Post 10: Changing the Face of Homelessness : Urban Directory for the Homeless

– Maria Yanovsky 2016

Reflection

There were several key insights I gained from asking my peers to review my draft proposition. On a positive note, the collaborative process between both human actors (non homeless people and homeless people) facilitated the creation of “solidarity to each-other” as picked up by my Tutor, Simone, which is an important aspect of my concept. However, several students and even the tutor picked up on how complex the process is, which would over complicate the effectiveness of the overall message being communicated. There are a few things I need to work on to narrow down the complexity of my proposal.

Firstly, I proposed that participants would receive a bundle of stories that demonstrate a breadth of emotional stories sourced from homeless experiences. It was noted that this experience would dull the experience and make the interaction feel almost chore like which would not encourage people to contribute to the experience.

Secondly it was noted that receiving a blank space of paper (especially at the size I was proposing), is too daunting for anyone, even creative practitioners, which is another barrier to the success of the proposal. It was suggested that I set up more parameters. After re-evaluating the brief, I believe it is possible to create some sort of manual generative illustration system to facilitate simple creative practice. However this is a critical point as members of my audience may not perceive themselves as creative practitioners.

Thirdly, it was mentioned that getting my participants to send back the paste-up posters takes the experience out of their hands and that it might be more interesting and fun for them if they got to paste up their work in the streets themselves. This piece of feedback reminded me of the (failed) Kony project which also sent out Guerilla Campaign packs to interested (paying) participants.

This leaves me with a few interesting avenues I can go along. Taking into consideration my audience, I can move any written content into an online platform such as a website which the user may choose to visit. I feel as if this would round off the service design aspect  of my proposal.

 

Design Proposition

Community Collaboration – “It’s people helping people. Human being working with other human beings to build trust, to find the root problem of their and develop specialised individualised plans for that person. Its people respecting people, acknowledging that we are equals.”- J.Hunt, 2014

Project Title:  Changing the Face of Homelessness : Urban Directory

Emergent Practice: Hybrid of Generative Practice and Service Design

The Issue: Within contemporary society, homelessness is a “swept under the carpet” concept despite how common this problem is becoming. Extensive stigmas and negative perceptions are large inhibitors for creating positive change, as interactions between non homeless and homeless residents is often met with negativity, hostility and most in concern, invisibility. To a struggling, marginalised group who are already experiencing a plethora of issues, further marginalisation can entrap a sense of hopelessness and a decreased sense of self worth. This is one of the largest barriers to entrenched homelessness. which does not help to engender a sense of hope within homeless community.

Proposition:

To create a sense of hope, understanding and community collaboration through a service design based Guerrilla Street art project in the form of a mailable package where participants will receive a designed poster which they can colour and populate Sydney’s Urban landscape themselves supported with a campaign website. Colour, can go a long way in creating positive tone and emotions, through creating vibrancy and friendliness which are core themes at the heart of this project.

Generative Design/ Collaborative Component

Participants will be sent a Paste Up package, which will include 1 A2 Paste up sheet (design included) and a small booklet that will explain the collaboration, how to make wheat paste, and how to paste up participant creations. The branding will be strictly black and white typographic and vector illustrations, to allow all colour and any form of expression to be generated by the participant. The design of the poster content will be based off experimental drawing styles so that members of the homeless community do not feel exploited through clear expressions of recognizbale personalities, this also provides a prescriptive guideline for participants to interact with that removes the daunting nature of a blank sheet of paper. There is no set colour palette or colouring style, all of that will be left to the pleasure of the participant. The project aims to act upon the misconception that homeless means “living on the street” through the incursion of the posters into the urban setting. The ephemeral nature of Street Art will also assist in the generation of new content, as the posters decay, the campaign can be updated with more illustrations, more contributions more stories. Keeping the project relevant.

The Service

The entire campaign aims to tie in generative design practices for Guerrilla styled advertising of service related hashtags which will be pasted into Sydney Urban landscape. The project aims to directly bring a directory of useful hashtags to anyone within the extensive homeless community an array of useful hashtags in which they may seek further assistance on their own accord. These posters will also aim to capture the curiosity of any passers by so they may to, curiously research the project and the hash tags generating further understanding, empathy and down the line, a greater sense of hope from increased participation in the project and testimonials from members who have benefited from the campaign. To ensure that early participants gain some sort of understanding, the service will be tied in with a website which will provide stories sourced from interviews, blogs, forums and Talks which match the initial design. The website will also explain the campaign, provide testimonials, provide additional downloadables in the event printed packages are lost as well as provide a project aim.

This design response targets several patterns of behaviour, it targets viral trends where especially within the target audience, digital media is easily accessed and exploited through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, where hashtags run rampant as a promotional tool. It targets the current fad of adult, therapeutic colouring in books and it targets the search of social services for the homeless. The most important important behaviour this interaction considers is the need for privacy among both of the human actors, who may not always want to make their motives or issues known to everybody for judgement especially at face value.

For the non homeless actors, this contribution will aim to develop a greater understanding on the concept of homelessness as well as a sense of creative charity hopefully making the actor feel comfortable that they don’t have to make a financial or face to face contribution to help out a marginalised group within Sydney. For the homeless actors, this contribution will aim to create a sense of cheer and hope through the artistic expressions being pasted up in their “un-homely spaces”. The design proposal thus aims to give non direct assistance to homeless people. The use of bright vibrant images generated by non homeless is to provide “the catchy hook” so that attention is drawn to the supporting hashtag directory of social services that homeless people in Sydney can use.
For non homeless actors. there is no linear direction of touch points. A non homeless person can be informed of this service by simply walking in the street and seeing examples, or when they perusing online where initial examples can be used to promote the service. Facebook, Instagram and twitter are effective tools for quickly communicating the existence of any ephemeral material. Another key touchpoint is the website, which will feature the crux of the design project. It will contain stories, paste up instructions, and generative design instructions as well as a downloadable version of the printout that will be mailed. It will also feature details about the project to well inform any member of the human actors of the significance of this project. The final touchpoint, is the paste up kit that will be sent to participants. This will include a full scale, ready to use paste up, a booklet with generative design instructions, and paste up instructions (including how to make environmentally safe wheat paste) in a branded envelope.

 

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(Image Sequence, Design Proposal Mocks. Yanovsky,M. 2016)

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Hunt, J.  Published on Oct 04, 2014, ‘How Can I bring Dignity to the Homeless?”, Viewed September 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g3x_cuK5SM&gt;.

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Post 8: Changing the Face Of Homelessness

Brainstorming Possibilities for a Design Response.

– Maria Yanovsky 2016

 

Before reading this post, I implore you to watch this particular TED talk. It is one thing to hear this discussion from global speakers, but there is a resonating power, hearing Orsini’s point of view as a part of the contemporary Australian youth. It is predominantly to the ideas that she is expressing (alienation, stigma, negative assumptions, mistrust, invisibility, stereotypes) that I wish to design to. To understand the crux of homelessness and why I am designing what I am designing, this TED talk is on point the results all my previous posts have been exploring.                 

 

“If you’re not apart of the solution, you’re part of the problem”- Maurice Young, 2015

From newspaper articles to essays, to social experiments to data mining social media. To analysing images and countless brainstorming. What does this all sum up to? Within my understanding of the core roots of homelessness this entire process has given me clarity into the heart of the issues that drive alienation and dehumization of marginalised social groups such as the homeless. These answers may seem bleak, however the potential for positive change is fruitless. This next post will aim to examine an angle in which I would like to take a design proposition, predominantly focusing on the dehumanisation of Homelessness through stigma; specifically, alienation  which occurs through discourse and voluntary and involuntary human actions. In order to come up with a clear problem statement and draft proposal it was pertinent that I examine the five w’s to narrow down all the research and my thoughts into a concise paragraph.

IDEO

Who:

• Homeless people are at the pinnacle of this issue, as it both involves and affects them. However, this is such a broad term, there are homeless kids, adults, migrants, mothers, mentally ill people and many who are experiencing many kinds of homelessness which including sleeping on the street, couch surfing, staying at a friends place or in shelters. The term focusses on displacement of the concept of home.
• The general public and passers by, pedestrians on the street who have a lack of empathy or understanding which can cause a negative reaction and the circulation of stigma with general discourse
• Support workers, whose resources are stretched thin that devote their spare time to helping homeless people
• Businesses (with charitable intentions), who despite common discourse and stigma devote a fraction of their hard owned funds to giving back to the community for the sake of the community.
• Businesses  who on the tip side of the coin take advantage of these negative perceptions to demonstrate “their helping hand of god” to help their own reputation grow as opposed to the benefit of the homeless
• Urban youth, who misuse language and terms within discourse further perpetuating negative stigma.
•  Corporate bodies (fashion, technology, media) that peddle the importance of consumerism, shifting the focus off charity and onto the consumption of material goods generating a look and feel for societies to follow

 

What:

There are several boundaries to the issue of stigma towards homelessness. Linguistic terminology and identification is amongst the most damaging in terms of alienation and stigma, where through discourse terminology is used either ignorantly without an understanding of the terms roots or for the lack of empathy of the emotional impact to those affected by these terms and labels.  Barriers in linguistic can be passive as well, where discourse generates disparaging terms directly associated to those within the affected social group.

Representational barriers such as negative imagery within Television and film (predominantly serial shows and cartoons)  perpetuate existing ideas in societies who are influenced by an often inaccurate and often uncomfortable representation of people from the homeless community which subliminally and through repetition cements stigma.

Through this boundary comes a deeper psychological boundary where instinct drives an incomparable fear. These stem from the psychological where people are told that the homeless are not safe from a young age thus the idea burns on as members of society grow into adulthood. This is where people feel a sense of discomfort from behaviors, appearance or smell. Psychological boundaries also exists in  an almost Darwinian frame of thinking where people shroud the issue with a proverbial blanket rendering it invisible due to the fear that this could possibly happen to “you”  creating an ignorance barrier stemming into a Structural problem of “Us v.s Them” mentality which is further perpetuated through labelling in attempts to discuss and in a way, understand the issue.

