 

 

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

BLOG 8: Brainstorming Possibilities for a Design Response

After bouncing back from being 2 and a half weeks behind on the tasks, I had collected a bunch of resources and information that support my focus. Through this research, I came to realise my own thoughts and feelings about the issue, and why I have come to trust so many stories and views, where there’s a new spectrum that most don’t seem to realise.

During my semester break, I took the opportunity to visit the House of Welcome, a refugee supports centre that undertakes full recognition of dignity, equality and human rights. They are a centre that facilitates and house many people that are in such an event. I found this to be a very insightful visit, as I gained the opportunity to experience the lifestyle and stories that these neglected group of individuals experience on an everyday basis. It brought me to the understanding of producing a proposal that allows the public to also realise these circumstances. As I kept this at the back of my mind, I reworked the tasks accordingly, not only to reframe my analysis, but to add more support to my proposal.

Defining the problem statement:
In relation to this, I decided to allow my focus to span across all affects of perception briefly, where I still maintain the framing of a new perception. I used a series of questions to frame this analysis:

WHO DOES THE PROBLEM AFFECT?
Essentially, the problem that I’m faced with is primarily affecting both refugees and the general public. With multiple factors affecting the relation between the two demographics, it rapidly shifts our thoughts and feelings about refugees as the media updates their information. Secondly, it affects the government, mainly their policies, and reputation. As government conflict and change arise, so does the aims and tasks of the media, thus shaping multiple viewpoints. Finally, it affects the reputation of Australia on a global level and how the perception of Australia as a government is constantly tarnished.

 

WHAT ARE THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PROBLEM?
The boundaries of public perception and government relations is forever changing, and is networked to an extent where its tangled. The structural implications of the government and their policies towards refugees and asylum seekers is the main focus of this boundary.

The more change that the government internally experience, the less chance that the policies against refugees will be improved, or even altered at all. The organisation of this structure fails to comply on an international level, as well as improving Australia as a nation. How this is viewed to the public is essentially corruption. As part of Australia’s humanitarian programme, we agreed to accept 12,000 asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq who had recently been internally displaced. While this agreement took place in November 2015, by March 2016, it was reported that 9,000 refugees were interviewed, 1,600 were granted Visa’s, and only as many as 29 were officially resettled.

How this ‘progressive’ agreement affects the Australian public is more sensitive. Does it give us faith that the government have these policies under control? Are they allowing such policies to go through the system without systematically working on how to patrol them? Without a formal structure in our government system, the information the media deliver to us is filtered. Moreover, the more we ponder and accept what the media is filtering through, more and more negative judgements are dumped upon refugees and asylum seekers respectively. Therefore the perception is altered.

Hypothetically, what would happen if this system of information distribution and government programmes was solved and/or remained unsolved? If it was fixed, the public opinion would be shaped for the better, allowing more positive awareness and a stronger emphasis on third party organisations that deal with this issue daily. Australia would be seen as a more reliable and organised country. The volume of outrage is set to increase if Australia as a government and as the people if we remain consistently inconsistent. Detention camps will continue to develop in congestion and the level of understanding these people will become bleak.

WHEN DOES THE PROBLEM OCCUR? WHEN DOES IT NEED TO BE FIXED?
As the public is continually exposed to this nature of information through the media and political announcements, it’s quite evident that this problem is occurring everyday, and even if this problem was fixed, the perception will always be present. The people of Australia are still reliant on their opinions about the issue, as they are never exposed to another conflicting opinion.

WHERE IS THE PROBLEM OCCURING?
The media is linked to a whole network of information that is shared around the world. While there is a constant problem of this crucial information being filtered, the realities of it are very different. The government are treating this problem in a way to send their information through to remain relevant, no to sustain trust from the public.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT THE PROBLEM IS FIXED? IMPACT ON STAKEHOLDERS?
The public needs to be constantly provided with the realities of refugee / asylum seeker lifestyle and allow them to address the situation truthfully. There are so many conflicting negative opinions on this issue, when the focus should be on the information that the people of Australia aren’t ever aware of. Allowing an unfiltered display of information allows for a more controlled and confronting opinion that makes sense, as well as an organised government that prevents internal arguments and progresses on making this issue more relevant in today’s society.

Summary of Possibilities:
1. A visualisation highlighting the future of Refugees and Asylum Seekers:
The negative public perception of this group of people can be improved, or even altered if there was more recognition of the real problems that they face daily. A first hand experience or confrontation that attacks this view and shines light on the way these people are seen can change the way we perceive them in the future.

