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Ada Huang

Topic 2: Final Reflection

  • What did you learn?
    I learned a lot about the health code behind the scene and the system is currently been operated across the country. The topic related to the pandemic seemed to me to be an at-the-moment thing but throughout the research, I have learned the infrastructures that have been implemented to cope with are bringing permanent effects. I have also come to more understanding of the Chinese changing political environment.
  • What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on critique itself?
    I received a lot of feedback on how the project might bring change to its audiences. Getting the feedback questions are very helpful for me to re-assuring my goals for creating it. Marina asked me during the critique “Now they have known the information, what they can do” this actually pushes me into thinking about how the interactivity could be played out after I send out the messages. Monika has also suggested that I should include part of my experience that led me into doing this project in the first place in my artist statement and I do agree by doing so to have a realistic solid foundation for the statement itself.
  • What might you do differently in terms of process or content?
    In terms of the process, because the topic itself is changing very actively on daily bases, so I would have given more attention to the news section just to understand where the overwhelming concerns are for the nation and its citizens.
  • What was inspiring? What parts?
    Reviewing and constantly revising the project form was inspiring for me. Having specific design intentions gives many potentials for how the forms could be and how the interaction could happen. Having these intentions in mind keeps pushing me to revise and rethink other possibilities.
  • Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc…
    My critical lens was learning health code system is an implementation that was built under both the pandemic and political campaign, the right of acknowledging the mechanism that has been running behind the scene and also ethics responding to this technological arrangement.
    The audience for the experience was pedestrians who by chance encountered me wearing the shirt (mainly Chinese citizens because I live in Shanghai, but also people who can read English to avoid sensitive language) .
    The tone for the experience is supposed to be revealing other than feeling under censorship, confused, or unsafe.
  • 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?
    The research and experimentation balance came very naturally to me for this project because eventually, my goal is to deliver audiences an experience of how internet consensus looks and how taking control of the technology we use feels like. Research is more comfortable for me in this case because is a hot topic so I can easily find people’s different takes on their perspectives.
    The skills required to make the project functional are demanding so I will just spend more time figuring out, even a functional proof of concept.

Publics and Counterpublics

Prompt: Analyze an existing artwork/project/piece of media (TV show, game, etc) and the systems within which it operates. Try to identify: Who created it? For whom? With what materials and metaphors? With what intention? What impact? On whom? How? Did the artist identify a public or create a counterpublic?

The art work I chose is an interactive media art piece called “360degrees.org”. It was done through collaboration of interdisciplinary artists :Alison Cornyn and Sue Johnson.

The piece is designed to be a participatory investigation experience of the American criminal justice system. The project place the audience POV in the center of a prison cell while giving intimate portraits of the prisoners.

From my point of view, this piece is created for the people who concern or are curious about the issue of criminal justice and prison welfares.That is to say the work is a public art itself, it might be able to have its own audiences for educational purposes. By placing the audience in the POV of a prisoner, I think the piece provides a space for empathy to happen. Also by providing opportunities for audiences to able to learn and for prisoners to be able to speak publicly, the work has its own strong stance. After all, this is a listening happen off the court with no proficiency requirement, I think the work grabs public intention on part of justice system we often ignore meanwhile channeling through both sides of the bars.

Yes, I think the work identifies both public and counterpublic by merging the insights together. The viewers are the public while the prisoners are potentially counterpublic. Viewers are then be able to stand in the position of both sides and think whether prisoners are actually guilty or have suffered enough. By doing so, viewers and prisoners might eventually be able to come to an agreement of perspectives.

Daily Practice (6 in 1)

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Original post link:  https://www.notion.so/daily-practice-d194d0ef870f432095e69c026a99fd81

Intention & Form of Daily Practice

My research direction for the final project is the Chinese quarantine policy for residents during this current Covid pandemic. I decided to use the diary as my practice form, which records topic-related conversations that happened on that day and research conducted afterward.

Diary1. 10/21/2022.

