Unlike physical bullying that often leaves behind scars and bruises, cyberbullying is much harder to spot. Latest research by the Singapore Children’s Society & Institute of Mental Health revealed that 1 in 9 adolescents experiences cyberbullying but nearly half of them have never reported it. Thousands of children have been silenced through technology. In order to help them to speak up, we decided to use technology against technology to unmute cyberbullying.

We made use of digital screens that projects a sound with a frequency inaudible to the human ears, also displaying a message from Daniel that encourages people to open the Shazam app on their smartphones to detect the sound and recognize the silence via an ultra-sonic watermark.

Once the sound has been detected by the Shazam app, it links to a microsite, which shares the experiences from the perspective of Daniel, the victim, as well as of the bully and bystander. These are based on actual cyberbullying cases in Singapore. The microsite contained special advices on what one can do as the victim, parent or teacher.

Media sites were strategically handpicked to bring Daniel to life and raise awareness around the issue of cyberbullying. The media installations were exhibited at Clear Channel’s bus shelters, DECK art space, as well as at Republic Polytechnic and Dover Court International School.

We made use of digital screens that projects a sound with a frequency inaudible to the human ears, also displaying a message from Daniel that encourages people to open the Shazam app on their smartphones to detect the sound and recognize the silence via an ultra-sonic watermark.

Once the sound has been detected by the Shazam app, it links to a microsite, which shares the experiences from the perspective of Daniel, the victim, as well as of the bully and bystander. These are based on actual cyberbullying cases in Singapore. The microsite contained special advices on what one can do as the victim, parent or teacher.

Media sites were strategically handpicked to bring Daniel to life and raise awareness around the issue of cyberbullying. The media installations were exhibited at Clear Channel’s bus shelters, DECK art space, as well as at Republic Polytechnic and Dover Court International School.