Painting a rainbow

Hello everybody :)

Previously I spoke a bit about pop-culture driving consumerism and that got me thinking more about how the attitudes of marketeers and media personals towards any product/service/system and the consumer is shaping our today and tomorrow.

I happened to attend an insightful talk by Monika Bielskyte by Future Tense where she spoke about the need for media to be a lot more inclusive in terms of culture, race and other practices specific to certain sets of people. While a certain future is predicted and portrayed through media, that need not be true for the majority. The future emerges from the present, present is contextual and differs from every city to city, individual to individual and culture to culture but these differences have absolutely no say in building a diverse future. Instead, it all trickles down to the same ocean where men are clones of each other. Like I have mentioned before, we are a lot western driven when it comes to the aspiration of leading a better future since that’s exactly what’s fed to us by different forms of media but the complication is in leaving back our present. On revisiting all the Marvel & sci-fi movies & series, it was safe to conclude that media is undoubtedly exclusive and is based on a top down approach. They all are absolutely provocative and instigative but seem to be restrictive in terms of narrating stories of different characters coming from distinct backgrounds. Every story board is white washed before producing which is then fed to the rest of the world. Very conveniently the west has eliminated the rest just because privilege has it’s perks. Fortunately or unfortunately, their world has been this tiny shell with every luxury one could possibly crave for. So their (everybody’s) future is only an extended version of their current. It’s super safe to assume that media/entertainment plays a massive role in what we all become but the creators of entertainment have drawn boundaries and have limited the spectrum of content generation. Only when we visualise a kind of world, we manage to build the same.

While it’s accomplishing to see Sophia replicate human emotions almost precisely, it’s irking to not see an Asian version of Black Mirror. Every technological progression or intervention is an elite vision that seems to not be customised for the ethnically distinct population. The lanes of Chor Bazar in Mumbai are only meant to be shady, the kind of architecture, cultural significance and traditions followed by the diverse population residing in these lanes won’t be projected in the near future since it’s not a part of someone’s vision. Modern uniform English architecture and well planned magical smart cities are ruling the future. Domes with mirror sequence work, sun rays escaping through the small vents, bearded men and women with kohl lined eyes, tattoo-ed bodies & traditional jewellery, animals living in the jungle, feeding off each other, dogs & cats barking & meowing at each other are forced to lose their identity to venture into the future. While casting only a certain set of people as the men/women who will be conquering the future is not completely wrong but not casting a certain set of people will eventually lead to only neglecting their presence on this planet. We only wish to live in the kind of world that’s being projected to us. No wonder 190 out of 250 Aboriginal languages were lost during transit, no wonder the Siddi tribes in the pockets of Karnataka seem to have lost their history somewhere far behind, no wonder the current generation fails to question their past while being so inquisitive about the unknown future.

I believe that this theory works in the exact same fashion for advertising, publication and other sectors of media. Stereotypes/generalisations don’t exist, they are given birth to from collective perceptions. Perceptions are built by portraying the same idea over and over again. You have been told to eat & write with your right hand and that’s exactly why stationery companies don’t manufacture sharpners for left handers. That’s being exclusive, isn’t it? The designer completely neglected the fact that about 10–12% of his/her target audience is incapable of using the designed product. While this is just a teeny tiny example, the concern pertains across sectors blocking our power to imagine an inclusive world- where there truly is not one single animal feeling left out.

I would like to believe that there is enough work being done on the above lines, to mould and broaden perceptions. With creations like Black Panther, I truly hope that Indian films and other forms of entertainment also drift into painting an immense, collective and collaborative horizon, where the distinct colours flow seamlessly.

Hope you had a good read, thank you :)

PS: Please do follow Future Tense for more such insightful sessions.