Author: Jacqueline Yang

Week 1

Initial Inquiry:

1. How is our time fractionated and dissected to extract the most value?
2. How are we generating value unconsciously?
3. How could I visualize these invisible transactions and system?
4. How to reveal these monetary exchanges and exploitation?

We are constantly browsing on the internet while being bombarded with content that our attention and cognition has become a scarce resource because that is what all businesses trying to compete for.  Therefore, our attention and where our eyes go are now valuable commodity- an example of this could be ad placement. Additionally, our habit of looking are also sold as data analysis to further deepen this trade relationship. 

In the digital society, even our personal time has turned into something that can be exploited and have value extracted. I started by looking at the datas that can be extracted from us and how much companies are willing to pay for each.

I created these bill notes and receipt to help make the transactions and currency tangible.

Week 2

I start to see that how our time has been fractionated in many ways to generate and produce values. Even the smallest eye muscle movement can be exploited. 

Moving forward, I recorded my browsing activity by using the computer camera and another camera simultaneously above to capture my hand movements. 

I visualized the recordings with line animations to showcase the track of our eye movement which is another visualization of the value we are offering.

Week 3

Updated Inquiry:

1. How has our eye gaze and attention a form of digital labor, in comparison to traditional form of labor?
2. What natural movements are performed by the users in creating monetary value?
3. What is the relationship between the users, the labor, and the profits?

I refined my focus on eye gaze and attention. I started to look into traditional form of labor and immaterial labor in the digital context and how we are contributing free labor as users.

I started with dissecting the factors that make up “labor” and “production” and see it in pre-industrial and industrial society. this help to set the foundation and link to the free digital labor I want to highlight. An interesting word that came up through my research was “Cyber Sweatshop”. The users input became the raw material, and data are the product sold but the user’s labor are unrecognized. 

Week 4

Due to the fact that attention and sight are invisible, we can’t see or feel the labor we have produced. I wanted to create tangibility in our sight and attention to make my subject more accessible. I experimented my study on vintage posters because I find them designed less purposefully compared to modern day ads. I used an AI software that could analyze where our attention would likely to go and stay and used the information to create attention heat maps, percentage of focus, and main focus map. 

From the mappings, I tested the possibility of using the attention hierarchy information and transforming them into a topographic mapping system. Thus, by creating 3D form, it will bring some tangibility to the concept of attention labor.

Week 5

To study the natural movement of our eyes while browsing, I recorded how my eyes move and translated it into an animation. 

I created a perspective in which we, the audience, are within the screen and seeing through the interface at the user. From this perspective, we observe how our attention is being played and manipulated. 

This form not only allows us to be observers but also to see it as a mirror to reflect our own attention sovereignty.

Decision Decision:

Most of the user interface design are invisible, using our intuitive instincts and subtle design choices. Therefore, it is hard for us to pin point why our eyes are drawn to specific content. Therefore, I created this circles as representations of the concealed designs and used orange to emphasize and exaggerate the triggers. The animation produces best result when it is watched on full screen and to see you screen covered in attention grabbing content.

Stage 2 Inquiry + Designer’s Guide

1. How do designers mediate control in directing our attention?
2. What guides our attention?
3. What are the design practices used to hold attention? 
4. How are our eyes navigating through design?

As a response to the inquiries, I created “Designer’s Guide: Designing for Attention.”

Designing for Attention focuses on the ways in which designers can influence our attention and eye gaze through the use of graphic design. It is an exploration of the methods that designers use to control the visual focus of their audience and create a curated visual experience. Each booklet is assigned with its own instruction, stare/ gaze/ directions, which the graphics would guide to achieve, drawing on inspirations from sign, poster, interface design.

This work seeks to shed light on the powerful role that graphic design can play in shaping our attention and visual experience, and how our viewers’ eye gaze trajectory is formed.

Decision Decisions:

The practice experiments with design strategies including: isolation, contrast, hierarchy, tension, etc.  Each composition only uses the fundamental shapes and lines in black, white, gray to illustrate the essence of attention design and explore our natural tendencies to seek out certain visual stimuli. 

By removing the digital attention driven design from its original location and transporting them on paper, the design is no longer invisible. It becomes something that we can hold and test and understand.

Designing for Attention Video Essay

To summarize, I combined my study from both stage 1 and 2 into a video essay. This video examines the intersection of eye and attention tracking with digital immaterial labor and the designers’ role in this system.

The motion in the video uses different techniques to purposefully manipulate the viewers’ eyes in different directions. The frequent movement helps us to be aware of how our eye gaze moves and navigates. 

The motion also attempts to tire the eyes so the audience can recognize this form of labor.

Reflection

Through the series of work I have developed, the projects raise thought-provoking questions about the power and responsibility of designers in influencing our attention and eye gaze. While the techniques employed in graphic design to capture and hold our attention are undeniably effective, we must critically examine the ethical implications and potential consequences of such practices.

One key question that arises is whether it is ethical for designers to exploit our innate tendencies to seek out certain visual stimuli. 

1. Should designers be mindful of their influence and strive to create designs that serve a greater purpose beyond commercial gain? 
2. How can we strike a balance between capturing attention and respecting the autonomy of individuals to control their own attention and focus?

Additionally, we must consider the potential impact on our mental well-being. With the constant influx of visually stimulating content.

1. Are we becoming increasingly susceptible to distraction and information overload? 
2. How can we find a healthy equilibrium where design supports meaningful engagement rather than contributing to a culture of constant attention and distraction?

