At this turbulent, often terrifying time, we urgently need to understand what is happening in our world, and what the consequences will be. How can design help us to do so? In this episode of Design Emergency, Paola Antonelli talks with Federica Fragapane, the Italian information designer who is at the forefront of using data visualization, which involves analysing huge quantities of complex data and interpreting it in digital imagery, to expose the damage caused by human rights abuses, climate crimes and other threats.

Federica explains the importance of visualizing contentious social, political and ecological issues: from the murder of climate activists in Brazil, to police brutality against women’s rights campaigners in Iran. She also stresses the need to do so accurately and persuasively, in order to ensure that they will engage as many people as possible, and will be memorable and meaningful to them. By doing so, Federica uses design as an activist tool to expose the truth about the causes and impact of abuses of power in the hope of preventing repetitions.

Thank you for listening. You’ll find images of the projects Federica describes on our Instagram grid @design.emergency. And you can tune into this episode of Design Emergency and the others on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and other podcast platforms. Please join us for future episodes when we’ll interview other global design leaders who, like Federica, are helping to build a better future.

Design Emergency is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

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