Demo link: https://suirunzhao.github.io/satellitesinspace/#live

Research:

Based on the research and interview, I found that

1. the rise in the number of satellites being launched into space is unsustainable.
2. Satellites mega-constellations pose a risk to climate and the environment.
3. Tighter global regulation is needed to ensure space sustainability.

In order to raise people’s awareness of creating a system of sustainable satellites above us, with long time horizons, I created this guide, with some brief description of the current situation of space.

Progress:

1. A basic guide for people interested in knowing the satellite above us.
2. Brief description of the damage caused by space debris.
3. Gives people information about satellites, users can search the satellite’s name and give them information, including their names, countries, owners, users, purposes, orbit types, altitude, and source links.
4. Users can scroll from the bottom to the top of the page to cognize satellite orbits, which simulates different orbits’ altitude.

References:

Nasa Live Views from the ISS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YLFOog4GM

DEWESoft https://dewesoft.com/daq/every-satellite-orbiting-earth-and-who-owns-them

UCS Satellite Database https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database#page-subtitle

Data: https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/

howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow https://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/

Space Guide: https://abraiz01.github.io/Connections-Lab/Week3/Project_1/index.html

Scroll Inspiration: https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

Space Debris and Human Spacecraft: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

SATELLITES FOR SUSTAINABILITY: https://pages.devex.com/satellites-for-sustainability

What’s the environmental impact of space debris and how can we solve it? : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/environmental-impact-space-debris-how-to-solve-it/

Distant Space Debris a Threat to Satellites

The current state of space debris: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/The_current_state_of_space_debris

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

This is the cover page of the infomercial video.

Here’s the link to the actual video:  https://vimeo.com/758390110/9bc6404165

Research

I started up my research really focusing on the actual history of puppetry, and then I went into puppet usage and its importance in child development and psychology research. However, I landed on focusing on the political ideology aspect of Puppets, specifically the puppet rulers, puppet leaders, and puppet governments. I was curious if there are specific rules on what qualified a ruler as a puppet, and was surprised to see the variety of explanations and debates on this topic, especially in the realm of international relations. I then dig into historical leaders that are considered classic examples of puppets, such as Pu-Yi and Philippe Pétain. I also found some interesting case studies with controversial debates, such as whether Hitler should be considered as a dictator or a puppet. Later on, I got into the larger issue of what puppet politics might look like in practice, as well as the danger of it. I specifically focused on post-colonial Africa and post-Soviet Eurasia and the crisis caused by puppet leadership. I got more in-depth with reading on the “indirect rule” in African countries under European control, and how those resulted in tragic events such as the Rwandan genocide.

When I got to the Rwandan genocide, I realized I’ve gotten too deep into a specific dark area, and while I have a strong passion to discuss such issues, I need to learn to separate the research and the experiment, hence this project itself. I cut back and tried to find the main takeaway point I wish to deliver through a short infomercial I plan to make. Instead of information dumping, I wish to at least help make aware of the serious danger that puppet leadership might cause. However, I also want to convey the difficulty in the reality of identifying a puppet politician. While the infomercial itself promises an easy solution to identify a puppet leader, the real intention is to show how impossible it is.

Bibliography

The Research

When I first began to dig into the concept of colonial organisms, I was struck by the idea that an organism can either be made up of individuals that are genetic clones or each other, or  heterogenous individuals. In the heterogenous animals, I found that they could also be polymorphic, in that each individual would have a function or a job that the evolved to perform for the greater good of the colony. Some of the individuals would have evolved to find food, others would have evolved to protect the colony. I also came across an idea of Chimera Colonies, where colonies that may not be genetically identical conjoin to former a larger colony. There is some research that suggests that perhaps chimera colonies can grow larger, and live longer because of their diversity.

My aim is to create a guide that helps my audience understand a general concept that diversity in our environment is a good thing. In the specific case of colonial organisms, diversity leads to a longer lifespan. With Halloween coming up, and spooky things in mind, I inevitably made the connection between a heterogeneous colonial organism, and a humans living in a colony, trying to survive the Zombie Apocalypse. In my guide, the first scenario shows a human colony where all of the individuals are farmers, and do not end up not surviving a zombie attack. In the second scenario, this colony has individuals who are farmers, but also has protectors, builders, doctors, etc. This colony is able to survive long when the zombies attack.

The Form

A lot of the information I found about colony organisms was about aquatic organisms specifically, and for me, this conjures up images of moving particles deep in the ocean, crashing waves, motion. I wanted to bring some sort of motion into my guide. I also had hopes of creating an analog experience for my audience. Partially this was motivated by selfish reasons, because I spend so much time at a computer, and wanted to create something with my hands. But also, the ideas of jobs, occupations, survival feel like very tactile concepts, and it would be great to guide the audience to those ideas by allowing them to physically move something with their hands. This lead me to the idea of creating a pop-up book. Specifically I was interested in creating a book with sliding elements, to recreate the movements of organisms in water, or people running from zombies.

The creation of pop-up elements was a bit more technical than I realized from the start. I also realized that in order to pull off the atmospheric effect of a Zombie Apocalypse, the book would need a specific aesthetic. I decided to start this process by creating some designs in Figma, and realized that a clickable prototype may be a great way to explore my ideas quickly, and allow for faster iteration. This clickable prototype is where I ended up, and and feel like it can now be used as a framework for either a web site, or a pop-up book.

