Social Inquiry
Environmental Graphic Design for Social Change: A Visual Revolution
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rozina Vavetsi
Environmental Graphic Design (EGD) is a multidisciplinary field that breaks traditional design boundaries by using persuasive visual language integrated into architectural structures and built environments to elicit a response, inspire feelings and convey compelling messages. Through the deployment of captivating visuals and immersive installations, EGD elevates mundane spaces into potent platforms for advocacy, knowledge and community engagement. This study investigates the profound societal impact of EGD and its pivotal role in communicating ideas, raising awareness to diverse audiences, challenging conventional social norms and driving social change on pressing contemporary issues. Using real-world applications and case studies it highlights the transformative influence of EGD as an indispensable ally to kindle inspiration and evoke social reform.
African Walls: Many Different Voices
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David Goss
Cave markings, rock art and drawings go back to prehistoric times, they are most probably the earliest examples of human creativity and culture. Today, wall art and graffiti still have a presence in contemporary urban space. In Africa these have immerged in wall paintings and graffiti, commercial signs and in the design of new workspaces. Considering the techniques of these wall creations: their images, the style of markings, and their textual content on one can witness their unique place in the global metamorphosis of contemporary African culture. This paper considers the different typologies and uses of wall art and graffiti in contemporary African culture. Demonstrating a diverse creative contemporary medium that fluctuates between urban political manifestations; personal expression; domesticated interior designs; and commercial implementations.
A Zeitgeist Theory of Appearance and Dress View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Damayanthie Eluwawalage
This paper explores a Zeitgeist (spirit of the times that pervades the ideas, attitudes, and feelings of a particular society in a specific historical period), a view of history of theory in the context of appearance and dress. It also examines the role of such situational factors as economics, technology, culture, tradition, gender, and religion. In any historical study literary texts should be interpreted within the appropriate historical context, especially analyzing attire and dress. In bygone times, raiment is a form of imitation and therefore of social equalization, however, as societies changed over the centuries, economically, politically and spiritually, psychologically, and ideologically, the emergence of parallel theories were also evidenced. Most importantly, those theories are varied in accordance with the historical eras or centuries. The last millennium has been shaped by successive waves of change, with the leading drivers. Also, each century, especially between 1400-1900, with brief transitional periods between, produced its own unique style/fashion, which was symbolic to that particular era. Men and women dress themselves in accordance with the dictates of that great unknown, the Spirit of the Time, or Zeitgeist, everything in the world was in constant motion: every individual life, nature, history, society. This results in each epoch having its own particular zeitgeist, or general spirit. One historic epoch is not randomly followed by another; instead, there is a principle of logical evolution, the general trend of thought, feeling, or tastes characteristic of a particular period of time, which therefore, must be understood and interpreted accordingly.
