‘The work of both Witness and Greenpeace is based on bearing witness of either human or environmental injustice,’ Greenpeace campaigner Faiza Oulahsen said in the WDCD activation session Give Me Freedom, that was organized in partnership with Antalis / Arjowiggins.
Greenpeace protests against environmental crimes and ecological injustice by recording them and creating public awareness. Witness, represented here by designer and Pentagram-partner Harry Pearce, does the same for infringements of human rights, by providing people in oppressed situations with the means to record and expose human rights abuse.
APPS TO REVEAL TRUTH
Together with moderator Daniëlle Arets of Design Academy Eindhoven, Pearce and Oulahsen asked the participants in the workshop to come up with ideas how people can be encouraged to use their phones as a tool for change by showing the truth and bring justice.
One of the ideas that came out of the collective brainstorms was named ’50 shirts of grey’ and suggested that people would visualize air pollution by recording the blackness of their white T-shirts after a day in the city. ‘Completely brilliant,’ commented Harry Pearce and Oulahsen added that ‘the strength of this idea is that a lot of people can participate.’
Another idea consisted of an app that would help you to establish the impact on the environment of products at home. Another suggestion made was to override political campaigns, ‘that are all false’, by encouraging people to show the truth by recording what is really happening.
To conclude, Faiza Oulahsen, expressed her wonder about what design can do. ‘It is pretty amazing,’ she said, ‘the ideas you come up with after just 15 minutes of brainstorming.’
Top photo: Faiza Oulahsen introducing the session (photo Leo Veger)
GIVE ME FREEDOM was one of five Activation Sessions exploring the theme of climate action and media at WDCD Live Amsterdam 2017.