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

• Form: video
• Guide: https://vimeo.com/760956352

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

My interest in the topic of cosmetics is that I think that everything is cosmetics.

Cities are made up under the guidance of urban planners, public opinion is made up under the whitewashing of politicians, and history books are made up under the corruption of the rulers of all dynasties…

I decided to make a magazine that allows the audience to watch the makeup effects of cities, history, public opinion, and food just like before and after makeup.

The magazine page:

Topic 1 Final – Borders/Canals:

For my research topic of Borders/Canals, I decided to highlight the colonization of the natural element of water for man-made service. Through my systems mapping exercise, I wanted to explore the ideas of separation and connection and how humans manipulate water flow to answer those needs with the development of canals.

To highlight the different functions or jobs canals perform, I decided to display the information in my guide as a Careers page for a fictional company called Waterways, personifying water as an employee to the different canals. I created a corresponding logo and used the metaphor for the company tagline; “Go With the Flow.” In the video below, I briefly discuss my research, use of metaphor, and introduction to form before walking through my guide, which can be found at www.waterwaycareers.info and in the second Project Materials link below. Sources and References are linked on each page of the guide. I allowed a buffer of 2 minutes for live questions and further discussion during my presentation timeslot.

Project Materials:

Link to video presentation

Link to guide

Questions (Adding them here to the post since we weren’t able to discuss them):

• Did the form choice of a Careers Page resonate?
• Did the complexity of the “Go with the Flow” metaphor land?
• Were the themes of connection & separation visible in the work?

Presentation Slides:

Research:

Bibliography:

https://scdhec.gov/environment/land-and-waste-landfills/how-landfills-work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill
https://www.epa.gov/landfills/basic-information-about-landfills
https://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/2021/04/15/hidden-damage-landfills
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/landfills
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/landfill.htm

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:

1. a form of tax
2. a tool of fiscal policy
3. a weapon in the trade war

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 process

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

Intentions:

My intentions for this project were to create a map style guide that highlights various tourist attractions within the Korean DMZ. I wanted to use the metaphor of a museum map to show how an area which is known for being dangerous has transformed into an attraction that people actively go to to sightsee and enjoy. 

Another intention was to show the return of wildlife to the area. A lot of vulnerable and endangered species have thrived in the DMZ with the absence of human presence and lack of development. Now, they are becoming a tourist attraction which will increase human presence and potentially cause harm to their new ecosystem. 

Research:

I started my research with two systems maps. The first was a mind map to help organize my thoughts and the second was a casualty loop which illustrates some of the tension inherent to DMZs.

From the systems map, I thought I was going to focus on doing some sort of war map or realistic map of a specific DMZ. I chose the Korean DMZ since it’s the most dangerous places in the world. When I started diving deeper into that particular DMZ, I discovered a branch of stakeholders that I had completely overlooked – tourists!

Link to systems map: https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/09/19/systems-map-dmz/
Link to interview: https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/09/26/topic-1-interviews/

Making the Guide:

For my guide, I wanted to create a museum style map to evoke the feeling of exploring an exhibition. Typically we think of tourist destinations as relatively safe areas where people go to rest and relax. I wanted to turn that on its head a bit since the DMZ is completely the opposite. It’s a very dangerous area. There’s tons of security and military personnel on the DMZ borders and physical dangers within, like landmines.  

The map consists of a cover page with a realistic map noting the location of the Korean DMZ. The floor maps are stylized to bordered rectangles, some with dark lines noting various “rooms”. 

The first floor showcases wildlife, highlighting the best areas to go to to see endangered birds, deer, bears, foxes, and more. The Korean DMZ lacks a human presence, so many of these animals are able to thrive in peace. The irony is, of course, that people are now actively going into the DMZ to find and watch the wildlife. 

The second floor is a historical sites map. Most of the sites are areas where famous battles took place. Others are temples, palaces, tunnels, and Truce Village (where North and South Korean diplomats meet). 

The third floor displays three new hiking/walking trails that were recently established within the DMZ. All of the trails pass near active minefields, though they are said to be landmine free themselves. I thought showcasing the closeness of the trails to the landmines is an effective way to illustrate how dangerous the area is. It’s honestly shocking that people actively go to walk directly next to unexploded landmines for a photo op.

Sources:

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demilitarized_zone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone

Trip Advisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Products-g1872665-d2076201-DMZ-Paju_Gyeonggi_do.html

NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/20/710054899/in-korean-dmz-wildlife-thrives-some-conservationists-worry-peace-could-disrupt-i
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/27/754811189/hundreds-of-thousands-of-landmines-remain-from-korean-war-but-serve-no-purpose

Asia Society:
https://asiasociety.org/korea/koreas-dmz-offers-safe-haven-diverse-wildlife-now

Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/wildlife-thrives-among-the-land-mines-along-koreas-dmz-but-for-how-long/2019/08/27/ef76f3fe-c29e-11e9-8bf7-cde2d9e09055_story.html

Korea Herald:
https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20191028000683

Reuters:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-southkorea-dmz/north-south-korea-begin-removing-landmines-along-fortified-border-idUSKCN1MB1BG

