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Game Project Main Menu

Final Page

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When I started this project, I intended for it to be able to solve all the problems of inequality and discrimination in the new world. This game was meant to reflect of the flaws that our professor pointed out in that. Empathy is required for social change, and that is something I truly believe. However, not everyone has empathy since it is an emotion. The EC chip was intended to at least show people's experiences to others, with this, I hoped that people would be more understanding and get along. However this game shows how that is problematic.

Regardless of the fact that people can share experiences with one another, some individuals do not care. Although we do not have the empathy chip in society we have many other ways to express our individual struggles, regardless of our backgrounds. We have film, social media, pictures, music, poetry, books, articles, performance art, painting and much more, that all aim to show problems with structural oppression. Even though all of these things exist in the world that can educate people on the problems we have in society, the problems are still here. The only way to move forward is to keep fighting to equality.

As far as the game goes, I wanted to chose some people from diverse backgrounds. I picked people from different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and economic status. I wanted to present how they would react to not only the idea of a government issued empathy chip, but also how they would react to social situations after being forced to know a little bit about a person's experiences. They experienced an interactive design because they didn't even have to chose to get an empathy chip in the first place, the user can flee. The user can also chose not to stick up for the oppressed, even after hearing some of the stories about the oppressed lives.

I drew on the same course readings that I used in the first two projects, but I also made sure each oppressed character was created based off of different readings, but the three main characters were based off of people I know from my own life. For example, the woman that Karlos ran into, named Elaina was based off of the borderlands text we read from Gloria Anzaldua. I wanted to portray how hard it is for some women to cross the border and how they are usually victims of terrible crimes but they have nobody to turn to because of immigration laws. The transwoman of color that Jonathan runs into, Shaylin, was based off of the ThinkProgress article about Larvene Cox declaring a state of emergency in the transgender community, due to the fact that people in that community are murdered and nobody does anything about the violence used on them. The young minorities that Catherine runs into when working on a new justice system were based off of the readings we have done about Mizzou, because it relates to #blacklivesmatter and speaks to the fact people in these communities are targeted by a corrupt criminal justice system just because of the color of their skin. I think by developing characters based off of the readings and seeing how the class responds to all of this I was able to successfully test out how my Empathy Chip would work in the hypothetical world I created. My conclusion is although it will not work on everyone, I think the chip could be effective on some people and work towards change.

Bibliography:

AnzaldUa, Gloria. Borderlands. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, n.d. Print.

Cooper, Brittney. "Intersectionality." Speculative Media & Social Change. The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory, Aug. 2015. Web. 04 Dec. 2015. <http://scalar.usc.edu/works/speculative-media-and-social-change---fall-2015/media/intersectionality-brittney-cooper>.

Dunne, Anthony., Project Muse, and Raby, Fiona. Speculative Everything Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT, 2013. Print. UPCC Book Collections on Project MUSE.
Ford, Zack. "Why Laverne Cox Declared A 'State Of Emergency' In The Transgender Community." ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., 21 Aug. 2015. Web. 04 Dec. 2015. <http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/08/21/3693717/transgender-murders-emergency/>.Harraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto." Science Technology And Socialist Technology In The 20th Century (1991): 302-10. Web. 5 Nov. 2015. <http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/Haraway-CyborgManifesto-1.pdf>.

Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Ed. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press. 110-114. 2007. Print.

Miller, Michael. "As Death Threats Spread Fear at Mizzou, Professor Asks Students to Defeat ‘bullies’ and Attend Class." The Washington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fscalar.usc.edu%2Fworks%2Fspeculative-media-and-social-change---fall-2015%2Fexternal%3Flink%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.washingtonpost.com%252Fnews%252Fmorning-mix%252Fwp%252F2015%252F11%252F11%252Fas-threats-spread-fear-at-mizzou-a-professor-asks-students-to-defeat-bullies-and-attend-class%252F%253Ftid%253Dsm_tw%26prev%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fscalar.usc.edu%252Fworks%252Fspeculative-media-and-social-change---fall-2015%252Fschedule>.
Nakamura, L., & Chow-White, Peter. (2011). Race after the internet. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Images used for website:
http://www.midtowninsurancegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/construction-worker.jpg
"Construction Worker' Image by midtown Insurance Group

http://facialexercisesguide.com/wp-images/middle-aged-woman.jpg
"Middle Aged Woman" Image By Facial Excercise Guide

http://www.vidavibrante.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/infertility-hispanic-men.png

"Hispanic Man' Image by Vida Vibrante

https://www.google.com/search?q=brown+stream&espv=2&biw=1024&bih=490&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiN54vr-83JAhVGzGMKHQeCBKcQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=death&imgrc=ffB3zEh37SSubM%3A

http://www.janwellmann.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Post-Apocalypse-London.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Wastewater_effluent.JPG
"Post Apocalypse London" Image by Jan Wellman
http://thelittlevelvetbox.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Unnecessary.jpg
"Unnecessary" Creator Unknown

http://www.cotton-club-apparel.com/factory/Sewing%20Factory.jpg
"Our Sewing Factory" By Cotton Club Apparel

http://www.calaborfed.org/userfiles/image/2012/blog/LA-transportation-construction-workers_mainstory1.jpg
"La Transportation Construction Workers" By Colaborfed

http://relation-chips.net/images/empathy.gif
"Empathy" By Relationshp Chips
Footage for video:
Matrix, Console, Hacking Code By Broli.io
Link: https://videos.pexels.com/videos/matrix-console-hacking-code-1
Circuit Board Stock Video, By Beachfront
Link: http://www.videezy.com/technology/103-circuit-board-stock-video-in-hd