Week 9 & 10 ( 31.10.'16 - 11.11.'16)
After our Autumn break we rounded up our research for Sarah's little assignment (researching how immersed an audience becomes (on a scale of looking at, being there and being it) when we give them an active, and a passive role, for every medium. In my case the medium was poetry; some interesting results came from this.)
And we also finished Marcel and Wander's assignment where we had to try to invoke the feeling of submission in someone.
And we also finished Marcel and Wander's assignment where we had to try to invoke the feeling of submission in someone.
But after going to the Playgrounds festival (2.11) I felt rejuvenated and inspired again to tackle Marcel and Sarah's workshop; Hoax Design.
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"How can you temporarily disrupt a functioning social, political or cultural system to create critical debate by designing a believable and (hoax) story ?"(like creating a glitch in reality! a temporary disruption.)
This workshop was basically about strategic & transmedia storytelling. Figuring out a strategy; connecting different mediums and platforms to spread a believable hoax/story that would engage people and spark a debate.
For this assignment I decided to team up with Quintus, Tijmen and Kevin as I thought that designing a big hoax (like the examples that were shown to us by Marcel & Sarah) on my own would be too big of a task, for a two-week workshop.
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After brainstorming for a few days, thinking of subjects we wanted to spark a debate about, we decided to settle on "designer babies" (Babies that are the result of genetic screening or genetic modification -> to create desired traits in a child..) But later on we also incorporated "harvest babies/saviour siblings" (a child who is born to provide an organ or cell transplant to a sibling that is affected with a fatal disease) into our story.
So eventually we came up with this story; a Korean couple chose to create a genetically engineered saviour sibling, that would be brought to full term so its heart could be transplanted into their sick child, because he is in desperate need of a heart transplant. That would mean the designer baby would have to die though, so their firstborn child could continue to live.
But we didn't want to take a standpoint and present this story in a bad light. We thought it would be best to present it neutrally, so readers could form their own opinion. We created this story to introduce people to the concept of designer babies/saviour siblings/genetic modification and the technology behind it, and to let people know that these technologies soon won't be science fiction anymore, thanks to rapid developments in science.
So we wanted our hoax to spark the debate before the use of these technologies become more and more mainstream, so we can discuss how to use these technologies responsibly and ethically.
So eventually we came up with this story; a Korean couple chose to create a genetically engineered saviour sibling, that would be brought to full term so its heart could be transplanted into their sick child, because he is in desperate need of a heart transplant. That would mean the designer baby would have to die though, so their firstborn child could continue to live.
But we didn't want to take a standpoint and present this story in a bad light. We thought it would be best to present it neutrally, so readers could form their own opinion. We created this story to introduce people to the concept of designer babies/saviour siblings/genetic modification and the technology behind it, and to let people know that these technologies soon won't be science fiction anymore, thanks to rapid developments in science.
So we wanted our hoax to spark the debate before the use of these technologies become more and more mainstream, so we can discuss how to use these technologies responsibly and ethically.
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After making up our story, we worked out our strategy;
To offer the neutral standpoint in this story (so people could form their own opinion), we created our first character; the Dutch medical student and researcher "Michael Leemans", who went to Korea and spoke to this couple. Michael documented the Korean couple's case in a blogpost:
To offer the neutral standpoint in this story (so people could form their own opinion), we created our first character; the Dutch medical student and researcher "Michael Leemans", who went to Korea and spoke to this couple. Michael documented the Korean couple's case in a blogpost:
We also made up the company "Demetra"; a Korean research institute, specialising in genetics. Their vision is to create a better world without a shortage of organ donors, because Demetra grows the organs themselves. But there is a dark twist to it, because they basically create babies whose organs are harvested. So our Korean couple went to this company, Demetra, to create their own baby that would be the perfect tissue match for their sick child, so he could get a new heart.
Demetra's infomercial:
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Conclusions
So after all our little bits of information (the blog, and the infomercial) were made, we started spreading them onto Christian forums, Science forums, and Reddit, to get reactions from opposing camps. Some people actually did give the reaction we were hoping for; namely that what Demetra does is murder and such. But because we made all the Demetra accounts/infomercial
and Michael's blog like a few days before we started spreading them onto forums, some people literally called bullshit on us. They looked for Demetra via Google, but with no results. But even though people didn't believe our story anymore, we were still happy that they tried to delve deeper into our story, and look for more information. If we had more time during this workshop we would've made a website for Demetra and all that,
and maybe share the information via accounts that actually have
followers, because all the sockpuppet accounts we made had 0 followers/0 posts obviously... which is quite fishy. There's so many more steps we could've/would've taken if we were given more time. But it's also our own fault because we spent too much time doing research on the science/procedures behind designer babies/saviour siblings (and even then we had to invent technologies that don't actually exist, to support our story). Therefore we had less time to decide our strategy and make it a
longlasting, believable hoax.
Nonetheless, this workshop was still a lot of fun. I found spreading pieces of a story via multiple platforms very interesting, as it's something I'd never done before. It sort of felt like creating a puzzle with many little pieces, left in different places, and letting the audience discover them and try to solve it. I definitely see the potential of transmedia storytelling. Normal stories are told via one medium, where all the information is usually given at once, but because of that your story is easier to forget as it's less engaging. So transmedia storytelling can be/is the opposite.
Nonetheless, this workshop was still a lot of fun. I found spreading pieces of a story via multiple platforms very interesting, as it's something I'd never done before. It sort of felt like creating a puzzle with many little pieces, left in different places, and letting the audience discover them and try to solve it. I definitely see the potential of transmedia storytelling. Normal stories are told via one medium, where all the information is usually given at once, but because of that your story is easier to forget as it's less engaging. So transmedia storytelling can be/is the opposite.
What is probably important for a good hoax:
- Be a good liar, by doing your research
- Anticipate the reactions of your audience
- Come up with a good strategy
- Anticipate the reactions of your audience
- Come up with a good strategy
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