2. A visualisation on refugee and asylum seeker treatment on an international level:
Allowing to show the comparison of Australia on an international level will portray why unfair treatment of asylum seekers and refugees is a continual thing. Expressing the facts can allow for this change.

3. A visualisation of immediate living standards as a confrontation between media information and reality:
Creating a chance for the public to experience what it’s like to be a refugee, without having the need to go out of their way. Making this in the pure context of emotion and instant feeling, it’s a way to be critical of what Australia is faced with on a daily basis.

4. An installation of confinement:
While metaphorically placing objects that has instant connection with the user, the idea of this installation is to physically experience the living conditions of refugees, ultimately exemplifying their persistence with government systems. While trauma and desperation are two leading descriptions of these standards, one can only imagine until they’ve experienced it.

5. An installation of confinement (2):
Essentially tearing down the installation where there are only lines marked to represent the intersection of walls and placement of objects. Every user’s reaction will be either different or confronted by the fact that the media’s access to information should be the same as the information that’s reported to the public.

Draft Proposal: Installation of Confinement:

Each year there is a conflict between the arrival to Australia on an asylum seeker boat, and the government enforcement that is placed upon these people seeking asylum. Because of their seemingly illegal attempt to flee their home country in search for asylum, Australia is currently in a position where they need to manage accordingly to the numbers. Moreover, the lack of substantial and pure information through social media networks and media news has allowed the public to shift their perception to information that is ready to be outsourced.

To increase the awareness and acceptance of this demographic, I plan to set up a represented installation of the living conditions the refugees are dealt with in time of migration. With this installation, the general public have the option to interact with this installation to show their support and respect for refugees and asylum seekers, as well as sending their own message across as the general public unit.

As this proposal mainly relies on a strength in numbers, the ability to send a message across to a wide audience has never been easier. Why aren’t we utilising these resources?

With this plan, the achievement is split up into three entities, which relies heavily on resources and space: Awareness, interaction, acceptance.

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

POST 7: Issue mapping

Further progressing into my research into my issue, I found that the issue mapping exercise was more beneficial than not. Even though I am working towards the research of public perception, the classmate I worked with had a similar approach to their research also. This made the circumstances easier to work with, but was still a very intensive exercise. Even though my partner was a bit more prepared than me coming into class, it didn’t take away from the fact that we were able to come up with a few maps that not only tackled more of our issue, but started to refine the smaller sections of my topic that is of great help and use for my upcoming work into this assessment.

After refining an earlier map into more specific areas of interests, it set me up into exploring polemics, emotive motivators that tackle conflicting points of view within my issue. The map above therefore, is a refined version of stakeholders that still hold their value within the issue of refugees and asylum seekers. Because my partner and I were looking at similar ideas into our issue, it was hard to look past the media’s value and how the media has shaped the perception of these groups of people. We also looked out how education and the law was enforcing this perception, in order to gained a greater sense of how this information is controlled and distributed out to the public.

Our second exercise was to collate this information into a polemic exercise to look at the emotions that come out of this issue. My partner and I strictly stuck to the idea of public perception, taking into account education levels and law enforcements that alter the way we view this issue as a whole. Taking other points into account, we had to consider the legitimacy of refugees, the benefits of acceptance and the the distress of being neglected. The realities behind these different situations that refugees and asylum seekers face on a daily basis is unparalleled to what we, as the public, is actually exposed to. After looking and mapping out the possible polemics regarding my issue, I came to the realisation that most of these emotions are negative and involve hate, fear, confusion and segregation. This needs to be a more positive reinforcement in order to start  positively working towards solutions. According to this mapping exercise, this is currently not the case.

The last exercise was all about combining these polemics and stakeholders into graphs that start to focus on public perception and how they impact the issue on an daily basis. We worked on this by getting all of the stakeholders from week 3 and categorising them in their respective polemics. What I found interesting about the exercise is that some of my stakeholders from previous tasks were placed in all three categories, while some only were placed in one. This demonstrated that these particular set of stakeholders were responsible for more then what they have been accounted for. Notable stakeholders include the government, social media forms and the idea on constant controversy. What was great about this exercise was that I wouldn’t have found this sort of information just by generically researching through the internet. It gives me a clearer insight into which parties are actually affecting this issue on a large scale.

To summate, the mapping exercises truly emphasised the importance of these hidden emotions and ideas regarding my issue. The relationship between these highlighted stakeholders therefore, can be a strong factor into finding one or multiple solutions for this issue, especially into the topic of public perception. During this task, I discovered that this would be an appropriate source of information that would assist me in my further research and a guideline that not only me, but also my partner. These stakeholders are ultimately the main driving force into this issue, and their relationship to each other can be crucial to finding a positive solution to this issue presented.