We went for a dinner hotpot today after a dance competition we all participated in.

There was this guy my friend Chris brought with us, we call him Guazi (which translates to sunflower seeds). He is from Taiwan and came to the mainland on February 2020 for a work opportunity and stayed ever since. He is a very passionate guy and actively engages in telling us about his “adventures” in Shanghai.

Guazi was introduced by a creative agency and was asked to come to Shanghai to work for a commercial production company at the beginning of 2020, the beginning year of the virus breakout. The agency kindly asked him to come on board on the exact date of 02/18/2020. So he did, arriving with his Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents and luggage. Everything went on well at the beginning, he was picked up by the department‘s colleagues and went straight to the short-term leased apartment the company got for him. Their taxi approached (it was an older residential area so no security guard nor objective entrance was placed for the buildings) and neighbors noticed the luggage.

Some older neighbors approached them and asked “I’ve never seen you around before, are you moving in? ”

Guazi’s colleague took the question and said “Our company had some apartments here for a long time, we just re-locating our colleagues from other areas. ”

”So he is moving in. He can’t move in, our area is not taking newcomers. We are under special time.” The neighbor responds.

”It was 8 pm.” Guazi said “And it was cold. All I’m thinking is let me get my luggage in and let’s talk about this tomorrow…”

The battle ended with his female colleague arguing into tears and Guazi was relocated to a hotel nearby. The community committee people didn’t show up because they weren’t in the office.

Some research afterward:

1/ Starting from February 6, 2020, China (including Hong Kong, and Macau) is to be listed as Level 2 Area or above; Chinese residents are to be prohibited from entering Taiwan. (Taiwan Center for Disease Control)

On October 13, Taiwan lifted all its COVID-19 entry restrictions, allowing tourists unfettered access to the self-ruled island after more than 2 1/2 years of border controls.

2/ January 31, 2020, National Immigration Administration posted: “The exit and entry administration departments of the public security organs are operating normally at the port. Taiwan residents who have not completed the 5-year Mainland Travel Permit in advance due to emergencies may apply to the port visa agency for a single entry valid for Taiwan after arriving at the port a Mainland Travel Permit Card, which is valid for 3 months when entering and leaving the mainland and staying or residing in the mainland.”

Diary2. 10/22/2022

Had a conversation today with friends about mask mandates, and I couldn’t help but recall Texas in 2021 when governor Greg Abbott decided to lift the statewide face mask mandate. We suggested the political attention the action draws and irrelevance concerning the removal of the mandate on public health, though we don’t know much about the power structure between parties in the states. So I did look up some of the relevant information afterward.

1/ CDC’s January 29, 2021 Order requiring masks on public transportation conveyances and at transportation hubs.

2/ On MARCH 2, 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott announced his decision to lift the statewide face mask mandate next week. In addition to lifting the mask mandate next week, Abbott will allow businesses to operate at full capacity. Texas’ local officials blast Gov. Greg Abbott for “irresponsible action” of lifting coronavirus restrictions, saying it contradicts health official’s advice as infections continue to spread throughout the state, which averaged over 200 reported deaths a day over the last week.

3/ As a result of a court order, as of April 18, 2022, CDC will not enforce the Order. CDC continues to recommend that people wear masks in indoor public transportation settings at this time.

Diary3. 10/23/2022

中国出行政策 德国欧洲美国等，对于中国大陆居民，对等原则（reciprocity）的入境限令

In order to participate in the third semester of the graduate program in German, as a Chinese citizen, I am required to obtain a Schengen visa. I have resided back in mainland China and ever since then, I became aware of practicing travel restrictions’ effects on individuals. Based on the principle of reciprocity, many nations no longer provide travel visas for Chinese citizens and only take visa appointment for people who has a study, job offer, or for family visiting purposes. So after sending out the appointment application to German Embassy in Beijing, I looked up online what is the “principle of reciprocity” and how it is applied.

1/ What is “reciprocity”?

