The Challenge
To use design to address and highlight the prominence of default male in non-fiction writing. The default male is a term which refers to the use of masculine he/him pronouns to refer to all people. Inspired by my own disappointment with textbooks, course materials and personal reading using the default male, the project needed to create a visceral emotional and cognitive response in the viewer in order to evoke long term change.
The Idea
After a rigorous research phase, the idea of cutting out words from book pages to create a graphic intervention emerged. I thought about how I could use my graphic design skill to create a critical design exhibition experience which would meet the objectives of the project.
The Outcome
The outcome of Lost in the Pages is a critical design graphic installation proposed to be at the State Library of NSW. The exhibition includes hanging book pages which have all words except he and him cut out, leaving gaps where images of women and marginalised genders appear through. These designed artefacts are a striking visual of how this issue effects this group. Underneath the hanging pages, there is an armchair sitting on top of all the cutout words which appear to have ‘fallen’ onto the floor below, being a symbol of all the words that don’t represent the women. There is also accompanying promotional materials to attract people to the exhibition.
