2. Competition Considerations

While looking through the competitions that Dionysia had shared in the assignment brief, I came across a specific image which really caught my attention and I kept going back to it.

What intrigued me was the imagery of the two women, facing each other and laughing, while wearing VR headsets. We don't know what exactly they're seeing. Is it each other? Is it something funny? Are they still interacting with each other in some way?

Because of this, I've decided to narrow down my options to competitions which involve the theme of human connection in some way. 
These options include:
SXSW, which has the theme "Innovation in Connecting People"
Interaction Awards (IXDA) with a category called "Connecting"
Finally, I'm including a third option which has more technical categories rather than thematic ones:
Core77 Design Awards

Following this, I just started writing down keywords, scribbling a flow of semi-connected terms onto paper, to see what kind of directions I can take this. 
From here, I thought of some issues I could try to address in the artefact I submit for the competition:
- "Technology makes people less social" - I don't actually believe this, but I think it's an interesting notion to challenge or reaffirm
- People aren't empathetic towards other human beings
- People who think and say they're not biased (racism etc) actually act in a biased manner
- People tend to stay within their own social circles and bubbles (whether in reality or social media)
- Racism in accents? (kind of a day-to-day observation on what makes an accent appealing and whether colonialism plays a part in that - more research required)
- Social media being a dishonest portrayal of life 
- People being unsympathetic towards those with disabilities (parking in handicap spaces, spaces not designed to be accessible by all)








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