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Dora Do

Topic 2 Development

For Assignment #2, I initially began with “Homelessness in NYC” but after a few days, decided to change to another topic. I wanted to do a topic on technology and its effects on climate change. I wanted to narrow down the topic to something specific, and also seemingly harmless, so that the audience will be motivated to change their habits for a larger cause.

Topic: How junk email contributes to climate change

Stakeholders: Email users, businesses who send junk email, companies that host email servers, earth’s climate, humans on earth

Critical Analysis: How does ignoring subscription/junk emails has a carbon footprint

Form/Affordances: A possible form I am considering is a website that demonstrates the impact of people’s personal junk mail.

Intended experience/outcome: The goal is to motivate people to look through their emails and unsubscribe to emails they frequently ignore.

Post Mortem Reflection – “Bark”

  • What did you learn?

From this assignment, I not only learned a lot about my topic “bark”, I also learned a lot about looking at an arbitrary topic critically. I was given the chance to be creative with a broad topic, and decide what exactly I wanted to tell the audience. Another thing I learned is that visual metaphors can be very powerful, sometimes more powerful than words or speech. It can grab an audience much more quickly than other mediums. It is also important to grab the audience’s attention so that they are more willing to look at the details of your work and ponder more deeply on it.

  • What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on critique itself?

Some feedback I received was to be more risk-taking with my work. While my guide was easily assessable and understood, I could have add more interesting ways of critiquing my topic by pushing the boundaries of the form itself. I agree with the feedback, as I also felt the piece was lacking in something after I had submitted it.

  • What might you do differently in terms of process or content?

In reference to the previous question, something I would do differently is to push the boundaries of the form. Some ideas I had, but was unable to fully realize or implement was to add some handwritten notes to the information packet, to make the guide feel more chaotic and unfinished. I would’ve also increased the length of the “side effects” section to add more emphasis to how dramatic pharmaceutical companies can be.

  • What was inspiring? What parts?

When I was first brainstorming about my topic, I was pretty lost and did not know which direction to take. Initially, I was going to create an infographic chart about how bark is made, but I was not very excited about implementing that. When I decided to take the direction of the medicinal use of bark, I thought of a prescription bottle I had lying around the house. When I imagined the prescription bottle, then I was able to envision how I wanted my final project to look. Envision the prescription bottle really helped inspire the rest of my idea.

  • Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc…

The project ended up relating a lot to the original prompts. It was a physical, usable item which had a clear visual message. I wanted the project to be assessable to a general audience, which I think it successfully achieved since the prescription bottle is easily recognizable. It’s intention was to educate the audience about cinnamon, and its tone is meant to be more satirical.

  • How did you balance research and experimentation? Which is easier for you? How can you focus more on the areas that you shy away from

I think experimentation was easier than research for me. I found that after I did light research about my topic, I already had a vision for the final project, and I needed to do research to back up to support it. Most of my research happened while I was writing the information packet, because I wanted to get accurate information about cinnamon.

Assignment 1 Final – Skin/Bark – “Cinnamomum Zeylanicum”

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 progress/draft – Bark

For my Assignment #1 guide, I will be creating a mock pharmacy medication bottle and information sheet that will contain actual cinnamon sticks.

The goal of the guide is to inform the audience of cinnamon’s history, its use in herbal medicine including its pros and cons, and the ethics around its production. This guide should be easily understood by a general audience. Using a pharmacy bottle is a metaphor for how cinnamon is not usually considered as an ingredient of pharmaceuticals in the western world, even though it has a long history of being used in herbal medicine. It brings up the argument of whether or not herbal medicine should be considered as a legitimate form of medication in the western world. The tone of this guide is to be satirical and parodic.

I have started by creating a mock pharmacy label:

This will be the container that will be displayed in the presentation:

Topic 1 Interview: Bark

I interviewed an employee of Anima Mundi Apothecary in Brooklyn, NY. Sophia is a clinical herbalist who has studied at an herbalism school for three years.

Q: Can you tell us about yourself? How and when did you come to start working here?

A: From a young age, I was exposed to holistic healing from my mother. In my 20s, I dealt with a lot of digestive and hormonal issues and tried conventional medications and skincare but none of them worked. That’s when I started healing myself using herbs and I became passionate about helping others with the same method. I ended up going to herbalism school for three years and have been working at Anima Mundi Apothecary for the last year.

