Manifesto project launch

Project Launch: 22 July 2019

Can Art & Design change the world?

To answer this question, our group of students with diverse backgrounds and pathways began identifying what all there was in the world that we wanted to change..

Some topics of importance identified during a group brainstorming session

After discussing a broader range of issues and sub-topics, we set out making polemic statements relating to a couple of identified problems..

Racial stereotypes in the context of terrorism stood out as an intriguing subject of our interest.

Cultural Identity and Cultural Integration: issues of importance in global cities (like London) brimming with large immigrant populations.

Developing on our ideas and personal experiences, we framed a set of guidelines for our manifesto:

Cultural Integration/Tackling Racial Bias in Community

1. We would like to raise awareness towards conscious and subconscious cultural bias towards different nations.
2. Cultural insensitivity stems from ignorance, misinformation, and overgeneralization. 
3. Perceiving certain cultures as more “dangerous” than others is a bias in itself.
4. It is possible to feel like a foreigner in your native/birth country.
5. Stereotypes cause societal suppression such as limited job opportunities, rude treatment, mockery, unjust imprisonment, murder, and increased suspicion and surveillance. 
6. Bias comes from a natural human inclination to classify things for the purposes of survival and organize hierarchies. 
7. Statistics must be separated from stereotypes and logic from ethics.
8. Bias is human nature and perhaps may not be totally overcomable but action is a choice. 
9. By being aware of your intrinsic bias, you can make conscious physical choices to work against it.
10. Various media outlets can play both negative and positive roles in cultural integration: 
11.  Media allows people to learn more about different cultures. 
12. It allows the spread of biased opinions, more vocal and accessible than ever before under the blanket of “free speech.”

The following rules and statements have been provided for the maintenance of order and the overall safety of the community:

Discussions into the Form and Text of the Manifesto: Example Statements – Irony

Public Service Announcement or Trafalgar Square Rules:

1. Persons with beards longer than 3 centimeters must be prepared for a one-hour full-body search and accompanying x-ray at any time to account for stolen items
2. Speaking in non-English languages in public spaces is punishable by law with 500 community English-learning hours. Failure to comply will result in the extraction of subject’s tongue. 
3. Under free speech, slurs against people of color are celebrated and encouraged. 
4. Colored top corporate executives earning above minimum wage can be taxed up to 50% of their annual income.
5. Native-born humans outside of Anglo-Saxon descent are not entitled to protection under British law and must give up their passport.   
6. Customers are Gods, because God is white.
7. All these are true.

^ perhaps integrate satire into comic strip for the zine as ultimate manifesto.

Personal Research

Internet studies into the reasons and basis of racial biases, and their long term effects on society.