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Topic 2 Final

Topic 2 Final

Project link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-QGL5pUa_uge25o-R6Ki9lTcqRfU7wxq/view?usp=sharing

 

 

Project background:

Pay attention to the mental health problems of adolescents and children, and pay attention to their sleep quality

 

 

Project intention:

Improve the mental health problems of adolescents and children, improve their sleep quality, and reduce the frequency of nightmares

 

System map:

 

Topic 2 Final reflection

  • What did you learn?
    Through this class, I learned many ways about critical thinking. I learned to analyze, judge, criticize and deny specific thoughts or words, and actions. This includes both criticizing others and blaming myself. I have learned to participate in the dialogue with a positive and humble attitude, deeply understand the other party’s point of view, and form my own conclusions; to criticize myself is to constantly reflect on my own thoughts, that is, to often take out my own thoughts and reflect on them. For example, I often try to consider if my thinking just now is enough fair, deep enough, logical, etc.Before this course, my critical thinking ability was relatively weak in many cases. Because in my previous thinking, there was a kind of “egocentrism” and “inertial thinking”. To put it simply, I tend to get used to knowing things only from my own experience and perspective and act according to inertia. Because of this egocentrism in my thinking, it’s hard for me to be critical.

 

  • What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on the critique itself?
    I received much feedback about the criticism itself. Critical thinking refers to the process by which we examine the information we have and make critiques and decisions based on this examination. When we think critically, we identify issues, examine facts, analyze assumptions, consider other factors and ultimately determine reasons for or against an idea.For example, Initially, when I was researching the subject of nightmares, I subconsciously assumed that all nightmares were bad and needed to be resolved. But after all-around thinking with my classmates and teachers, I realized that many nightmares are beneficial to health. The right level of nightmares can untangle negative emotions, thereby helping people to live better.

 

 

  • What might you do differently in terms of process or content?
    I will explore more types of dreams and study how to control or adjust the content of dreams so that people can live better.

 

 

  • What was inspiring? What parts?Constantly improving and enriching the depth and breadth of thinking is what makes me feel joyful and fulfilled in this course.

 

 

  • Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc…
    My final presentation is very different from the original idea, but as long as you carefully sort out the entire change process, you will find that my adjustments are very logical and orderly. Initially, I wanted to design a sleep aid bracelet to assist users in adjusting sleep quality through vibration, music, smell, etc. In the end, on the one hand, the wristband was not comfortable to wear at night, and on the other hand, the inspiration came from my sleeping pillow. At the age when I often had nightmares in my childhood, I had a very soft pillow, which was very gentle and accompanied me through every good dream. I drew inspiration from it and designed a sleep aid pillow with functions such as playing music, emitting good smells, and adjusting sleeping positions. I hope my design can help children with nightmares have a good night

 

 

 

  • How did you balance research and experimentation? Which is easier for you? How can you focus more on the areas that you shy away from?
    I’m lacking in experimentation. Because I’m living a life where it’s really hard to reach the typical target audience. In the next stage of the study, I will make some adjustments, whether it is to increase the chance of contacting target users or to select more suitable objects for research as target users

Topic 2 Final

  • by

Project link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fIuvafB8F-MnJPV0f2i8kghGVTQIIUqJ/view?usp=sharing

Project background:

I am a superfan of robot animation and I have a lot of models. So, my friends always ask me why some robots are cool but the others are “ugly”? But the fact is that they are not ugly, they just have some features which are not belong to this age.

Project intention:

So, first question arises: Why is the design language of robot always changing in robot animation? What caused it, just because of aesthetic reasons? Or how many other reasons?

In my investigation, I found that aesthetics only accounts for a small part, while the international political background, technological development, and ideological changes are the key factors affecting the robot animation design language.

So, I use the most famous Astro Boy as a clue to tell the audience a story, and use a simple AVG game to illustrate my critical points to explain it to you.

System map:

Prototypes:

Preview:

  • International political background

Astro Boy was born shortly after the end of World War II. Everything was destroyed after World War II, so people need a new hope to place. So Astro Boy appeared in front of the audience as a child, his skin shining, representing new technology and new materials.

During the Cold War, the animation of robots changed. They became larger and larger, and their style changed from bright to dark.

The black wall is inspired by Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, and the giant robots represent two super countries which are Soviet Union and united states.

  • Ideological changes

During the bubble economy, many youth undertakings in Japan, They became the “Beat Generation” “They have nothing to do but watch cartoons at home. This is an animation, EVA. EVA is more like a religious animation than robot animation. He tells us more about how to save our soul and forgiving himself. You are already great, and you don’t need to work hard. In the era of economic collapse, when everyone is eager to be saved, robot design is more like a god.

