Sabah Zdanowska - Creativity in Design Blog

Using Composite Images to Inspire Reflective Poetry

In the early stages of our project, my team and I especially talked a lot about our fears when it came to the smart city. We also wanted our project to be something positive, so we were keen to express and understand our feelings early on.

The common themes were around the safety of our data and what it could be used for that would potentially harm us. There was also a feeling that the hype was all about being highly connected and efficient, but actually this didn’t fit with our ideas of a city that we really wanted to live in. It didn’t feel human - let alone friendly to any other living beings that we share our cities with.

Composite Image Making and Poetry

I chose to confront these ideas and fears, but making images that described how I was feeling. I decided to make composite images for two different ideas along the lines of the themes described above. Both happened to inspire poems that I have also included.

Now We Are Filed

The first image was about how we used to have our information boxed and filed away. Your patient record at your surgery. Your CV stored away, even though you never received a reply. A highly organised and efficient system, except we weren’t being treated as a human beings.

Now all sorts of data about us is stored in massive servers in different parts of the world. We don’t know what is being stored, where it is being stored or how it might be used. The dehumanisation factor is even greater, but it’s also hard to know when we transitioned from one system to the other. Erosion happens slowly over a period of time.

This inspired the composite image above , where the image of the paper files is torn to reveal the disconcerting image of the data centre below. It also inspired the following poem.

Now we are filed

We were labelledWe were categorisedWe were boxedWe were filed
For efficiencyFor improved servicesDehumanisation was the price
But I am not youAnd you are not meHe is not youAnd she is not me
Now we are codifiedNow we are analysedNow we are processedNow we are filed
For innovationFor better decision makingFurther dehumanisation is the price
But I am not youAnd you are not meHe is not youAnd she is not me

The Ghost

For the second composite image, I wanted to use one of the many futuristic looking smart city images that depict the hyper connected smart city and where traffic is often replaced by streams of light on the highways.

For me these images made me think about how lonely the city looked and how superficial. I felt like this future did not connect with my idea of a place where I want to either live or work.

I thought of the famous artwork “The Scream” created by Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch. I considered something for the first time with that image - we could create an environment where we’re so busy designing the future that people’s anxious screams are not heard.

I imposed the image of the person in “The Scream” and it inspired the poem: The Ghost.

The Ghost

He wanders through a buzzing cityOut of phase with the rest of the worldInvisible. Alone.
He watches passers by with a child’s curiosityA father hurriedly herding his childrenA group of girls engrossed in their smartphonesA couple being enticed by shop windows
Studying their expressions, he casts his mind backBack to memories from long ago that have become blurred with timeJoy, connection, the pain from laughing too much…Pain.
He remembers vaguely the feeling of painThe feeling of fear, anxiety, loneliness…But they are all far away now
Now he is numbNow he can only wonderHe has tread lightly for so long, he has learned how to float
Now his screams no longer make a sound
He shivers as a cold fog descends upon himIt surrounds himEnvelops himTransforms himHe has become a ghost.

Reflecting on Composite Image Making and Poetry

This is my first ever attempt at making composite images, so was quite challenging for me. I was keen to try as my ideas for the images were based on my feelings towards the smart city, that I could not simply photograph or depict in a drawing.

The process was one of trial and error. I did not have access to Photoshop, nor did I have much experience of using it, so I tried different freely available tools and then tried different features to see if I they would help me to achieve my vision. Not all of the images that I chose to use worked, so I tried different ones. It was important that the images conveyed what I was feeling rather than being a composite images that looked finished. Both end products were "Aha!" moments.

I did not expect the images to drive me to write poems (also something I have not done in years!) However, It did help me to get out of my system certain fears I had about the smart city and to understand them. My goal was not to let fear drive my design, but rather to understand it, compartmentalise it and then - hopefully - to enable me to have a positive design experience.

I realised afterwards that both images and their corresponding poems were about dehumanisation - either by being downgraded to a number in a filing system or data centre and a loss of control over our own data, or the feeling of extreme loneliness and sense of being unheard in (ironically in a hyper connected city) that the subject feels he is a ghost.

We are taught about human centered design, but somehow in smart city projects citizens seem to be second class. I wanted to make sure that this would be addressed in whatever my group would design.

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