Individual Project
Book of Privileges is a collection of individual privilege status mapped into unique color patterns. The patterns are generated by different people’s answers to 25 statements regarding various social identities such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, etc. The patterns are then printed onto translucent papers with woodblocks and are organized together into a book. Audiences will be able to read each individual page of the book separately to recognize individual differences, and they can also read a stack of several color patterns together and recognize the diversity of our community as a whole.
Making of Book of Privileges
25 Statements
Patterns on each page of the Book of Privileges were generated by individual answers to 25 statements regarding their social identities and privileges. Inspired by the BuzzFeed Privilege Quiz, the 25 statements ask whether one receives benefits because of particular gender identity, sexual identity, ethnicity, or nationality. A checked statement would indicate that one does receive benefits in that regard. Here’s a full list of the 25 statements.
Generating Patterns and Colors
During data collection, a survey containing the 25 statements was sent out to all participants who were willing to share their privilege status. The entire process was done in an anonymous manner. The data were later mapped to 5-by-5 block matrixes in which blocks corresponding to checked statements were colored. Each single page represents privilege status of one participant.
In the survey each participant was also asked to give three random numbers from 0 to 255. The color on each individual page was generated by mapping the three numbers to RGB values.