“Reciprocity relates to relationships in which people or states support each other for a particular shorter long-term advantage. This is enshrined in the principles of the International Law Commission (ILC), which recognizes that when one state benefits from a right, others must share the same right. ”

Fard, Shahrad Nasrolahi. Reciprocity in International Law: Its Impact and Function, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4218118.

2/ How does the principle takes effect?

“As for enforcement, the ICJ is empowered by the UN Charter 22 to hear disputes between states, but only when both parties have agreed to accept the jurisdiction of the Court. Further, the ICJ cannot ensure that its judgments are obeyed. 23 In cases of noncompliance, the responsibility for responsive action falls to other states.”

Diary4. 10/24/2022

// Website that forges health code

My friend came across a website and thought it was related to my topic, so he shared the link for me to check out.

The website has a title written “Ilovexjp”. “xjp”, the acronym for current president of the Republic of China, with initials taken from his first and last name. The title is used sarcastically rather than out of respect and appreciation and the reason for that is related to the website’s functionality. The website itself allows visitors (do not require registration) to generate live “heath QR codes” that are specialized and mandated in every province of China mainland for each individual.

Some side notes for people who have no context about “heath QR codes”, the code monitoring system has been deployed in China since early 2020. It was designed for the purpose of monitoring individual geographical itineraries in order to get the spread of covid virus under control. Not too long after the first deployment, the monitoring system added a new feature to cover covid test results and automatically calculate interval time between covid test results, collectively national-wide. The system has been implied through Wechat apps, an indispensable chatting app for people lives in China (It includes online payment methods, social posting, and all sorts of personal and social functionalities. You can think of Wechat as a virtual phone installed within smartphones)

Beyond using the code as proof of “covid negative”, the code is also used as a form of “passport” that define whether the code owner can or can not enter/exit a province/city, a building, and even their own place. The QR is color coded and individuals would always want to keep it green rather than yellow or red.

The critical aspect of this website is that it forges the health code perfectly. By selecting the province format and giving the user’s name, the website creates the perfect green code in no time!

I have not used the “forged” green code in public space yet because I was worried about getting in trouble. Far as I know, forging or intentionally hiding one’s own geographical itinerary these days is regarded as committing a crime in China nowadays.

Some research afterward:

Concealing one’s true health status, itinerary, and travel trajectory may be punished by public security organs in accordance with the “Public Security Administration Punishment Law”, a warning, a fine of less than 500 yuan, and detention for 5-10 days. If it causes the spread of the epidemic or there is a serious risk of spread, it will also hinder the spread of the epidemic in accordance with the “Criminal Law”. –https://www.tj.gov.cn

Diary5. 11/28/2022

// Shanghai parade responding to fire accident in Xinjiang

On the evening of November 24, 2022, a fire broke out in a high-rise residential building in Urumqi, killing 10 people and injuring 9.

Many people believe that the epidemic lockdown caused by the “zero-covid” policy has hindered fire rescue, and trapped people cannot escape in time. The next day, a large number of people in Urumqi broke through the quarantine blockade, holding the national flag and singing the national anthem for protest, demanding an immediate end to the lockdown.

On the evening of November 27, 2022, a group of around 500 citizens met at Urumqi road in downtown, Shanghai, for a self-organized protest for hours. According to people at the scene, the police force had interrupted the parade and had arrested about 8 people, mainly women. Later that day, people arrived near-by the police station demanding police station set the protestors free.

I did not go to the protest myself, however, I have been browsing much protest-related content on We-chat. Many of those posts were blocked hours later by the We-chat backend and were tagged as “inappropriate content”.

Diary6. 11/29/2022

// blank paper protest

On November 26, 2022, the peaceful protest at Nanjing Media College set off a series of political protests across the People’s Republic of China.

In addition to protesting the “Zero Covid” policy, the movement also calls on the Chinese people to start protesting against various unreasonable Epidemic prevention measures.

The protest is not only a response message to the fire accident that happened on November 24, 2022, in Urumqi, but also to extreme measures that were taken across the nation in the past 3 years including months of city lockdown, shortage of necessities, and disappearing freedom of the press and speech.

