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Topic 1 Interviews

Interview: Wonderland Project

** Due to scheduling gymnastics, I will be conducting my interview on Tuesday, September 27th at 7pm, and will update this post with a summary when it is complete **

Interview subject: Natalie Evans, who is working on the Wonderland Community Project near Woodstock, IL

Stated goals of Wonderland:

  • Building a large scale mutual aid food supply where we can feed 100 families, hopefully in 5 years time.
  • Land restoration: removing invasive species, replanting native spices and reestablishing lost ecosystems.
  • Creating ecological wealth for future generations.
  • Exploring ways to give land back to local Indigenous people.
  • Helping people feel connected to the land and providing a space for people to be outdoors, especially people that don’t have easy or safe access to being in “nature”.
  • Moving slowly, working in collaboration with each other and the land.
Questions for Natalie:
What led you to starting Wonderland? What drew you down this path?
What were some of the ways that you prepared for this project? Some of the hurdles?
How did you choose the location for Wonderland?
I love all of the goals that you shared for your project. Do you consider any to be more important than any others? How do you balance them?
If someone else was interested in starting down this path, what advice would you give them? What would their first steps be?
What are ways that people could serve similar goals if they don’t have access to large tracts of land?
Natalie’s journey toward her project began in earnest roughly a decade ago when she turned to the outdoors for comfort during some stressful moments for her family. At that time, she took many nature walks and started to study urban foraging — looking for edible food in and around Chicago. After finding a community of like-minded individuals, she joined a group of 6 families, 9 adults and 16 kids, to purchase a large chunk of land about an hour from downtown Chicago. The group’s plan is to work with the land to provide food for local families, and safe space for humans of all types (with an explicit focus on people in the queer community) to enjoy being outdoors. They are also focusing on sustainable growing — removing invasive species and replanting native species.
The practical details are not terribly glamorous, but it was clear how much Natalie loved the work. From a human side, they are hoping to build a comfortable composting bathroom facility in the next year. From a plant side, they are hard at work removing honeysuckle, buckthorn, and oriental bittersweet. They are planting oaks, milkweed, onions, bee balm, bundle flowers, ramps, sunflowers, and wood nettles.
She also pointed me toward a few people to do more research into, surrounding the controversy of rewilding: Farmer Rishi, Daniel Vitalis, and Peter Michael Bauer, as well as the blog CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt.com.

Interview: Salt

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.

SKIN: Fenestra – Interview Summary

I‘ve interviewed one non-expert and one expert. The non-expert is a designer, and the expert is a biology Ph.D. from NYUSH.

Interview with a non-expert:

  • I first let him introduce himself and his experience in biology. He is a system designer in the IT area. He likes biology and participated in the school’s biology competition. He gives up studying biology after entering the university because there are too many technical terms that need to be remembered. Then I asked him did he ever heard the word “Fenestra”. As I expected, his answer is no. After explaining what it is in words, I asked about his feelings, thoughts, or any other thing he wants to ask or talk to me about.  He first sympathizes with me having such a topic to work on, then he mentions some similar structures in the cell. He said when he first learned how those small openings can help support the whole body, he is truly shocked and realized each human being is a well-designed system. No matter how small a structure is, it contributes to the whole system subtly. And then he said this reminds him how a city works. Small installations in the cities are not been noticed but the city cannot function without them, like the roadside sewers which help balance the water level.

Interview with an expert。

  • I finally got in touch with her this Friday. The interview with the expert is not finished yet (09/25) due to her time limitation. We just discussed it for about 10 minutes, and we will have a more extended interview in the coming week.  Before the discussion started, I generally explained this course’s background and what I will do. I first asked her: do you know fenestra? And surprisingly, her answer is no. She then started to ask me questions about fenestra. After I showed her the information I researched, she immediately got the general idea of this structure and showed me some biology examples with similar functions. She said she would search for more information before our next meeting, and I also need to look at the examples she brought out to make more interview questions next time.

Interview with Margaret Smith

Once I learned that Margaret has a degree in Evolutionary Biology, I knew that she would be a great person to talk about colonial organisms with! A couple of big picture ideas that came out of our conversation were:

  • Maybe nailing down exactly what a colonial organism is, or isn’t, doesn’t really matter. I was feeling the need to put this concept in a box, but maybe it’s okay if the idea of a colonial organism is a bit more fluid than that. After all, the term “colonial organism” and its classification is all based on decisions made by humans. The organisms themselves don’t necessarily care how they’re classified! Lots of organisms live in colonies, and are dependent on one another. And maybe that is the more important thread to pull at, over determining if a bee is a colonial organism or not.
  • On the other side of that coin though, it is very interesting to zoom out and consider if all earth itself, all living things are colonial in some way. For much of human existence, the species weren’t able to survive without other living things, or continue the species without each other. I’m now reflecting on how to some extent that is changing, with modern science we are able to generate food in a lab, have a child without a partner, etc. The colony of living things on this planet is certainly changing.
    • A couple other terms we touched on, that I’d love to do some additional research on are:
      • biome
      • superorganism
  • When Margaret worked in a lab, her focus was on dictyostelium discoideum, an amoeba known as slime mold. We specifically talked about several life cycles these amoeba, and spent some time looking at their social cycle. This is a cycle that the amoebas go through when they need food. They start out being individuals and aggregate, changing into several different shapes to eventually form a sort of fruit. When the fruit erupts, so to speak, it’s spores are transported to a place where there is hopefully food.

