Transposing Identity
My undergrad final consisted of a 12-week, self-directed study centralized around the topic of consumerism. The topic focuses on consumerism from a critical perspective, where I gathered receipts from seven participants within a defined 3-week period, and used this data as the basis for developing my work.
The end result consisted of several deliverables. First, a series of three books designed to resemble that of traditional receipt or cheque books. These books are a breakdown of my journey. The first explores theories and arguments, the second is a detailed documentation of my process and experimentation, and the third is a documentation of my final deliverables.
The final two deliverables are based on the amount of receipts accumulated over the course of three weeks. I use my background in Graphic Design as a means to create data visualization, both digitally and through processes of making. The first is a series of seven posters, all which pertain to the owner of the receipts collected. The items listed are specifically assigned a colour, and then photographed in an environment which reflects an aspect of each participant’s lifestyle. The second is a series of seven receipts. Each receipt belonging to its owner was blended back into pulp and formed to create a new receipt that acts a visual archive. The amount of receipts collected by each participant is what determines the end result in terms of richness of data, thickness, texture and colour.
The process of working in ambiguity posed as a particular challenge due to the hegemonic structure of design that I am so accustomed to. The goal of my work was never to solve anything but rather let the process determine the outcome and the message. Experimenting with ambiguous design methodologies caused me to step out of my comfort zone and challenge traditional conventions of design and what it could potentially strive towards. In the end the ambiguous nature of the artefacts were a direct result of an ambiguous design process. Intended not to solve consumption, but merely pose questions that allow the end user to come to their own conclusions and solutions.
