I shift the topic to odor. From today I’ll find the odor and draw it.
Today’s odor comes from osmanthus(桂花). The smell of osmanthus fills the streets during this season in China.
When I was drawing it, I noticed that its flowers were clustered but also sparsed.
I’m curious about from which part the smell comes. Petals or stamens? I should try to figure it out tomorrow!
(Not good at drawing. It’s colored by PS. But fun too.)
I’m still thinking about my pin-point topic, about olfactory or diabetes, or other medical topics. I do agree that thinking via desktop is different from thinking through making things.
So choosing a form first, I hope it can lead me to a clearer plan.
I’m going to make a “booklet”. Maybe because the medical items are always related to a “manual”/”handbook”(手册) in my mind. However, I don’t want it to be something full of texts. Let me try.
The first question came to my mind was, What size is it?
Take A4 as a beginning, it seemed too large. So I folded the paper in half.
Then the second question, Who uses this booklet, and how?
There are many possibilities, patients? Or anyone who wants to get medical information.
When I put the paper on the desk, I felt it was hard to decide on the cover now. So I skipped it.
I asked a smaller question instead: What should be seen when the reader opens it?
I was not very creative here, a catalog.
After that, I had other thoughts: Is it for patients only? It can also be a record collection tool.
So I created a rough form which was like daily instruction and a blank box to fill.
So far that’s it. I thought there was nothing meaningful I would get since the idea was vague. But the physical material gave me a different environment to think differently.
For the assignment, I learned how to find the path to do critical experience work from an initial topic. Thoughts and forms are deeply interwoven, making this kind of research a unique experience.
For the presentation part, I would rethink about how to organize and show the content to the audience in a short time.
Some suggestions are about better ways to deliver the idea and information, such as font size (revised, seems better now) and the content after the user answers. I’m glad that the critical thinking about indirect taxes resonated. I would like to know more about the audience’s further thoughts while the presentation time was limited.
Choosing one aspect and narrowing down the topic may extend the topic more concisely to audiences. It’s also important to exchange ideas with others earlier.
The process gives me a new perspective to think about things. A small topic can lead to a lot of deep thinking. It makes me more curious about the world.
The topic “salt” under the theme “borders” was strange to me initially. So I’ve been looking for the connection during the process. In the end, the project focuses on relations between countries and inside a country, which closely ties to the prompt.
I would say… both are not easy for me. I felt stuck on both sides. However, next time I’ll figure out ideas first, even if they are rough. I feel like the form can promote ideas, and more ideas also promote the form. And talking about ideas with others is a good way to move further.
https://yuqianma.github.io/ce-salt/
Finally I made a simple page with 3 questions on top of the map. I wish I didn’t use so many words on the page but so far it is like this.
There are so many directions of my topic “salt”. Found my pin-point just a week ago. Ideas are still changing during this week. So things are a little rough.
The intention of this guide is to show how salt related ancient economic policies impact the economic policies today. The original design including borders on the map and other images to present a more engaged story. However I haven’t had time to build a good story. So I choose three events about salt and set questions to encourage users to follow my thoughts.
It represents three roles of salt in ancient history:
Stakeholders in the system are people, government and other countries.
The metaphor I planned to do was taking salt as power and the government was like chef. It comes from Tao Te Ching: “Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish” (治大国，若烹小鲜)
The guide should be narrowed down to a more specific topic. But it is a good beginning for me to think in that way.
The topic “salt” is a daily thing thus it has a lot of possible angles. Considering the theme “border”, I tended to choose topics related to economy and trade. But I didn’t find the pin-point topic.
Then I had a talk with Monika, she encouraged me to find things matter myself. I decide to focus on history, especiall Chinese history. Monika also introduced a form of book called “Choose Your Own Adventure”, which is a story but with different branches.
Stories I collected are:
And after I read a hypothesis that the Huns and the Xiongnu are the same ethnic group, one story branch comes to my mind: Han defeated Xiongnu – Xiongnu(Huns) migrated to Europe – collapse of the Roman Empire. It builds relations between East and West history, which is so imaginative.
The branches drafted:
Imagine the different possibilities of history is fun. However, there is one problem hindered me: the fun comes from rational hypothesis. But I was lost in these derived questions.
So I decide to build a relative simple guide now. One aspect impressed me: the economic policies in the history are similar to what we have today.
Questions in the guide:
What is the tax form in your place?
Have you seen similar economic policies? (control the price)
Do you know other economic wars? What are weapons there?
Do you know other legacies of ancient economic policies?
What has as much impact as salt today?
Questions of the guide:
What specific story or angle you would like to choose to expand?
What metaphors you’d have?
Bibliography
The guide now is a storytelling map about salt in China history.
Next I’ll add more pages and raise questions about the fiscal policy behind salt.
The guide form I chose for this topic is an interactive map (page).
Examples:
https://demos.mapbox.com/scrollytelling/
https://theirc.github.io/watchlist2021/
Why this form? What are its features (stylistic, experiential)
How is this form typically used, and what do you plan to subvert/imitate/utilize?
