UPJ Voices - Final Thoughts

I choose this scenario as my final project, because I want to make a change, especially on college campuses. People are constantly making assumptions about a passing conversation or what their friend may have heard across the room. Gossip can ruin a person’s life and before gossip is spread like wildfire, get the facts first. I want people to stop making things sound worse than they really are, because anything you hear could quite possibly be about anything else except what you are thinking. It is important to listen and understand than to start something new and wrong.

Conversations are an essential part of communication between many types of people whether that be friends, colleagues, employers and more. My project consists of myself going to the three places on campus that I frequent most often. I sat in a convenient place in the area where conversation was occurring most. I spark noted as much of what I was hearing around as quickly as possible and did this for thirty minutes. I then created a Facebook page to post each quote. I wanted to open people’s eyes to what this situation may actually look like.

I will be using Facebook as my main digital device. I have made a page called UPJ Voices, where I will post each quote that I heard from each place and then make a negative assumption based on just that piece of information. This will create a negative connotation from that small quote that should not have been made, because so many other pieces of information are missing. The quote could really mean anything, but basing it off the tone of voice, the person saying it, and where the conversation is happening can create a host of problems.

My project is collaborative, location-based, and non-linear. It is collaborative, because I am consuming what other people are saying around me and my own thoughts. It is location-based, because I have to sit in various places on campus to receive the information I need. It is also non-linear, because there is no clear story, but a series of phrases that do not link together much. Together, they create a multi-digital idea that can hopefully send a message.

 I wanted to do this project, because college is a cruel place at times and conversations are almost never private. Not to mention that most of what is talked about on a college campus is usually gossip or trash talk about other people or situations, because it is a college campus. Then with all the gossip currently being talked about, more is created. The situation is like the game telephone where someone hears one thing then another and passes it around. I want people to stop and think about what they hear before the assume the worst. 

Catfish

Recently I watched the documentary, Catfish, which precedes the current television show. In the movie, Nev or Yaniv Schulman is talking with a girl named Abby who then leads to him talking with another girl, her sister. Nev develops feelings to this girl and later starts to notice something off.

We all catfish. Catfishing is when someone fakes who they really are on social media or the internet. We don't normally change the entirety of who we are and lie to people about it, but we do choose what aspects of ourselves are seen. This could come in the form of what pictures are posted, what statuses you post, the pages you like, the things you share, and what your about page contains.

The internet is our own way to only show the best parts of ourselves without ever revealing the worst parts of ourselves. You don't have to give out the information you don't want to and if you do it's almost entirely voluntary. You even get to choose if you even want to be you or someone else entirely. The internet let's you do just about anything and get away with it. It isn't until you're caught or when someone is negatively affected that it really matters. Though, you still have that choice to come clean or not. It all comes down to morals and ethics in the end.

Bathroom Gossip

Bathroom Gossip is a collection of sticky notes placed around women's bathrooms. The location is centralized at the University of Pittsburgh - Johnstown and revolves around empowering women. For a generation, bathrooms have been a location of hatred, sorrow, bullying and worse. Women bash other women in hopes of making themselves feel better. I wanted to change the presence a bathroom has by incorporating positive notes in places that would be hopefully be seen and appreciated.

I was sure to be unseen and undetected as I placed the notes around campus. I wanted to remain as anonymous as possible for the duration of the project in hopes of capturing the attention of women positively without initial connections. I am unsure of this project really made a difference, but I do hope that someone was empowered by my quotes in keeping their head held high and a sassy step in their walk.