DESIGN RATIONALE

My thesis artefact is reflective of themes such as linguistic subversion, artistic solidarity and conflict. Much like the iterative nature of the disruptive design process, the significance lies in the process of developing my artefact. Drawing inspiration from the Lennon Wall sightings of Hong Kong (p.25-26), I designed a process that involves participatory design to create a spontaneous space of ideas, thoughts and expressions relating to disruption or disruptive design (not local politics). Lennon walls were considered to be one of the most artistically ‘disruptive’ acts of free expression against the Hong Kong government during the protests (source). In light of the new National Security Law, they are now banned, though I intended to contribute to the ongoing efforts in preserving and digitalising these artworks. Harnessing the power of social media, like disruptive tactics demonstrated in the protests (p.21), I uploaded a public ‘story’ on my personal Instagram platform, inviting the audience to ‘participate’ in my process:

After a few hours, I recorded the digital responses in the form of sticky notes and surrounded a wall space full of ideas and quotes. Some of these contributions were humorous, perhaps not even entirely relevant, but they had a place in my artefact in value of inclusivity. My artefact also involved printing A4 pages of my written thesis, where blue paint was used to ‘censor’ words considered to be politically sensitive. These brush strokes is interruptive of the reader’s flow of my dissertation, literally ‘disrupting’ one’s understanding of my topic. The colour blue was chosen, being the political colour of the pro-establishment camp. Altogether, visual style in colour choice was politically deliberated, my process was inspired by artistic disruption and as a Design Management student, I adapted my understanding of participatory design to develop this prototype.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 2 ABSTRACT 3 DESIGN RATIONALE 4 INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER 1. Disruption in three forms 8 1.1 Disruption as a Mindset Model 8 1.2 Systems Thinking approach to disruption 10 1.3 Disruptive Design as a Method 12 CHAPTER 2. Disruptive activism in Hong Kong 18 2.1 Political landscape of Hong Kong and youth movement 18 2.2 Disruptive mindsets amongst Hong Kong youths 19 2.3 Digital disruption in Hong Kong activism 21 2.4 Disruptive structure adopted by youth activists 23 CHAPTER 3. Analysis of disruptive change 27 3.1 Cultural implications of disruptive design 27 3.2 Ethical implications of disruptive design 28 CONCLUSION 30 BIBLIOGRAPHY 32 FIGURE LIST 40 APPENDIX: Survey Results 43