Skip to content

Topic 1 Development

Progress on Topic 1 Project: Gardens

Research synopsis

My research on gardens took me down a couple of different paths. In starting at the intersection of gardening and borders, I looked initially very literal place — gardening on maps. I learned about how gardens were represented on maps as the promised land, and how they showed up as part of biblical references on medieval maps. This introduced me to forms of medieval maps, especially mappae mundi, which are beautiful not-so-literal maps of the world from roughly the 13th century.

I then started looking for a more critical lens through which to consider gardening. I started down a path of access and gender roles, but decided that looking at the plants themselves inspired me more. I read about the brachen in Berlin — abandoned spaces that were becoming re-colonized by plants. I read about rewilding efforts (primarily in the UK and Australia). And I read about native vs invasive species.

Work progress

I started out making some botanical sketches and map sketches, hoping to make a plant-centric mappa mundi. On my walks, bike rides, and runs around Chicago, I started paying attention to the plants I saw, both in gardens and outside of them. As I began with making map sketches, I didn’t find that path to be terribly generative. I wanted to figure out what this thing I was making was actually helping someone do. I then went out and did some sidewalk rubbings, because I remembered interesting places where weeds were growing up in the cracks in the pavement. I decided to turn these rubbings into little maps/survival guides from the plants perspective.

This is the first (not quite complete yet) survival guide: How To Survive on the Invasive Species List (and like it). It started with a rubbing, and then was illustrated with the emphasis on the weeds, not on the human/built environment. Then there are captions around the weed illustrations like “they can’t get you down when you’re already flat” etc. Aesthetically, I tried to make it look gritty and rough, befitting a patch of cracked pavement, without looking muddy. I’m not quite sure I nailed that aesthetic. I do like the way this is going, and would like to do some more with more sidewalk rubbings.

I’d also like to look at some of the other non-weed plants. I was thinking about doing a spread on some native species that are part of “rewilding” efforts. I took these pictures on an evening bike ride. It struck me as ironic that these “wild”/”rewilded” plants are almost universally behind a fence. I also think they’re really beautiful, yet they’re rarely the ones that people choose to have in their garden. I’m not sure what direction I want to take this one. Whether I do something like “How to Thrive As America’s Last Top Model” or “How to Survive the ‘Wilderness’ That’s Behind Bars.”

 

Representative Midterm Progress – Borders | Canals

I had a slight pivot in direction for my form/plan on how to execute my guide.

Rather than a straightforward field guide, I decided to highlight the colonization of the natural element of water for man-made jobs. Highlighting the different functions or jobs canals hold, I thought it would be a creative spin to display the information as a Careers page for a fictional company. I created a company called Waterways with a corresponding logo. Their company tagline is “Go With the Flow,” which ties in with my use of metaphor. Not all the information is populated on the site just yet, but here is the WIP site: www.waterwaycareers.info

Intended IA you will see take shape on the Waterways Careers Site:

Metaphor/Company Tagline: Go with the Flow

Careers/Join our Team Section:

Mechanism to highlight notable canals from my research

  • Panama & Suez Canals: Trade
  • Amsterdam Canals: Protection
  • Grand Canal /Jinghang Waterway: Unifier (UNESCO Heritage Site)
  • Venice Canals & British Waterways – Travel – Transportation leading to cultural/folk art

About Waterways Section:

  • Highlighting the role the natural element of water plays as a separator or connector and the job bestowed upon in by man-made canals
  • What makes a canal a canal / Essential information
  • Adding snippets from my interview information

Anti-Pollution Promise:

  • Story of the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal
  • Story of Canal Street, NYC

 

Depending on when you visit, there will be varying information on the site as it is WIP. I will be continuing to work on adding this information, but I wanted to be sure to get the representative portion up on the blog.

Progress Post: DMZ

I’m going for a tourism guide in the style of a museum map. Tourism in the Korean DMZ is something I came across during my research. It was super interesting since the Korean DMZ is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world due to military tensions, landmines, covert operations, etc.

Update on Project

Research

I have decided to change my project idea from a field guide to a cookbook guide form. I use the humor metaphor to create a book that shows the animals’ guide to taxidermizing humans instead of the other way around. After my talk with Monika, I had more insight into how to do this project. As well as how I can implement humor into this subject.  The “cookbook” guide form has information on how to taxidermize a body, more specifically a human. I had gotten the information from wikihow.com. Initially, my research started with the definition on ‘Taxidermy’. Taxidermy by Merriam-webster.com is, “the art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals and especially vertebrates”. Then did research on the history on Taxidermy. The process of ‘mummification’ of animals using wraps, oils, and salt.
Finally, for my humor metaphor, I changed the form and did animals taxidermy on humans instead.

Bibliography

Merriam-Webster.com – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taxidermy

wikiHow.com-  3 Ways to Do Taxidermy – wikiHow

Bones, K. (2021, September 16). The history of Taxidermy. Kodiak Bones and Bugs Taxidermy. Retrieved October 9, 2022, from https://bonesandbugs.com/the-history-of-taxidermy/#:~:text=Taxidermy%20has%20been%20around%20for,and%20available%20resources%20and%20technology.

 

Salt: guide progress – draft

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.

Plantation guide progress – draft

For the guide, I’m making an interactive map showing the world trading of plantation products, I’m using coffee as my first plantation product for demonstration.

I first did a research on the data of coffee production and world market trading. I found the data on the website of United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service. Here is the link to the website. https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/coffee-world-markets-and-trade

Here is a draft of the interactive map I made:

I used the mapbox api to draw the world map on the webpage. I extracted production data and trading data to make my own database. On this draft there are many circles with different sizes. The sizes of the circles represent the amount of production of coffee bean in that country.

For further development, I will make all these circles interactive. Users would be able to click on the circles, and more data showing local plantation situations will pop up. I will also try to add connection between each countries to show the trading process.

Project Progress: Borders | Canals

The metaphor I am exploring is “Go with the Flow”

The idea of separation and connection is the idea I wanted to hone in on. I think it is interesting that the natural element of water has a job bestowed upon it by humans since canals are man-made. So depending on its location, the water acts as a connector, separator, transporter, or protector. It goes with the flow. Using that lens, I will be leveraging the inspiration from the Wildsam field guides I had noted in an earlier post to break up the information. Initially, I wanted to make a webpage with an animation in the background of a winding river, but that is proving to be a bigger endeavor that I may need to scrap due to complexity and time constraints. I have the concept – it is just the creative execution I will need to catch up on in time for Tuesday’s class.

 

Experimental Making – Canals

Following a p5 tutorial on Perlin Flow, I explored the metaphor of “Go with the Flow”

https://editor.p5js.org/npadilla688/full/V–cftYVB

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: