Design Challenge: Design a New Luxury
DERM: New skin. New Luxury. – The interplay of class, skin colour, and technology.
Class and status was and still is often determined by the colour of one’s skin. The skin lightening/fairness product industry is a thriving industry in Asia, where fairness equates to beauty and affluence.
The gap between the rich and the poor is evident in the digital sphere, especially in social media. What divides these different classes is the nature of their consumption; inconspicuous and conspicuous.
The ability to say no to digital consumption to have a richer real instead of virtual social life gives birth to my new luxury item, the DERM.
You can possess and upgrade to this new luxury if you can afford to have an extensive social circle. If you can afford to not spend hours in front of a screen. The richer you are, the more human contact hours you log in, the more pigmented your skin gets.
Your skin colour, yet again, determining your social standing.