Lack of awareness and understanding is one of the most serious barriers to this issue. As demonstrated within my examinations of articles and representation the concept of homelessness is not a considerably heated topic. Limited discussions happen within politics which means even less filters down into society. This generates a lack of empathy as people begin to “sweep under the carpet” an issue that is commonly encountered within urban environments. This barrier comes from a lack of the other three factors listed above as well as a lack of education within institutions which do not specifically highlight homelessness as an issue, rather focus on bullying as a whole.

When:

This sort of stigma happens all the time through various physical and online interactions. On the street this sort of alienation can occur in simple occurrences such as when a member of the homeless community walks passed people in public spaces and people are repelled by their smell or appearance. Stigma occurs when pedestrians walk past members of the homeless community who are sleeping on the street or who are stared at while they sleep. On the obverse, this issue occurs when homeless people are ignored when begging for money. This issue also occurs in shops and restaurants where a member of this community are refused service because they do not fit the standards of social norms. Stigma and alienation occurs (more ignorantly) online with the misuse of labels and terminology when discussing one’s own appearance or physical state and in the rarer instances when discussing those who are affected by this issue directly. Terminology such as this has seeped into social media such as twitter, where fashion bloggers detach terms such as “hobo” in the descriptions of their products.

Where:

This problem occurs in both physical and online spaces, within conversation and in print. This problem can be seen walking around densely populated urban areas where members of this community would find a higher concentration of people and resources to help them. In Sydney for example this problem often occurs along George St, in City CBD street corners where people often ignore beggars and buskers at Belmore Park where many people feel it is unsafe to walk at certain times of the night because of a small homeless camp that resides there, in fast food places where members of the homeless community go to buy a cheap meal and at train stations like Central  where many members seek warm, protected shelter. The problem occurs often in passing if either a pedestrian is walking by or a member of the homeless community, generally as indirect contact, however it can occur directly if more direct interaction is made in say for example, a conversational instance where a member of the homeless community is asking passers by for money.

This issue also occurs online in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram) as well as online forums where the continued misuse of terminology is more commonly found due to the internet’s power of invisibility where users can say what they want without fear of judgement.

Stemming from this, the problem occurs in conversation both physical and online where experiences are shared and discussed. This happens in Blogs as well such Reddit, however it can be as seemingly harmless as people discussing the latest “hobo” bag or how “hobo” they look today.

Why:
Homeless people are often denied any assistance or have compassionate gestures withheld upon first-glance because people are repelled by uncomfortable smells and disheveled, tattered appearance. This reaction is not only physical but ingrained through common discourse in which their state of homelessness is pinned to affirmation that they “fucked up” by “going down the wrong path” and therefore don’t deserve “or hard owned help”. People of the homeless community may have issues within their lives however they are still part of our community. People have enough issues in their lives and some of the members of the homeless community carry heavy cases of mental illness. On their road to finding a solution to their problem or recovery, the last thing anyone needs is to be treated like filth, teased, sneered at and judged. Through the interview conducted in one of my previous blogs the participant said they need to be able to help themselves. Through social exclusion, it is very hard for anyone to even want to help themselves. Through a simple change in attitude there is the potential of a cost free solution which will require no intervention from the Government.

Ideation

Homelessness is a blanket term used to describe a state of being homeless. It is a highly misconceived term. From the examination above I have come to the conclusion that there are several key issues that are involved with the perpetual dehumanizing and alienating stigmas towards homeless people. This includes:-

• Resentment
• Lack of understanding.
• Lack of empathy.
• Natural Instinct, where a natural discomfort occurs.
• Ingrained negative perceptions subliminally bombarded through visual media.
• Desensitised and passive use of language.

 

As you can read, these causes are all negative. To create effective change, it will be important to flip these perceptions and feelings into a more positive sphere to engender optimism and confidence that the solution isn’t exploiting any parties in a tense economic climate. In post 9, I will further demonstrate how I have structured my emotive foundations.

 

The problem statement

Within modern urban societies one of the largest issues faced in motivated personal problem solving associated with practical and positive life choices comes from the dehumanizing and alienating factors associated with perpetuated stigma. This is a clear case within Homeless societies across the world, who generally make clear cut attempts to create positive personal change but are knocked back by negative societal attitudes and perceptions. There is a lack of hope, and a lack of optimism generating a sizeable wedge between effective solutions and the willingness to implement these solutions.

Possibilities:-

• A sense of inclusiveness, removing any us and them barriers by creating a positive image of the excluded society group engendering a sense of hopefulness from the target audience.
•  A “churn in the gut” feeling to create a sense of realisation that terminology is being used incorrectly and insensitively through possibly a twitter bot that will retweet stories sourced online from homeless people to people on twitter who use the term “hobo” or “bum” distastefully.

OR

Collect the data from the twitter bot and create a mock installation room for an exhibition. The room can contain objects however every aspect of the small room must be covered in tweets that exemplify the idea of stigmatism towards homeless people or show that terminology is to being used incorrectly. This will aim to create an uncomfortable, invasive space. Outside there is to be a document compiled with sourced experiences and stories from homeless people taken from articles, blogs and forums to tie in with the experience and create a churn in the gut feeling.

• Create a sense of empathetic understanding through immersive, empathetic experiences that may demonstrate that the state of homelessness can happen to anybody with the current global financial climate, highlighting that youth are most at risk to falling into a cyclical homeless cycle.
•  Create a sense of understanding from non homeless people to find or contribute to a system that then engenders  either a sense of hopefulness and positivity from the homeless community, this would be done through some sort of service design or potentially a hybrid service and generative system design which would incorporate elements of both practices to come out with an outcome suited to 18-24 year olds.
• Create a sense of frustration, irritation and loneliness by creating an empathetic experience that simulates the process of getting a spot to stay in a homeless shelter for a night.
  

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Draft Proposal

Due to a lack of empathetic and knowledge based understanding instinctual precepts, stigma and alienation towards the marginalised group – the Homeless, runs rampant within contemporary urban societies. To create effective and long lasting change, these negative perceptions need to be shifted to achieve “help me to help you” attitude to ensure that members of the homeless community can retain a sense of hope to continue attempting to create their own solution.

I propose to pitch a hybrid design that crosses generative design and service design to educate both key stakeholders (non-homeless people and homeless people) within current urban spaces to perspectively achieve a depth of knowledge and a sense of hope. I would like to design a pack of Paste Ups which would feature an A1 black and white picture of an empty picture frame with space for the user to fill in with their own artwork. Included in this pack will be a carefully curated selection of stories from members of the homeless community to give the participant a greater insight into homeless life. The participant will then be asked to decorate the blank space in response to the material that has been read, send their posters back, which will be turned into a Guerrilla Poster series accompanied with Paste Up hashtags of services linked with the stories sent to the participant. The project will set up a system of conventions and steps the participants need to follow to achieve an outcome, but the outcome will rest solely in their own hands .

The project aims to create an outcome for both parties involved within this issue by taking into consideration the importance of an urban wall as a non human actor within the scope of homelessness. Brining a communal project to create hopeful, positive works to invade the often bleak and uninspiring urban spaces in which the homeless often reside (especially in Sydney). This would chef rom the power of colour on the human psyche as well as the “olive branch” metaphorical gesture these works present as an attempt by a non homeless person to make a difference to a homeless persons life.

Participants in turn, would gain better insights to what it is like to be homeless, thus creating a knowledge based empathy.This project will then aim to translate into a collaborative generative design in which the participant will be guided into creating bright, vibrant artwork to contribute to the “urban directory” of hashtags creating a positive link of contribution between both stakeholders. The final product pasted in the street, will parallel the feel of a decorated homely item and will aim to “brighten up” the bleak world of someone who is homeless weather they are on the street or are in transit from whatever shelter they may be living in. The addition of service related hashtags aims to extend a directory of options to homeless communities giving people options if their internet access is limited or if they are unsure of where to start.

Street art activism, is a youthful and creative response to various social issues that youth across the globe can get involved with and enjoy. Inspired by projects such as Kony (the idea behind it not the manipulative execution) as well as the “Anti Cancer Paste Up” campaign by J. Walter I aim to engage the ages between 18-25 to taking a less monetary approach to helping the issue of homlessness.

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Young, M.  Published on Nov 12, 2015, ‘Homeless by design?”, Viewed September 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsZEXkCABCw&gt;.

Orsini,B. “The Unexpected face of Homelessness” TED x Macquarie University, Published on Dec 3 2013. Viewed in September 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w18ZuellVts&gt;

POST 9: Visual documentation of the brainstorming session

 

Filling in the Blanks

 

– Maria Yanovsky, 2016

 

Group brainstorming session, which in my opinion was not a great success. Not because the method was wrong, but the group collectively lacked clarity and drive. (Brainstorm, Homelessness and Exclusion Group, 2016)

 

 

Unfortunately, collaborative work is not always a success. For the proposal brainstorming session, there was a lot of confusion within the group as to what needed to be done. Because of a lack of clarity, the map itself is quite bare.

Initially the group attempted to write down solid ideas for everyone’s problem statements where four out of five members were dealing with an aspect of stigma towards the homeless community. This lead to numerous overlaps, stagnation of ideas and overall exhaust of creative thinking. It was not until towards the end of the session where a tutor approached the group, clearly noticing the struggle to populate the sheet of butcher’s paper that we realised the ideas we were generating did not need to be solid at this stage, and could be as bare as pinpointing the emotions we wanted to draw out from our proposed outcomes. These words of wisdom were a touch too late as the session was at an end and members burn out. However the session laid the foundations for post class creative thinking and brainstorming.

The one key aspect that this session did demonstrate was that a majority of the group wanted to highlight on the negative stigmatisation towards people in the homeless community. After much reflection, I felt that it may be intriguing if I explored this issue in a more positive angle. This meant I had to fill in the cracks of my research which had not yet fully looked at the issue from that perspective.

