We collected and analysed pictures of vocal figures, stories, reports and historical events, and their relation to the media in all its diverse forms. Our aim was to put the politics of the media under the microscope. We examined the structure of the content as well as it’s background, and investigated the power of propaganda and censorship of the media. It was important to highlight how the viewer perceives suffering in the media and how it affects their opinions and actions. We considered the ideology that is and was associated with the Internet, and the role it could play as a catalyst for protest culture.

We found that the media, and the world wide web in particular, generates a diverse range of opinions – some of them highly controversial. Perception varies: many believe that there is potential for a utopian landscape of total freedom and ultimate democracy; many others fear Orwellian control.

The question at the heart of the work was this: are newer, faster and more direct technologies purely tools for communication, or do they hold the power to spark genuine change in society?

TEAM: Katarzyna Bodziak, Meike Detering under the supervision of Prof. Barbara Holzer and Prof. Philip Teufel  (FH Düsseldorf, edi – Exhibition Design Institute, MA Exhibition Design).

When the wedding of a befriended couple came up, I didn´t want to go for just another dinnerware set. Instead I wanted to give them something personal which would make them smile even in 50 years, when they would find the present going through old storage boxes on their attic with their twenty grandchildren…given that my gift would somehow end up in a storage box by accident.

So I decided to design their own personalised Monopoly..erm- Monogamy game. Of course all the streets on the board had to be streets of cities the bride or the groom had lived before (Luckily both had moved often enough). The last and most expensive street was the one they moved in together.
Instead of the four train stations the couple could buy four of their favourite nightclubs they used to go before they knew each other, instead of the water works and the power house they walked along the hospitals they were born in. This way I hope to have encouraged them to tell each other all the stories linked to these places in their memories and to get to know each other even better. The same idea was applied to some of the community and the event cards: I have upgraded the game a little by adding some pantomime tasks, where the players had to give away something from their past or their future longings. For example they had to explain who their biggest crush in their teen lives was or what alternative profession they would love to perform.
Some other cards featured scenes of their relationship, for example: “The neighbours didn’t like the romantic serenade you sang to your darling last night under their window- you have to pay a fine of 300 DM.”
Of course, the classic prison field had to relate to the marriage theme too- so it became the sofa you have to sleep on when your partner thinks you snore too loudly. The “free parking” field sported the first car model the couple had bought together.  The field one usually has to pay super tax became the church tax field, while the income tax was the spousal joint tax (common in Germany). Last but not least the money notes featured icons of the couples biggest common passion: both are big gourmets!

Thanks to the newlyweds for allowing me to show my present to the public- enjoy playing MONOGAMY!