Korea Times:
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/culture/2022/08/141_334629.html

LA Times:
https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-koreas-peace-trail-20190625-story.html

Walkthrough video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sm1EtJd_JhX002DXHULzxngHH38yfULM/view?usp=sharing

Pictures:

Form: Pop-up book

Research and Progress:

I started with the meaning of my topic and found that it has usually been used as terminology (in biology, microanatomy, zoology, etc.). It usually means small holes and openings on/inside one creature’s body.  I was lost in different biology papers at the beginning and had no idea what I could do with the topic. After having an interview with a biology Ph.D., I got a deeper understanding of the fenestra. I realized that fenestra is usually used for balancing the pressure and transporting small parts in and out. I decided to go deep in this direction.  The guide should focus more on pressure and balancing.

When searching for the form of the guide, I want to find a form that can reduce the professionalism of the word and make it more interesting. Also, personally, I want to try something non-tech. The Pop-up book is typically used for children and educational functions. Also, it’s mainly used for storytelling or showcasing. I plan to focus on its storytelling part, but I want to tell a story that can interest both the children and the adults.

When thinking about metaphor, I decided to reconstruct the topic and get some key elements to follow in my project. As I mentioned above, the key concepts are pressure and balancing. While the pressure here means hydraulic or air pressure, the word “pressure” can also mean mental pressure. One step further, emotional balance comes out.

Then when I start to work on the guide, to show my content to everyone directly with the lowest age limitations, language limitations, or knowledge reserved, I choose to take a symbolic path. Also, I found out that showing the structure directly is not the best solution since it is hard for the audience who sees the guide for the first time to get “what it is” without a text explanation. Compared to explaining what a fenestra is, I want the audience to understand the story more. As a result, I used the term “the Gate” instead. And small dots to show the “emotions” instead of actual molecules. Also, I did some research on “emotions and colors” and “emotions and shapes” to choose the best visualization for different emotions.

[Update:]

[For friends who would go to the Skin Presentation: Please don’t read the words below before the presentation. Thank you!]

The idea behind the guide: Small openings, holes, or mistakes do not destroy us; it is part of us and sometimes help us get out of bad situations.

While making the guide, Venus de Milo comes to my mind. People have more or less sorrow and pain. It is these sorrows and pains that complete us. Miraculously, sometimes they give us the power to move on. “I’ve already gone through all these things; what else could beat me?” Honestly, these thoughts are far away from my topic: fenestra. However, they were born from all the research I’ve done and all the reconstruction I’ve tried. I was hesitant to continue in this direction, and finally, I decided to go and follow my heart.  We are all like fenestra with invisible openings to live our own life.

Guide Link: https://editor.p5js.org/YunshanJiang/full/s5KWGZK0Rc

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDVVqSpDUg

Critical point: Women are treated unequally in some Chinese handcraft fields, but they have the same talent with male. For example, in in some places, master only taught young male the skill of making clothes. Female at home expresses their emotion by stitching leftover cloths(quilting).

My Intention: I tried to use the guide to express gender equality especially in Chinese handcraft fields. We have to pay more attention on women’s right of accepting knowledge in society.

System: The system is Chinese handcraft fields.

Stakeholders: The stakeholders are women, men, customer, craftsman, craftswoman.

Guide explanation: 

I made a simple game as the guide by p5.js. The game has two parts. On the left is the field representing female. On the right is the field representing male. Players can see different fabrics around the border of each field. On the left part, the fabrics are old and dirty, which represents female has very limited resources for doing quilting. On the right part, the fabrics are colourful and high quality, which represents male has very rich resources. The mouse on the left part is a pink needle which represent female, and the mouse on the right part is a blue needle which represent male. The rule of the game is to drag the fabrics’ part to the centre in order to make a complete quilt. On the left part, the low-quality cloths make very dark and irregular quilts at the beginning, however, in the end, the consequence of women’s work is as beautiful as men’s work, which present women can also make a pretty quilt even if they are treated unequally. 

Interview: 

From my interview, I talked with an expert tailor who works in a custom suit shop. He told me that in his hometown, majority of people who made clothes were man. When I asked him about what women did and why he did not taught the skill to a young woman, he said most of women went to factory and it was not convenient to have a woman student. From my knowledge background, in China, many handcraft skills were only inherited by men. Therefore, I want to use the guide to make people get notice about the social phenomenon in China. 

Research:

Based on my research, I found out that, quilting are an important duty for women especially in many countries’ poor families. Women don’t do farm work like men in outside; therefore, they do not have too many social activity. Quilting for these women is a good way to connect each family member, and it is a way to converse with other people. The pattern, design and aesthetics of quilting is the expression of sentiment for these women. It is a key method for transmitting information.

Reference:

Beeman, L. L. (2003). Connecting Centuries, Countries, and Cultures: Quilting and Patchwork in South Asia. Piecework, 11(6), 61–65.

Colleen R. Hall-Patton. (2008). Quilts and everyday life. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-2396(08)31008-4

Wilson, M. (2022). Who We Are: Patchwork Quilting in Southern Appalachia. Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies, 28(1), 55–72.