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

POST 6: Scraping the web for data

Thus far in my research on refugees and asylum seekers, I have worked towards making a distinction of the public perception of the issue. Even though most data is filtered through social media, there’s a huge discrepancy between the absolute truth, mainly based off facts and statistics, and an altered view through social media, shaped by a popular opinion or reputation.

I decided to base this post around Twitter and the public perception around this social media platform only. Twitter has a large amount of users on it’s platform every single day and is a strong indication of what news is trending every week. Not only this, but you can choose different celebrities and icons to follow so you get updated on their status every time they tweet a message publicly. This social media phenomenon also allows you to ‘retweet’ (essentially means ‘share’) a post or status update from any Twitter user. This feature, therefore is vital for users as they try to either spread their message or word across, or still suitable if you’re just on the platform for updates. Either way, every Twitter user has free access to any information regarding almost anything. But is a public opinion actually just as powerful as the facts?

When viewing twitter, I explored posts through ‘Twitter Archiver’, a data scraping plug in on Google Sheets. When refining my search, I wanted to focus on how public view change the realities of my issue. Below displays the search I entered:

As shown in my search, I searched for very generic hashtags that just bring up the topic of my issue. These were #refugees and #asylumseekers. As well as this, I added a third hashtag that just indicates the support thats present for this issue. The hashtag #allhumansarelegal was originated from a protest that took place in Europe. With this search entered, I was surprised about how many results came up. I focused on more about what views people had around asylum seekers and refugees, and how they came across on social media in relation to that issue. My most interesting results are listed below:

These results informed that my approach to the issue is in fact supported as something to act on. While relatively coming across many celebrities and social activists expressing their views on the issue, I came across a few interesting ones that were evidently about information filtered through the media. Not only this but I came across very enlightening tweets about refugees, as shown in the examples above. What I found interesting about this search method is that it is very versatile with the way the search engine can be used. While I regularly found it difficult to find extra information on the #allhumansarelegal campaign, this Twitter archiver also served no justice. While looking through the Twitter Archiver and through just a general search on Twitter, there is clearly no social presence for this hashtag campaign. For the information I have found on it, there is not merely enough out there at the moment to it to be publicly legitimate. This highlights the fact that there is too much negative reinforcement on social media and exposure to the realities are necessary.

I believe that this exercise was very useful for my research and proposal. Even though I didn’t have a consistent results page, it allowed me to start to think about the ways I can now span this message across. Because there is a very broad level of engagement with the topic, it made me realise that there is a place for change, or at least recognition. The Twitter Archiver is definitely something I will be using on a regular basis.

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

POST 3: Mapping the participants (human and non – human) and constructing an image archive

One massive problem I was faced with at the beginning of the semester was not being put in a group with an issue that I had already started working towards. At the beginning of the semester I was originally researching marriage equality, particularly focusing on government superiority and the presence of religion. After focusing my first two blog posts on marriage equality, I was notified that I was in a group dealing with the issue on refugees and asylum seekers. With the inability to change topics as well as a lack of communication, I came to the decision that I had to stick with researching this issue and focusing on a micro-topic within it. I had no problem changing topics, but it did set me back 3 weeks into my studies for the semester.

With this sudden mishap, I restarted my research into another topic. Through all my research, I was really interested in the idea of public perception. Without falling too much behind in my work, I researched the issue generically while concentrating on digital media trends to gain a sense of clarity in what my issue was facing on a daily basis. Without refugees actually having access to this form of information, I feel that it was an engaging topic to be researching. To further progress in my ‘refugee and asylum seekers’ research, a task performed in class time allowed a more depth understanding into my issues into tangible and non-tangible stakeholders. When mapping these participants, I automatically came to the realisation that we were only mapping out as many stakeholders as possible.

The image shows more than 150 participants that was all affected/affecting my issue. It was a very mixed list to begin with, but it allowed me to understand every entity that’s involved within my issue. I set out to map as many as possible for a clear starting point into my research, while hopefully catching up on a whole other bunch of research for the remainder of the semester. As shown, these stakeholders aren’t very organised as such, but I was able to come up with a summary of the exercise:

 – The exercise was very helpful in the way that it allowed me to understand every aspect of the issue.

 – The majority of my mapping involved a lot of emphasis on the government and the media. These to me, are the two most important factors to consider, and a feel that this was the perfect starting point for my research.