This discussion prompts us to reflect on the role of design in society and to challenge the status quo. Designers have the opportunity to shape experiences and guide our attention, but with this power comes the responsibility to use it judiciously and ethically. It calls for a critical examination of the intentions behind design choices and the potential consequences they may have on individuals and society as a whole.

Week 1

Week 2

For the first section of Unit 2, I started with exploring data mapping and looking at how to visualize our movement through notation systems and infographics. During the process, I found time as an unique variable which I extended my research on and slowly developed my position regarding temporal subjectivity. 

Through my dialogue with Deshna Mehta, where I presented my proposal for journaling personal perception of time, the metrics I used to measure the relationship of the length of time among different variables was the topic that we focused on. The idea that through the metrics that I have set, I was able to create an output that represented how time felt for individuals. Currently, this data visualization system works to hypothetically challenge our current system of time but it does not stand as a functional tool to be used in reality. Through the dialogue, this was the area that could be returned to and be refined more thoroughly. Through the refining, my position and proposal for a new temporal system can become more legitimate as well. Mehta pointed out that how my data visualization is designed to automatically communicate a certain message, such as transparency gives a sense of swiftness and color density translates to slowness and heaviness through visual indications. A self-sufficient diagram that does not require an index for further explanation.

The design of the variables that influences our time perception became the main subject between our dialogue. How we associate certain movements, colors, directions, shapes, etc. with specific emotions. The possibility of an universal visual language that can be implemented on the variables in this subjective temporal data mapping, but also to incorporate factual accurate units of measurement into the system. 

From this discussion, I was led to consider a way to gather visual emotional expressions. Some of the disciplinaries I considered include dance, acting, writing, but I found fine art as the most relevant and effective subject. I interviewed an alumni of Parsons School of Design, Emily Feng, who majored in Fine Arts and Art History, and is currently working in Sotheby’s. I guided her through my process and approach to the subjectivity of time which she also found lacked the support that is needed to hold up the data visualization system I created. Whether it is traditional paintings, abstract artworks, or installation pieces, the artists are using space, strokes, and color to express a message, an energy, or emotion, which I could extract the most amount of data to support my research.

To proceed with the subject of temporal subjectivity, I would like to return to my proposition and refine the visual assets used to create the data visualization system. I would also like to look at how to find measurable units to support the system. On a more philosophical layer, I also wondered how I can use the system to help people to live the fullest of time and their life.

From last two weeks, the theme I talked about is subjectivity and objectivity of time. I took a step back to look at how time is measured the conventional way.

• Stopwatch
• Apple watch
• Sundial
• Calendar
• Timer
• Moonphase

The phase 1 of my project is to study how we measure time:

And through each iteration I start to think that the tools we use to measure time are narrow-minded, inaccurate and are not a true reflection of our experience of time. So my treatment of the images becomes more abstract trying to erase the meaning of these tools

I concluded that time is a presumed system that is imposed on us. I used the images created for the poster to create this animation that shows the time system as a net that cloaks and dominates on top of our daily life.

Referencing back to my previous project of accumulative time and experience, I brought that idea into here as well. These episodes of duration are stacked to create the density of time and how we tell time is through looking at the variables, the colors. The more transparent it is, the faster the experience of time, and the more colorful it is, the perceived duration of events it is.

What is working?

The nature element in some of the graphic is working well.

The headlines are working well.

Web page is a good idea, can be spread more widely, the posters can also be more engaging digitally.

What can be improved?

More effective if you include plastic bags as well so the message is more clear.

The posters look like the bags are for sale instead of delivering the campaign message. The idea of reusing should be more prominent.

The plastic animal posters can be included as well because the audience relates to it more emotionally

More thoroughly explore the materiality of the bags.

Not showing product poster but using the method as image making.

“One bag” misguide the audience to buy instead of reuse.

Sainsbury shopping bag could be apart of the campaigns as well.

Consider the background of the campaign.

Not relevant of using the poster, using a real tote bag as the material for the campaign.

Put objects in the bag to show the idea of reusing.

Making the type thinner and no cap, saves more ink, using ink trap font.

Should be displayed in the mass market, not only the student community.

Questions about the project.

Who do you think your audience will be?

What do the six different graphics mean? 

Why display this material tote bag? 

The transition from digital to printing, is it sustainable printing on paper?

Week 1

For the first week, each member of our group picked an object from the V&A Rapid Response collection and pitched to each other to select the object that we would like to push further for this brief.

The objects considered are plastic bag, 3D printed door handle, and a smashed MacBook.

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The one we decided to proceed with was the plastic bag which we found was very open ended and gave us a lot of room for exploration. We each did our own investigation of the object, where I chose the approach to analyze the wrinkles that were created after we use them and its materiality by photographing plastic bags in curated light to bring density to the material.

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Jamal and Aishwarya investigated the plastic bag through videos and posters to bring attention to the environmental crisis plastic bags are creating.

Week 2

From our last critique, we recognized that all of our outcomes have a campaign aesthetic which became the method we used to investigate our inquiry: “Can designers solve problems without creating any?” In this case, it would be using campaigns to guide the behavior of the viewers.

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However, we recognized by creating visually appealing plastic bags, it would appear to be encouraging the use of plastic bags. Thus, we moved on to the approach to replace the plastic bags with reusable tote to emphasize our message of reusability.

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