Thee Frank
Thee Frank
< previous
next >

Rainy Days

 

 

Bridging Knowledge and Action

 

 

Thee Frank

2022/2023 (one semester)

Deliverable:
Video
Design Concept
Public Intervention

Supervision/Examination:
Anette Lundebye
Linda Hildfling
Ola Ståhl
Björn Paxling (Extinction Rebellion)

Students:
Karolina Paulewicz
Mahnoosh Ramgar
Mariano Thomas Langer

Everybody knows about the climate and ecological emergency (CEE) but what to do about it without spiraling into feelings of guilt, helplessness, hopelessness and anxiety – and ultimately detaching yourself from them entirely.
No single person is (or should be) equipped to deal with such a burden on their own, however, every single person still matters in pushing back on the destructive capitalist world order. So over the course of one term, we develpoed and prototyped a design concept and a public intervention to urge people to action in a non-anxiety-inducing way. With that in mind, we came up with a design concept, a browser extension, with three main functions: Act, Play, Track.

Climate anxiety is becoming a real issue, especially for young people, but climate change it is not the only horror we're exposed to on the daily – and can't stop consuming. Dreadful news + compulsive scrolling = compromised mental state.
In this tongue-in-cheek video we wanted to remind people that sometimes it really can be as simple as putting the phone down, taking a breather and just starting anywhere.

My editing can be seen in the top right as well as the end, the clips in the beginning and the Beyoncé sction were edited by Mariano.
The music was my doing. It's fabulous, I know.

WARNING: LOUD AND FLICKERING LIGHTS!

 

 

Act: The browser extension makes itself known by presenting actions directly related to the information on screen (like articles) by scrapping the webpage for keywords and finding related petitions, organizations, etc., thus, bringing knowledge and action. If enabled, it prioritizes local interventions. To avoid users becoming overwhelmed, the extension only displays a select few actions, and gives them the choice to seek out more.

Track: To get away from the lone-wolf-who-must-save-the-world-on-their-own thing, we wanted to emphasize community, and the collective efficacy it can achieve. Because creating a community is hard, we decided to make use of pre-existing ones, school classes, sports teams, online communities, tracking their collective actions, and playing it back to them (like Spotify Wrapped. Why we love having our own data presented to us? – Who knows, but we do). Seeing that I planted three trees using ecosia is nice, but seeing we planted 100 together is nicer.

Play: We've all spent more time than necessary online doing – not much (which is super valid), but why not encourage procrastination by doing good? So every day, the extension provides users a few recommendations. 
1. Articles, giving the choice between 'good' and 'bad news'.
2. Organizations, Projects, Brands, Apps, Media, etc.
3. Some truly amazing procrastination tools like websites with different activities that allow users to take their minds off of things for a while. No work without play or however the saying goes [Edit: Apparently it's "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"].

 

 

Public Intervention
The challenge for this module was to somehow translate the concept behind the browser extension into real life. Being situated in Sweden, we soon realized that having an intervention that requires direct interaction with the public during winter would not be particularly fruitful (Swedes are quite discreet and keep a polite distance), so we opted for a less personal, yet subtly invasive plan.
We designed postcards relating to relevant topics like (over)consumption during the holidays, food waste, transportation, … and added a small descriptive text and a QR-Code to each one with a local action to take concerning it. These were distributed across town, stuffed in coat pockets and purses in clothing stores, between items in the grocery store, books at libraries, etc.

 

 

Thee Frank

Report
(layout by me)

Rainy Days

 

 

Bridging Knowledge and Action

 

 

Thee Frank

2022/2023 (one semester)

Deliverable:
Video
Design Concept
Public Intervention

Supervision/Examination:
Anette Lundebye
Linda Hildfling
Ola Ståhl
Björn Paxling (Extinction Rebellion)

Students:
Karolina Paulewicz
Mahnoosh Ramgar
Mariano Thomas Langer

Everybody knows about the climate and ecological emergency (CEE) but what to do about it without spiraling into feelings of guilt, helplessness, hopelessness and anxiety – and ultimately detaching yourself from them entirely.
No single person is (or should be) equipped to deal with such a burden on their own, however, every single person still matters in pushing back on the destructive capitalist world order. So over the course of one term, we develpoed and prototyped a design concept and a public intervention to urge people to action in a non-anxiety-inducing way. With that in mind, we came up with a design concept, a browser extension, with three main functions: Act, Play, Track.

Climate anxiety is becoming a real issue, especially for young people, but climate change it is not the only horror we're exposed to on the daily – and can't stop consuming. Dreadful news + compulsive scrolling = compromised mental state.
In this tongue-in-cheek video we wanted to remind people that sometimes it really can be as simple as putting the phone down, taking a breather and just starting anywhere.

My editing can be seen in the top right as well as the end, the clips in the beginning and the Beyoncé sction were edited by Mariano.
The music was my doing. It's fabulous, I know.

WARNING: LOUD AND FLICKERING LIGHTS!

 

 

Act: The browser extension makes itself known by presenting actions directly related to the information on screen (like articles) by scrapping the webpage for keywords and finding related petitions, organizations, etc., thus, bringing knowledge and action. If enabled, it prioritizes local interventions. To avoid users becoming overwhelmed, the extension only displays a select few actions, and gives them the choice to seek out more.

Track: To get away from the lone-wolf-who-must-save-the-world-on-their-own thing, we wanted to emphasize community, and the collective efficacy it can achieve. Because creating a community is hard, we decided to make use of pre-existing ones, school classes, sports teams, online communities, tracking their collective actions, and playing it back to them (like Spotify Wrapped. Why we love having our own data presented to us? – Who knows, but we do). Seeing that I planted three trees using ecosia is nice, but seeing we planted 100 together is nicer.

Play: We've all spent more time than necessary online doing – not much (which is super valid), but why not encourage procrastination by doing good? So every day, the extension provides users a few recommendations. 
1. Articles, giving the choice between 'good' and 'bad news'.
2. Organizations, Projects, Brands, Apps, Media, etc.
3. Some truly amazing procrastination tools like websites with different activities that allow users to take their minds off of things for a while. No work without play or however the saying goes [Edit: Apparently it's "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"].

 

 

Public Intervention
The challenge for this module was to somehow translate the concept behind the browser extension into real life. Being situated in Sweden, we soon realized that having an intervention that requires direct interaction with the public during winter would not be particularly fruitful (Swedes are quite discreet and keep a polite distance), so we opted for a less personal, yet subtly invasive plan.
We designed postcards relating to relevant topics like (over)consumption during the holidays, food waste, transportation, … and added a small descriptive text and a QR-Code to each one with a local action to take concerning it. These were distributed across town, stuffed in coat pockets and purses in clothing stores, between items in the grocery store, books at libraries, etc.

 

 

Thee Frank

Report
(layout by me)