TedTalks are a valuable resource of gaining anecdotal reflections on issues. I had gone through numerous talks from people who had a part to play with the issue of homelessness within their community or were they themselves, homeless.

Key insight list created while watching a playlist of TED Talks  (Yanovsky.M, 2016).

During my small research session, I reflected on one or two key insights from each of the Ted Talks speakers. Optimism, hope and positive change were recurring themes. The most influential driver to the direction of my brainstorming came from the talk “How can I bring dignity to the homeless? “ by  Joel Hunt who said

“We can approach people with respect for themselves, we can offer a handshake, a smile a hello- their reception to our action isn’t our responsibility but as a person you tried. It’s about how we as a community of individuals can come together to bring hope.Smiles. Dignity can be restored through hope.”- J.Hunt 2014.

It was through this, I began to feel that shaming and blaming may not generate an effective positive reception from the target audience of 18-25 year olds as the message of the design may fall short from the scalding, condescending and potentially mocking tone some of the potential design responses could engender. I personally would’t listen to a twitter bot if I was misusing language in relation to homelessness.

From this exercise, I brainstormed a scope of emotions I may want to generate from my design proposition and began ideating in accordance with emotions that I felt may generate a stronger, more meaningful outcome all the while keeping in mind of my human and non human stake holder map.

Spectrum of emotions I wanted to achieve through my design proposition. Yanovsky.M, 2016)

At home attempt of a brainstorm of ideas. Yanovsky.M, 2016)

Data visualisation Option. Yanovsky.M, 2016)

Generative Design and Service Design Hybrid Option. Yanovsky.M, 2016)

From the brainstorming and further research I generated a list of roughly 9 ideas. For the sake of blog I have split up where I have placed some of these ideas, some are located in my blog post 8. From this list I picked a few that I thought could make for interesting design propositions then broke them down into examinations of their category, making sure to examine stakeholders and emotion as well as purpose. My two favourite options (shown above) are on polar ends of what I would hope to achieve. Focusing on emotional impact was an effective way of zeroing into my thoughts and generating unexpected ideas, either of which I would be more than happy to make.

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Hunt, J.  Published on Oct 22, 2014 ‘How can I bring dignity to the homeless? TEDxSaltLakeCity’, Viewed September 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g3x_cuK5SM&gt;.

POST 7: Collaborative Issue mapping

-Maria Yanovsky 2016

Throughout university working within a group can seem like a daunting task. However for the purposes of research co creation and collaboration have served some relatively good purposes in creating a broader understanding and enriching discourse of research topics.

(Homelessness and Exclusion Group Brainstorms, 2016)

The maps above were a part of our word association exercises. As a group we were able to fill two long study tables full of descriptive words that as a group of five, triggered ideas about homelessness. Gave the group a variety of choice when it was time to pick a set of 25 words. Working collaboratively here was useful in understanding the formation of language and bounce ideas off each other.

When visualised, this exercise is a chilling representation of how prevalent negativity is within our understanding of homelessness. Even in the flipped version that we did, there were still a large portion of negative words we associated with homelessness. (Yanovsky.M, 2016)

A Key insight that came from that exercise is the initial demonstration of how, even as researchers our collective word associations were predominantly negative. This may have to do with the fact that it is difficult to find a positive angle to talk about a negative topic. Yet, at this stage, I feel its almost hilariously contradictive that we are critiquing the prevalence of stigma, yet we are still so heavily angled at negative perceptions. Negativity perpetuates stereotypes and stigma. It may be useful, to start mapping from the angle of a homeless person and try to put myself into the shoes of anyone of the categories within the homeless umbrella.

 

Mobile Phone actors Map, this was done from the perspective of one person, and comparing it to the other maps posted in this blog, it is rather empty and bleak. This picture is a good demonstration of why working collaboratively in a group is beneficial (Homelessness and Exclusion Group Brainstorm, 2016).

Controversies issue map work in progress.

Re-Done controversies map, done for the sole purpose of re-familiarising ourselves with the initial brainstormed ideas and so we could add some more with a fresh mind. (Homelessness and Social Exclusion Group Brainstorm, 2016)

Re-worked actors map that aimed to explore the terminology and labelling used to stigmatise members of the homeless community. (Homelessness and Social Exclusion Group Brainstorm, 2016)

Collaborative issue Mapping creates a broad spectrum of ideas that maybe overlooked if the task was undertaken by one individual. Looking back at the controversies map, as a group we decided that we as a group would focus on an aspect of homelessness that as individuals we would have overlooked. This being, the location of where homeless people sleep. Different research and perspectives created a more in-depth conversation of an expanded topic and enriched our understanding of the basic foundations of our issue.

Collaborative issue mapping also helps shed light on the “hottest topics”. For example, as a result of our mapping exercises which included word association exercises and the controversies map as a collaborative team we worked out there was a gravitation towards keywords that were used as labels for the homeless community. This demonstrated, through further mapping that collectively we all had an interest in the stigmatisation of homeless people indicating its popularity and resonance within a small body of researches.

Working collaboratively in a group helps fill the gaps in mapping exercises. This creates a detailed and rich contribution to discourse as the entire issue is explored from multiple angles. Within each mapping exercise there were degrees of knowledge each participant brought to the table. However as a collaborative group, we were able to fill in the cracks and generate a greater collected understanding which would have taken a lot more individual research to come to a conclusion to. Another intriguing aspect to compel this, is that these gaps generated heated discourse where contrasting view points came to the foreground. This was especially handy within the Controversy map exercise where we needed multiple clashing viewpoints.

However, one thing I did notice from collaborative mapping is that emotions, and perceptions can herd together like a flock of sheep. I found that in my own time, away from the raw, discussion based spaces, I was able to employ the findings from group exercises and create maps that are more tailored to personality and sense of humour.

(Yanovsky.M, 2016)

As a result I made a playful illustrative map of some of the non human, object based actors, that stand out to me when thinking about homelessness. This was a lot more fun, then just thinking about words and text, and a quick little exercise of visual representation.

Blog Post 6: The Colour of Hash Tags.

– Maria Yanovsky 2016

 

DATA MINING EXERCISE

For this exercise I chose to use two Social media platforms, Twitter and Instagram. Twitter is an online social media/networking platform where the primary function is so the user can send a ‘tweet’ of no more than 140 characters. These tweets can be seen and shared by other users publicly or privately and a user can hashtag tweets. Paul Gil has described Twitter as  Microblog where user can send short bursts of text. Because of the text limitation, twitter provides users with additional features so that  they are able to get more out of their experiences such as polls, the Twitter timeline, mention Tweets, pinned Tweets, lists messages and cards as well as click to Tweets to extend the conversations beyond the limitations of of one Tweet.

Instagram is an online social media platform for photo and video sharing. It allows users to take photos and video, and share it wither publicly or privately, attach hashtags, cross share over other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and search for content through hashtag filters. Originally a distinctive feature was that it shared photos confined to small square parameter  (640×640 fixed resolution and maximum 15-second limit) which the user can add filters and do small edits to their photos to achieved a “filtered effect”. Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app for android and apple.

Instagram allows users to post photographs within a 640×640 fixed resolution or 15 second video limit, this almost forces the user to be their own curator to make, creative good use of the limited space, forcing the user to focus on what they want to show. Using “hipsteresque” filters to create visual appeal which allows iPhone photos to approach a similar quality as those photos taken on DSLR and edited on Adobe photo editing suit which can change the entire look and feel of the a photograph. This is made easy and readily available to a wide variety of people. Instagram also makes it possible for people to tailor their accounts to themes or visual aesthetics where they use the Instagram limitations plus their own to convey a readily updatable record of photography.

Twitter is an application that however allows users to generate quick, short “tweets” that are a short snap-shot of their own personal thoughts, opinions and copy line making them more poignant (when there is a point). Through twitters restrictions and added features twitter can easily transcend its own platform to other social media sites such as Facebook extending traffic. Entire Discussions can arise through embedding tweets with hashtags, coupled with 144 character limit makes it an interesting platform of discourse.

Even though I am discussing Instagram, a large part of my process involved the automated features with scraping data for Twitter. Initially, I used tutorial run exercises to delineate key words that I had some sort of interest in exploring. From those keywords I began running Twitter key word and hashtag searches using the advanced settings. This mainly involved looking at hashtags for the key words “hobo, homelessness, homeless, sleeping on the street, I have no home”. After having done my own analysis of the findings, which included extensive searches for further unique hashtags, I put the xml version of my Google spreadsheets file into two online data based analytics sites WTFCSV and Brand 24 to get a quantifiable and numerical understanding of my results. From all of these results and findings that I gained from analysing the verbal feel of Twitter as well as the analytical content of my searches, I began co-orchestrating hashtag searches on Instagram to get a visual estimation of what was being explored and shared without the influence of written text. I had done this in the hopes to get a visual feel for for the more “true to heart” colour, tone and mood on the subject matter.

Flow Diagram (Yanovsky.M, 2016)

 

In a previous post I explored the perspectives and cultural influences on the topic of homelessness through the use of casual interviews and data probing. One of the largest limitations I found was that these methodologies impeded the genuine responses towards the topic of homelessness as people became aware of the nature of the topic through my research and discussions with me. Social media platforms have helped to bridge the gap and have given me an insight to a larger network of unadulterated opinions, perspectives and bias’s that are in some cases, completely removed from ethical influences.

