Link to the interactive map: https://wangwentao97.github.io/Connections-Lab/midterm%201/

Presentation link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y7IIG6MQHQvo_2zzAbT4QXpd5zObdUmxyi2I8sgPgmU/edit?usp=sharing

For the guide of topic 1, I made an interactive map showing the coffee plantations all over the world.

I used mapbox api to create a world map. On the map you can see many circles. Each circle represent a country that produces coffee. And the size of the  circle represent the amount of coffee production each year. All the circles are clickable. By clicking on a circle, an image of local coffee plantation will show up. Facts about the coffee plantation in that country will also shown below the image. These facts are based on research finding, aiming to inspire more questions and thoughts when users read them.

You can also enter any city name you are interested in. After clicking the button, the city of choice will shown on the map. You can still click on other circles. Now more interactions will appear. Lines will appear, connecting coffee production countries with the city you choose. There are numbers marked on the lines, representing coffee export data of the country.

System map:

Explanation:

Plantation is an iceberg. Take coffee for example, we drink coffee everyday, but it takes a huge effort for coffee to arrive on our table from its original plantation. This map aim to raise the awareness of how plantation influences our life, while oppressions and ecological impacts are happening beneath the water.

General research findings:

• The low wages typically paid to plantation workers are the basis of plantation profitability in some areas.
• Plantation plays an important role in current world market.
• Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonialism.
• The longer a crop’s harvest period (tropical crops: eg. coffee), the more efficient plantations become. Economies of scale are also achieved when the distance to market is long.

Research results and resources:

• Coffee world production and trading data.

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/coffee-world-markets-and-trade

• A living wage for workers on coffee farms in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil would be R$1629 (477 US dollars) per month, according to new research. The current prevailing wage is R$1307 (383 US dollars) per month.

https://www.comunicaffe.com/new-research-highlights-living-wage-coffee-workers-brazil/

• During the harvest, about 40-50 percent of labourers work informally, without being registered,” says Silva. He reports that plantation owners frequently offer workers a higher wage to work without a contract. “Forty percent of those with official contracts still experience violations of their rights. Typically they can neither read nor write, and so they lose out on things like vacation pay and overtime pay. They simply sign the documents without knowing what they are agreeing to,” says Barbosa.

https://old.danwatch.dk/en/undersogelseskapitel/kapitel-3-cirka-halvdelen-af-brasiliens-kaffeplukkere-arbejder-uden-kontrakt/

• Workers at Cooxupé, the world’s largest coffee cooperative, had up to 30% of their wages deducted to pay for the use of portable harvesting machines that their employers should have provided for free. The violation occurred on the Pedreira farm in Minas Gerais state, which is owned by the family of the Cooxupé president, Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo. Cooxupé, which sells coffee to major international brands such as Nespresso and Starbucks, nearly doubled its profit in 2020 to $61 million, on revenue of $1 billion. In 2020, 140 workers were rescued from slave-labor-like conditions at coffee plantations in Brazil, all of them in Minas Gerais state, according to labor inspectors.

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/labor-rights-violations-at-brazil-coffee-farm-linked-to-starbucks-nespresso/

• As such, we find much younger workers in Ethiopia than in Costa Rica or Indonesia. So young that 21.6 per cent of its coffee workers are reported to be 14 years old or less. Another element of interest is the high share of workers aged 66 or older in Costa Rica. Moreover, most +65 year old Costa Rican coffee workers are self-employed (75.6 per cent), a group that tends to remain longer in the workforce.

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—protrav/—travail/documents/projectdocumentation/wcms_765134.pdf

• The U.S. Department of Labor reports an estimated 34,131 children laborers growing coffee in Vietnam, 12,526 of which are under the age of 15.

https://borgenproject.org/labor-exploitation-in-coffee-production/

• Hundreds of Colombia’s small coffee growers have stopped cultivating the bean in the face of low prices and reduced harvests linked to a shifting climate. In the last 18 months, Colombia has lost nearly 100,000 acres of coffee plantations, more than 4 percent of the land under coffee cultivation, according to a statement issued last week by Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers (Fedecafé).

https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-climate-changes-colombias-small-coffee-farmers-pay-the-price

