INEQUALITY & LEGO
INTRODUCTION
LEGO STATS
IDEATION/ COMMUNICATION
WORKSHOP
What does it feel to play with LEGOs in the different countries around the world?
INEQUALITY
Unequal opportunities translate into unequal lifelong outcomes by the time children reach the age of five. Evidence from developing countries shows that children in the poorest 20 per cent of the populations are still up to three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children in the richest quintiles.
CRITICAL DESIGN
Critical design is a way to express speculative design proposals. And has a goal to put on display a problem by using different resources, such as amplifying a situation and making it visible, but without taking any part in it. The designer takes the role of spectator, without presenting visible solutions, but highlighting apparent problems instead.
In this project, I approached children Inequality through a Critical Design perspective by using LEGO company as a medium. My starting point was to do an economical analysis comparing the price of a LEGO Classic 790 pieces (iconic LEGO product) and the minimum wages in some countries around the world with a visible difference in people's income.
LEGO STATS
LEGO Classic
790pz Price
Minimum Wage
(IN DKK)
507 DKK
25 DKK
493 DKK
6,5 DKK
348 DKK
5 DKK
489 DKK
47 DKK
420 DKK
11,5 DKK
449 DKK
110 DKK
9 DKK
458 DKK
420 DKK
73 DKK
653 DKK
0,2 DKK
Price LEGO CLASSIC
507
493
348
489
420
449
458
420
653
MINIMUM
WAGE
PRICE OF A
LEGO BRICK
25
0,64
6,5
0,62
5
0,44
47
0,62
11,5
0,53
110
0,56
9
0,58
73
0,53
0,2
0,82
HS. FOR LEGO CLASSIC BOX
BRICKS PER HOUR
20
39
79
10
70
11
10
76
21
21
4
196
52
15
6
138
3265
0,25
IN VENEZUELA TAKES 4HS TO BUY A SINGLE LEGO BRICK
IDEATION/ COMMUNICATION
The process of bringing stats to physical happened step by step.
First by imagining cards and illustration representing the different outcomes in the different countries. Through sketches I tried to visualize these numbers in different ways. I finally imagined a scenario where a person can only acquire a limited amount of legos, set by the country they coming from.
This radical and dystopian scenario helped me out to project new ideas, easing different ways to picture and visualize the previous stats and illustrations.