World War II also had an impact on the subsequent animation

Gundam is an anti-war animation. Zeon, the villain in the animation, thought that the Nazis were the prototype, and finally he was defeated.

This reflects that people hate wars

  • Development of tech

With the development of science and technology, many high technologies have been integrated into robot design, such as deformable sprinklers and ambulances

The last two endings actually represent two branches of today’s robot animation：The Super robot animation and Realistic robot animation

User test and feedback:

I received a lot of feedback. Most of them praised me for spending a lot of energy on the final output, and the presentation effect was very good, but there was still a lack of concept expression, and the content was not very clear. I think this may always be a defect in my work, and I will continue to improve it.

Bibliography:

Japanese Animation Guide: The History of Robot Anime：https://mediag.bunka.go.jp/article/article-16539/

Dennis Redmond, Anime and East Asian Culture: Neon Genesis Evangelion:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10509200500486205

Marc Steinberg, Immobile Sections and Trans-Series Movement: Astroboy and the Emergence of Anime

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1746847706068903

Cocoro Books, Kazuhisa Fujie, Martin Foster, Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Unofficial Guide

https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=2SX3lUu_IPAC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=mazinga+Z&ots=6HoJP_vSbQ&sig=M9qngW_sHz_lek7ck7QgNltwGtA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mazinga%20Z&f=false

William Ashbaugh, CONTESTING TRAUMATIC WAR NARRATIVES:

SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO AND MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM

https://brill.com/downloadpdf/book/9789004193215/Bej.9789004182981.i-362_013.pdf

Yoshiyuki Tomino, Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation

https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=xPMaA9Y3w9YC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=gundam&ots=vFgBjqOkdo&sig=1GdlfR1BYt3H0NFSmsypx9NyzTE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=gundam&f=false

Yoshiyuki Tomino, Gundam and the Future of Japanoid Art

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/368557

Tze-Yue G. Hu,Masao Yokota, Japanese Animation: East Asian Perspectives

https://books.google.com.hk/books?hl=zh-CN&lr=&id=zCNlAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA223&dq=The+Super+Dimension+Fortress+Macross&ots=lwBg9aXtRW&sig=V4xTb06PSH7_yAd-x6NuxuL9OWc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20Super%20Dimension%20Fortress%20Macross&f=false

Topic 2: Final Documentation

Here is the link to my presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pycgeBW917MoM0FG8Qr7c3pETEx2SAfD/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110159789191633592073&rtpof=true&sd=true

Here are the links to the game:

Project summary:

For this project, I’m focusing on education and pedagogy. After making concept maps and doing reachers, I narrowed my focus to AI and teacher. In my research, I found that other than teaching knowledge, teachers cause a lot more influences to students than we normally think.

I’m currently working in a educational company. Our company designs and produces self-learning devices for students, and our ultimate goal is to achieve education equality; to be more specific, every student with this learning device could learn what are taught in school all by themselves, even better. Since educational resources are rare in poor area, with this divide, we no longer need teachers or even schools, everyone can receive the best education. This makes me think about the comparison between AI teaching and a real teacher. And based on my research, the emotional connection between a human teacher and students is crucial in students’ mental development and characteristic formation, and that’s what AI could not achieved for now. Maybe in the future where AI has been evolved good enough to make social and emotional connections with people, but for now, human teacher is irreplaceable.

The game I made aimed to simulate a situation where people can make connections with the computer. The the game is a metaphor of a teaching setting. In the game, the players have to make choices, and every time a player makes a choice, a video of a human (me) will popup, this is my attempt to form an emotional bond with the player. If AI could replace human teacher by forming emotional bonds with students, this emotional attachment would be able to affect the students’ decision making. (or the players’ decision making in my project)

User testing result:

  • Here are some of the feedbacks I received from some of the users who played the game:
  • The questions are a little bit confusing for people who are not familiar with the rules.
  • Some users didn’t realize the outcome of making different choices.
  • The video popup takes time to load, which disturbs the flow of experience.
  • The message sent from this game is not clear enough, people tend to pay more attention to the game itself, rather than have a video showing up after making the choices.
  • The influence of the video is little, few people tends to change their decision with or without the video.

Here are the system maps:

      

this is a picture of me teaching elementary school students in a classroom:

This is the link to my bibliography:

This is the link to my interview documentation:

 

Topic 2: Bibliography

Bibliography

Bayfield, Zach. “It’s Time to Reevaluate Traditional Pedagogy – The Oberlin Review.” The Oberlin Review, https://oberlinreview.org/25624/opinions/its-time-to-reevaluate-traditional-pedagogy/. Accessed 30 Nov. 2022.

