human rights & public services.
Film and photography are the mediums I use to research, understand, define and explain a problem. Bridging the gap of communication between experts and laymen, encouraging audiences to engage with the complexity of topics rather than simplifying them to the point that experts no longer recognise their analysis.
Diagnosis Limbo
An award winning project about people facing prolonged periods of undiagnosed symptoms, the psychological impact and the systematic issues.
Why we sometimes need to engage with complexity
Promising to build a solution for a well researched problem in an increasingly disconnected, platform-oriented world, Service Designers often default to synthesising complicated information into a user-friendly app. The illusion of a solution in the form of a service can reinforce the very problems it seeks to address, allowing individuals to engage only on a surface level but feel the gratification of doing the right thing. Simplifying complex issues for ease can deepen systemic injustice by masking its full complexity. Take an ethical shopping app such as Vinted: users may feel like they are spending more consciously, but are in fact continuing an untenable level of consumption.
Struggling is a part of human learning, and removing any friction in an experience could reduce us to the characters in WALL-E.
It’s not an original idea that people choose to present themselves in a curated way online, from the cool girls sharing iPhone shots of empty plates at modern Mediterranean restaurants to the virtue signalling activists to the intellectuals who slip a book into a messy still life. I too am a culprit of only posting the parts of my life I am most proud to share. But all this trivial content became a pleasant respite after I learnt about Trophy Videos.
Individuals in military groups around the world from Russia to Israel to Sudan proudly post self incriminating videos of their warcrimes on public social media accounts. I am yet to find the origin of the phrase, but variations such as "trophy" footage have been referenced in reports and articles since 2005.
Inaccurate information and conspiracy theories are often simplistic explanations for complex issues. The blue theory (see below) appeals to audiences by being unusual - and therefore novel - as well as a simple explanation to natural disasters, spurred on by climate change, a topic many audiences don’t want to face.
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) can be used to determine what is true and accurate, sometimes to document war crimes with robust evidence and to counter disinformation. The paradox of social media in this line of work is that while content found across different social media platforms bring fundamental insights to investigations, disinformation thrives on social media, often performing better than any attempts to debunk the inaccurate information.