As I noticed that these trends were beginning to unfold, I started to refine my list of stakeholders to allow myself to focus on a particular segment of my issue. In this case, it was the effects of government enforcement and digital media presence that fuelled me to further engage. As I started to refine this list into possible parties, I began to understand the importance of each stakeholder/participant that would have any affect on my issue at all. Two conclusions were drawn from this analysis:

– The idea of public perception, filtered through media and the government, is vague and doesn’t allow for much change. However while having a public voice is still apparent, it doesn’t seem necessary for the government or the media to be constantly engaging and monitoring what is being said.
– The government’s presence on social media is only reiterating the services they currently run and the issues they face. It seems that they only post and display information that is only going to get a good reception from the public in terms of how exposed the story is going to be, not by how the public is reacting to the post.

This image is all about making a statement for refugees. It’s emphasising the fact that even though refugees can be segregated and not be treated the way they would like, the representation of refugees and asylum seekers is very active. This doesn’t differ from my research, but adds on to an archive of imagery.

This cartoon imagery is the perfect example of European law for refugees and how it’s affecting households around the continent. It used clever imagery to portray it’s message, even though it’s displaying a reality of European acceptance of refugees and asylum seekers. This supports my research as I attempt to look further into the effects and how that supports my view of public perception.

This image is a strong example of refugee life and how they envision their lives in Australia, opposed to the realities of living like a prisoner. The bright colour accentuates that glimmer of hope that asylum seekers will be able to receive adequate facilities. Once again, my view on public perception is highlighted in this imagery.

This is a work by Sebastian Onufszak called ‘Hands of Tolerance’ where it emphasises the realities of mixed cultures coming together join forces of toleration from refugee and asylum seeker laws. With it’s strong imagery, the text’s legibility is shown through the emphasise of the lettering. My topic os not about toleration, but is a very useful image when discussing what we, as the Australian public, think of approaches like this.

This image seems to be subjected straight to the refugee, encouraging them to create their own world. Despite their mishaps and desperation to seek asylum, there is always going to be a world that they can support, they just have to be willing enough to live in it. This image supports my issue more than what I first thought. Because it has more of a self acceptance approach, it supports my views but doesn’t explain them.

This is a very powerful image, posted by Dr. Omer Faruk Harman, which essentially is a controversial caricature of living standards that refugees are put through. This image faces the realities of being a refugee attempting to seek asylum and essentially demonstrates how refugees are trying to survive once they reach the shore. Because they are regularly rejected from their destination, this is how the world is treated them afterwards. It’s a reality made simple. This applies to my topic in every aspect.

This next image is just a simple illustration of, what seems like a summed up situation on how most countries accept refugees. In Australia, refugees are also publicly known as a prisoner. Technically, refugees commit an international crime, by illegally leaving their country of origin in hope that they reach another country away from danger. While their intentions are right, this image displays how each party is treated as well as their attitude for each other. This applies to my research as this perception is growing everyday.

This image portrays only the sheer emotion of refugees. This image is all about the emotion and reaction of the image: The emotion the person in the image is showing, and how we look at the image as the Australian public. As a member of this public, as well as undertaking this research task, I prefer not to comment on what emotion I think this refugee is showcasing. It’s just the presence of emotion alone that allows this image to be a perfect reference to my issue.

This poster is all about helping out where we can, despite the fact that refugees decide to travel here illegally. While there is so much criticism around the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, this poster denies all the negativity and just purely focuses on how everyone’s contribution will make a difference. The colour theme in the poster as well starts to combine the elements of seeking asylum and travelling by boat, with an array of arms helping this boat get across the shore. This image shows hope, but unfortunately enough only showcases the idea of hope, which is why this is a crucial reference to my research.

This was an images designed by the Cross Border Collective, where they emphasise their point that the boundaries that laws enforce on refugees is strangling their way of life. They tend to reiterate the point that its the boundaries that is enforced that’s splitting up the human race as a whole, rather than trying to protect the country. The idea of rights and equality is very apparent in this image and serves a meaning into how this public perception is the cause of the hardship that refugees have to face on a daily basis.