There were multiple intriguing results. My initial search consisted of data mining twitter for the use of the key tag #hobo. This was the word that stuck out to me the most during the word association exercise. The search provided a very stigmatised set of results with a large proportion of tweets found came from people discussing their appearance and aligning their disheveled nature to that of a hobo. These tweets often came from American Highschool students (probably because they were going back to school). But all followed a similar formula. This idea was entrenched further by fashion brands repetitively using the term “hobo” to describe their brand new products such as “hobo bags””hobo jackets”:-

 

 The colloquialism is generally associated with homeless people, however interestingly enough, the dictionary defined essence of the word is “a traveling worker”, which in the current context of modern societies is far removed to those who are in an impoverished state because they can not for what ever reason work. This data set was intriguing because of how much it showed how the term “hobo” has seeped into everyday vernacular and how desensitizing colloquialisms become.

Because these tweets were particularly negative, I decided that to gain broader results I would take a step back and filter the keywords homelessness, homeless shelter, I am homeless. Interestingly, comparing my analytical exploration of the data set returned and a computer analyser there were clashing results. Upon my own investigation I believed that the tonne of writing was negative and the outlook was grim, however when placed within a computer analytics site called Brand 24, the results demonstrated a contrasting idea.

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When I looked at the Tweets again, I noticed that a large proportion of the positive angled tweets were advocate based, with many organisations attempting to gain awareness of their campaigns through Twitter.

As interesting as that stream of ideas was leading, I decided that I still wasn’t completely filling in a certain gap which was attempting to find general public based standpoints and potentially positive empathies. 

This is where the search transitioned from Twitter to predominantly Instagram through their homeless related hashtags. I felt that looking at just Tweets had painted a picture that was too clear, and I wanted to keep my horizons slightly more open. Even though they were also a lot of advocate posts, the beauty of Instagram was that it provided me with a colour palette of thinking. Quite often as you scroll through any of the hashtags found on the list,the imagery is dark, urban, gritty, often very bleak to help convey meaning. A lot of thePhotography is black and white enhancing the impoverished nature of the subject matter and darker filters are used created a muted, darker tone in photography.

This creates a less alienated barrier between positive and negative perceptions. These flecks of gold, reduce the us and them connotations, bringing forth the visible homeless community to a more even playing field within human empathy. 

From these findings, I have found that data mining provides a hashtag “colour palette” and from these colour palettes the general feel from people on this topic is more effectively and truthfully conveyed. By exploring both Twitter and Instagram, I was able to draw conclusions from both sides of the coin.

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VISUAL DIRECTION

Possibility One;

Concept Based Proposal (Yanovsky.M, 2016)

Rather than focusing on simply creating a visualisation of all these concepts. I took a dominating concept which was lack of empathy, and thought that maybe it would be interesting to combine data gathering and data visualisation into one. The twitter and Instagram scraping demonstrated that there is a lack of human centred empathy. This proposal is all about giving both the researcher and participant a “first hand” understanding of the problem. The interviewer would be supplied with a sheet of paper with a heat activated ink coating. The participant would be required to place their hand on the sheet and the interviewer would conduct a short conversation.The idea being, that the longer the conversation the darker the impression.Once complete both participant and interview will have a live understanding of the nature of empathy, with the understanding that the conversation will last for longer if the participant has a broad understanding,  and the participant will have a broad understanding if there is to some extent a deeper emotional engagement to the topic.  This would aim to poetically visualise the concept that I extruded from my data scraping. 

Possibility Two;

Second Idea (Yanovsky.M, 2016)

This next sketch is a possible data visaulisation for the dominant colours found in Instagram images. The idea is to chart the colour palette of a #homeless feed to chart the range and frequency in which dominant colours appear. This would hopefully aim to demonstrate that bright and bold colours are a scarcity when in visual conversation about this particular topic.

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REFLECTION

1.  Even though the results from this data scrape have been interesting and some of the research possibilities could be explored into even greater detail, I would love to repeat this process analysing Reddit. Reddit has less of an activist angle and can often be a true reflection of opinion. For example, one of my first searches I came across a discussion on “What I would give a homeless person”. These sort of results would be more poetic.
2. From this data scrape, I have learnt that the most passionate posts come from advocate campaigns, which generate interesting hashtags to be used within photography and tweets.
3. There is a big “us vs them” issue happening, I feel as if my current research hasn’t resolved what non human factors are involved within this and what sorts of objects could create a relational connection between anyone who is homeless and people who are not. This is something that Reddit touched upon.
4. Scraping for data is fascinating, and you need to go into it not knowing what you want to find otherwise it hinders with the creative analytical process. There are a lot of opinions that can be collected (ultimately without too much judgement). I would attempt this process a few more times, and try create a for more sets of data to try and find other angles to stigmatization. Maybe try some new keywords as well or statements that people actually use when discussing an experience they may have had with a homeless person.

Post 3 a Mapping The Human and Non Human Participants.

– Maria Yanovsky

In order to gain an understanding of all of the information being read form media and scholarly articles it was important to map what was known, who the key players are within the issue being researched, as well as the possible values and attitudes of all the “actors involved within the issue being researched as well as mapping those of the audience I will eventually be designing for.

 

Initial map – What I knew.

This was the first map done, which mapped out my understanding of the key players within my topic of research. I then attempted to create links between them to gain an understanding of the relationships that were forming. This map, shows in a complex way how key player groups are interwoven within the matrix of this issue, intricately interconnected even through the most obscure link.

Simplified map of above, key stake holder groups.

To get a cleaner understanding of the frequency in the connectivity, I decided to map out the connections between the categories of the groups of the previous map. Central to the issue was of course the homeless people category, the value of this was creating an understanding of the complex fabric of inter connectivity. Each and every single category could be in some way linked to all the others creating numerous overlaps.

Stakeholder Map, human and non human. Further mapping inter connectivity.

A valuable task was the stakeholder map, developing an understanding of the human and non human key players within key categories related to the issue of homelessness. As an added layer on this map, I thought it would be interesting to see what key words frequently re-appeared in multiple categories. The term services, education, government and banks appeared multiple times and were often linked with the repetition of some of the non human stakeholders.

Stakeholder power map along with key phrase mapping.

After completing several word relation exercises, as a large group we mapped collectively agreed upon key stake holder groups in terms of power from our own perspective. Interestingly enough, a similar result came across in this map as I had in my key group connectivity map. At the top of the map are numerous government and business based organizations that control law and money flow within our Western society. These are all agents of societal control that are from media research perpetuating issues at a larger rate than fixing.

Power map of Stakeholders int he eyes of the homeless.

This map firstly, needs to be treated with an understanding that it was made in the eyes of a researcher who may or may not have a direct understanding of the views and attitudes reflected by the social group in question. This map aimed to examine what in the eyes of a homeless person may seen to be the most powerful to them. This map is a result from the testimonials and interviews conducted within media articles and scholarly articles. What this map shows is a shift in priority of importance, with some categories remaining in roughly the same spot as in the map above. However of more interest is the shift in category positions where some categories moved wither higher or lower in priority. This map shows a divide in perspective, once again highlighting assumptions and stigmas what we may have initially found as a power force in this research topic, may not be the same within the eyes of those being researched.

Understanding the age bracket of 18 – 25.

Another incredibly important map was the collaborative map done for the age bracket of 18-25 year olds. This map was done to explore attitudes, opinions, interests and understanding from this key group that I will be designing for later. Key insights gained is that this age group can either be aware of social situations and be more than happy to contribute while a large portion of the group are unaware and dare I say it, indifferent to the extremity and seriousness of the social issue. This map helped us contextualise this idea by creating an understanding that through technology this age bracket may be more self aware, self conscious and less empathetic of external issues that are not consistently advocated for.

 

 

Post 3b Exploring Visual Representation

– Maria Yanovsky 2016

One

Illustration done for an article called “How Doing Good Can Help You Do Better” in an Investor Advisor Magazine. The artist is Joey Guidone as an illustrative commission. in 2015.

“When you do something for all the right reasons it seems to pay bigger dividends”- Nathan Bachrach.

There are quite a few articles that talk about the good deeds of others in relation to the homelessness crisis, this illustration is a perfect accompaniment for the gratitude this community often feels when people go out of their way to make their days better. It features a man in a day suit, bending down to cover a homeless main and his dog with an umbrella from the rain. Colour is used here to push the idea of kindness, warmth and hope as the section under which the man is shielded is a warm yellow in contrast to the surrounding shades of blue. It is interesting to see an animal being represented in this image as well, often articles only speak about a person, however, even on the streets of Sydney, there are many homeless people coupled with equally homeless pets, often keeping each other company. This image lacks any text including signs, however within the deeper thematic concern of this image, what is present speaks strongly. Coupled with the article, this image becomes less about the homeless person and more about the man in the suit who is “carrying out the good deed”. However once you read the article, it becomes apparent that what is not represented within these sorts images is the motivations and intentions behind the good deed. Despite the good intentions that this article is pushing, its place within an investors magazine is questionable as the article talks about the rewards of helping others shaking up the credibility of charitable actions. This idea comes through the report from post two, that examined stigma perpetuated by the belief people were doing a good deed, or the right thing. Causality and intention, becomes a topic of concern in this instance.

 

Two

One of  the tents occupied by homeless people who live in Belmore Park Sydney – Photo By Adam Yip. Fund in a Daily Telegraph article “Moore is less for folk in greatest need: Belmore Park ten City a sorry part of Clover’s legacy” which talks about Clover Moore’s failure to respond to the forced removal of the Tent City because of a crisis state where Belmore park became a den of anti-social behaviour and a magnet for drug dealing by people willingly exploiting the homeless.

 

This image features a visual initiative by a homeless resident in response to the current issues in Belmore Park. Displaying various signs, covered in quotes and experts from the bible with mention of the human heart and judgment. This image is a direct representation of the thoughts and feelings of those who are experiencing street homelessness in Sydney who are being forcefully moved away from Belmore Park.  After reading several articles that explore stigma, this image resonates with the physiological, and journalistic explorations of one of the biggest issues as not just being the lack of Government intervention but the folly of human perception and lack of genuine empathy. As impassioned as hit image is, it only speaks on the behalf of some of the tent city residents of Belmore park and much less about the General Public that would have had to pass through there at the time. However on a braider scope, this image speaks of failure and the outward judgment of man, a concept widely explored in news articles directly and indirectly related to this issue.