It is also people’s response message to The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that just finished in Beijing.

It is generally believed that “holding a blank paper” originated from a famous Soviet political joke, which is usually expressed as a person holding up a blank paper in Moscow Square, and the police want to arrest him. The former asks “I didn’t write anything!” The latter scolds “You don’t think I know what you want to write?”. Relevant arrests also occurred during the Russian protest against the Russo-Ukrainian war. Some people held up a blank paper and wrote “this is a piece of paper” and were arrested by the police. – https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-sg/反對動態清零政策運動

IAE Reading 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.
5th Floor Female restroom of NYUSH
  • Map an aspect of your topic to the Ideas/Arrangements/Effects framework. For instance, if you were working with zoos: an idea is that animals should be able to be observed at will by humans; an arrangement is a cage at the zoo; an effect is that animals often become distressed. 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?

 

Topic: The practicability of premises QR code and individual QR code arrangement

  • Ideas: The QR health code, used as the only fundamental tool for national infectious disease control, should be able to forecast risk or at least has time effectiveness.
  • Arrangements:
    1/ By requirement, every place of business and public indoor space has its own QR code for customers to scan
    2/ Citizens has individual health QR code for different provinces.
    3/ Each province manages the QR health code differently. (Through different local departments and QR codes being deployed on various platforms)
    4/ By requirement, every citizen has to scan the business QR code in order to enter an indoor space or travel to other cities. As a result, anyone’s geographical change and information will be recorded in individual’s database which is controlled and monitored by the national CDC
    5/ 3 colors of code have been universally practiced. Green means the individual is clean; yellow means there is a potential for close contact with the positive case; red means the individual has contacted with a positive case and potentially is a positive case. The practice of health code intensely controls citizens’ mobility.
  • Effects:
    1/The practice of health code intensely controls citizens’ mobility.
    2/The action of scanning the business QR code at some place is loosely practiced because business owners need to hire extra to “guard” the business from its customers, which also has counter effects hurting the business itself.
    3/Time lag created by procedural inspection which causes questionable effectiveness for the whole process
    4/Internet fury duo to inconveniences caused to citizens in all aspects of their lives
    5/Government losing credibility to its citizens
  • Change:
    It would not be possible for me to give one alternative, otherwise, I would be a scientist leading the national CDC department. However, I’m inspired by the IAE practice done for the public restroom and I think it makes a perfect metaphor for the health code system the Chinese government is trying to fabricate.Imagine the application of the health code as an action we take when we go to the public restroom. Ideally, we will assign ourselves to different pits and use them. The pit of course has been used by many ahead of us. We use it and leave something behind that if later, can prove our visits. There are also counters, aside from the toilets, which people use constantly as an informal place for socializing and small talk. The stool is the date, the pit is the QR app that stores our data. When something went south, the data scientist checks the data and distinguishes the one causing trouble. However, before the data arrives, it has been sitting for a period of time. So scientists could not distinguish which one might be correlated so they track everyone who has been to the pit, and quarantined until they prove the negativity. However, don’t forget the counter area, which people use without leaving a trace. The walls between public pits are like our masks, which helps but does not necessarily mean we are not sharing the same space. So they escape, their data escape. They are the user who doesn’t scan the code, they are also the people who come into the restroom without using the pit.

 

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-1 Reflection

  1. What did you learn?

    The process of doing the research based on only two keywords was fun and challenging for me. I think I’ve learned a lot not just the overview information about my topic but also have a basic understanding of how intricate and interconnected a system should be. I think the potentials for perspectives are unlimited and what usually is thought to be the definition or norm is one of many phenomena that have been socially naturalized.

  2. What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on the critique itself?

    I received some highly conclusive feedback on my topic, which is the hierarchy existing in our anthropocentric views on nature. I’m sure the information is so compact within that one term and it helps me understand my standpoint more clearly.
  3. What might you do differently in terms of process or content?