 

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

 

Emory. S, 2016, How Design Could Change the Refugee Crisis, The Creators Project, accessed 20th August 2016, <http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/how-design-could-change-the-refugee-crisis&gt;

Spiegel. D, 2015, Germany and the Refugee Crisis: All-powerful Merkel is under fire, VoxEurop, accessed 21st August 2016, <http://www.voxeurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/5009174-all-powerful-merkel-under-fire&gt;

Onufszak. S, 2016, Hands of Tolerance, Instagram post by @etapes, accessed 24th August 2016, <https://www.instagram.com/p/_P7KHfTC1X/&gt;

TopCoder, 2013, Poster Design Contest, TopCoder13, accessed 22nd August 2016, <https://community.topcoder.com/tco13/overview/win-tco-trips/poster-design/&gt;

Dr. Harman. O, 2015, Cartoons of Refugee Crisis in the West and East, WordPress, accessed 19th august 2016, <https://kadimilim.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/multeci-krizi-karikaturleri-cartoons-of-refugee-crisis-in-the-west-and-east/&gt;

Woodley. N, 2015, Australia to resettle an extra 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees, ABC News, accessed 17th August, 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2015/s4309355.htm&gt;

Zavala. H, 2016, Poster for Refugees, International Student Poster Competition, accessed 14th August 2016, <http://hazelzavala.com/post/138291896529/posters-for-refugees-international-student-poster&gt;

Cross Border Collective, 2010, We Don’t Cross Borders, Borders Cross Us, CrossBorderSydney, accessed 19th August 2016, <http://www.crossbordersydney.org/&gt;

POST 5: Approaches to design for change, design – led ethnography

For people living in such remote and damaged areas, it’s quite easy to think that most people are aware about the pain and trauma that refugees and asylum seekers live with everyday. The problem that Australian’s face in this issue is that most people don’t know about what really happens in detention centres. Therefore, the amount of information that will address this conflict isn’t present.

After personally sorting out my issue dilemma through classtime, I undertook my design-led ethnography through an interview and probing exercise, focusing on public perception of refugees and asylum seekers. I constructed a 5 question interview, allowing my interviewee to hopefully articulate and engage in conversation about the topic, away from public perception and the power of social media:

1. How often do you see stories about Refugees and Asylum Seekers publicised? (both commercial and social media).
2. How do you think they are portrayed, and is this portrayal affecting this perception?
3. Why do you think commercial use and digital media focus more on the negatives of the issue, and don’t utilise positive stories as much?
4. How can we benefit from a more positive response?
5. As a minority, what should be shown to public figures, like us for example? Do you think it’ll be beneficial?

Going into these interviews, there were two main reasons as to why I was skpetical. I was unprepared for the fact that my interviewee’s wouldn’t be quite familiar with my issue and what I wanted to focus on, and that I wouldn’t be able to obtain the right information to move forward. To cater for these setbacks, I fixtated my approach as a conversation, and not a formal interview. Allowing the interviewee’s to express their opinions through this exercise was not only becoming beneficial for me, but was ideal not only for the realisation of the issues being presented, but developing a thought process to cater for this issue.

I spoke to two of my peers who were happy to participate. As I had planned, conversing about this issue was something they were both comfortable with, and turned to be a successful exercise. By focusing my interviews on both a local participant and an international participant, I came to understand different views and interests on the topic, which opened my mind to new avenues of research and topics on the issue. With this in mind, I obtained 5 main points through my interviews:

1. Media shouldn’t change the idea of asylum seeking and refugees to display in the media. If these people want the public to fully understand what happens in these circumstances, there’s no need to water down the information.
2. In order to cater for refugees to live comfortably, we need more resources than the limited amount we already have.
3. There is no positive side that is shown on TV, social media, etc. Everything we see is negatively affecting the way we perceive asylum seekers and refugees.
4. The negative perception that is given to the public can ultimately affect refugees and asylum seekers and their perception of us.
5. Economically and politically, there are social activists always fighting for the cause, and we are just in the middle of a constant battle.

For my probing exercise, I wanted to reach out to a larger audience. The interview did justice to my probing exercise, now that I know that the public perception of asylum seekers and refugees is well and truly active. While only some of our perceptions collectively are positive and some are negative, I made a little probing exercise that extracts this information quickly. I had made up 10 flags of the countries that seek asylum the most, with a small table that only has a + and a – on it. My aim was to quickly generate this information, purely on the basis that the media has full control over the perception of these people. I generated information from 10 people, 2 of them being my interviewees.

The outcomes I received matched my definition of this perception, but also had a few surprises. The results showed:

– Middle Eastern and Asian countries were the most to be placed in the negative column.
– No one put Turkey in the negative column.
– The positive column was used 26% of the time.