Three

 

Snapshot from an event organised by WISHIN (Women’s Information, Support and Housing in The North) to raise awareness about the escalating rise in homeless women- C. Deveny 2011

Presented within this image is a concept. The image is an outdoor installation of a home based from a car. The face is minimal with a small children set up, and some homely touches of a door side pot plant which leads the viewer to feel that it is from a female perspective. This image is representational of a large group of people known as the “hidden homeless” who don’t sleep on the street, but are still living in unstable and unsatisfactory living conditions such as cars, slums, couch surfing etc. This aspect of homelessness, is not explored within the media articles that focus on particular “visible” groups of homeless people. The image speaks volumes of the gravity of the situation, playing on the analogy of building a home within the confines of a small sedan. This image  is a depigment  of an aspect of homelessness that is rarely explored within the secondary sources, especially the media articles. This image builds to the complex definition of homelessness.

 

Four

Cardboard Box Duvet Cover and Pillowcases. the Le Clochard Project by SZN is using profits from the sales of these cardboard-box-looking cotton duvet covers and pillow cases to raise money and awareness for homeless young people in the Netherlands – DIY Maven, 2008

This image is of cardboard boxes turned into pillow cases and duvet cover. In many articles, the importance of found objects is rarely discussed, as the discussions often go along the path of money, health, lack of shelter, social justice and hardship. Placing an every day object into something normally associated as warm and malleable to the contours of the human body,  creates a striking optical illusion with meaningful resonance.  On first glance this image appears to be a construction made out of cardboard. However imagery can be deceiving and upon further research Highly deceptive I discovered that it is an intriguing example of a creative initiative undertaken to raise money and more importantly, awareness for homeless people in the Netherlands.  The image extends the metaphor of a cardboard bed, a reality that many homeless people face.

Five

This image is part of a three part advertising campaign run by Unicef China. Unlike many of the Australian articles, images such as this strongly push the notion of invisibility. Chinese boys were painted to blend in with the background to help remind the Chinese not to forget about the underprivileged children with what was back then, the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games. This image, even though from China, resonates similar themes found in many articles covered in my research. Invisibility, Isolation and being ignored are all articulated in the often impassioned writings of Authors on behalf of charities, or authors who are making a comment on the failures of their political leaders. Text within this image is used to help clarify the intention of this image, with the headline translating to “Don’t ignore me.”. The images are powerful and poignantly convey the topic of homeless children to its Chinese audiences.

“In just five days, UNICEF was able to raise funds totaling approximately USD 30,000 for the welfare of underprivileged children”- DUNCAN MACLEOD JULY 5, 2008

Six

 

Photograph by John Donegan done for a Sydney Portrait Exhibition for an event at Town Hall called Sydney Homeless Connect. This portrait along with Five others, were paired with poignant quotes about the state of homelessness in Sydney and about being homeless.

 

“I’ve been homeless for about six months. My son comes down to see me and he stays in a motel with his mum, but it’s a bit hard. Luckily I still get to see him and spend a few hours together. I have type two bi-polar, part schizophrenia and OCD, and I came to the city because I thought there would much better support for my mental health here. I’m on a disability support pension but you can’t make ends meet. Hopefully I’ll find a flat and I won’t let it go.”

A large number of articles that can be read on the issue of homelessness often feature the stories of triumph and tribulation of a member of the homeless community. Their plight is to often break social stigma and show that circumstances aside, they are average people, no different than the homeless community with some sort of extenuating circumstance which has helped in leading their lives astray. Portrait photography such as this attempt to break social stigma that  according to John R. Belcher and Bruce R. Deforge “occurs in situations where there is unequal social, economic, and political power and there is an opportunity to label, stereotype, separate (us versus them), lose status, and discriminate.” It may not show the full story, however  it paints a picture that this demographic of people is no different from other demographics with a father who is in the embrace of his beaming son, levelling the playing field of interpretation.

 

Seven

“Homeless” by Joan Cornella  a Spanish illustrator famous for his unsettling surreal humor.

 

Black humour plays a critical roll within Cornella’s work creating a sickly sweet adaptation of a social issue such as homelessness with a dark, mutilated twist which scarily enough reflects how members of the homeless community feel when harassed on the street by Belmore Park security guards or through the persistent “under the rug” sweeping of their issues by the Australian Govenrment. The comic features a homeless man with a nosebleed, who calls out for help to only have a group of smiling men add sail to his wounds by partaking in “stacks on”, where the men lunge over each other sandwhiching the homeless man with the ground beneath. Cornella uses absurdity to highlight general human stupidity to expose and ridicule social issues. His work lacks any form of political correctness, therefor it is safe to say that this opinion can not be expressed (especially to this extent) within any sort of media article.

 

Eight

Photograph taken by Andrew Baldacchino  for an article titled “Living rough; winter is coming”- 2015.

 

Many articles that discuss the trials and tribulations that homeless people face in the plight for a call to action donation on the Streets of Sydney, Melbourne and even Adelaide will feature imagery such as this. Poignant as is with only the image of a homeless person presumably sitting still for hours, hoping for passers by to give him some coins, this image becomes more evocative with the blurred images of people bustling around him on a busy George street crossing. The scene is rather miserable with a wet, grey sheen of bad winter weather coupled by the ignored, invisible feeling coming across though the mans strikingly still contrasting form.

Nine

Homeless portrait series by Lee Jeffries

“I need to see some kind of emotion in my subjects,” Jeffries says. “I specifically look at people’s eyes—when I see it, I recognize it and feel it—and I repeat the process over and over again.”- Jeffries Jan. 26, 2012

Evocative images such as this portriat by Lee Jeffries is a visual art-form which media articles found online when discussing the topic of homelessness, would only dream to replicate. The images do not show much more than just the portrait of a homeless individual, but even with this example, it is clear that the photographer aimed to capture the raw emotion, through expert camera work and tasteful photo editing to draw out the emotion of his subject matter. High use of contrast helps bring out the rugged nature of the subject, not only making the details practically crystal clear but adding a dark dark, urban grit though the black and white.  Articles of course, attempt to replicate the confused, desolate, raw emotive quality within their testimonials, interviews and accompanied photo journalism. However, artistic photojournalism such as the caliber that this image is a part of, dig deeper through the reflection of the artist behind the lens who sophisticatedly frames his story.

 

Ten

Simple black and white illustration done by graphic designer Christopher Delorenzo.

 

“His simple monochrome drawings manages to convey a rich narrative in black, white and charm.”

Something that I have not yet come across in my research of media articles, are people posing as homeless to reap the rewards of charitable human behaviors. After finding this image, I came across numerous articles that explored (namely back packers) taking advantage of services designed specifically for the homeless. Simple and clean, this image features a potentially young man mimicking the use of a sign that a homeless person would normally use in the hopes to get an Iphone. Funnily enough this illustrator has captured the trend of the “hobo look” which this figure seems to be pulling off quite well, with his unshaven beard, beanie and from interpretation either stained or ripped clothes, cleverly contrasted with his stripped shopping bag, cup of Starbucks coffee and the use of word “home” on the signage.

 

The power of imagery is unmistakable. Powerful, well constructed, raw and authentic visuals evoke and resonate emotions, driving a deeper engagement and more profound change in behavior within one glance. With a limited amount of words the proliferation of images can quickly convey many stories.

However, the understanding of these stories should be kept in mind while looking and analysing any image source. Similar to the examples explored above, imagery like writing can be tailored to serve a particular purpose as either truth or farce/propaganda. When looking at an image it is important to analayse it for its visual devices to evaluate weather or not the ideas and perceptions will lead down an ethical path and that the source or subsequent creator is creating content for social justice . Context is an incredibly important asset and can completely change the meaning and perception of any image.

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References

1. Guidone, J. December 2015, How doing good can help you do better, Investment Advisor magazine.
2. Yip, A. February 22, 2016 12:00am, One of the tents for the homeless who live in Belmore Park, The Daily Telegraph.
3. Unkown 2010, Homeless Women, .
4. DIY Maven Sep 29, 2008, Cardboard Box Duvet Cover & Pillowcases, .
5. Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai, China Posted by Marc van Gurp on 22 November 2008 in Poverty, Unicef China: Don’t Ignore me, .
6. Donegan, J. 28 Jul 2015, 11:34am, Portraits of Sydney’s homeless community, .
7. Cornella, J. Unkown, Homeless, Wide Walls.
8. Baldacchino, A. May 20, 2015, Photograph for
   Living rough: winter is coming, Sydney Tafe Media.
9. Lee, J. April 9, 2012, Homeless, Flikr.
10. DELORENZO, C. Unkown, Untitled, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post 5 Design-led Ethnography, Attempting to Separate Emotion and Stigma.

-Maria Yanovsky

Informal Interview

Primary research adds another layer of of detail that bias and agenda in writing can often wash out. Primary research can help determine raw, unadulterated emotion creating a broader perspective and a more rounded understanding of ideas, emotion and mood. Significantly, primary research gives a greater contextual understanding of the intended demographic.

       Even though the topic of homelessness is a global issue, understanding, view points and solution strategies vastly vary not only person to person, but across borders. Within Sydney there is a significant mix of Cultural personalities who’s views Segway from those often expressed in Western academic writing and media articles. Through a conversational interview process which involved on the spot adjustment to the angle of my research I was able to gauge the breadth of understanding on the topic of homelessness on a more personal level. Paired with an international classmate from China, I chanced upon the opportunity to begin developing a culturally led exploration into the views and empathies between an opinion caught in the middle of East and West values.

From this process it became ardently clear that cultural values shape a particular perspective on any given situation. The conversation generated consistent comparisons between China and Australia and determined where and why the interviewee was placing emphasis on certain beliefs and views towards issues and their subsequent strategies. The interviewee experienced a sense of disconnect from the topic as contextually, this was something that only recently came to awareness recently due to a shift in geographical location.

