Critical Texts Show

Information, Texts



SHOW: All  Tactical Publishing  Post-Branding  The Care Manifesto  Xenofeminism
Click Me Not
Yangdi Zhang “Click Me Not” is an interactive piece that challenges your sense of control. Inspired by ideas from Chapter 4 about “Repetition and Proliferation”, it uses endlessly scrolling text and constant pop-up interruptions to mimic information overload. Each time you try to close a pop-up, more appear, testing your patience and making you question whether you’re really in control. Maybe trying to stop it only makes things worse.

Category
Tactical Publishing
Happiness Guide
Ran TanThis project challenges the concepts of universal care and expanding care networks discussed in the book. While care promotes equal participation, in reality, differences in abilities, resources, and mental states often create moral pressure, putting a burden on some individuals. Expanding the care network turns care into a collective obligation, blurring the line between personal and social responsibility, making care work overly generalized and hard to manage. Gamifying care with a reward system might seem encouraging, but it subtly forces caregivers to constantly extend their care, driven by rewards, which increases pressure. This model may overlook the caregivers’ mental burdens, reducing them to tools for continuous giving. Similarly, overly idealizing care around the individual neglects collective responsibility and social inequality. It repeats the issue of placing excessive caregiving burdens on individuals, trapping them in endless expectations to care.

Category
The Care Manifesto
What IF
Shih-Han Nien The ‘What IF’ zine series was inspired by the Tactical Publishing Chapter 5, Libraries as Cultural Guerrillas. It explores approaches to making libraries more accessible in the future, such as challenging their opening hours, size, and more. It is thought-provoking, encouraging the audience to consider the possibilities of future libraries.
Category
Tactical Publishing
Interwoven
Hui WangThe image of a sweater or scarf unraveling due to a pulled thread is a common scene in many films. Inspired by this, I use woven yarn as a symbol of connection and independent letters as a representation of individuals. The text hangs on the knitted fabric, forming a structure that visually expresses the public relationship of interdependence. However, if the thread is pulled, the structure gradually disintegrates, causing the letters to fall apart one by one. In this way, care disappears along with the loss of connection, emphasising the fragility and necessity of interdependence.

Category
The Care Manifesto
ycle of Self-curation
Elrich V. Fernandes My work explores the unsustainable cycle of self-curation through a constant loop of posts, likes and connections that fuel addictive behaviour. Inspired by ‘Tiny Bits of Pleasure’ from Post-Branding, it critiques how branding and technology exploits our craving for validation. Each notification triggers a fleeting dopamine rush, which makes us feel good for a short time, making us think that we are valuable and successful. As traditional job structures break down, personal identity becomes a marketable product. Through this work I intend to capture how self-branding can make people feel trapped and the effects it might have on their emotions. Is this curated identity a reflection of freedom, or a sign of self-surveilance?
Category
Post-Branding
Layered Perception
Yu Ju Chiang This work explores the concept of infinity and the lack of spatial structure in digital reading, as discussed in Chapter 1 of Tactical Publishing. While digital content can expand infinitely, it is confined to a flat screen, lacking the ""landscape"" and reference points that physical books provide. To address this, I physically represented infinity through layered text and images, reflecting the way our eyes jump around while reading. Digital devices' features, like quick scrolling, allow readers to absorb vast amounts of information quickly, emphasizing the non-linear nature of reading. The layers in the work can be moved by the audience, representing how individuals interpret and focus on different details of the same content.

Category
Tactical Publishing
The Xenofeminism Trilogy - Symbiotic Molecules
Yazhi Zheng XF deconstructs not only gender, but also how capitalism, patriarchy, and colonial systems shape life. These "life molecules" are not singular entities, but symbiotic systems—dissolving the binary divisions of human/animal/machine/nature into a decentralized network of life. Through video, I visualize this dynamic living mesh, where life escapes rigid categories of species, genes, or technology. Instead, it becomes a multi-layered, evolving web. Individual beings are no longer isolated "units," but fluid entities in constant exchange: merging, separating, and regenerating.

Category
Xenofeminism

Non-Brand
Yi  You “Non-Brand” is a critical graphic design project. It simulates the visiual of different brands to show how brands manipulate collective identity through visual systems. The project uses a uniform rectangular logo as a symbol of "de-branding" and confuses the audience's perception of familiar brands, leading them to reflect on the implicit power of brands in identity construction. It is not a new brand, but a critique of the control of brands over people.
Category
Post-Branding
Symbols & Beliefs
Wantong Li Inspired by “Branding is the sacred communion,” in the post-branding era, brands shape consumers' cognitive frameworks through culture, slogans, and logos, much like religious brainwashing. Designers play a dual role - as complicit in brand manipulation and as potential rebels. Using ash and powder as materials to use the act of unlocking a phone as a metaphor, this project reveals how brands set the rules while allowing for individualized interpretation. The exhibition demonstrates the process of typographic symbolism with two extra-long strips of paper and culminates in a ritual of deconstructing the brand's beliefs. In front of the sacred hearth, viewers can tear, burn, or rearrange brand slogans, experiencing the constant cycle of brand resistance and reconstruction.
Category
Xenofeminism

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