The Guide

Since the guide is currently a clickable prototype in Figma, you will need visit the Figma to explore more. However here are two screenshots of the two colonies that are represented in the prototype.

The References and Brainstorming Documents

• References on both the colonial organisms, and the form can be found in this google doc.
• Brainstorming Documents:
  • google doc of notes from my references
  • a figma doc where I gathered ideas

Research

At the beginning, I didn’t know anything about yoga, or even about any relationship between yoga and religion. Then with my preliminary investigation, I found that yoga is actually a very, very broad discipline, involving religion, fitness, communication and other aspects. I interviewed yoga enthusiasts, philosophy students and ordinary people. Their understanding and views on yoga are quite different.

Finally, I combined their views and searched a large number of papers on the Internet, and obtained my own critical topic：​Different stakeholders and groups will have their own interpretation and development in using yoga as a tool, but it will not alter the original intention of yoga, which is integrating body and spirit to achieve a state of peace and relaxation.

I found that there are many, many different stakeholders, and the following are the obvious ones:

Hinduism: Because yoga can teach us to control our own desires to keep us in a peaceful state, many religions like Hinduism use yoga to preach.

Health (both mental and physical): Yoga can correct posture and promote exercisers’ cardiopulmonary function. And meditation can make people jump out of the stressful life and troubles

Business: The global spread of yoga has brought new opportunities to various industries (clothing, books, videos, equipment factories, holidays, classes), just like a huge golden stomach bag with hundreds of billions

Diplomacy: Unlike other religions, yoga is not exclusive.  The characteristics of self-cultivation and all-embracing are very suitable for India government to build diplomatic friendship.

In fact, there are many others. For example, yoga is also widely used in the education of primary and secondary schools, and yoga also has some help for sexual function. However, because of the religious background of yoga itself, yoga education is still controversial, and the help for sexual function also needs to be further demonstrated by medical science. Therefore, this research will not be carried out from these two aspects.

Progress

For the form, I want to make a popular science brochure. The audience and application scenarios may be distributed as promotional materials in similar international yoga days, so that more people who know nothing about yoga or have misunderstandings about yoga can have a better knowledge of yoga.

As for metaphor, I thought we should use something that is easy to understand and everyone knows, so I finally chose blood. Yoga is like blood. It carries innumerable nutrients (peace, meditation, self-discipline, inclusive spiritual culture),

and delivers these nutrients to different organs (stakeholders, governments, religions and organizations). These organs use these nutrients to play their own different functions and thrive in various fields.

Bibliography

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

Michelle Star  Yoga Part 1&2 : mind and body  https://bobcat.library.nyu.edu/permalink/f/ci13eu/nyu_aleph004891011

程醉.瑜伽服装：小众产品逆袭带来的千亿产业蛋糕[J].中国纤检,2022,No.558(03):102-103.DOI:10.14162/j.cnki.11-4772/t.2022.03.019.

李林臻,马博威.健身瑜伽的现代价值研究[J].健与美,2022,No.395(03):98-99.

于欣力,蔡春阳.印度哲学视域下瑜伽思想的渊源、发展及其价值[J].国外社会科学前沿,2022,No.506(07):29-46.

田克萍.从宗教修行到身体技术——论瑜伽文化的变迁[J].广东外语外贸大学学报,2019,30(02):132-137.

• The Guide of “Code” of Arms 

         Form: Mini booklet

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mJVadXe3L6a8D9OKwgDuJe8vmkuuGQa9/view?usp=sharing

• Intentions for the Guide

As an entry level guide, it is for people who don’t know about Coat of Arms, but have interest in it. It starts with the question of Coat of Arms or “Code” of Arms to intrigue readers’ interest to keep exploring. Then it introduces the origin, history and components of Coat of Arms.

After that, the guide also introduces another type of Coat of Arms in Asia – Mon in Japan, and set up a “Bonus Why” question to deep dive the topic – what is the system was Coat of Arms based on? 

At last, the guide gives a brief about how to make your own one – a simple version with contemporary icons.

Another fun part of this guide is that you can open it, and on the other side of the paper there is a step-by-step guidance for making a Code of Arms.

• Research

Firstly, I googled online to start my initial research, which gave me a general idea what is Coat of Arms. At the 2nd week, I created a concept mapping to help sort out the relationship of concepts of my research topic, then I better understood the concepts and scope of my final deliverables.

To get a better idea about how to design an emblem, I interviewed a professional designer and illustrator, which was helpful for me to find out an approachable way for designing the emblem. (https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/09/26/topic-1-interviews-code-of-arms/)

I got some problem in figuring out a metaphor for my topic. Thanks to instructor’s guide, finally we found that “Code” is a good metaphor. On one side, Coat of Arms itself is a kind of code.On the other side, with the development of society, Coat of Arms has been evolved and can be in a contemporary design.

• Bibliography

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/kids/kids-rule-things-to-make-and-do/design-your-own-coat-of-arms/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/coat-of-arms

Design Your Own Coat of Arms: An Introduction to Heraldry

The Mon – Japanese Coats of Arms – Pro Heraldica (pro-heraldica.de)