Jailer-Chamberlain, M. (2004). Man Made: Piecing out a New Tradition in Quilting. Antiques & Collecting Magazine, 109(8), 44–50.

Link to the interactive map: https://wangwentao97.github.io/Connections-Lab/midterm%201/

Presentation link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1y7IIG6MQHQvo_2zzAbT4QXpd5zObdUmxyi2I8sgPgmU/edit?usp=sharing

For the guide of topic 1, I made an interactive map showing the coffee plantations all over the world.

I used mapbox api to create a world map. On the map you can see many circles. Each circle represent a country that produces coffee. And the size of the  circle represent the amount of coffee production each year. All the circles are clickable. By clicking on a circle, an image of local coffee plantation will show up. Facts about the coffee plantation in that country will also shown below the image. These facts are based on research finding, aiming to inspire more questions and thoughts when users read them.

You can also enter any city name you are interested in. After clicking the button, the city of choice will shown on the map. You can still click on other circles. Now more interactions will appear. Lines will appear, connecting coffee production countries with the city you choose. There are numbers marked on the lines, representing coffee export data of the country.

System map:

Explanation:

Plantation is an iceberg. Take coffee for example, we drink coffee everyday, but it takes a huge effort for coffee to arrive on our table from its original plantation. This map aim to raise the awareness of how plantation influences our life, while oppressions and ecological impacts are happening beneath the water.

General research findings:

• The low wages typically paid to plantation workers are the basis of plantation profitability in some areas.
• Plantation plays an important role in current world market.
• Plantation agriculture grew rapidly with the increase in international trade and the development of a worldwide economy that followed the expansion of European colonialism.
• The longer a crop’s harvest period (tropical crops: eg. coffee), the more efficient plantations become. Economies of scale are also achieved when the distance to market is long.

Research results and resources:

• Coffee world production and trading data.

https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/coffee-world-markets-and-trade

• A living wage for workers on coffee farms in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil would be R$1629 (477 US dollars) per month, according to new research. The current prevailing wage is R$1307 (383 US dollars) per month.

https://www.comunicaffe.com/new-research-highlights-living-wage-coffee-workers-brazil/

• During the harvest, about 40-50 percent of labourers work informally, without being registered,” says Silva. He reports that plantation owners frequently offer workers a higher wage to work without a contract. “Forty percent of those with official contracts still experience violations of their rights. Typically they can neither read nor write, and so they lose out on things like vacation pay and overtime pay. They simply sign the documents without knowing what they are agreeing to,” says Barbosa.

https://old.danwatch.dk/en/undersogelseskapitel/kapitel-3-cirka-halvdelen-af-brasiliens-kaffeplukkere-arbejder-uden-kontrakt/

• Workers at Cooxupé, the world’s largest coffee cooperative, had up to 30% of their wages deducted to pay for the use of portable harvesting machines that their employers should have provided for free. The violation occurred on the Pedreira farm in Minas Gerais state, which is owned by the family of the Cooxupé president, Carlos Augusto Rodrigues de Melo. Cooxupé, which sells coffee to major international brands such as Nespresso and Starbucks, nearly doubled its profit in 2020 to $61 million, on revenue of $1 billion. In 2020, 140 workers were rescued from slave-labor-like conditions at coffee plantations in Brazil, all of them in Minas Gerais state, according to labor inspectors.

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/labor-rights-violations-at-brazil-coffee-farm-linked-to-starbucks-nespresso/

• As such, we find much younger workers in Ethiopia than in Costa Rica or Indonesia. So young that 21.6 per cent of its coffee workers are reported to be 14 years old or less. Another element of interest is the high share of workers aged 66 or older in Costa Rica. Moreover, most +65 year old Costa Rican coffee workers are self-employed (75.6 per cent), a group that tends to remain longer in the workforce.

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—protrav/—travail/documents/projectdocumentation/wcms_765134.pdf

• The U.S. Department of Labor reports an estimated 34,131 children laborers growing coffee in Vietnam, 12,526 of which are under the age of 15.

https://borgenproject.org/labor-exploitation-in-coffee-production/

• Hundreds of Colombia’s small coffee growers have stopped cultivating the bean in the face of low prices and reduced harvests linked to a shifting climate. In the last 18 months, Colombia has lost nearly 100,000 acres of coffee plantations, more than 4 percent of the land under coffee cultivation, according to a statement issued last week by Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers (Fedecafé).

https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-climate-changes-colombias-small-coffee-farmers-pay-the-price

• The average age of coffee farmers, at 55 years, the same as Jose Fernando Tavárez, is no accident.

https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/colombias-coffee-plantations-struggle-aging-workforce

• In India, among all workers in coffee plantations, 62% are women workers. The wage ratio between male and female workers is 0.97.

https://www.proquest.com/docview/2541816235?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

• Coffee is among the products produced by child labor in Uganda. In harvest season, a decline in school attendance is observed. Children perform hazardous work in coffee-growing families to support the farm and household activities.

https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/resource-item/origin-issue-assessment-uganda-coffee/