“Frontiers | The Relationship between Teacher Support and Students’ Academic Emotions: A Meta-Analysis.” Frontiers, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02288/full. Accessed 30 Nov. 2022.

“Harlow’s Classic Studies Revealed the Importance of Maternal Contact – Association for Psychological Science – APS.” Association for Psychological Science – APS, https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/harlows-classic-studies-revealed-the-importance-of-maternal-contact.html. Accessed 30 Nov. 2022.

Holstein, Kenneth, and Vincent Aleven. “Designing for Human–AI Complementarity in K‐12 Education.” AI Magazine, no. 2, Wiley, June 2022, pp. 239–48. Crossref, doi:10.1002/aaai.12058.
Ilomäki, Liisa, and Pirkko Rantanen. “Intensive Use of ICT in School: Developing Differences in Students’ ICT Expertise.” Computers & Education, no. 1, Elsevier BV, Jan. 2007, pp. 119–36. Crossref, doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2005.01.003.
Kenneth, et al. “Student Learning Benefits of a Mixed-Reality Teacher Awareness Tool in AI-Enhanced Classrooms | SpringerLink.” SpringerLink, Springer International Publishing, 2018, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-93843-1_12.
KIM, WOO-HYUN, and JONG-HWAN KIM. Individualized AI Tutor Based on Developmental Learning Networks. Feb. 2020.
“The Pedagogical Limitations of Inclusive Education: Educational Philosophy and Theory: Vol 52, No 10.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131857.2020.1723549?journalCode=rept20. Accessed 30 Nov. 2022.

Guide 2 project

presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a2H6gPsT7QdK8xzMEh_cj6YjNvG5kSBwQP3ckl5SYR0/edit?usp=sharing

Guide link:https://github.com/YunshanJiang/guide2.git

critique: Younger Generation Lost Interest in Buddhist Culture and Art

Intention: I want to share buddhist culture and art with younger generation by merging modern or fashion elements with the basic forms of Buddha, which also gives younger generation more opportunities of knowing buddhist philosophy. 

Research trail: 

  1. I had a general looking on different countries Buddhist figures and made the system map: https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/10/31/topic-2-system-map/
  2. For the daily practice, by changing some key elements or feature, I made the collage of different countries’ buddhist figures.

  1. Buddhist figures are various according to different countries and cultures. So I narrow down my research and image resources on Tibetan area Buddhist figure and Chinese Buddhist figure.

4. I did a series of research on natal Buddha 8 patron saints which are common in east Asia. Each of them and their parts have particular meaning. Research note: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPFj1a44=/?share_link_id=712752205624

4. After analyzing the traditional buddha figure, my idea was to imitate the layer or structure of buddha figure. 

Guide: 

Original idea: I tried to make a fiction website that shows disassembled 8 natal Buddha figures and presents each part by 3d models, I redesign the parts and user reconnects them. 

After elaborating my guide forms to my brother who are taking the art doctor degree in Japan and one of my friend, he gave me some suggestions. Here is the link of user testing: https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/wp-admin/post.php?post=3905&action=edit

Finally I decided to make a fictional website for user to DIY their own buddha figures by collage.

Before building buddha, the website show the samples of 8 natal buddhas and explain their meaning and key features.

step one: choose avatar

step two:choose accessories

step three:

final results sample:

bibliography:

  1. Powers, J. (2009). A bull of a man : Images of masculinity, sex, and the body in indian buddhism. Harvard University Press.

2. Kieschnick, J. & Shahar, M. (2013). India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812208924

3. Jones, C.V., ‘Introduction: Buddhism and Its Religious Others’, in C.V. Jones (ed.), Buddhism and Its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations (London, 2022; online edn, British Academy Scholarship Online, 22 Sept. 2022), https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266991.003.0001, accessed 8 Nov. 2022.

4.FERGUSON, J. M., KENT, D. W., MCDANIEL, J. T., THOMPSON, A., MAKLEY, C., BERKWITZ, S. C., SCOTT, G. A., JERRYSON, M., ELISON, W., GAMBURD, M. R., LEIDER, J. P., LEDGERWOOD, J., GELLNER, D. N., & JOHNSON, I. C. (2016). LOOKING BACKWARD: Inventing Tradition in the Modern World. In J. Samuels, J. T. McDaniel, & M. M. Rowe (Eds.), Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia (pp. 15–56). University of Hawai’i Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvvn6w6.6

5.Leighton, Taigen Dan (1998). Bodhisattva Archetypes: Classic Buddhist Guides to Awakening and Their Modern Expression. New York: Penguin Arkana. pp. 158–205. ISBN 0140195564. OCLC 37211178.

