The Venus Project

300 Word Statement

The Venus Project is an interactive social experiment that aims to highlight forms of gender imbalance and prejudice whilst being engaging to the everyday individual. From the start of fourth year I wanted to design an interactive installation to educate people and draw attention to a relevant sociological issue as well as being something I am passionate about. Initially I investigated the prevalence of sexual harassment by asking volunteers to provide stories of experiences which could be seen as sexist which I was going to display. However, what I discovered was if you want people to listen and engage you have to provide them an opportunity to explore the topic in a light-hearted way which became the basis of my project.

I was able to gain insights through talking to different women but struggled to think of the best way to present this data. The more I spoke to people the more my idea became clear: I wanted people to understand the reason why I was investigating sexual harassment and why it is such a relevant issue in today’s society. In order to do this I had to draw their attention to the invisible problem first, then to the prevalence of casual sexism, finishing with some stats, figures and possible causes through the use of infographics. The first step was achieved by testing people’s unconscious bias through drawing attention to their own internal dismissive behaviour, whilst keeping with the light-hearted tone of the project as a whole. I hope that people who interact with the installation enjoy the visual representation of the data I collected and come away with an altogether greater understanding of the challenges faced by many in society today. It is essential to challenge all forms of gender imbalance and prejudice in order to tackle the greater problem as a whole.

Great Images

Storyboard

App walk through

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