See Clearly

By Adelyn Maldonado

Project Description
See Clearly, is an interactive glass mirror designed to look as the cover of a magazine where the user is the feature. See Clearly does not feature topics like beauty, where other people try to tell readers what is beautiful. See Clearly does not have a health section loaded with thousands of ways to lose weight. See Clearly focuses on the beauty of every individual in its aim to educate the world about the pressures of the media to fit into one very small, very skinny, mostly blonde-haired stereotypical idea of what is beautiful. For some people it can be very hard to even look into a mirror because of the extreme pressures of society to look a certain way, but not in this interactive mirror. See Clearly builds upon self esteem and education as the user is the cover of this magazine and will face the facts about the pressures society has drawn upon us.

The interactivity lies in the users ability to switch between topics randomly using an iPod Touch as a mouse. The setup resembles a vanity table, so the iPod Touch will work symbolically as a make up piece. The images on the glass, or mirror are being projected from a computer screen.

The inspiration for this project came from my education in Women and Media studies where I learned about the pressures women face to fit one idea of beautiful. It really is an issue when the media portrays only certain type of woman as beautiful, when the fact is everyone is different and we should celebrate our differences, rather than try to change them.

Bio
Adelyn Maldonado is a third year media studies major at Hunter College. After working for not-for-profit organization, Womens Media Center, as a multimedia intern, Adelyn became very passionate in joining the fight for equality and putting an end to stereotypes. Currently her concentration in school focuses on documentary filmmaking, but she enjoys expanding her knowledge and sharing progressive ideas with the world.

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