6.[1]常云霞.虚空藏菩萨与“佛法”的故事[J].农家女,2014(4):33-33.

7. Lopez, D. S., & Stone, J. I. (2019). Two buddhas seated side by side : A guide to the lotus sūtra. Princeton University Press.

8.“The Tantra of Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa”. 84000: Translating The Words of The Buddha. Retrieved 28 November 2022.

9.Pinte, Klaus (2010). Vairocana/Mahāvairocana. obo in Buddhism. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0094

Odor – Final Post

Intention

Give people a sense of smell dysfunction (anosmia, parosmia) in order to make them empathic to these patients and raise more concerns about olfactory dysfunction.

Project

The project form is an olfactory testing machine placed on a table in the restaurant waiting area. Before customers have dinner, they may be curious and have a try.

The machine releases one odor per question to ask the user to distinguish. While the final odor is a mixed scent to give the user a feeling of parosmia.

See pictures on slides.

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QTVK3f1mKVR-lGbc4eWIAcR8Cx7RnNRSaf92d0hiOK0/edit?usp=sharing

Trail of Research

System Map

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPGOhG4A=/?moveToWidget=3458764539780840152&cot=14

Interview

Doctor Lu is using olfactory testing and MRI in his study. I interviewed him to get more understanding of odor and olfactory.

Olfactory dysfunction is related to neurodegenerative diseases. There are many ways to assess this kind of disease in general: Scale, PET/MRI, Structural MRI and olfactory testing. The scale is too subjective. PET/MRI has radiation. Structural MRI is too late to show the disease. In comparison, the olfactory testing is a better choice.

Specifically, the olfactory testing has these advantages: The machine is relatively small and portable. Which makes it suitable for mass screening. Besides, olfactory dysfunction is an early objective indicator of diseases. Because the olfactory cortex is connected to older, subconscious portions of the brain.

Talking about the relationship between olfactory and Covid-19, Dr. Lu was not surprised by the symptom. As he said, the virus might invade the brain and cause frontal lobe damage. Flu also has similar symptoms. However, he agreed that olfactory symptoms are easy to ignore. Since it is not as noticeable as visual or auditory. This is one of the reasons why he included olfaction in his study.

Daily Practice and Prototype

Daily practice

https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/10/20/daily-practice-day-2/

https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/10/21/daily-practice-day-3/

https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/10/22/daily-practice-day-4/

https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/10/24/daily-practice-day-4-3/

https://itp.nyu.edu/lowres/critex-monika/2022/10/25/daily-practice-day-6/

Prototypes

Form Decision

The most challenging part  was deciding on the form. For the experience “smell distortion”, the basic form is releasing the odor which is not expected.

But it is so weird to release the wrong odor directly to the user. So I had been trying to think of a more natural form for days.

As the link shows: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPGOhG4A=/?moveToWidget=3458764539274013960&cot=14

I came up with 15 forms in the end. Some were fleeting thoughts. Some seemed rational, so I made prototypes to do user testing.

The form No.3, a simple “fruit matrix”. Same fruits a line with different scents. This is the simplest one of these forms. I thought it was clear too. But after the user testing, it was still confusing.

The form No.13, a box with a screen, a camera and odor vent. The idea was “mixing” the use’s expression with an orange scent. I did a user testing of this prototype. It seemed like they were too complex. An iteration was keeping only two expressions.

Then I did another user testing with my friend, who is a UX/UI designer. The testing itself was fair. After that, we had a chat. Because she’s a designer, she was interested in this class. I gave her some project examples. And she gave me an idea: If it was not clear to represent olfactory dysfunction, I could try to make the user feel that smelling is easy. Sounds like a contrasting. But the form was still hard to decide. We continued our chat on some other topics. Then, I got an inspiration suddenly. Why not make it just an olfactory test and put a turning point at the end? This makes it easy for users to go along the process and give the user the feeling of odor dysfunction.

The interesting thing is that it is the original form I took. Except the last question. It’s like a cycle and I return to the start point. However, I learned a lot during the process.