Q: What is the mission of this store? Who is the target consumer?

A: We were founded in 2013 by a Costa Rican herbalist, Adriana Ayales, who was passionate about bringing herbal medicine in New York City and having people reconnect with nature. She developed formulas that would help a general audience, but also created spaces for people who need more customized support as well. The shop’s name, “Amina Mundi,” actually means “one world” or “one soul” and represents the connectedness between us and nature. The goal is to combine traditional medicine with the modern world.

Q: In your opinion, what is the difference between herbal medicine and pharmaceutical medicine? What would you say herbal medicine is better?

A: The major difference with pharmaceutical medicine are the side effects that occur when used. For instance, taking medication for diabetes can often times raise your blood pressure. It can be really hard on the liver and kidneys, and people don’t realize that, and in a lot of cases, we’re overmedicating people. Herbs have been used for medicinal use since ancient times, and you can often take something that ends up benefiting another part of your body. Herbalism allows people to take back the power and knowledge of their medicine.

Q: What do you think is the popular opinion about herbal medicine, especially here in the US? Is it controversial?

A: I think nowadays people is more open to herbalism. People have said we are currently in a “wellness renaissance”. Back in the 80s, there was a shutdown of herbal medicine, but in the last 5-10 years there has been a resurgence. I think the big issue currently is the spreading of false information, especially though social media. It’s important that people go to school and learn through hours of clinical work.

Q: What kind of clinical work and training was taught at your herbalist school?

A: I attended ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism, which was taught by an herbalist who was previously a M.D., and learned about anatomy and physiology, different kinds of medicines from all cultures, bodily systems, etc.

Q: Do you think that herbal medicine is gaining popularity in America? Especially with the younger generation?

A: Yes, I do think it’s gaining popularity with the younger generation, who tend to be more open-minded. I think in the 90s and 2000s there was an extremely toxic culture around dieting and undernourishing ourselves in order to be considered beautiful. We are learning from those mistakes and as our society is becoming more progressive and advanced, people are coming back to holistic practices.

Q: Are you aware of any sustainability/ethical issues with producing herbal medicine?

A: Absolutely. When anything becomes popular, it’s important to be aware of the ethics around it. When growing and harvesting herbs, it’s important to be organic or ethically wildcrafted. Wildcrafting means a specialist will collect herbs that are in abundance in an area, and organic means that they are grown without chemicals or additives. There are certain herbs that are endangered, specifically the slippery elm tree. It’s known for healing gastrointestinal issues, but was being overly wildcrafted. A lot of herbalists are now working to grow their own slippery elm.

Form Analysis – Bark

The form that I intend to use for my guide is a pharmacy medication label.

  • Why this form? What are its features (stylistic, experiential)

Medication labels typically show how the medicine is used and consumed, what are its ingredients, and what are its side effects. It is very detailed and has a serious tone.

  • How is this form typically used, and what do you plan to subvert/imitate/utilize?

I chose this form because it relates to my topic of medicinal uses of cinnamon (bark). I think the pharmacy bottle and label will emphasize that cinnamon is directly used in medicines, which is something that people often don’t realize. Using typical western medicine packaging makes the audience reconsider whether organic ingredients should be considered medication at all. I also what to use the “side effects” portion of the label to describe the ethics and sustainability of cinnamon production.

  • What would change if you tried a different form? What critical lens does the form you’re applying emphasize?

Another form that I brainstormed for this topic were infographics on the production of herbal medicines. Initially, I thought I could draw visuals on the lifecycle of cinnamon production, but I felt infographics was too straightforward and that using the medication bottle would be a better metaphor to describe the medicinal use of cinnamon.

  • Is there a metaphor well-suited to your form (i.e. cooking with code)? Or, are there other metaphors you might employ?

It would be a visual metaphor, taking a spin on a commonplace item to describe my topic.

Metaphors We Live By Response

  • Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?

Since English is my first language, I found that all of the examples given in the text was directly relevant to the metaphors that are commonly used in my culture. I think that using battle terms or win/lose metaphors are very common in American culture, since our culture highly encourages competition. “Time is money” is a very common metaphor used in American culture, since we are a capitalist society and work around an hourly schedule.

  • Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system – or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?

A metaphorical system that I commonly use are orientational metaphors. For instance, I often refer to my moods as being “up” or “down”. When I speak in these metaphors, I envision my life and emotions to be on a graph, where the baseline represents my content emotional state. Also often times, I refer to “up” being good and “down” being bad.

  • What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?

For my topic, “bark”, metaphors are commonly used to describe its strength. For example, “…bark protect trees…” and “…bark is tough…”. While bark physically protects trees, we have found ways to use it medicinally, so I would I want to apply the metaphor of strength to our internal well-being also.

Bark: Systems Map

Below is a systems map for my topic, Bark.

For my concept map, I focused on the different stakeholders for bark and each stakeholder’s use for bark. From the concept map, I’ve learned that bark has many uses for any different stakeholders that operate in a system of survival. From the feedback loop below, we see how regenerative bark is, which is why it works for the survival of many different stakeholders.

Systems Thinking Response

  • Which system (type of stakeholder) that Easterbrook identified did you find your own understanding of GMOs most aligned with? Why? What are some of the stakes of these stakeholders?

The system that Easterbrook identified that aligned most with is “A system of ecosystems and contaminants that weaken them”. I think that the effect GMOs have on so many other ecosystems besides crops and farming. There are so ecosystems that touch farming, which includes human survival, that GMOs can cause too much harm to. Spreading GMOs has already proven to negatively effect neighboring ecosystems, so to attempt it again, the scientists conducting the experiment would need to prove what steps are being done to prevent similar mistakes. A stake of this stakeholder is creating balance between interacting ecosystems, which means promoting scientific research that does not effect neighboring ecosystems and can be recalled if needed.

  • Using your own topic for research, can you Identify 3 stakeholders (groups or phenomenon) with different perspectives, and then describe the system (the stakes) from which they are operating? For instance, if the subject is “Safari Parks”, 3 stakeholders could be (1) Animal Rights activists, (2) the region’s Board of Tourism, and (3) the local land itself. The first operates in a system of ethics around the treatment of animals; the second in a networked system of economic benefits for the community (hotels, food, and attractions), and the third, in an ecosystem that the safari park may put at risk, by introducing pollutants from animal waste and fertilizer, and ecological competitors such as escaped non-indigenous plant products used in the landscaping of the Safari Park.

For my topic, “bark”, some stakeholders include:

  1. Trees that are protected by bark

    With bark, trees are operating in a system of survival. It protects them from the outside world, transports nutrients throughout its system, and maintains moisture in dry temperatures.

  2. Animals who eat bark for nutrition

    Certain animals are known to strip tree bark for food, which includes beavers, black bears, mice, and squirrels, also operate in a system of survival.

  3. Humans who can create medicine with bark

    Some of the earliest medicine created were made from bark. They have active ingredients, such as alkaloids, essential oils, carbohydrates, vitamins, and antibiotics that can be used in ointments, rubs, hair fluids, and other mixtures. Therefore, humans operate in a system of health and economic benefits for the human race.

Emergent Strategy Response

Principles

Do you find any of these principles more difficult to achieve than others in your own creative practice? How?

Out of all the principles that Brown uses in her study of emergent strategy, the principle that I personally think is most difficult to achieve is “Less prep, more presence.” I think that this phrase is a reminder that sharing our work is equal, if not more, important than doing the work itself. Without sharing our work, we do not receive the feedback we need change and grow. Oftentimes, I feel that I spend too much time preparing a creative project, rather than showing it to my peers and to the world. I think that it is caused by fear of judgement. Overcoming that fear is the stepping stone to producing work that is personal and meaningful.

General

How would you define emergence? What is its opposite?

According to the Oxford Language, the word “emergence” is defined as the process of coming into view or becoming exposed after being concealed. In the context of the reading, “emergence” is the phenomenon where behaviors are formed when parts of a system interact—behaviors that they would not otherwise do alone. For example, at a biological level, water is formed when oxygen and hydrogen atoms interact. Then puddles, pools, rivers, and oceans can be formed when water molecules interact. This thinking could also be applied at a social level also, where humans can come together and find a common purpose to create a community and accomplish things they could not do alone. I think the opposite of “emergence” would be