Skip to content

Uncategorized

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

For my final, I took collective feedback from the user testing and put it in motion.

https://www.figma.com/file/HL1bTpYbgobCFc7gBE62fO/app?node-id=0%3A1&t=w3GCokJYSDP7qEtG-1

The link to the working prototype is above.

 

Slides Link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16aO9bulMjw649S2GUSf_44IyAYQCcAjXsA2h3-XVqAg/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

Systems Map:

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPISBWSw=/?share_link_id=841439398917

Bibliography:

The Great Human Migration | History| Smithsonian Magazine

Native American Weapons: Bows and Arrows, Spears, Tomahawks, War Clubs, and Other American Indian Weaponry (native-languages.org)

In Their Footsteps: Human Migration Out of Africa | National Geographic Society

 

Odor – Reflections

What did you learn?

The “critical” and “experience” 🙂

The tools and terms such as “system thinking”, “IAE”, “public and counter public” are really useful to structure a project.

And there’s a mind-shifting moment, which is the best part I learned in this class: What is an experience.

I realized that I misunderstood the “experience” after a meeting with Monika. It should not be preachy. Instead, let the audience use or feel what you want to deliver.

Then I reviewed the whole class and gained new understandings of why we have to learn these thinking and terms. I haven’t fully applied them. But they will help me in the future.

 

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

The most important point to think about is “What can users do after they feel empathy?”

So far my project is raising the problem only. It would be better to show some directions.

However, I do know what we can suggest exactly. This is more of a personal choice after a person realizes there is a symptom called olfactory dysfunction.

 

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

It might be better to start from a question, or something I want to improve.

The topic odor was like a form direction instead of a point. Although the question related to odors can be the critical point, I find myself easily attracted to forms.  (I admit that I do enjoy building something).

 

What was inspiring? What parts?

The moment I understood the term “experience”. A good experience is like if your work is going to exhibit in an area uses another language, the audience can still understand.

This leads me to think more about what artworks can do.

 

Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc… 

There was a shifting while the initial idea, odors are ignored is unchanged.

 

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

Both are not easy or hard. I’m just not used to this research and experimentation. It’s not uncommon for me to start from a problem, search information, find solutions, try some implements, and decide the way to solve it. But they are from engineering angle. From an artwork angle, the biggest difference is who I want to talk to is “the public”, or audience. It is different from a machine. It is also different from a product user.

So I have to figure out the system, the stakeholder. Know more of the situation currently. Learn more about what others care about. Imagine what form they may resonate. And the most important question, what we can do better in life.

 

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

Daily Practice (6 in 1)

  • by

Original post link:  https://www.notion.so/daily-practice-d194d0ef870f432095e69c026a99fd81

Intention & Form of Daily Practice

My research direction for the final project is the Chinese quarantine policy for residents during this current Covid pandemic. I decided to use the diary as my practice form, which records topic-related conversations that happened on that day and research conducted afterward.

Diary1. 10/21/2022.

We went for a dinner hotpot today after a dance competition we all participated in.

There was this guy my friend Chris brought with us, we call him Guazi (which translates to sunflower seeds). He is from Taiwan and came to the mainland on February 2020 for a work opportunity and stayed ever since. He is a very passionate guy and actively engages in telling us about his “adventures” in Shanghai.

Guazi was introduced by a creative agency and was asked to come to Shanghai to work for a commercial production company at the beginning of 2020, the beginning year of the virus breakout. The agency kindly asked him to come on board on the exact date of 02/18/2020. So he did, arriving with his Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents and luggage. Everything went on well at the beginning, he was picked up by the department‘s colleagues and went straight to the short-term leased apartment the company got for him. Their taxi approached (it was an older residential area so no security guard nor objective entrance was placed for the buildings) and neighbors noticed the luggage.

Some older neighbors approached them and asked “I’ve never seen you around before, are you moving in? ”

Guazi’s colleague took the question and said “Our company had some apartments here for a long time, we just re-locating our colleagues from other areas. ”

”So he is moving in. He can’t move in, our area is not taking newcomers. We are under special time.” The neighbor responds.

”It was 8 pm.” Guazi said “And it was cold. All I’m thinking is let me get my luggage in and let’s talk about this tomorrow…”

The battle ended with his female colleague arguing into tears and Guazi was relocated to a hotel nearby. The community committee people didn’t show up because they weren’t in the office.

