Headlines from the Future
Art Installation at the Interactive Media Arts Show on 370 Jay St
Trigger Warning: Rape and violence
At its core, this idea highlights how coming together and working collectively can bring about positive change. It shows that as people unite to tackle societal issues, they move towards a brighter future. In the interactive experience of Headlines from the Future, participants engage with generated headlines based on recent news on rape and sexual violence against minority women in India. By holding hands with the plastic ones in the installation, participants generate new headlines. The more people join in, the more positive the headlines become. This narrative conveys the idea that by working together and supporting one another, we can create a better future.
More than 120 participants interacted with the piece during the show. The goal of the piece was to bring together people interested in a particular topic and present them with headlines of various degrees of positivity to help the audience imagine a better future.
Quite a few conversations and discussions about how we could build a better future were had among participants. For example, one of the headlines generated was 'Women feel safe traveling without sharing live locations with their friends '. Positive headlines like these that were generated when multiple audiences were interacting with the piece led to discussions about what needs to be done to make this a reality in the future.
Participants were invited to write down headlines that they hope to read in the future
Process
​I started off by reading news from India about rape and sexual violence targetted at minority women. I started seeing a pattern around the crimes and systemic brutality against women belonging to minority groups in India. I decided to create a list of victims, crimes, and systemic brutalities to generate the first headline. I wanted to convey that, if we don't do anything about this, the same things would keep happening.
Word/phrase list for the first headline. When no one is interacting with the installation.
I then created the last headline - the most positive headline, based on things that women do right now to keep ourselves safe. The headlines from the future, if all 5 people interact with the installation at the same time, would generate the most positive headline. The headline would be that the things women do currently to keep themselves safe, they don't do anymore in the future implying that crime against women has been lowered significantly and a safe enough place is created for them that they don't feel the need to take these precautions anymore.
Word/phrase list for the most positive headline. When 5 people are interacting with the installation at the same time.
I then used backcasting to imagine some of the changes we need to make and ways society can create a safer space for women, especially women from minority groups to take us to a positive future.
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Depending on the number of people interacting with the installation at a given time, the headline generated becomes more positive. I wanted to convey that we can make a better future when more people come together to try to make a difference.
Word/phrase list for the intermediate headlines
I coded the p5 sketch using the Tracery library to generate different headlines based on the input on how many people are interacting with the piece at a given time
p5 sketch screen recording
First prototype using a capacitive touch sensor and arduino connected to the p5 sketch
For the final installation, I wanted it to feel like you were reading from a newspaper, so I created a fake newspaper with a blank space to project the headlines on it. The wires would be fixed to 3D-printed hands placed around the paper where people can interact with the installation and see the changes in the headlines generated.
First prototype of the visuals projected on a fake newspaper
Fabrication
I wanted the audience to feel like they are connecting with the future and have discussions around the social issue from a place of hope.
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I connected the touch sensors to 3D-printed hands and placed them in a way that they look like they are tearing out from the new paper
Created visuals to be projected along with the headlines.
