AGNES LIU

WORKS     Design

  

Dates. Numbers.  — Public Attention

 

INFO




This project discusses cold cases that are buried under piles of "interesting" articles with no further updates, leaving numbers hanging on the internet. The internet takes sides too quickly and mindlessly that none of the cases that gather traction are seen to the end. Topics such as the Jeffrey Epstein Case, the #FreePalestine movement gained attraction quickly, riled up large amounts of netizens, but amounted up to nothing as time passed and people moved onto the next big outrage. As social media and news collide, we as a society should reflect on our attitude toward serious cases and movements and clearly distinct the way we treat huge political movements and the way we treat Tiktok trends.
















The design of the piece was inspirited by the structure of a maze. The maze mirrors a foggy truth, luring people to dig deeper. Similar to articles that lead you down a rabbit hole, once you enter the maze, you wander around endlessly looking for the way out. However, there are forever curtains in your eyes, referencing the cases that have been abandoned or shut down without an






DATA SOURCING


The series of numbers listed by the date are the number of shares, comments, and likes for posts about the topic. For example, child abuse in a private kindergarten, first reported online in October 2017, went viral in a month. But soon, the internet was silenced and the case, left alone faded out from public attention. The data were collected from Weibo media and Baidu data set, where I chose significant data showing these three points' progression.
























PROCESS


These pieces use the technique of coated structure of the thermal transfer paper on gauze. The numbers are organized on an illustrator file and printed on the PVC sheet, then they can be ironed on the gauze.