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Mind Your Body Art
Social Campaign
The Challenge
Design a social campaign to encourage artists to practice mindfulness when creating body art works in Singapore.
The Outcome
"Mind Your Body Art," with the use of interactive advertisements, raises body art practitioners' awareness of cultural taboos and diminishes the negative impact of insensitive use of body art in Singapore
My role
Project Lead; Graphic Designer
Why the
campaign
is born
Over the years, freedom of expression has evolved and increasing importance has been placed on it. Hence, in Singapore, there has been an increase in acceptance of body art which had previously been viewed negatively due to it being unconventional or a sign of deviant behavior.
However, owing to the increasing freedom of expression, body art practitioners can inadvertently cause social tension due to insensitivity to the different cultural practices around them, especially in a culturally diverse society like Singapore.They may unknowingly provoke different cultures, races, religions and viewpoints because they are unaware of the meanings behind their artworks. This happens when such artworks are indecent, explicit or disrespectful to different groups.
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What the
campaign
entails
“Mind your Body Art” is an awareness campaign in which interactive advertisements are set up to educate artists about improper use of body art. The locations of these advertisements will be at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station as it is located in the Singapore Art District where artists and art enthusiasts frequent. (MRT stands for Mass Rapid Transport which refers to the train network in Singapore.)
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These advertisements utilize the concept of lenticular printing, where printed images change from one image to another when viewed from different angles. Lenticular printing is more affordable than technology solutions that sensor depth and motion.
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A sample advertisement is put on the entrance at a train platform in Dhoby Ghaut station. As a person walks from position A to position B, the advertisement changes to show a possible negative consequence of improper use of body art.
In the sample advertisement above, the artist is drawing the Swastika symbol on the client's back. Swastika is a symbol for prosperity, divinity and spirituality in many Asian cultures. However, it has been stigmatized by association with ideas of racism and antisemitism in the West.
Evaluation
From my team's survey of the public, 76% of respondents indicated that they frequently or always notice advertisements at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. Moreover, 71% of artists agreed that interactive ads are more appealing than traditional ones. Thus, "Mind Your Body Art" is perceived as an effective strategy.
My team was aware of the possibility that our target audience, body art practitioners, may not get the message if they are not using the MRT. Hence, to bring the message closer to body art practitioners, I propose an extension of the awareness campaign using creative bag designs.
ArtFriend is one of the largest retailers of art materials in Singapore. The bags used at checkout counters at various locations of ArtFriend may have their designs changed, as a part of "Mind Your Body Art" campaign.
The same graphics from the earlier interactive advertisement is used for the ArtFriend's bag redesign. (Left: Front design; Right: Back design)
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Art practitioners, frequently purchasing materials at ArtFriend, will be attracted to the new bag designs with the message. Hence, they will be more aware of the insensitive use of body art and avoid it. Besides that, non-artists will also see the message and be more sensitive when interacting with body art in the future. Therefore, the awareness campaign will impact many more people.
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