The Covid-19 Infodemic

© private Alireza Vaziri Rahimi is a designer/art director specializing in graphic and interactive design. He is an MFA candidate in the Department of Design at the University of California, Davis. Over a decade of professional and academic experience has equipped him with extensive collaborative skills and creative methods in visual communication design. He has received national and international design awards and some of his projects have been published in several design books, websites and displayed in exhibitions and galleries around the world.

“I believe design is a way to change the world and make it a better place. A better world may have a different definition for different people. For some, it might be an ergonomic chair or an interface for a pioneer application – each can make one’s world a better place to live in.”

Alireza’s AR piece shows various forms of bias that have emerged in the context of Covid. It highlights prevalent stories of how politicians spreading misinformation have perpetuated harmful biases and stereotypes. The sound and imagery work together to expose conspiracy theories and their impact.

As designers, I believe we have a responsibility to our society. We should welcome challenges and mainly confront the inner voices that tell us to only focus on ourselves. As the legendary Persian poet, Rumi, once said: “I came to you without ‘me,’ so come to me without ‘you.’” In this journey, my greatest passion is to view and visualize the depth of a phenomenon beyond its existence.

In this project, I aim to reexamine concepts such as propaganda, misinformation and social media in relation to design and our contemporary digital culture. My goal is to answer questions including: How does social media manipulate our thoughts? How can visual design make people more aware of this crisis? I would like to turn technology back on itself as a mirror – using augmented reality – to reveal some of its problems. I can go more in-depth with AR. Unlike print media where all the messages have to be conveyed briefly and in a short time, here we can go further. We can tell the story in more detail, give the audience some time to reflect, and ultimately leave it to them to pass judgment. To that end, I designed a poster series using AR technology – it provokes viewers to learn more about fake news and media manipulation during the Covid-19 pandemic.