“I have seen a lot more homeless people in Australia than in Mainland China, because in China homeless people aren’t a large issue. In China more people are disabled and they listen to people for advice. The homeless issue is paid more attention to here in Australia, but in China there is no focus.”

 This created a cultural divide within discourse. The interviewee was only able to create an understanding from what is visible in the street.  Interestingly, through secondary research it became apparent that what people see on the street “is only the tip of the iceberg”. The interview helped solidify the weight in which people place what is visible as the forefront of the issue creating a valuable connection between primary and secondary research.

         One of the most topical points of conversation was derived from solution based examinations for homeless people. The interviewee placed a heavy emphasis on education as being at the forefront of causality and the subsequent solution to the issue of homelessness. Expressing that,

“In China we have to pay to go to high school, no Government support for University. They are very poor and fro the Country Side and can maybe study at home, many people want social help and money to go to University. The parents don’t have the money because they don’t work. So everyone is expected to go to school”. 

Cultural value of success and culturally lead ideologies shaped the nature of the interviewees perceptions. When encouraged to discuss what the interviewee may do if ever made homeless, the interviewee swiftly delineated that was not an option in life.

“If I were made homeless here, I would have to go back home because there is no help for me here. Not everyone can go to school. I would have to find a job”.

From this discussion it became clear that the value of social obligation varied between East and West.   In fact,  education was held in such high esteem that when asked “what do you consider homeless”, the interviewee made the instantaneous connection between a lack of education and the state of being homeless.

“It might be a lack of education like university, they have no money to go to school. Maybe they can do a job, but they don’t know how to do this work and the company don’t want to employ them because they don’t have the education or the experience. I feel like the communities should give them more opportunities for job.”

This opinion is a stark contrast to those expressed by secondary sources, which, written in a Western perspective come to terms that prime physicality is not the only state of being people need to be in in order to complete education systems or even acquire jobs and interestingly is not the only measure of success.

        Assessing culturally driven personal perspective allowed me to see where this particular individual placed a heavier emphasis of importance. In secondary sources, this importance is placed on societal good will, yet through conversation with my interviewee the  importance shifted to the willingness and implementation of self help strategies. when asked how the interviewee would support a friend who is experiencing homelessness the interviewee exhibited personal life philosophies,

“Everyone have their own life, maybe my friend can change their own lives. The problem can’t be fixed with just this one time, we would make a survival plan to try and solve the problem to survive life.”

The idea of help comes across differently and the interviewee placed a heavier value on individuality and independence.  It became clear that within her personal scope the interviewee felt that  independence led to rehabilitation and the subsequent return to work which was soulfully more rewarding than charity.

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Probing Task

Outline:- In alignment with the result of the interview, the participant is to walk around Sydney’s CBD and write a short description of what individual members of the homeless community are wearing. This is to be accompanied by a one word description of how this makes the participant feel which should be culled with a shape of their choosing.

Through creating a clinical awareness, it is hoped that this exercise may change the nature of the participants stigma by making the participant ignore socially driven stereotypes and bring to the forefront natural emotion and reactions.

Results:

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The results did not completely eliminate stigma and ster. The participant still took note of the negative aspects of their appearance and connected these with various negative emotions. However, the value of this exercise come in succession. The more probes the participant did the more empathetic emotions elucidated. From worrying about general appearance and how it reflected a state of discomfort, the participant began to empathise with the what was observed and instead of channeling how the participant was feeling, there was empathetic channeling where the participant began to consider how the subject may be feeling.

Interestingly, most of the examples returned are male and are predicted to be in their middle ages. Many of the example noted are also wearing dark or muted colours, generally comfortable clothing. In each example returned there were unique splats of colour that drew the participants attention, from he colour of the blanket they use, to the unique colouring of soles in their shoes.

The most interesting result, is the emotive paired shape. Despite the participants increased emotional connectivity to the subject matter, the participant had not once listed a comfortable shape. Each example provided had either sharp edges, unsure shapes, acute corners or a mix of all.

The task is a mixture of failure and success. Even as a clinical process it failed to remove a clinical stigma extracted even from written expression and visual interpretation. However, through this it managed to show that some of these stigma’s may be developed through personal human instinct to what a person may feel comfortable to be in the presence of. In reflection, it would be interesting if this task was conducted in a more guerrilla format where I would accompany the participant and record their own natural reactions to what they see and what emotions they may or may not exhibit. This particular probe brought the the topic of homelessness to the forefront of the participants mind, actively getting them to think about the topic. Stigma, is more commonly presented in natural unhindered behaviour where “the truth comes out”.

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Five Point Summery

• Cultural Values shape the perception and acceptance of situations such as homelessness.
• Cultural parameters create differences in weighting certain values. Different cultural groups measure success differently therefore societal expectations vary. In Australia education is not the be all end all where as in China is a large part of success and failure.
• Culturally driven personal perspectives are an intriguing demonstration of life based ethos’s which can serve as an interesting angle to problem solving strategies.
• Emotion can be built through repetitive viewing and demonstration
• Stigma may not just come from social contract. Stigma may be developed through instinctual reactions towards another individual. Generated through discomfort and the end to be safe.

Blog Post 4: It’s not just a data game.

– Written By Maria Yanovsky 2016

One of six posters pasted up around London (Publicis London 2015)

PUBLICIS LONDON

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives. Nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change.’ We believe that change has become the defining characteristic of today’s business environment. And that the brands that thrive are those best adapted to manage, capture and leverage change in the world around them.” – Publics London 2016

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What happens when quantifiable data lacks effective emotive resonance when creating evocative social change campaigns? Or more importantly, how within the design world, is vast amounts of recorded statistics reformed into a solid creative, emotionally driven outcome. Emergent practices can be the facilitators of such transitions towards  creative social innovation. This appears to be the “hot” trend within design studious exploring and tackling issues such as homelessness. To put it simply, it’s no longer just a numbers game, with more and more studios using design thinking to create evocative campaigns that in a sense quantify data through empathetic means.
Publicis London is a small creative agency  part of a larger, global Publicis umbrella. The agency aims to create unique, irreplaceable and thought provoking ideas within the hands of their clients to “Lead the Change”-Publicis 2016. Teamed up with charity organisation Depaul (UK), Publicis London participated on a number of Service design projects, name-ably “Corner” a 2015 campaign aimed at increasing the number of Volunteers within a Depaul program called Nightstop. 

Stigma within and around the Homeless community (weather it be in Sydney or around the world), is a recurring theme for my research. Many evocative design strategies (that are not architectural) aim at changing lingering social Stigmas. In a previous post I mentioned that one of the largest road blocks to Social Change in regards to the Homeless is worryingly consistent social exclusion. With each campaign undertaken by Publicis London in Partnership with Depaul, the studio  attempts to create a suitcase of service design collateral that breaks social barriers.

Publicis London use strategic devices to trigger an emotional connection to the familiarity of the thought patterns expressed within the posters. “Corners” is a cleverly written campaign that tells “two sides of the story”. The Nightstop program is a volunteer lead initiative that provides spare beds for homeless youth between the ages of 16-25. “Corner, is a Gureilla Marketing campaign”- Publicis 2016 that fuses the materiality of street art (in particular paste up practice) and marketing. The campaign aims to increase the number of volunteers for this program through the reflection of perception. Pasted up on corners of buildings where they say “youth are most commonly found”-Publicis London 2016,  the body copy is split (the left side, when read alone only demonstrating the negative perception towards homeless young people, but once read together in full the message “transforms to show the benefits of becoming a volunteer”- (Publicis 2016) Depaul have an extensive amount of data that Publicis could draw from, statistics relate to the percentages of where this age bracket can be found. It can not be said for sure, however it would appear that Publicis would have had to conduct design related ethnography to get the source material required to write a the copy as to ideas people have about giving up a spare room in their house to homeless youth. The expressive campaign, is also poetic, conveying the feeling of seeing these homeless kids when rounding the corner of a building. Expressing this kind of empathy, Publicis Design would have had to have conducted extensive research not only on the data mine provided by their client, but they would have had to have also done ethnographic exercises to extract an emotive understanding from their audience. 

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Publicis London aim was to raise awareness and generate more volunteers through service design. Done through intelligent copy writing, guerrilla advertising tactics, and poetic design Depaul UK has stated that “The campaign appeared live on BBC TV News, national radio and over 70 blogs – reaching 6 million people. On a £0 media spend (all sites were donated), total earned media value was £1,589,857.Most importantly the total number of new volunteer enquiries increased by 6100% on the previous month. If all enquirers become volunteers, subject to vetting, it would be equivalent to increasing Nightstop’s London capacity by 50% – helping many young people turn a corner for real.”-Publicis London 2016.

 

Service design, truely demonstrates that social change comes not only through data examination and exploration but through the evocative nature of understanding the ethnography of the target audience.

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Depaul 2016, Depaul, Homeless has no Place, England and Wales, viewed August 2016, <https://uk.depaulcharity.org/?utm_source=DesignTAXI&utm_medium=DesignTAXI&utm_term=DesignTAXI&utm_content=DesignTAXI&utm_campaign=DesignTAXI&gt;.

DEPAUL UK / PUBLICIS LONDON 2016, THERE’S ANOTHER SIDE TO THE STORY (OUTDOOR CAMPAIGN), Campaign Big Awards, viewed August 2016, <http://www.campaignbigawards.com/finalists/theres-another-side-to-the-story-2/&gt;.

Design you trust 2016, The Trick Copy On These Clever Ads Shows Another Side To Homelessness, viewed August 2016, <http://designyoutrust.com/2016/01/the-trick-copy-on-these-clever-ads-shows-another-side-to-homelessness/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dyt+%28Design+You+Trust.+Design%2C+Culture+%26+Society.%29&utm_source=DesignTAXI&utm_medium=DesignTAXI&utm_term=DesignTAXI&utm_content=DesignTAXI&utm_campaign=DesignTAXI&gt;.

