practice

PRACTICE

excerpts of research I have done on the conversation about colorism (with impact focused on black women) on Twitter, using sentiment analysis and theory of network analysis

REFERENCE

sentiment analysis - how do Twitter users speak/ feel about the notion of colorism in relation to black women?

network analysis - how do Twitter users connect/ bond, support each other when it comes to the notion of colorism in relation to black women?

visual of network analysis

RESEARCH

findings - on social media in particular Twitter, people discuss the notion of colorism whenever there is a scandal in pop culture (hip hop celebrities or music e.g. discussion panel about rapper kodak black being a colorist), when darkskin women are often portrayed as strong forefront at a protest (rolling stone cover) and when a company made a fault in their marketing campagnes (e.g. dove commercial).

social media users use hashtags such as #colorism # teamlightskin #teamdarkskin to distinguish themselves or to speak their mind about the topic

this project focuses on the the digital space of social media. The way people react towards different events that parttake in the notion of colorism towards black women.

MIDTERM

MORE RESEARCH

research question - how do female twitter users interact with each other amongst #colorism?

proposal question - what makes social media empowering for black women?

EXPERIMENTS

a visual gathering of pictures, comments, conversations and visual experiments

questions from my research posted on twitter to start conversation - I noticed I did not have a lot of engagement because I do not have a lot of followers. In the next period of researching I will engage by directly messaging people instead of trying to start one.

notes from conversations, articles and comments

NEW MAPPING

twitter color and form research

mapping based on the twitter structure of conversation and brief observation on the shades of black bodies shown in several hashtags that are related to colorism

instagram color and form research

mapping based on the instagram structure of conversation and brief observation on the shades of black bodies shown in several hashtags that are related to colorism

findings: social media allows black women to create and imagine the media that represents and celebrates them. By creating their own spaces (hashtags) they create their own communities of support, network building and relatability.

several hashtag means several small communities

Question: are these online communities created by black women inclusive to people with darker skin? --- by doing a small observation with the 9 hashtags I looked at the shades of black female bodies on twitter and instagram and visualizing this in the mapping.

every hashtag has its own representation and every individual has its own perspective about the hashtag.

for futher research I want to ask the individuals directly what their hashtag (community) means to them and if they feel included in this community.

merging colors = visualization of supporting women regardless of anonimity or status

outfits made for the poetry video

mindmapping for poetry

EXECUTION

colors derived from research

video try outs

tests with color schemes and text

see twitter page for full poetry