THE FAILURE OF REASON IN THE FACE OF CATASTROPHIC LOSS OF LIFE
 
How can design address the failure of reason in the face of catastrophic loss of life? Researchers such as Paul Slovic have shown that despite our emphasis on reason, we tend to use moral intuition to guide our actions. Absent affect, we can be numb to abstract numbers and cease to care. 

Artists such as Félix Torres-González, ChadMichael Morisette, and the German creator of Stolpersteine, Gunter Demig, have used physical, poignant markers of absence to evoke the memory of loss of life. These markers become strong emotional sites of contemplation that are almost impossible to ignore by the viewer. The loss of life is no longer just a number in the mind. 

The use of juxtaposition, sequential storytelling, abstraction, repetition and transition is a strategy against apathy in the face of abstract numbers. 

Medium: 24" x 36" newsprint, duplex laser printing 

Copyright © 2017 Wing-Sze Ho