After questioning the survey, all of my participants had similar views on how they perceived this issue through the media. On a personal level, they all had conflicting views. I feel privileged that I was able to gain access to these views. Even though most of my participants had a different opinion on the issue, I aimed to realise that this public perception is very much the same for most people. Looking back on this process, this was exactly the case. In all, I am happy with the way that these exercises went, and the amount of information I was able to receive. Due to the nature of the topic, it was hard to give all my participants, as well as my interviewees an appropriate exercise to work with to flesh out more information. In this particular circumstance however, it was clear that this was a benefit not only to me, but to everyone I worked with.

Peter Andreacchio (117678381)

POST 4: Identifying and collecting a design example

In terms of my research into my issue, there has been a wide range of information regarding refugees and asylum seekers living standards, quality of life and legal issues regarding their needs to seek asylum.  I came across one website that caught my eye showed it’s information in a different way. The site is called ‘Cross Borders Sydney’, a website dedicated to building a 12 poster project around race, state and migration designed by a group called Cross Border Collective. Even though this website isn’t aesthetically nice or designed very well, the content on the page make up it’s value.

For the layout of the website, the page has a very simple header image that says ‘We don’t cross borders, borders cross us’ overlaying a rainbow backdrop, with a small amount of body text before the whole list of 12 posters are displayed. This is very simply laid out on the page and seems very separated, even though all the parts come directly one after the other. I think this was good for the website as they aren’t particularly dealing with the content of the actual server, but want visitors of the site to just look at the 12 posters of the site, where the other content is just supporting the imagery. As we move further down the page, we come across links of all 12 posters as well as an option to download or buy the poster series. Those links are made up of just links that take you to that particular poster and it’s information faster, but there would be no need, seeing as the whole website is just on one page only. Having the download / purchase button right below the links gives you the option of reacting to the posters before reading anything about them. Not only is this button doing justice, but shows a way for the visitor to invest and support the Cross Border Collective, and recognise that their poster’s are sending out the right messages. As you further progress down the page, there is a small section for information about Cross Border Collective, followed by a lengthy description about each poster.

The have clearly focused on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers and how they can get a positive message across without feeling the need to actively take part in society about it. The subtle website creates a more pictorial dynamic, where the visitor only views the website for their posters. This seems the be the aim for the website, regarding its creative content and website structure. The website also deals with many micro-topics within the website, outlined by each poster. As the visitor skims through the website, it’s noticeable that each poster is linked with a different view on asylum seeking, and each poster was made by a different designer. This shows that the website is fully open to interpretation and the spectrum of content that goes up on their website.

Moreover, they explore materials and technologies through the poster series once again, and not the structure of the website, because it is their posters that are delivering the full message of the website, not the content itself. While I can agree that the website’s written content is explanatory of it’s materials and technologies regarding the micro-issue that each poster faces, but when the website’s only function is for exposure, it’s clear as to why the imagery in the website collates about 95% of the total visual value. While the website is very plain and simple, it is definitely this visual value that catches the attention of the visitor, and visually gives them a reason to look further through the website.

Overall, this website sends across so many messages about the issue of asylum seeking and the strong idea of barriers that the website deals with through all their visual concepts. The ultimate aim of this website is to gain as much exposure as possible by emphasising the realities of being a refugee. The website also tries to expose to the viewer a real sense of immigration and how it affects everyone, not just refugees. I like the way the website has developed their information into something that is feasible an makes a point. Even though I am not a fan of how the website is laid out, it is the content and concepts that matter most, and seems to be the most prominent.

 

Peter Andreacchio (11768381)

 

Cross Border Collective, 2010, We Don’t Cross Borders, Borders Cross Us, CrossBorderSydney, accessed 19th August 2016, <http://www.crossbordersydney.org/&gt>

POST 2: Building your expertise using scholarly secondary sources.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, the two sub-topics within marriage equality I wanted to research further was the idea of goverment superiority and the presence of a religious view on the issue. While these two topics are very conflicting and relevant to the development and presence of this issue, I saw a need to familarise myself with these two topics. The two articles I decided to persue to research not only striked interest to me, but gave me another insight into the thoughts of marriage equality in a political standpoint. While these views are rarely noticed, the normality of these debates guarantee a single, undervalued argument that should be considered strongly.