What would change if you tried a different form? What critical lens does the form you’re applying emphasize?
Is there a metaphor well-suited to your form (i.e. cooking with code)?
Or, are there other metaphors you might employ?
“He’s living on borrowed time.” – Although understandable, “borrowed” means not his own time, means he’s dying. But I had not heard that metaphor in my language.
“He’s in top shape.” – Putting the words “top” and “shape” together makes me feel weird. Though I can guess it means he is in a good condition.
“He is my social inferior.” – I think it is outdated. Sounds like a rude statement…
The central-peripheral and up-down system. When I want to talk about some complex concepts, a picture will appear in my mind and list the points. So important things are on the center of the picture. Or think about an onion rings structure, if we cut it in half, it’s a up-down structure.
About the change. Think about the half onion again, we can also say a core is at the bottom. So the change happens here: usually the important thing is on the top. But the foundation is also important. I can build a phrase “basic science is top science” to show the change or conflict here: both down and up mean the same thing. But from different angles.
My topic is “border – salt”. I think the metaphor for salt here is a link. Other metaphors may be money (need it and seek for it), lubricant in the machine (not a main part of a machine but essential).
I talked about salt with an endocrinologist.
She said the recommended salt intake in China’s dietary guidelines had been reduced from 6g to 5g. Then I asked her if she would be worried if the dish was too salty. She replied with a smile: “No, the excess salt will be excreted by the body.” We started the conversation casually, but it still gave me a lot of interesting knowledge.
In a doctor’s view, salt is not only sodium chloride but also potassium chloride. Sodium and potassium ions maintain the osmotic pressure of cells. Some juices, such as orange juice and coconut water, are rich in potassium. Usually, eating too much salt will not be a problem because the kidneys excrete excess sodium and potassium. But overeating salt every day can cause cardiovascular disease.
A too bland diet can also cause problems. Some elderly diabetics eat too lightly. Without enough salt, as a result, they feel weak and have to go to the hospital. The doctor will adjust the saline composition and concentration according to the patient’s condition. (I didn’t expect a light diet causes issues too.)
Foods that are not salty are not necessarily low in salt. A sweet cake may contain more salt than you think. To determine salt content, we can read the NRV (Nutrient Reference Value) on the packaging bag. (I didn’t know 100% on the NRV label means 100g of such food’s nutrient is sufficient.)
She mentioned a group of indigenous people named Yanomami in the Amazon rainforest. When she talked about the marker of a condition called Primary Aldosteronism that is not suitable for these indigenous people. (She even showed me a diagram to explain the mechanism, but the only thing I remember is Yanomami.) Their diet is different from modern people’s diet. We intake much more sodium than potassium, but they, on the contrary, intake more potassium. For they live by hunting and don’t eat industry salt. As a result, although the marker is high, they are healthy as the sodium content in their body is low.
The relationship between salt and border is not very direct. Maybe the Yanomami part is a little closer. However, the conversation is fun.
I have to admit that I’m “reluctant” to read the chapters from “Borderlands / La Frontera”. For the mixed form of English and Spanish. And the topic is also weird for me at first glance. Strangely, however, I feel like I entered the environment described by the poem in the first chapter. After that, the author talked about the history of the U.S.-Mexican border and Chicana. Considering the title Borderlands, I think the language mixture also shows “borderlands” in the text, which is a novel form for me to read.
Following is the second chapter about rebellion. Although I do not fully understand it, I read some flavors of metaphor. I suppose that the author compares the cultural conflict to border clashes. The representation of the conflict is the author. She is a Chicana, the “borderland” between Indian and Anglo. Also, a queer, the “borderland” between male and female. The rebellion against homophobia also expresses rebellion against patriarchy. (Or white supremacy, or whatever I’m unfamiliar with in history, politics, etc.)
There’s also a borderland in the art area. The freeport, as the article “Duty-Free Art” said. The artworks there do not belong to any country.
And thinking beyond national borders is especially important in the cloud era. While I get bored with these cliches. Such as privacy protection, data sovereignty, etc. It sounds like none of these guys are on the ground (country). The Pirate Bay’s usage of airborne drones explains my opinion: you must use some material to build the network. So you cannot get rid of the real world. The network, the clouds now are the reflection of our real world. Data monopoly is no more different from other monopoly issues for the country and world. The borders that exist offline also exist online in other forms. It may only change after Musk lands on Mars.
These articles generally extend my understanding of borders. Beyond the view of just a line, it can be a space, a concept conflict, or the gap between ambiguous areas.
I revised the map several times. In the beginning, I thought I could only draw a simple “tree”. But during the process, when an item is listed and adjusted. I find there are many possible angles to see the same items. Take the alternative view on the map as an example, if we consider things from the government’s side, the government imposes salt taxes (or duties) and starts wars. And if we compare the “duty” and “tax”, the duty causes wars while the tax causes revolutions. They are external and internal perspectives respectively. This also reflects “system thinkings”. Besides, The salt tax also supports some wars in history. Which makes things more interesting.
Another map:
