Red Blood Tomatoes

Context

For DensityDesign Open Day, every student was asked to build an infopoetry addressing a social topic. Infopoetry is a form of data art that uses visual metaphors to tell a story and provide an overview of a phenomenon.

I chose to work on a pressing topic in Italian society: the living conditions of braccianti, underpaid agricultural workers. These workers endure long days, earning less than 30€ per day, and are vulnerable to mistreatment by illegal recruiters (caporali). Over the last six years, approximately 1500 workers have died due to fatigue or violence, enduring inhumane conditions to supply inexpensive produce.

Process

1. Found, confronted, and analyzed data from reliable sources, structured or not.
2. Conceptualized the most suitable visual metaphor to address the issue: the tomato can.
3. Designed a custom can label and photographed its hammering process.
4. Built the infographic with printed pictures, a related legend, and informative texts.

I used photography as the medium for my infopoetry, depicting the act of hammering a can repeatedly to represent the plight of braccianti. "Red Blood Tomatoes" comprises 200 photos of various chopped tomato cans, each can symbolizing 200 workers.

The first blow signifies that the workers are at risk of exploitation. The second blow indicates that this subset has progressed beyond mere risk and is now enduring inhumane conditions. The third blow reveals that these individuals have reached a slave-like state, where exploitation and inhumane conditions persist. The can label I designed includes classic nutritional information but with embedded provocative messages.

The metaphor juxtaposes the iconic image of chopped tomatoes with a bloodied representation, highlighting both the exploitation in the tomato industry and consumerist aspects, drawing inspiration from pop art.

For data on the living conditions of braccianti, I used sources like "Are your tinned tomatoes picked by slave labour?" and "Stop the exploitation of migrant agricultural workers in Italy," along with the Global Slavery Index's country study on Italy.

Outcome

I built my infopoetry by laying out the 200 pictures in a 3x2 meter grid, inspired by the repetitiveness of pop art. It was exhibited during the DensityDesign Open Day, inaugurated on February 13th, 2020.