Collection: ANTHROPO MA-1 Bomber Jackets
Title: Wealth=Health? Case study - HIV/AIDS (Graphic #1)
Role: Concept, Research, Design, Production
Description: This graphic is made from details of an American dollar bill, microscopic images of the HIV virus, cartograms of wealth growth and new cases of HIV infection; and is a part of ongoing research entitled In Memoriam of Medical Data.
Cartograms are maps of the real world that express a statistic through exaggerating and distorting geography with pinches and swells that result from a particular thematic mapping variable being substituted for land area or distance.
The inside of the jacket includes the phrase Volenti Non Fit Injuria (Latin), which is a common law doctrine that is essentially defined as ‘voluntary assumption of risk’; meaning that if a person knowingly and willingly puts themselves in a dangerous situation where they know that some kind of harm may be possible, they cannot sue for any resulting injuries. In the context of this graphic, it is included to question, “What do we really know and understand about the healthcare we receive?”
The pockets contain difficult thoughts, and links to uncomfortable stories about AIDS in different countries - such as the situation in Cuba where a community of punks known as Los Frikis infect themselves with the AIDS virus as a form of protest.
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ANTHROPO is an ongoing series of original graphics for MA-1 bomber jackets featuring visual essays that transform geo and bio political information, data visualizations and scientific images into wearable statements that question the quantification of biological life in making qualitative assessments about the state of our survival.
ANTHROPO is an action towards restoring the bomber jacket and the appropriation of military dress in popular culture to its position as a historically significant icon of social unrest.
Every bomber’s graphics are generally organized according to the same logic - where the outside is the visual experience; the interior is the legend that assists the viewer in navigating the elements of the exterior, with links to additional resources; and the pockets are where you’ll find the ‘difficult thoughts’ - the uncomfortable, often unresolvable questions about the issue the bomber explores.