‘Skeptical Marriage Equality’ – Suzanne A. Kim
The first scholarly text that I thought was very engaging and insightful was Suzanne A. Kim’s text ‘Skeptical Marriage Equality.’ Essentially, the text outlines the hesitations and skepticism that the government embody in order to maintain their stance on the issue. The author’s position, however, is a critique on marriage laws, while also fully supporting the relevance and existence of marriage equality for same-sex couples. Because of this approach, this text argues that the ideas of marriage equality and marriage skepticism share more than intended. Not only does she argue the facts that the laws in place are enhancing the skepticism of all types of marriages being equal, she enforces the possibilities of drawing attention away from traditional marriages being permanently politically correct. Therefore, Kim’s stance on the situation is that marriage skepticism shouldn’t be removed from the issue of marriage equality as a whole, but should be seen on the same level to increase the functional understanding of the public’s view on marriage equality. Within the text, Kim’s arguments are very personalised and well-researched as she hones in to the effects of same-sex marriage being functionally correct. This is one of few texts from Kim regarding marriage equality, so her research is more argumentative rather than controlled. Why I found this text most interesting, is that the author’s arguments are easily agreeable with, as well as making sense to today’s accepted way of living. The conflicting views of seeing marriage as a form of showcasing a love for one another and as a mutual agreement between two people wil forever be present for as long as the belief of marriage overcomes the true understanding. Kim is attempting to fight against this conflicting view and her constant relation to functionality is something that we should all be taking into consideration.

‘Religion and Marriage Equality Statutes’ – Nelson Tebbe
Another scholarly text that I looked at that instantly grabbed my attention is ‘Religion and Marriage Equality Statutes’ by Nelson Tebbe. Tebbe is currently a professor in Law at Brooklyn Law School. In this particular article, Tebbe indicates that the accommodation for views on marriage equality regarding religious borders is constraining the law debate on the issue. Regardless of any existing statutes (where the author commonly and regularly relates these laws to marriage equality), there’s too much examination into the protection of different conflicts that the legalisation of marriage equality promotes; as the author results it as “constitutionally problematic” (Nelson, 2015 p. 25). The author emphasises the analysis of his evidence regarding barriers around this issue. Whilst he demonstrates his passion by continually provoking the fact that arguments made against existing accommodations of social and political acceptance of marriage equality, I couldn’t disagree with his statements. I believe this to be a very thorougher and detailed opinion on the stance of marriage equality. The claim for religious presence seems to overpower the need for change, thus making the liberty of marriage equality underappreciated.

– Peter Andreacchio

Kim. S, 2010, ‘Skeptical Marriage Equality’, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Vol 34, pp. 37-80.

Tebbe. N, 2015, ‘Religion and Marriage Equality Statutes’, Harvard Law and Policy Review, Vol 9, pp. 25-62.

POST 1: Creating a data set using secondary sources

‘Same-sex Marriage: Let’s get it sorted and move on’ – ABC News:
In the ABC News’ article ‘Same-sex Marriage: Let’s get it sorted and move on’, Terry Barnes accentuates the fact that same sex marriage is a continual problem and a large issue faced by the government and politicians on an everyday basis. The article focuses on the fact that the minority of “Self-identified gay Australians” (Barnes, 2016) are part of such a strong issue. This is leading to the downfall of the government’s reputation as well as the rapid increase of the topic’s presence on social media. For this reason, the respect and tolerance for this diversity is being overlooked constantly. As Barnes lists the conflicting views of same-sex marriage for different politicials, he doesn’t fail to mention a couple of notable statistics that declare that the idea of same-sex marriage in Australia is a mess. This article is a mixed of being opinion-based and researched, while taking into consideration multiple views from the Labour and Liberal party. Barnes progressively becomes very opinionated in his views on same-sex marriage and declares that it’s a total mess. What began to emerge in the duration of the article is a stance that is clear, precise and presents a confronting viewpoint to the topic. I believe this to be a very thorougher and trustworthy article as it remains to stay relevant, for as long as the topic of same-sex marriage is endorsed for conversation.

Jok Church – A Circle of Caring – TED Talks:
In a TED Talks segment in 2007, a man named Jok Church from Ohio took the stage to share his life experience of acceptance and thoughtfulness. Essentially, this three and a half minute talk was focused on the fact that disclusion of people through difference and diversity will always be replaced by love and compassion. As a person with first hand experience, Church goes on to emphasise his ignited hope for the acceptance of these diversities. Jok Church isn’t an enthusist in the topic of same-sex marriage, but being a member of the gay community provides him with first hand experience of the hopeful future of gay rights in general. This segment is based off first hand experience and insight, directly delivered to audiences of many viewpoints in a way thats easily comprehended and understood. Church promotes in his talk that dignity, love and pleasure are qualities that can never been replaced. This position on acceptance is very marginal. Church’s experiences of struggle for acceptance is quite common, but rarely heard of because of the congestion of negative viewpoints in todays society. I don’t agree nor disagree with Church, but his truth and beauty in his storytelling shows that there’s still hope for change.

