Working in a multidisciplinary team which crossed courses and cultures, we embodied our position through a powerful video footage. The video shows demonstrations and the authority’s response in our home countries.
MANIFESTO
Design: A political act.
Coming from different countries and different struggles, we all experienced from within that design is a political act.
It can influence thinking, often inspiring people to act against oppression and injustice.
Each of the below statements comes from a different member of our group, and explains our collective individual experiences;
‘I come from a country where I have to act as a silent designer to stay a designer.’
‘I originate from the country that gave birth to Democracy. Since the crisis arrived, the protests, the austerity measures and the absurd seem endless. Activist design such as graffiti is helping people awaken and take a deeper look in their lives and what’s going on around them.’
‘Any sign of oppression intensifies people’s creativity to fight for their rights.’
‘Imagine that there are governments that torture and kill children for spray-painting the word ‘freedom’ on a wall.
'My country’s designers see it as their responsibility to reveal these shocking truths to the world and to inspire people to fight oppression.’
‘My country suffered twenty five years of civil war and designers are still trying to unite its people.’
‘In posting satirical designs on the Internet, designers are trying to communicate the situation to the world to change their government, which they feel never listens to the people’s voices.’
‘You may control my action, but can you control my thinking?’
Thus, we strongly believe that as designers it is our responsibly to listen, think, feel, and design.