FastCoCreate 2016, his Street Corner Campaign Shows Two Sides to Homelessness, Publicis London, viewed August 2016, <http://publicis.london/news/this-street-corner-campaign-shows-two-sides-to-homelessness/&gt;.

Hohenadel, K. 2015, A Two-Sided Word Puzzle on London Streets Takes on Homeless Stereotypes, viewed August 2016, <http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2015/04/08/depaul_uk_street_corners_campaign_from_publicis_london_takes_its_anti_homelessness.html&gt;.

POST 2: Stigmatisation and the Concept of Homeless.

– Written By Maria Yanovsky 2016.

Before reading these articles and formulating the following analysis it is important to note this particular TED talk. Becky Blanton explores the concept of ‘home’ and its relevence to the stimga of being homless, explaining that being homless is also a state of being that isn’t regognised by even by homeless marginalised groups. (Blanton, 2009)

ARTICLE ONE

“Caring about homelessness: how identity work maintains the stigma of homelessness”

“Caring about homelessness: how identity work maintains the stigma of homelessness” was written with the combined efforts of Barbara Schneider and Chasten Remillard. Schneider is a Professor in the College of Education and Department of Sociology at MSU and Remillard is a communications scholar interested in questions of social and environmental justice. They both belong to university, academic bodies and appear to be well accredited within their chosen fields of research. Both these authors have many years of research under their belt which compared to the media secondary sources, enhances the depth of understanding for the reader and gives the impression that they are most definitely experts within their field. The paper mentions many psychology and theorists and is riddled with references and examinations of other academic writings enriching the text further.
The tone of this article is akin to that found in anthropological papers. The authors develop a detached, distant voice that is looking at the issue outside of the scope of emotional judgement. The authors are exploring the psychology of a social stigma rather than making a judgemental comment. Because of the nature of the paper, this article generally lacks bias (cold, and clinical examination), however there are snippets of passionate quips that indicate the authors expertise is not mechanical. Both the authors examine the various stigmas that are associated with the identification, exclusion and associations with the homeless as a deeper psychological manifestation of human insecurity. The authors examine various positions on stigma such as public stigma, which refers to the phenomenon of large groups holding and acting on negative stereotypes, concept of structural or institutional stigma, which refers to the discriminatory consequences, intended or unintended, of government or private organisational policies existential stigma, in which a person does not cause the stigma, achieved stigma in which a person is stigmatized because of his or her own conduct And lastly stigma unintentionally generated through good will behaviour.
This all aims to demonstrate that through social discourse there is a significant divide, creating social exclusion which hinders in rectifying a serious problem. Once this understanding is applied to (say for example) data taken from the various graph representations of the perception of homelessness in Australia and possible solutions it becomes apparent that government funding and intervention is not the only resolution strategy that needs to be re-examined.

Schneider, B./.R.,Chaseten January 2013, ‘Caring about homelessness: how identity work maintains the stigma of homelessness”‘, Text & Talk, vol. Volume 33, no. Issue 1, Pages 95–112, viewed August 2016, <https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/text.2013.33.issue-1/text-2013-0005/text-2013-0005.xml>.

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ARTICLE TWO

Written by no mentioned name, this report is owned by the Non Government Organisation, Homeless Australia who’s CEO and main point of contact is Glenda Stevens. Homelessness Australia (HA) is the national peak body for homelessness in Australia that provide systemic advocacy for the homelessness sector. Their main aim being to improve community awareness and understanding. Demonstrated by the previous article analysed, there are serious barriers to improving the homelessness situation because of the perpetuated stigmas associated with the populace affected by this issue, which are often misguided or uninformed understandings. This report aimed to demonstrate the different perceptions towards homelessness and compare those statistics to the “matter of fact” type statistics that were gathered in the context of homeless. The article is a rigorously researched response used for advocacy for the  8th National Homelessness conference, in September 2014 in Australia. Therefore, the article is inclined to the to the data being collected for example, work in favour of the homeless and presents the bias’s of the Non Government organisation who and are almost (in their own attempt) speaking on behalf of homeless people.

To tie in with the previous article, it was important to examine and analyse this (particular)report to form a conceptual synergy between theory and numerical statistics. Having read the previous article that is an academic exploration of the theorised psychology, this article strings together a fully stitched picture which many media articles will not touch base on as their main point of attack, has often been political players and their policies. The report shows that most of the perceived assumptions were the complete opposite to the actual facts being collected for example the location in which homeless people are often found, was originally assumed to be on the street, but data suggests that its actually in over crowded support housing. Perceptions of homelessness created for the Homelessness Australia organisation. is a survey conducted in 2014 for Homelessness Australia conducted a survey using the Pricewater House Coopers mobile phone survey tool, posing six key questions that were to gauge not only current statistics of homeless people, but to get a gauge of the attitudes, assumptions and associations with the homeless population within Australia.

From these two articles, it became clear that Stigma is a complex and entrenching systems of beliefs. As an umbrella term, it is important to break it down to understand how it happens, to determines why it happens to further determine how to fix it. Within further blog posts I would love to examine the overall impact of Stigma and how this affects people within homeless communities.

Homeless Australia 2014, ‘Perceptions of Homelessness‘, viewed August 2016, <http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/index.php/research-resources/policy-subs/perceptions-of-homelessness>.

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IMAGE:-

Blanton, B. 2009 · 7:09 · Filmed Jul 2009, The year I was homeless, TEDGlobal 2009, viewed August 2016, <https://www.ted.com/talks/becky_blanton_the_year_i_was_homeless?language=en>.

Blog Post 1 Uncompressing the Topic of Homeless.

Detailed black and white Portraits of the Homeless by Lee Jeffries. (Jeffries 2010). These photographs show the unique and often unconsidered aspects of people, in this case the homeless. The photographer highlights the beauty and rugged nature of this marginalised group, shedding light and depth to their stories.

– Written By Maria Yanovsky 2016.

Journal and media articles are a good way of pin pointing the current aspects of a chosen aspect of research that are most relevant to the “at the present” context. The following articles are a broad exploration of the different standpoints of homelessness within Australian Journalism. This small spectrum analysis will aim to begin to pinpoint issues presented within the articles themselves and hopefully, a broader understanding of the constructs and flow of information filters.

ARTICLE ONE

 

 “They kick and punch us and spit on us when we’re asleep”: Inside the homeless ‘tent city’ where Australia’s downtrodden live amid squalor in the centre of a glittering metropolis.

Frank Coletta is the Author of ‘They kick and punch us and spit on us when we’re asleep’: Inside the homeless ‘tent city’ where Australia’s downtrodden live amid squalor in the centre of a glittering metropolis’ an article written for he Daily Mail Australia, a sub branch of the Daily Mail UK which is a tabloid Newspaper and online article based publication company.

It’s sister paper The Mail on Sunday. Mail Online is a division of DMG Media, part of Associated Newspapers Ltd. The company have had allegations against untrustworthy and false articles, but have since then tried to be rectify their bad reputation and only publishing thoroughly researched content.

     The article appears to have been written to help raise awareness for Homelessness Prevention Week which capitalised on a trusted and well respected media and journalistic figure to help advocate awareness for the cause. Frank Coletta is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail and often (within written and video media) runs stories on social issues within society, however  knowledgeable within the field, he is no expert as this issue is not his chosen filed of study or interest.

In fact, this is the first time Frank Coletta has written about this issue, he often writes more political based stories or headliner stories.

     This article can be classed as a well researched editorial. Written from the perspective of Homelessness Australia (an organisation advocating on behalf of the homeless), this article  co-insides with Homeless Prevention week and captures the views and beliefs of not only the organisation but homeless people of Sydney, who lend their stories to the article.

Coletta writes from the angle of Homeless Australia and Homeless residents in Sydney to break stigma and create a sense of empathy from the readers.

     This article (like most) is not heavy, and only gives a brisk understanding of the tumultuous lives of the homeless and the serious issues faced nightly. Coletta attempts to draw out compassion so that the general perception of homeless people is not polarised by negative stigma explaining that the residents themselves are not safe despite the city council hiring guards for the protection of both the homeless residents and passers by within Belmore Park Sydney. Residents don’t own much, so Coletta attempts to capture the anguish of the residents who lose their tents and or belongings via theft or confiscation. Coletta, however balances this by detailing that some of the residents do have drug problems and mental problems, yet attempts to remove an personal stigma on an already heavily stigmatised topic. This authors position is comparatively balanced in the scale of the issue being researched. The author writes from the perspective of the homeless, however is able to balance the bias to include the motivations and opinions from members of the other side of the argument. This article is a small snapshot on just one of the issues of homelessness demonstrating its weight for in socially excluding practices in modern societies.

 

Colette, F. 23:50 +10:00, 24 July 2015, ‘’They kick and punch us and spit on us when we’re asleep’: Inside the homeless ‘tent city’ where Australia’s downtrodden live amid squalor in the centre of a glittering metropolis‘, no. Daily Mail Australia, viewed July, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3160130/They-kick-punch-spit-asleep-homeless-tent-city-Australia-s-downtrodden-live-amid-squalor-centre-Sydney.html>.

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ARTICLE TWO

Housing policy is captive to property politics, so don’t expect politicians to tackle affordability.

Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs are the authors of ‘Housing policy is captive to property politics, so don’t expect politicians to tackle affordability’. Both, are Professor researches from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) linked with the University of Sydney generally writing for an online journal collective called “The Conversation” (journalism with academic rigour  where most articles are written by University academics. With University support, both authors earn credibility through their rigorous  and ethical research methods. Both authors are currently teaching and writing doctorates in this chosen field.

     From extensive research, it appears that when both the authors tackle this topic it is often approached with the hopefulness that Government bodies will implement an affordable housing strategy to help ease the rapidly increasing stress of high housing prices and the impenetrability for low income earners into this market. The intention is akin to that of a proposal, particularly written in response to the use of ‘policy capture’ by the ever determined government to void properly examining the issue.

