Chisun An

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Blog post4

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Blog 2: Diversity during a Pandemic

I read Elanka Jiang’s post blog2: Diversity during the pandemic and it really resonate with me. The reason I chose her blog post was I was thinking the same problems that she mentioned as an Asian living in London.

She first talks about her root and ethnicity, and how she is feeling about it. Then she shares her experience and what she saw in social media which is all racism toward Asian and how she felt about it. Then she tries to find what she can do as a media student, especially as a future fashion illustrator.

After reading her post, in my view, I felt sad about this insane racism happening towards all Asian living abroad and only Asians are taking care of this problem. I know that other people also know that racism is bad and those who are racist are wrong. However, they are not putting much attention on the racism happening due to this virus and sometimes they also do some racism by mistake not knowing that they actually did.

I strongly agree with her view that there are many posts saying degrading misinformation on social media and want to compliment on her sight that she had thought of these problems. I never thought about this problem before, but after reading her article, now I also think that this could be a big problem that should not be underestimated. People can easily believe in those misinformed posts without any doubt and it can provoke and enhance some racism problems, especially on the young generation who are closed to social media. This made me think that as a one of media student, what can I do to solve these problems.

Finally, looking at her last paragraph, she mentioned about how she will work in the future as a fashion illustrator. I could see how much she is taking care of this diversity problem and passionate about her creative work. I also could see that she is proud and confident about what she is doing now. Some of her plans inspired me what I can do in future as a fashion photographer. I can say that this is a good reflection writing written about diversity problem happening in this pandemic situation. It was really good that she wrote the things that are related to nowadays, so I could more easily resonate with her writing. However, it would be better if she had written about other two subjects, sustainability and social responsibility, but I think it can also be a good choice to focus on one subject more deeply rather than barely skimming the surface of all three subjects.

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Blog post3

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The subject I took was ‘critical design’ which I had to make a short trailer about wicked problems in the world. There were some topics that I can choose, and I decided to focus on healthcare problems especially about covid19 virus happening right now. Due to the pandemic, people are isolating themselves at their place and not meeting people face to face. As said from Nick Almond’s lecture ‘Emerging Technologies in Fashion’, there are many rapid changes in fashion industries using technologies. 

At the begging of my project, I was struggling with how I am going to connect the covid19 pandemic with fashion communication. My first draft was just criticizing the government and people treating the virus in an inappropriate way. The feedback from the tutor and other students was to narrow down the theme so that I can give a stronger message to the audience and find a way to communicate with fashion communication. The way we are handling this pandemic situation and the lecture talking about technologies perfectly match with my concept, so it was quite easy to start developing the draft to the final. I first focused on what new technologies are affecting the fashion communication and how other brands are using them. I could get help by other students to get some information and references, they helped me to set the direction of my trailer and I found out that there were already few collections held digitally or using new techniques. Some of them were saying the similar message that I was trying to say, it was telling that, later in the future, the world would be like post-apocalypse if we do not take care of problems such as pollution, virus or other problems.

By developing the trailer in the progress as I mentioned before, My final trailer was telling that, far in the future, mask and gloves would become daily wear and other social communication like a fashion show, meeting people and etc will be running digitally using VR, AR or other technologies. My trailer is rather there to implant the consciousness metaphorically in peoples mind but not to give the answer directly how we should act in this pandemic. It criticizes the wrong attitude and behaviour some people are showing nowadays and also makes them think about how we all should act not to make the trailer become a real future.

I think this media (photography, film) is a good medium to give the message to audiences. It can give a message directly and clearly and also metaphorically as well. Also, while showing the mask and gloves in the trailer, it can advertise the product and give the message at the same time.

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Blog post 2

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Before having this ‘better lives’ lecture, I honestly have never thought about these three aspects which are ‘sustainability’, ‘diversity’ and ‘social responsibility’. This was a good experience to make me think about the problems happening nowadays in fashion industries and how I should act and what I should consider in the future. Some of those lectures really came into my mind and changed my attitudes but some did not.

To be honest, ‘sustainability’ part did not make me agree with what they are saying at all. Fashion is just one of the common extravagances that human does to make themselves feel happy and designer stand for to satisfy consumer’s desire. I can understand that there are some significant sustainability problems in fashion industries, and they urge people to be in the problem and do something together about it. But, until fashion stays there as an extravagance, sustainability problem will not be gone, if the problem gets solved, still there will be lots of new side effects occur by that, for example, fashion designers will lose the chance of earning money. However, it can be used as a strategy of some brands to make the brand different from others and attract niche customers who are interested in sustainability problems. I do not think it is a problem that every people have to take care of unless fashion becomes an essential thing just like it was in primitive times. So, I do not think that there will be any change in how I work in the future in terms of sustainability.

However, unlike sustainability problem, I agree that diversity problem is a big thing that we all should try to solve. It is provoking the discrimination on race, gender, age, size and more countless part. It is breaking the basic human right that has to be protected and ensured. It became way better than before but there are still a lot of exclusivities happening fashion industries, especially, there are still far to go on Asians and disabled people. If we have a look at top magazine cover or editorial, it is still mostly covered with the famous star, sample-sized models. We can see some of plus-sized models and old generation people, but it is really hard to see Asian model or someone who has disabled compare to another race or non-disabled. As a fashion media student who will work on fashion photography and film, I will consider more on people who are standing in shadow and need the light to light them. I will try to listen to their voice and try to narrow the gap between all types of people. We are all the same human who has little difference to each other. There should not be any discrimination on the chance to be lit.

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  1. Zuzanna Kepczynska: As far as this review is concerned, I have decided to comment the blog post that caught my attention the…

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Lecture: Power by Julia Crew reflection

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Throughout the Julia Crew’s ‘Power’ lecture from better lives session, I could think of many problems and get information that I have never thought about and considered before.

From the lecture, they informed us that there is extreme inequality in wealth between a few rich people and others. The money that 62 really rich people have is equivalent to the money that 3.5 billion people has which is half of the population. This result of research made me ask myself that is there anything that I can do to change the problem just as one normal man, and will it be powerful enough to make the change. The thing I could only think was despite how hard I try, nothing would be going to change and everything would be in the shape of what those 62 powerful people want it to be. What I think is this is the biggest reason why I think people do not use their power as a consumer which can lead to a positive change in the fashion industry.

However, the lecture also suggested that there are still few ways to use the power properly as a consumer. Spending money as a consumer is one of the powerful ways to use the power every person has which can make the change. Use the money to vote for the product which can help to solve the problems in the fashion industry such as economy equivalent, sustainability, and diversity. Sustainability as an example, as a consumer, we can spend our money buying vintage or second-hand products to reduce the mass consumption and unnecessary clothing production which is 100 billion every year and 75% goes to landfills. This does not have to be limited only in shopping vintage product, we can also just buy fast fashion brands like ZARA, Topshop, and others. All we have to do is buy things and use them for a long time rather than just wearing it for one single season and discard it.

I thought about what I can do to make a positive change as a media student. Media is a very strong medium to make people think. Even though you are not paying attention to the media things you see, it works into your brain subconsciously and controls your mind. Everyone uses social media every day, it is really hard to live a day without watching the screen. Social media influencer has great power, they have more follower than a big company’s business account. People get more influenced by what the star says that they like and follow rather than what the brand says. Therefore, I think making campaign film or photography with the influencer about these problems and deliver messages can lead people to use their power properly and make a positive movement.

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