Sharnia King Design

Documentation

Manifesto

Part A - Look/Observe

• Open your eyes and close your mind.

• Use lots of tabs.

• Click all the links.

• Save things that interest you.

• Get lost on the internet.

• Take notice.

• Read.

• Watch.

• Listen.

• Browse hashtags.

• Look at social media.

Part B - Make/Create

• Be inspired, or inspire yourself.

• Try something new everyday.

• Give context and meaning.

• Always save.

• Iterate.

• Work with colour, or the absence of colour.

• Look at the digital and the physical copies.

Part C - Remember/Memorize

• Everything will work out because it has to.

• Enjoy this moment in time.

• Not everything needs to have a purpose.

• Inspire others.

• Don’t kill anything.

• Design to remember.

• Design to share.

• Design to inspire.

• Design to change.

The CyberFlâneur is an individual who aimlessly wanders the internet, observing society. Without intent, she/he is able to browse the streets of the internet, observing what is around them. Wandering through websites, topics and social media platforms, the CyberFlâneur has the ability to take inspiration from what they see, applying this new found information to their work as designers and artists. 

Taking in the surrounding world, CyberFlâneurie provides methods of viewing otherwise inaccessible parts of the world, even if it does have a filter. Although looking at our backyard is interesting, we can see variety, and increase the scope of our view. We can get lost in the obscure Instagram hashtags from around the world and get to the weird places on the Internet.

We can take inspiration from other people’s work, lifestyle and experiences. We can make our own lives better as we develop and grow as designers. We can contribute. We can do better work. We can make changes. We can make a difference. We can share. We can be inspired and inspire others.

Manifesto Aesthetic 

The visual aesthetic of my manifesto follows the designed look of an Instagram newsfeed. This continues the idea of the journey a CyberFlâneur takes while browsing the Internet.

Because the Instagram screen spaces are so small, I had to split up my content into smaller sections. This was a good thing, because it made each “screen” more powerful as they were easier to read, with less information to understand in one go. 

The individual Instagram screens are monochromatic, with black text on a white background. This is to draw focus on the words and what they are saying, in order to reinforce the idea of the CyberFlâneur and the journey she/he takes. 

The CyberFlâneur applies to more than just Instagram. It is relevant to all social media platforms and all of the Internet. It is a endless journey, taking no particular direction. I have chosen to use Instagram as a focus for the depiction of the journey because Instagram has a wide range of visual content and the use of hashtags can lead to some interesting finds.

Creative Manifestation

For the creative manifestation of our manifesto, I have created a short video describing the journey of the CyberFlâneur. It is taken from the perspective of an Instagram user, because it is one of the most visual social media's and the use of hashtags makes it easy to lose yourself within the realms of the platform.

The journey the CyberFlâneur undertakes, is one of random internet surfing. By clicking random links and pages, she/he is exposed to content they may otherwise not see see. Through exposure to new material, the CyberFlâneur has the opportunity to #discover, #create and #inspire other people, by giving content back to the internet. 

 Promotional Material

For the promotional material, to go along side our manifestos and creative manifestations, I have created a selection of polaroids. These polaroids depict a range of images from my video with hashtags written on top, presenting the main points of my manifesto.

I wanted to use a polaroid style photo because they represent the capture of a moment in time. And that is exactly what I wanted to do, through the journey of the CyberFlâneur. 

I have signed the bottom of them with my name and the year, in order to further document this moment in time, in association with myself as a designer. Therefore, people who want to take a copy of my promotional material have the key ideas of my manifesto and a keepsake for this moment in time, from when they were looking at my work and interested in it.