About the Project
I am _ was an online experiment conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turks, a platform that outsources jobs around the world. I hired the “workers” on the platform and asked them to describe me based on a picture I provided of myself, giving me a name, an age, a nationality, and character traits.
Project Category
Experiment
Art Direction
Printed Matter
CONCEPT
I receive around 100 entries. I was strucked by the wide range of personalities that were assigned just on the basis of one photograph. I was curious to see what common criteria they would assign and if there were any biases that would come through.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Of the 100 I chose nine of these characters and brought them to life through photography. It was interesting to see how my own biases influenced the art direction and my performance of the characters.
KEYSHIA. 46. African American. Hardworking. Introverted, and Athletic.
NON-ENGLISH. 20. American. Cheap, Plain, and Poor.
SHANIQUA. 22. African American
Sassy.
DEENA. 16. American. Sassy in a good way. Likes school, has many friends and is outspoken.
RONALDO. 19. Ethiopian. Introverted, artistic and soft-spoken
LUCY.8. African. Poor, hardworking and honest.
ALTHEA. 22. African. Bold, brave, determined and passionate.
MARIA. 25. South African. Lazy, angry and depressed.
DENIECE. 23. Gloom, pessimistic and bleak.
PUBLICATION
I documented the experiment and compiled my findings in a book. This experiment also made reflect my own experience as a black woman in graphic design. I created a series of card that reflected my own identity and commonalities I found with the personalities.
ingrid-nelson.com 