• The average age of coffee farmers, at 55 years, the same as Jose Fernando Tavárez, is no accident.

https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/colombias-coffee-plantations-struggle-aging-workforce

• In India, among all workers in coffee plantations, 62% are women workers. The wage ratio between male and female workers is 0.97.

https://www.proquest.com/docview/2541816235?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

• Coffee is among the products produced by child labor in Uganda. In harvest season, a decline in school attendance is observed. Children perform hazardous work in coffee-growing families to support the farm and household activities.

https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/resource-item/origin-issue-assessment-uganda-coffee/

Demo link: https://suirunzhao.github.io/satellitesinspace/#live

Research:

Based on the research and interview, I found that

1. the rise in the number of satellites being launched into space is unsustainable.
2. Satellites mega-constellations pose a risk to climate and the environment.
3. Tighter global regulation is needed to ensure space sustainability.

In order to raise people’s awareness of creating a system of sustainable satellites above us, with long time horizons, I created this guide, with some brief description of the current situation of space.

Progress:

1. A basic guide for people interested in knowing the satellite above us.
2. Brief description of the damage caused by space debris.
3. Gives people information about satellites, users can search the satellite’s name and give them information, including their names, countries, owners, users, purposes, orbit types, altitude, and source links.
4. Users can scroll from the bottom to the top of the page to cognize satellite orbits, which simulates different orbits’ altitude.

References:

Nasa Live Views from the ISS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YLFOog4GM

DEWESoft https://dewesoft.com/daq/every-satellite-orbiting-earth-and-who-owns-them

UCS Satellite Database https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database#page-subtitle

Data: https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/

howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow https://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/

Space Guide: https://abraiz01.github.io/Connections-Lab/Week3/Project_1/index.html

Scroll Inspiration: https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

Space Debris and Human Spacecraft: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

SATELLITES FOR SUSTAINABILITY: https://pages.devex.com/satellites-for-sustainability

What’s the environmental impact of space debris and how can we solve it? : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/environmental-impact-space-debris-how-to-solve-it/

Distant Space Debris a Threat to Satellites

The current state of space debris: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/The_current_state_of_space_debris

Guide

Research

Systems map diagrams:

I initially began my research brainstorming different aspects of my topic, and what my guide could focus on. Bark is a very broad topic and I felt my guide could go in many different directions. Ultimately, I chose cinnamon to be the main subject of my guide, because it was a type of bark that is very commonly used, but people do not have much knowledge about. I then looked into how cinnamon is produced, and found this interesting article about the conditions of cinnamon workers. I then did research into the history of cinnamon, and it’s sad history with colonialism and the cinnamon trade. I also looked into how cinnamon was used, and saw that it has been used for medicine since ancient times. This gave me the idea to use a prescription bottle and information packet as a guide, because I wanted to emphasize the idea that cinnamon, which is commonly used for flavoring food, has medicinal properties. I also wanted to challenge the audience to think about the differences between herbal and pharmaceutical medicine, and whether herbal, holistic medicine could be considered a valid type of treatment. I found a very thorough research paper, called “Cinnamon: Botany, Agronomy, Chemistry and Industrial Applications,” written by Ranjith Senaratne and Ranjith Pathirana, which goes into extreme detail about the origins and production of true cinnamon. Using that information, I created the information packet of the cinnamon prescription bottle, which describes the origins and production of cinnamon, while also looking critically at the stereotypes of herbal medicine.

Bibliography

• “Allergies.” NHS Choices, NHS, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/allergies/.
• Cinnamon: Botany, Agronomy, Chemistry and Industrial Applications. SPRINGER NATURE, 2022.
• Raman, Ryan. “6 Side Effects of Too Much Cinnamon.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 26 Sept. 2019, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/side-effects-of-cinnamon#6.-May-Interact-with-Certain-Medications.
• Romensky, Larissa. “Brutal Past of Sri Lankan Cinnamon Peelers Uncovered by Australian Researcher.” ABC News, ABC News, 27 July 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-25/neglected-sri-lankan-cinnamon-peelers-recognised/12468364.

Guide

This is the cover page of the infomercial video.

