This project was made at a point of inquiry at the beginning line of exploring and figuring out my design master’s thesis topic. According to Wikipedia Slap Art/ Sticker art (also known as sticker bombing, sticker slapping, slap tagging, and sticker tagging) is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers. These stickers may promote a political agenda, comment on a policy or issue, or comprise a subcategory of graffiti.
Since my questions were commentaries on society in general, current global climate situations, social media and design as a practice, I wanted to put these questions out & about in public around Boston without using social media as a tool to reach people. Hence the name, ‘Inquisitive slaps’ which means quite literally, slap art with questions on them.
Does Design Run on a system of Manipulation?
Design is a way of influencing people through problem solving. As designers we tend to assume that we can solve someone else’s problems and take stances from the point of view of the person facing the problem. However, what we don’t often realise is that every problem is different and every person is different. It is difficult to generalize and assume that our solutions are actually helping someone. Sometimes, the solutions are looked at differently, sometimes without knowing, we re-establish this culture of manipulation in order to gain more traction to the project. I am not saying that designers love to manipulate people to make them think like them, the business side of it often takes care of this more than design, but we sometimes do it unintentionally. Unfortunately, it is hard to detect before the product reaches the masses.