Dec 5, 2014 | By Alec
Cyberbullying: It might not be something those of us who have left school years ago think of, but it is a part of daily life for many children with access to the web. Research by the British Cybersmile Foundation, that aims to combat this digital form of playground bullying, has revealed that 92% of British teachers have come across cyberbullying during their professional career, while 78% of teachers has personally experienced cyberbullying, directed either at themselves, their students or other their colleagues. It looks like the kids of the Facebook generation do more than play Farmville.
Fortunately, there are a number of initiatives throughout the world that seek to raise awareness about this digital phenomenon, and prevent it from happening again. One of these is the British Cybersmile Foundation, who hosts an annual 'Stop Cyberbullying Day', which was held in June of this year. It's a day where everybody can get involved and make a difference both on and off-line. The Cybersmile Foundation are asking everybody who cares about cyberbullying and online hate campaigns to join their growing movement for action against online bullying and to help them to create a much safer more enjoyable environment for our children's future.
As part of this great initiative, the 2014 day featured a 3D printed advertisement that really captures the essence of cyberbullying: keyboard keys spelling the phrase WORDS WOUND, impressed into someone's skin. And the keys needed to be modelled and 3D printed. Fortunately no one was injured making this image, as it has been created by a collaboration of a 3D printing specialist, a make-up artist and a photographer, but it definitely looks like it.
This gripping image has been realized by John Robertson, a 3D printing specialist at London Graphic Systems, and his friends prosthetic makeup artist Bill Turpin and photographer Max Oppenheim. John and Bill worked on the look and feel of the keys, and different sizes were rendered, along with a number of various viewpoints of the 3D model. The final design features a series of enlarged, 3D printed keyboard keys and a surface of modelling wax that was made to appear as a person's skin. Final retouching on the design was done by Stefano of Happy Finish.
The keys were produced using their 3D Systems Projet 660 high-resolution 3D printer, that they have on permanent loan to their 3D printing partner, iMakr. As John told 3ders.org, 'it was a simple piece for our Projet 660 pro but had great impact.'
And the team from Cybersmile Foundation was very pleased with the final design, saying that 'The Words Wound concept was designed to express the real human emotion involved in cyberbullying and highlight much needed awareness of the issue around Stop Cyberbullying Day. While a world away from the #POSITIVITY we like to generate across the internet, this incredible piece of work creates a huge impact and gives a visual representation of the pain experienced by victims of cyberbullying.'
The trio of designers got on board of this project after Bill Turbin was forced to endure some arrogant comments from a web-based militant vegan himself. 'We realised how things can quickly get out of hand online and the misinterpretation that can take place, and the snowball effect of abuse. People get very bold and aggressive when hiding behind their online avatar. This led onto the idea of the computer keys under the skin - representing the emotional pressure online abuse can create.'
They therefore looked into cyberbullying charities, and were quickly linked up with Cybersmile to work on this impressive project. It's wonderful to see that 3D printing can also be used to add that extra touch to charitable initiatives like this one, and we certainly hope these special effects helped to capture the attention of people.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Shouldn't the wound be facing inwards?
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