Description
In this drop-in workshop, based in the Learning Centre at the V&A and as part of Digital Design Weekend within the wider 2024 London Design Festival, we took inspiration from the visual language of clothing labels to allow people to reflect on and visualise some of the current concerns about the way we connect digitally. Participants were invited to design and take away their own personal internet care labels. We used imagery and terminology adapted from well recognised clothes care labelling systems (e.g. clothes size - network size preference, handle fabric with care - handle data with care) printed onto acetate sheets that could be collaged onto prepared care label templates to create personalised visions of what a ‘healthier’ internet could be like. In addition, a more open template was created to allow participants to take a freer form approach while still focusing on their preferred internet future. The collages were processed, scaled and dye sub printed onto appropriate fabric to create an ‘authentic’ care label that participants could take away and wear.
The workshop ran for 2.5 days engaged with over 250 people with a broad constituency of participants, including young children, older adults, national and international persons, experts and the general public. This workshop provided a creative mechanism for engaging people in conversations about how they currently use the internet, what concerns they have and in what ways would they like to see changes/alternatives. This varied from very light touch conversations with young children to extended conversations with experts in the field, see some examples here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBcccY8Nrio
To both share physical craft outcomes of the project and to further aid/instigate conversations the workshops were held in conjunction with an exhibition of works created both by commissioned craftspeople (https://hicraftnorthumbria.org/craft-investigations/) and by the investigators (https://hicraftnorthumbria.org/craft-investigations/crafts-investigations-brief/)
| Period | 19 Sept 2024 → 22 Sept 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Workshop |
| Location | LondonShow on map |