    Once piece that is particularly fascinating about this is that only the amoeba in the fruit survive this cycle. The rest die, and sort of sacrifice themselves so that the ones that are in the fruit can survive. In the lab, Margaret and her colleagues found that the fruit was not an equal split of the different genetic material in the aggregation. Are the amoebas that die sacrificing themselves for those that are more genetically similar? Is it cooperation or a competition?
  • Based on the above, it’s clear that the systems involved in how dictyostelium discoideum live, are complex. I also learned just how difficult it is to compare the life cycles of organisms to each other. At first, I thought that perhaps humans have more cycles than dictyostelium discoideum, since we are larger, more complex creatures. But Margaret questioned maybe humans have less cycles that  dictyostelium discoideum – we cannot reproduce asexually! It makes sense, but was still an interesting revelation to see how human-centric my thinking is.

kinship&quilting interview

Interview flow:

For this interview, I found the tailor who made a suit for me in Shanghai. He is an old master who works in a suit custom shop. The reason that I found him is although making suit or clothes is different from quilting, the connection is still strong and tight. He gave me many clues about quilting or quilting related background majorly in Chinese family and society. 

Before I started talking the interview’s question, I claimed the meeting last not longer than 30 minutes, then I introduced my background and what was the interview’s intention. it was a research trying to find the relationship and impact between quilting or quilting related skills with family, friend and community.  Below is the summary of the Q&A from the old master.

Q: 

  1. Could you introduce your background or talk me about your tailor career or study experience?

A:

My sewing skill is inherited from my father. I have almost 47 years experience of sewing. I started to work for my father since I was 17 years old.

Q: 

2. Why do you do this job? Is that you like?

A:

I do this job because of my father and the environment’s influence. I like this job, which is the reason that I can make clothes 47 years. 

Q:

3. What is the impact of the skill to you? Does it help you have more solid connection between you and your surrounding relationship?

A:

I have learned to be patient, and it does change my characteristics. (Then I asked: did you help your neighbourhood making clothes? And did this help you have a good reputation in the community?) I did help my neighbourhood making clothes and they were thankful for what I did. 

Q:

4. Was it poor in your community? If it was, did you or people you know do quilting or patchwork? 

A:

Yes, my family and the village I lived was poor compared to surrounding cities. In my family, my father usually quilted for us. We collected leftover materials and my father patched them on our old clothes. My mother do farm work instead. 

Q: 

5. If your family do quilting, who always be the quilters? And is that role important and admired by others?

A:

My father, brother and I all do quilting and sewing. My father make the whole clothes especially Chinese tunic suit during that age. 

Q:

6. Is that many male do the job related to sewing, quilting in your hometown? And why?

A:In the area I lived(Taixin, Jiangsu province), it is mainly male who did sewing. If a family member have the skills, he/she will bring other family member to do the job. A family could be a unit of small clothes factory. (Then I asked: how about female in a family? Don’t they do quilting or sewing?) Most female can do basic needle work but most of them would go to assembly line factory. For me, I don’t teach female the skill because of inconvenience. 

At the same time, another young female tailor in the store answered: I graduated from a clothes college in Shanghai, most of my schoolmates are female. 

Q:

7. Are there any differences between old time and nowadays’ sewing? 

A:

Costumer’s standard is much more higher than before. 

Q:

8. Will you wish to have more creative in the clothes? Or you still want more classical clothes?

A: It depends on the trend of market. We make costumer liked suit rather than what we liked suit. A good suit depends on its detail and fabric rather than its design. 

Q:

9. How do you feel when finish a suit? 

A: When i see my customer is satisfied I will be happy. I really enjoy making suit for people.

Q:

10. what you bring for others and other brings to you?

A: Of course, satisfaction and sense of achievement. 

Personal summary:

After the interview, I gained a lot of information. I am shocked that in Taixin Jiangsu, China, it is mainly male do the quilting and sewing work, which breaks people’s steyerotype. I believed that in different areas of china, many traditional skills were inherited only by male due to the history reason. However, the answer from the young female tailor in the suit custom shop gave me a hint that the tradition and old social practice is almost gone nowadays in China. Many young women engaged into clothing industry. 

 

 

Note: The shop is named Wbespoke in Huangpu district, Shanghai, China.

Interview video Link(Chinese Language): https://youtu.be/AkkNZwjc8tM

Interview Questions About Cosmetics and Skin

Q1：What is the application of skin model in cosmetic efficacy evaluation? What are the pros and cons of current skin mods? What are your expectations and suggestions for its future development?

 

Q2：What do you think of the future development trend of such functional cosmetics such as moisturizing cosmetics, whitening cosmetics, anti-aging skin care products, etc.?

 

Q3： What do you think is the biggest connection between cosmetics and the field of dermatology?

 

Q4： Do you think the development of cosmetics in recent years has given impetus to the field of dermatology?