Others

There is an art form called “Olfactory Art”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory_art

Bibliography

  1. Wang, Yuting, and Ziqing Li. “Living with Smell Dysfunction: A Multi-sensory VR Experience.” In ACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Immersive Pavilion, pp. 1-2. 2022.
  2. Moein, Shima T., Seyed MohammadReza Hashemian, Babak Mansourafshar, Ali Khorram‐Tousi, Payam Tabarsi, and Richard L. Doty. “Smell dysfunction: a biomarker for COVID‐19.” In International forum of allergy & rhinology, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 944-950. 2020.
  3. Cattaneo, Camilla, Ella Pagliarini, Sara Paola Mambrini, Elena Tortorici, Roberto Mené, Camilla Torlasco, Elisa Perger, Gianfranco Parati, and Simona Bertoli. “Changes in smell and taste perception related to COVID-19 infection: a case–control study.” Scientific reports 12, no. 1 (2022): 1-11.
  4. Neumann, Franziska, Vitus Oberhauser, and Jürgen Kornmeier. “How odor cues help to optimize learning during sleep in a real life-setting.” Scientific reports 10, no. 1 (2020): 1-8.
  5. Parker, Jane K., Lisa Methven, Robert Pellegrino, Barry C. Smith, Simon Gane, and Christine E. Kelly. “Emerging pattern of post-COVID-19 parosmia and its effect on food perception.” Foods 11, no. 7 (2022): 967.
  6. Burges Watson, Duika L., Miglena Campbell, Claire Hopkins, Barry Smith, Chris Kelly, and Vincent Deary. “Altered smell and taste: Anosmia, parosmia and the impact of long Covid-19.” PLoS One 16, no. 9 (2021): e0256998.
  7. Smeets, Monique AM, Maria G. Veldhuizen, Sara Galle, Juul Gouweloos, Anne-Marie JA de Haan, Jesse Vernooij, Floris Visscher, and Jan HA Kroeze. “Sense of smell disorder and health-related quality of life.” Rehabilitation psychology 54, no. 4 (2009): 404.
  8. Hsieh, Julien W., Andreas Keller, Michele Wong, Rong-San Jiang, and Leslie B. Vosshall. “SMELL-S and SMELL-R: olfactory tests not influenced by odor-specific insensitivity or prior olfactory experience.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 43 (2017): 11275-11284.
  9. Woods, Stephen C. “The eating paradox: how we tolerate food.” Psychological review 98, no. 4 (1991): 488.
  10. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23986-parosmia

Final Project & Reflection

Final Project Presentation & Documentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c6xCkfs857qJss282j3X59i0JpGCZ8Em/view?usp=sharing

 

Reflection:

  • What did you learn?

I learnt a systematic approach to convey your idea to the target audience, including both research and experimentation. Also, it is always excited to see projects and artworks from the class and the cohort and got inspiration from them.

  • What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on critique itself?

I received the feedback from Sarah that – what kind of broader goals this can fit within. It really triggered my thinking about how to balance providing solution and expressing attitude/opinion. I might be confused between “useful” and “realistic” in the project.

  • What might you do differently in terms of process or content?

I might provide “solution” in a different way with a more critical and discerning tone.

  • What was inspiring? What parts?

The whole course is inspiring to me, especially the exercises of “daily practice” and “junky prototype”. These two helped me to get new ideas and inspirations.

  • How did you balance research and experimentation? Which is easier for you? How can you focus more on the areas that you shy away from?

Neither research nor experimentation is easy for me in the project. Daily Practice can help generate new ideas and desktop research can help think deeply.

 

Topic 2 Final

I saw some other final projects using just links to other areas where the project files etc are held, so I’ll do that too! Here are my links:

 

My Presentation Slides

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kEhUaORznkhkdYRz2qdprpGUhd1sB-2R/view (this is held on Google Drive since my presentation was done locally on my computer. Please let me know if there are any access issues)

 

Daily Practice and Prototypes

Daily Practice link: Daily Practice Post (7 Total)

Prototypes link: Prototypes (3 Total)

 

Systems Map, Research, and Interviews

Systems Map and Research Link: Final Project Topic

Interviews Link: Topic 2: Interviews

 

Iterations and Project Development

Link: Topic 2 Development (Update)

 

Matrices and Initial Prototype

Link: Design Matrices/Project Prototype

 

User Tests

Link: Topic 2: User Tests

 

Final Project (Website Link)

Link: http://ask-an-emoji.glitch.me/

This is the link for the current, final version. I hope you all will continue to play with it and have fun asking it questions! There’s also a fun bonus project link for an earlier iteration of an Emoji Kitchen device. You can play with that here: https://blend-an-emoji.glitch.me/

 

Bibliography

Link: Topic 2 Bibliography