Initial Idea 2 - Protest Signs and Societal Issues Related to Robots

In a near future where robots have the same rights as humans, it seems obvious that there will be people who disagree with this, that there will be protests and societal issues brought to light and it would be a controversial issue. In an effort to produce something which informs and spreads awareness of the singularity and robots developing, maybe a collection of hypothetical materials could be produced. If a robot were to create a protest signs for equal robot rights, what would it look like? If a human were to produce a poster protesting robots having equal rights, what would it say?

What makes a good protest sign? Typically the mind thinks of large hand painted letterforms on a big sheet of card, this certainly does add an element of feeling and personalisation to the message being out across, however it seems fitting for a robot’s protest sign to be more digital, representing the development of technology. 

It’s Nice That x Google Design

In association with Google Design, for an article about protesting and how regularly its occurring now to the point where its even considered fashionable, It’s Nice That created these cut out protest signs communicating some of the biggest social issues. The designs are very expressive and fun, and attain that boldness and ability to turn heads without communicating the message so aggressively. They really have that human hand made quality to them, which while successful, would not work for a robot protest sign. 

Jessica De Jesus 

In a Vice article about how to make an effective protest sign, creative director Jessica De Jesus talks about the importance of legibility and readability. She says to use a minimal approach to colour, maybe just having a coloured background, and to make sure the type stands out from the background. Type should be in a bold highly readable font and should be kerned quite wide to allow legibility from a distance. Furthermore, in this article, Hilary Rettig, an activist who’s been protesting since the 60’s talks about how the message on your sign should add that element of emotion in order to make people more empathetic, the example she gives is ‘Obamacare saved my life’ works better than just ‘Woman for Obamacare’. She also mentioned how more succinct and shorter messages can still be powerful, such as Shepard Fairey’s poster for Obama’s presidential campaign which simply reads ‘Hope’. 

This first design shows a flyer made by humans in protest of robots gaining sentence, occurring before the singularity. It utilises a narrow sans serif font to maximise its coverage of the page and uses a red background to increase its boldness as well as representing this almost slightly more aggressive tone. 

This second design is a protest sign by robots. It uses a slightly more emotional message to trigger empathy but also demonstrate that at this point, robots do have feelings and emotions. The design is more contemporary and attempts to utilise a more futuristic aesthetic, using a modern sans serif font in a bright green/blue on a grey background.

I think what’s interesting about this approach to the project is the potential for two different points of view, as demonstrated in these images. I think it really highlights well what the project aims to communicate, that this AI singularity might not be that far away, and it can’t be written off as a science fiction story anymore and should be talked about and planned for.