Here’s the link to the actual video:  https://vimeo.com/758390110/9bc6404165

Research

I started up my research really focusing on the actual history of puppetry, and then I went into puppet usage and its importance in child development and psychology research. However, I landed on focusing on the political ideology aspect of Puppets, specifically the puppet rulers, puppet leaders, and puppet governments. I was curious if there are specific rules on what qualified a ruler as a puppet, and was surprised to see the variety of explanations and debates on this topic, especially in the realm of international relations. I then dig into historical leaders that are considered classic examples of puppets, such as Pu-Yi and Philippe Pétain. I also found some interesting case studies with controversial debates, such as whether Hitler should be considered as a dictator or a puppet. Later on, I got into the larger issue of what puppet politics might look like in practice, as well as the danger of it. I specifically focused on post-colonial Africa and post-Soviet Eurasia and the crisis caused by puppet leadership. I got more in-depth with reading on the “indirect rule” in African countries under European control, and how those resulted in tragic events such as the Rwandan genocide.

When I got to the Rwandan genocide, I realized I’ve gotten too deep into a specific dark area, and while I have a strong passion to discuss such issues, I need to learn to separate the research and the experiment, hence this project itself. I cut back and tried to find the main takeaway point I wish to deliver through a short infomercial I plan to make. Instead of information dumping, I wish to at least help make aware of the serious danger that puppet leadership might cause. However, I also want to convey the difficulty in the reality of identifying a puppet politician. While the infomercial itself promises an easy solution to identify a puppet leader, the real intention is to show how impossible it is.

Bibliography

The Research

When I first began to dig into the concept of colonial organisms, I was struck by the idea that an organism can either be made up of individuals that are genetic clones or each other, or  heterogenous individuals. In the heterogenous animals, I found that they could also be polymorphic, in that each individual would have a function or a job that the evolved to perform for the greater good of the colony. Some of the individuals would have evolved to find food, others would have evolved to protect the colony. I also came across an idea of Chimera Colonies, where colonies that may not be genetically identical conjoin to former a larger colony. There is some research that suggests that perhaps chimera colonies can grow larger, and live longer because of their diversity.

My aim is to create a guide that helps my audience understand a general concept that diversity in our environment is a good thing. In the specific case of colonial organisms, diversity leads to a longer lifespan. With Halloween coming up, and spooky things in mind, I inevitably made the connection between a heterogeneous colonial organism, and a humans living in a colony, trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. In my guide, the first scenario shows a human colony where all of the individuals are farmers, and do not end up not surviving a zombie attack. In the second scenario, this colony has individuals who are farmers, but also has protectors, builders, doctors, etc. This colony is able to survive long when the zombies attack.

The Form

A lot of the information I found about colony organisms was about aquatic organisms specifically, and for me, this conjures up images of moving particles deep in the ocean, crashing waves, motion. I wanted to bring some sort of motion into my guide. I also had hopes of creating an analog experience for my audience. Partially this was motivated by selfish reasons, because I spend so much time at a computer, and wanted to create something with my hands. But also, the ideas of jobs, occupations, survival feel like very tactile concepts, and it would be great to guide the audience to those ideas by allowing them to physically move something with their hands. This lead me to the idea of creating a pop-up book. Specifically I was interested in creating a book with sliding elements, to recreate the movements of organisms in water, or people running from zombies.

The creation of pop-up elements was a bit more technical than I realized from the start. I also realized that in order to pull off the atmospheric effect of a Zombie Apocalypse, the book would need a specific aesthetic. I decided to start this process by creating some designs in Figma, and realized that a clickable prototype may be a great way to explore my ideas quickly, and allow for faster iteration. This clickable prototype is where I ended up, and and feel like it can now be used as a framework for either a web site, or a pop-up book.

The Guide

Since the guide is currently a clickable prototype in Figma, you will need visit the Figma to explore more. However here are two screenshots of the two colonies that are represented in the prototype.

The References and Brainstorming Documents

• References on both the colonial organisms, and the form can be found in this google doc.
• Brainstorming Documents:
  • google doc of notes from my references
  • a figma doc where I gathered ideas