‘Genuine Marriage Equality is more than overdue in Australia’ – Sydney Morning Herald:
Through my research, I have come to understand that regardless of law changes internationally, the respect for marriage equality from the public is rapidly increasing, leading to both a more structured society and a more fierce war with the government. In the Sydney Morning Herald, I came across Gillian Triggs’ article on genuine marriage equality, expressing how Australia can benefit psychologically through the acceptance of the law. She immediately states that a death certificate will have no recording of marriage status if the person is in a committed same-sex relationship at the time. By understanding the tone, I was able to grasp the intent of the international law in comparison with the current Australian law. The more I read of this article, the more Triggs proves her point about Australia being absent and outdated with their laws.

‘Family first senator Bob Day attacks…’ – The Advertiser:
I also came across an article from The Advertiser where Peter Jean states the claims and reactions from Bob Day’s comments on the gay community. As a common reporter for The Advertiser in the political section, Jean has allowed a louder voice for Senate in this article, in which Senator Bob Day expresses his claim that “most gay men in relationships are unfaithful to their partners” (Jean, 2016). While rigorous claims are stated, the cynical approach that is aimed at the gay community leaves them in a position of vulnerability with the issue. Accordingly seen through the tone of the article, I believe that the reporter has taken the liberty to express the frustration of conflict with marriage equality and how the issue is in excessive, constant scrutiny. I agree with the Jean’s efforts to publicise and expose the story of Bob Day’s claims, as it not only shows a conflict of interest, but it allows the gay community to once again stand up and fight back. While most readers will be surprised of the claims, the evidence of statistics to back Bob Day’s claims in the article regulates the interest of both sides of the story.

‘After marriage equality, how about the workplace?’ – CNBC:
Another topic I wanted to explore in the issue of marriage equality was the effects of change and how the legalisation of marriage equality has positively effected people outside the gay community. I came across Justin Nelson’s article for CNBC, which he recounts the advantages businesses make when marriage equality is legally accepted in the workplace. The article is written on a more positive engagement with the gay community, as it exposes the achievement of businesses making their workplace more unrestricted. When reading this article, I was amazed by the fact that businesses can benefit tremendously with this law in place. What I didn’t agree with was the fact that the legalisation of marriage equality was more focused on how businesses can benefit to grow off it, and not on a personal level with the staff themselves. While Nelson states some facts about personal benefit, the growth of economy is a bit more prominent than imagined. His position is hard to disagree with, where he sends conformity to the reader that marriage equality is well supported and is rested as a conflict and creates a positive presence.

Throughout the research that I have undertaken so far, I believe I’ve been fortunate to have read about multiple viewpoints about the issue of marriage equality. Consequently, my understanding of the issue is less broad and more honed in to the fact that it’s progressively becoming more relevant in our world everyday. What was so relevant to me is that each of the articles accentuate different viewpoints on the same stance, which I believe is a more versatile way to extract information. As a result, I would hope to further research into the conflicts with governments and how religion has an everlasting effect on the issue of marriage equality. Because the issue is so relevant and appropriate to today’s society, these topics are worthwhile to research and become accustom of. Conclusively, the issues faced with marriage equality are somewhat too cynical to be ignored, but yet again left too unanswered for it to not be discussed.

–  Peter Andreacchio

Barnes. T, 2016, Same Sex Marriage: Let’s get it sorted and move on, ABC News, accessed 4th August 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-09/barnes-let’s-get-it-sorted-and-move-on/7231770>

Church. J, 2007, A Circle of Caring, TED Talks, accessed 4th August 2016, <http://www.ted.com/playlists/264/lgbtq_pride&gt;

Triggs. G, 2016, Genuine Marriage Equality is more than overdue in Australia, Sydney Morning Herald, accessed 6th August 2016, <http://www.smh.com.au/comme’nt/genuine-marriage-equality–is-more-than-overdue-in-australia-20160128-gmfyes.html>

Jean. P, 2016, Family first senator Bob Day attacks…, The Advertiser, accessed 6th August 2016, <http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/family-first-senator-bob-day-attacks-says-most-gay-men-unfaithful-to-partners-samesex-marriage-could-lead-to-push-for-throuple-marriages/news-story/8f61f69e71295e761216eaf88ac19d02>

Nelson. J, 2015, After marriage equality, how about the workplace?, CBNC NEWS, accessed 5th August 2016, <http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/07/after-marriage-equality-how-about-the-workplace-commentary.html&gt;