An Alternative perspective on global development by University of the Arts London

The traditional categories used for describing countries (Developed and Developing) do not provide an accurate description of the current status of any country. These categories were helpful in the past for policy making but these do not provide an effective picture of the world any more. To truly understand the new changing world, one needs to look at an alternative perspective.

The story for the project also tackles the inherent biases tied to geographical locations and how they influence our perception of the world. From one perspective (one side of lenticular) one can see the traditional approach of dividing the countries in two categories (Developed and Developing) where you see the clear divide reinforcing the existing bias. While providing an alternate perspective (second side of lenticular) one can see how dividing the world based on average income levels presents a completely different picture. This showcases how classifying nations based on average income levels paints a completely different and more nuanced picture.

By incorporating multiple datasets, this installation offers a more informative and comprehensive insight into the progress of different countries. The installation is not the ultimate solution or instruction on how to categorise the world but a conversation-starter to better understand the progress in the world which might be overlooked by focusing on the terms ‘Developed’ and ‘Developing’.