    I kind of wished among each research session I did, should of taking smaller leaps in the research direction. First of all, within a broad research topic, I probably should of settle on one interest quickly to make sure later I can have sufficient information. Secondly, the direction I choose needed to be more specific. These two might efficiently help with the research process.
  4. What was inspiring? What parts?

    Interviewing people was an inspiring experience for me. Before conducting the actual interviews, I had much anticipation about what questions might lead to the information I was looking for. Following the interview guide, I didn’t say much during the interviews. Turns out interviews are much different than having conversations where people interchange information, an interview is a one-way flow of information collecting, to neutrally listen to someone who might not share the same perspective as you.
  5. Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc…

    My critical lens stated to be animals, but really through animal right protection activists. The audiences suppose to be companion animals but really the people lack information about the unethical breeding industry and animal welfare.I might do better on metaphoric system thinking, though I think using best-of lists for human traits to serve animal needs is some kind of analog usage of form. But I am not sure.

  6. 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

    The research part was challenging because of the amount of reading and material sorting that were needed. And sometimes I get confused about whether the new piece of information just got was actually helping the research move forward or distractions. It also came down to the later process of fitting pieces of information into the puzzle.I should of spend more time on experimentation. I think next time when making a research-based project, the experiments and research should happen together.

     

Project-1 Kinship | Grafting – Final Deliver

“The Best-of Human traits” Guide – Companion Animal Edition

Intention For the Guide

Documentation Link: https://guttural-nyala-05f.notion.site/Breeding-and-Animal-Ethics-7401b13400bd4549a91acfb7a4d37a34

(note: details and documentation within the link⬆️)

  • The guide is to replace viewers’ first-person perspectives with animals’ and discuss the ethics of animal companionship and the questionable protocols for optimizing and achieving the “ideal characteristics” on companion animals.
  • My intention in using the video format is to replicate some of the practices in the contemporary scenario where we get information from social media platforms which hugely affects our preference for pets. From some of the research, I put out a question: what practice produces the norm in ___ which ___ is valued? Some consumer practices might guarantee artificial traits on animals are valued and unethical breeding markets become naturalized
  • Stakeholders included in my research: breeder, researcher, pet owner, and pets

 

Interview documentation and reflection

Last week’s in-class discussion with the cohort really helped me to narrow down the research topic into more specifics.

My assigned keywords “kinship” and “grafting” first went to a broader scope of “human evolution and actions of plants & animal domestication”. At this point in time, my research focuses on the ethics and animal welfare of breeding and husbandry.

In order to include different stakeholders’ perspectives, in the interview, I ask a researcher in correlated industries (my father) and a friend of mine (an experienced pet owner) to be my interviewees. Considering different standpoints of their own, I designed 2 question rundowns according to what I understand about their context.

My father holds the title of a senior veterinarian. He has rich knowledge in both animal nutrition and pharmaceutical practice. My primary goal for interviewing him is to gain some insiders view on animals being used in research experiments. Throughout the interview, he educated me with some basic context of current husbandry and pet industry of China, which really has set every regulation based on human needs (health, cheaper protein, higher profits, etc. ) I asked whether we have specific laws and regulation enacted for animals being used in research. He said no. The reason for asking is that within my own research, I have noticed the passage of the bill”(Laboratory) Animal Welfare Act” in 1966 within the states, the bill was intended to protect cats, dogs, and pet animals from using in research facilities and inhumane treatment.

My second interviewee has three Garfield. One of the Garfield has only 3 legs when born. From my research I learned into order to get a purer breed of a certain kind, breeder or industrialized breeding facilities will force inbreeding. The consequences are, many babies congenitally defect.  Also, female animals will continuously give birth to new babies until they are not able to deliver anymore, which is also another strong factor of defective pets. Though my friend has 3 Garfield, she said that all three are adopted, and was pure coincidence that three of them are all Garfield. She also mentioned that she probably will never purchase a pet for any reason. She wishes adoption in lieu of purchase.