In my previous assignment, I contextualised the way in which hashtags on Tik Tok play a pivotal role in encouraging the public and its users to engage and participate with the app. Reiterating Glas, René, et al., article, The Playful Citizen, which highlights Bennet, Wells and Freelon’s description of ‘acualizing citizenship’. I decided to focus on methods that promote actions ‘that draw attention to self-expression, emotional involvement, and intrinsic motivation’. With this in mind, I wanted to create a campaign that used both hashtag and encouraged civic participation.
To summarise the idea, I decided to create a public campaign using the medium of digital billboards, similar to what you find in Times Square or big shopping centres.
The billboards would follow a rotation hashtag encouragements in different locations. For example, the campaign would promote performances by flashing #dance or #perform in a specific location. This campaign sparks spontaneity from the public and promotes the use of hashtags. Each location would have its individual hashtag that can be shared to social media. I curated the idea of #DOMelbourne, which plays on the idea of engaging in different activities around the city. The rotation of hashtags would entice new members of the the public to discover each location and participate in a new activity. In Rambukkana’s article, Hashtag publics: the power and politics of discursive networks (2015), it is stated that ‘the Internet provides not only a bridge to a movement, but also acts as a method for engagement and participation by individuals who have no significant contact.’ In this campaign, the billboards act as the bridge for the public to interact and explore Melbourne both in reality and on social media. The hashtag #DOMelbourne would become an archive of different images and videos that the public has uploaded. The idea behind this campaign aims for the general public to film / capture themselves in front of the billboard participating in the prompts.
I was provided feedback to experiment and explore different locations having different themes and hashtags. I would like to explore this idea through researching locations of Melbourne and what they are known for. For example, Fed Square could have #perform flash on its big digital screen as it is an area known for performances and art. Another could be China Town and people showcase their foods in front of the billboard. The use of the billboards could act as checkpoints on a map to encourage participants to navigate themselves around Melbourne and interact with different activities that locations have to offer.
The billboard campaign also offer immersive backgrounds that encourage the general public to interact and participate in taking selfies and images in front of. This is inspired by the current Vincent Van Gogh exhibition that is running at the Lume. Many individuals have participated in taking images / videos in the experience and shared it to social media. Not only does this promote civic participation in regards to the prompt but this campaign promotes the use of the app to encourage more users onto it. This concept is different as anybody can be apart of the experience, unknowingly realising they are apart of a media experience. With the encouragement of participation plays on the action of mobile storytelling. Mobile Media Making in an Age of Smartphones (Berry & Schleser, 2014) explored aesthetics, space and place, knowledge and stories and the self. This examined how experiences are shaped by creative practices which created “new visualities and socialities.” Through broadcasting a prompting hashtag to a group of individuals, not necessarily a group that knows each other, but having them participate in the same prompt ties them together communally.
I asked myself, what influenced this idea? After previously analysing the ways in which hashtags can partially dictate the way that Tik Tok is used, it inspired me to create a way in which hashtags can encourage the public to participate in activities in creative and immersive ways using hashtags as a motive. Similarly to flashmobs, I wanted to use the idea of one individual participating and snowballing into others joining in. Simple prompts and aesthetic pixels encourage civic participation with no return for doing so. Ideal users would include individuals who frequently use and participate in apps such as Tik Tok and Instagram. Other ideal users could be individuals looking to adventure Melbourne city and seek recommendations.
Glas, René, et al., editors. (2019), The Playful Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture. Amsterdam University Press, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcmxpds.
Rambukkana, N. (2015). Hashtag publics: the power and politics of discursive networks. http://site.ebrary.com/id/11120742.
Berry, M., & Schleser, M. (2014). Mobile media making in an age of smartphones. Palgrave Macmilla
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