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October 2022

Final Project Topic

Topic:

The lifecycle of covert/hidden meanings of emojis. How image association creates new subcultures.
From my research:
◦A lot of emojis have apparent visual meanings. For example, the noodle emoji could mean noodles, it can also mean send nudes (noods), an expression of interest in another person, or an invitation to have a conversation.
◦The sub-meanings or “hidden” meanings typically originate through social media, then gradually become part of an emojis meaning, like the eggplant emoji meaning either eggplant or penis.
◦Most of these are context and platform specific and users of certain emojis may not use a particular emoji with a particular person because of the association around that emoji within a particular subculture or group. For example, someone who typically uses the brain emoji to mean oral sex wouldn’t send that emoji to a parent even if the context for sending that emoji might not be sexual at all.

Questions:

◦How do groups assign meaning to emojis?
◦In general, very interesting to explore how word associations come about and the expansion of emoji meanings given the vastness of language and human communication relative to the size of the emoji dictionary.

Maps:

Topic 2 – System maps

Topic:

The deletion of words’ pronunciation reduces the rhythmic beauty of some ancient poems in Chinese and may lead to some cultural loss.

Random thoughts:

  • Based on the research, this topic can be somehow related to feminism since most poets in ancient China were male. There are brilliant but controversial female poets, and I am interested in them, too. I’m a little hesitant to change my intention. Or maybe I can find a way to show both perspectives but mainly focus on one of them.
  • Culture&beauty are too big. I need to find a way to narrow it down to some specific points or concepts.

Questions:

  • What’s the history of ancient Chinese Poetry? How does it evolve based on time? How do the content and the theme change?
  • How has the “beauty” of Chinese poems been decided? (focusing on rhythmic beauty)
    • Future question: who decide this?

Maps:

Link to system maps:  https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPI0fKpY=/?share_link_id=466501556636

Reference:

Ideas, Arrangements, Effects Response

  • At some point this week, look around you and produce a drawing (or take a picture) of a space that you feel is rich in arrangements. In a style similar to the diagram on page 33, annotate your picture or drawing with the “hard” and “soft” arrangements you can identify.

  • Map an aspect of your topic to the Ideas/Arrangements/Effects framework. Since arrangements are “a rich and frequently overlooked terrain for creating change” (32): can you identify a way you could change your identified arrangement, and how that might reflect a different idea, or have a different effect?
    • Idea: The words’ pronunciation should be simplified.
    • Arrangement: New version of the textbook
    • Effect: The deletion of characters’ pronunciations leads to the loss of culture.
    • Change: Separate texts and articles with uncommon pronunciations to the textbooks for elective courses. Let the students decide whether they want to learn more or not. While reducing stress for beginners, the textbook can still preserve cultural heritage.

Topic for Final Project

Topic

  • A guide on how to make the right call to your neighborhood committee
  • The infrastructure of the current public health management of the Chinese government in relation to the politburo.

Goal

  • The goal of doing the research is to find alternative solution for people who has to deal with QR health code systems and monitoring from local committee.

Critical Analysis

  • How the practice of health code monitoring system got deviated from its design purpose and intention.
  • Is corona-virus the central cause of the conflict ?

Stakeholders of My Research

  • community committees, district office, CDC, government
  • individuals
  • individuals or party who holds opposite position

Project 2 – Topic

My topic is investigating the process of what solidifies events, stories, and points of view as history to be learned and shared through the generations.

I thought it would be fun to put an actual process between memory and history and how and why this information is edited in a particular process or path before it is considered historical and worth spreading/teaching/learning.

 

My inspiration was to tie in the research and information found here with my Connections Lab project – History of Here.

Daily Practice – Days 3-6

Apologies for not posting these on a daily cadence – I was traveling over the past few days but brought my notebook with me, so I am uploading my notes here now. Building off the concept of a history-generating machine and the quote that history are memories revised, I thought this would be a fun idea to work through for how history is “made.”

Day 3 – “Memory Intake”

I started thinking about the intake process of memory before it goes through the process of becoming “history.”

This form will be reviewed or “red lined” through its process

 

Day 4 – Who works in the revision machine?

I researched where the first historical references were made and were brought back to Ancient Greece. I came across the story of Thucydides dismissing Herodotus when oral history was first debated, so the revisionist history process began. I think of the movie Inside Out and how different characters are associated with emotions. Similarly, I’d like to think there are little “workers” within the machine reviewing and redlining the memory intake form to make it “fit for history.”

 

 

Day 5 –  The Process 

I picture the form going down a conveyor belt, measured against different litmus tests. I imagine there will be examples in the current process that can be used to manage the metaphor further.

 

Day 6 – 

The final part of the process, a revised version of the intake form stamped as “approved” – edited to be fit for history and sent to historians, institutions, and historical societies to further cement into society’s shared story and continue to be debated