     Nicole Gurran has written many articles that explore affordable housing, social housing (the main topic of interest) and about the Governments policy and policy makers and their implementation or more worryingly lack of implementation of effective strategy to reduce current social problems. It appears the Peter Phibbs has collaborated on some of the more recent articles that Nicole had published within the site. Both are very directionally against the Lack of Government intervention within the property market and both have analysed the effectiveness of social housing within other Countries and policies to create affordable housing such as  done (ironically) in China.

This article is a rigorously well researched, passionate article with plenty of anti government bias geared at attacking the current Governments stance on the issue at hand attempting to discredit policy makers and suggest alternative or from their belief ore effective methods to bridging the gap between housing inequality.

     Gurran and Phibbs explain the notion of policy capture and there is a heavy use of the word “avoiding” “…to understand why politicians and governments appear determined to avoid seemingly obvious solutions to housing problems”. The authors attempt to convince the reader through extensive research e.g. “to demonstrate that they have a seriously strong (and worrying) argument.” There is a strong essence that the authors are highlighting that policy makers and investors are hiding behind a charade and not working for the greater good of the society. This sentiment is common, with many authors criticising political and investment bodies for only thinking about their financial needs rather than the needs of the marginalised. As directional as this opinion is, the sentiment is shared amongst most authors writing about this issue who place high stress on the greed of investors and the lack of policy implementation and refinement to control the situation.

 

 

Gurran, Nicole and Phibbs, Peter March 10, 2016 2.07pm AED, ‘Housing policy is captive to property politics, so don’t expect politicians to tackle affordability’, no. The Conversation, viewed July, <http://theconversation.com/housing-policy-is-captive-to-property-politics-so-dont-expect-politicians-to-tackle-affordability-55384&gt;.

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ARTICLE THREE

Mission Australia report finds one in seven young people at risk of homelessness.

The author is this article is Rachel Browne who is a Social Affairs Reporter for Fairfax Media linked with Sydney Morning Herald. She has an extensive article portfolio and not only writes for Sydney morning Herald, but for The Age, Vice Magazine and various other publications.

Browne may have been motivated to write the article as a pre-emptive reaction to a National report that was due to be released a week after this particular article was published. With an impressive amount of articles under her belt, this article reads as if Browne is an expert in (at the very least), the various social issues within Australia’s contemporary Urban scene, writing numerous articles about domestic abuse which is one of the key contributors to homelessness within Sydney.

Browne has written about domestic violence and abuse several times, delineating facts and figures in the hopes of raising awareness and breaking misconceptions. Touching on violence as one of the factors for youth Homelessness, this is Browne’s first attempt to communicate the gravity of the potential of youth homelessness within Sydney and its devastating impacts.
The article is a factual based editorial that combines findings from the Mission Australia report as well as primary research from a member of the subject matter being examined. The article is representative of the findings and passions of mission Australia, however the Author is attempting to create a positive, hopeful tone, to inspire change from the findings that are listed within the report thus the article has Mission Australia and humanitarian bias.

The author believes that young people are at more risk of entrenching themselves in homelessness, if they become homeless at a young age. She believes that (with research done with the Mission Australia report) that if young people are homeless early, this can disrupt their schooling which can entrench them within a bad position, “…with a leading welfare group calling on all governments to increase support for vulnerable teenagers before they spiral into entrenched homelessness.”. By identifying the risk factors, this issue can be stopped before it even starts isn the authors main message. From the report and Browne’s stance, the idea that there needs to be more services to help domestic violence and issues occurring within the home to help combat this problem, “… Ms. Yeomans said the report highlighted the need for improved early intervention services to support young people and their families.” Many authors share the same view, that policies need to be put in place to be preemptive to the issues at hand, whether it is housing afford ability or domestic violence or marginalisation, most authors already write with a convincing amount of data. Some authors have even pinpointed that certain groups of youth are even more susceptible than others such as the ones that are gender insecure, curious or experimental.

 

Browne, R. FEBRUARY 16 2016, ‘Mission Australia report finds one in seven young people at risk of homelessness’, Sydney Morning Herald, viewed July, <http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/one-in-seven-young-people-at-risk-of-homelessness-mission-australia-report-20160214-gmtokx.html&gt;.

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ARTICLE FOUR

These brilliant individuals are tackling everyday issues faced by homeless folk.

Lisa Cugnetto  a Freelance writer and content Producer, wrote the article “These brilliant individuals are tackling everyday issues faced by homeless folk.“ published on SBS. The article is a small explanation of six initiatives that charities and Non Government Organisations have started to try and help the homeless. Cugnetto initially wrote most of her articles on wordpress, however her writing has gained traction within larger professional bodies such as the SBS which feature her “social good” articles regularly.

     It is unclear to what  exactly motivated Cugnetto to write this article, however  it appears that the article is a positive demonstration of the goodwill of small businesses and individuals towards the isle of homelessness which may be a response to the Governments lack of initiative. All her articles on this topic have been featured on SBS because of the unique angle explored, one which many authors don’t explore. Within this context, the author is not an expert however demonstrates expert knowledge and research skills in her compilation of information.

      Cugnetto has written one other article that is along the same wavelength as this example. It examines at a charity group that give homeless woman sanitary products and health care supplies to try and lighten the mood and uplift their spirits. Cugnetto focuses her writing on social activist groups, charities and the goodwill of private organisations, often only writing  from a positive angle, deliniating undertones of hope.

The article can be described as a factual editorial. Comprising of short snippets on each of the organisations, the author explains some of the key services currently available for the homeless, started by people who were I totally homeless or people who are severely moved by the issue.

      Cugnetto takes a hopeful stance within this article. Her goal, to explore “…six initiatives that are taking a unique approach to helping those sleeping rough or at risk.”. Many authors of articles that talk about homelessness and social exclusion attempt to create empathetic resonance and thus, change by decisively making the reader aware of failure in politic, politicians and their policies and society by creating a sense of urgency through the use of well researched statistics. Cugnetto on the other had takes the second most common approach. Attempting to engender a sense of hope, a common theme found in writers discussing this issue, articles such as this may then be used to assist these charities and independent organisations through crowd funded hopefulness. Cugnetto not only explains what the organisations are, but the (often) inspired history. For example, she explains that The Streets Barber is giving back to the community after overcoming a drug addiction. Cugnetto has a marginal position, it has only become a recent trend to use writing to support crowd funding campaigns brought about from the perpetual lack of government intervention, most writers writing in this niche field, focus on the stories of the homeless, rarely the small organisations supporting them.

 

 

Cugnetto , L. 16 FEB 2016 – 9:19 AM, ‘These brilliant individuals are tackling everyday issues faced by homeless folk’, SBS, viewed July, <http://www.sbs.com

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ARTICLE FIVE

Push to support homeless LGBTI youth after influx at crisis accommodation centres.

The author of this article is David Lewis,a journalist working with the investigative radio documentary program Background Briefing on RN who commonly writes for ABC news. Lewis has covered many exclusive articles on niche topics. However well informed,this article is, as a journalist, Lewis is not an expert sourcing his  factual  based writing from provided data from expert researchers.

     Lewis (not having written about this issue before) was motivated to write this article because of a lack of recognition of LGBTI as a serious cause and categorisation for the soaring number in homeless youth and the fragile nature in which these sorts of statistics are recorded as certain labels are damaging. Written as an introduction to an  ABC Background Briefing, there is an  understanding of an internal review that will consider widening the scope of the information provided to the database, known as the Specialist Homelessness Services collection.

           This editorial contains the bias of Professor Susan Oakley from the University of Adelaide who passionately argues that “We need to have a better understanding of who is presenting to begin with, before we can start to to think about how we can tailor our support services,”. Included is also the bias’s of members of that particular community. An opinion from member of parliament Alex Greenwich is incorporated as well as the opinion of someone directly correlated with the group in discussion. 

         The article suggests how the data collected from support services is a treasure trove for policy makers if the initiatives are taken to use them for causal change especailly in a sensitive manner. However there is slight resistance from members of parliament such as Alex Greenwich who believe that this needs to be done in a sensitive way, as this group of people are in an anxious place and would optimally “come out” confident. Lewis, is the facilitator of this conversation, exploring the issue from several angles. His writing is confident in the fact there is a serious problem not categorising LGBTI youth however the author understands the complexities of label slapping. Lewis’s flexible point of view links well with other articles that explore the tentative nature of youth homelessness. Many authors write in a weary tone because of the entrenching nature of this issue especially with the increasing statistics from support services and Census data collections. As this is a rising issue of concern, Lewis’s stance is becoming more and more common as even policy makers are becoming weary of the growing issue and the socially exclusive issues around its resolution.

Lewis, d. Updated 31 Mar 2016, 11:46am, ‘Push to support homeless LGBTI youth after influx at crisis accommodation centres’, Background Briefing on Radio National this Sunday at 8:05am, viewed July, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-31/push-to-support-growing-number-of-lgbti-homeless-youth/7286354>.

After reading the following articles it has become clear that the topic of homelessness has a broad reach within the discourse of journalism and media. The most interesting finding from this aspect of research is that the topic of homelessness is in some respect, an unfavourable topic of discussion. The sizes of the articles, the general topic of the articles as well as the identity of the authors of these articles suggest that professional researches aren’t contributing to the cotinual casual discourse of this issue. This is indicative that socially, there is a lack of interest and thus, understanding and empathy of the greater concepts being proposed in weakened by the overlapping impact of event activism, which as a promotional device, is kept short and sweet making it difficult to fully connect to an audience that is generally non-the wiser of the issue at hand, creating apathy.

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 Image:-

Jeffries, L.  2010,Untitled, Flikr, viewed 13 August 2016,<https://www.flickr.com/photos/16536699@N07/5333840080/in/album-72157622905229717/>.