Some research afterward:

1/ Starting from February 6, 2020, China (including Hong Kong, and Macau) is to be listed as Level 2 Area or above; Chinese residents are to be prohibited from entering Taiwan. (Taiwan Center for Disease Control)

On October 13, Taiwan lifted all its COVID-19 entry restrictions, allowing tourists unfettered access to the self-ruled island after more than 2 1/2 years of border controls.

2/ January 31, 2020, National Immigration Administration posted: “The exit and entry administration departments of the public security organs are operating normally at the port. Taiwan residents who have not completed the 5-year Mainland Travel Permit in advance due to emergencies may apply to the port visa agency for a single entry valid for Taiwan after arriving at the port a Mainland Travel Permit Card, which is valid for 3 months when entering and leaving the mainland and staying or residing in the mainland.”

Diary2. 10/22/2022

Had a conversation today with friends about mask mandates, and I couldn’t help but recall Texas in 2021 when governor Greg Abbott decided to lift the statewide face mask mandate. We suggested the political attention the action draws and irrelevance concerning the removal of the mandate on public health, though we don’t know much about the power structure between parties in the states. So I did look up some of the relevant information afterward.

1/ CDC’s January 29, 2021 Order requiring masks on public transportation conveyances and at transportation hubs.

2/ On MARCH 2, 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott announced his decision to lift the statewide face mask mandate next week. In addition to lifting the mask mandate next week, Abbott will allow businesses to operate at full capacity. Texas’ local officials blast Gov. Greg Abbott for “irresponsible action” of lifting coronavirus restrictions, saying it contradicts health official’s advice as infections continue to spread throughout the state, which averaged over 200 reported deaths a day over the last week.

3/ As a result of a court order, as of April 18, 2022, CDC will not enforce the Order. CDC continues to recommend that people wear masks in indoor public transportation settings at this time.

Diary3. 10/23/2022

中国出行政策 德国欧洲美国等，对于中国大陆居民，对等原则（reciprocity）的入境限令

In order to participate in the third semester of the graduate program in German, as a Chinese citizen, I am required to obtain a Schengen visa. I have resided back in mainland China and ever since then, I became aware of practicing travel restrictions’ effects on individuals. Based on the principle of reciprocity, many nations no longer provide travel visas for Chinese citizens and only take visa appointment for people who has a study, job offer, or for family visiting purposes. So after sending out the appointment application to German Embassy in Beijing, I looked up online what is the “principle of reciprocity” and how it is applied.

1/ What is “reciprocity”?

“Reciprocity relates to relationships in which people or states support each other for a particular shorter long-term advantage. This is enshrined in the principles of the International Law Commission (ILC), which recognizes that when one state benefits from a right, others must share the same right. ”

Fard, Shahrad Nasrolahi. Reciprocity in International Law: Its Impact and Function, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4218118.

2/ How does the principle takes effect?

“As for enforcement, the ICJ is empowered by the UN Charter 22 to hear disputes between states, but only when both parties have agreed to accept the jurisdiction of the Court. Further, the ICJ cannot ensure that its judgments are obeyed. 23 In cases of noncompliance, the responsibility for responsive action falls to other states.”

Diary4. 10/24/2022

// Website that forges health code

My friend came across a website and thought it was related to my topic, so he shared the link for me to check out.

The website has a title written “Ilovexjp”. “xjp”, the acronym for current president of the Republic of China, with initials taken from his first and last name. The title is used sarcastically rather than out of respect and appreciation and the reason for that is related to the website’s functionality. The website itself allows visitors (do not require registration) to generate live “heath QR codes” that are specialized and mandated in every province of China mainland for each individual.

Some side notes for people who have no context about “heath QR codes”, the code monitoring system has been deployed in China since early 2020. It was designed for the purpose of monitoring individual geographical itineraries in order to get the spread of covid virus under control. Not too long after the first deployment, the monitoring system added a new feature to cover covid test results and automatically calculate interval time between covid test results, collectively national-wide. The system has been implied through Wechat apps, an indispensable chatting app for people lives in China (It includes online payment methods, social posting, and all sorts of personal and social functionalities. You can think of Wechat as a virtual phone installed within smartphones)

Beyond using the code as proof of “covid negative”, the code is also used as a form of “passport” that define whether the code owner can or can not enter/exit a province/city, a building, and even their own place. The QR is color coded and individuals would always want to keep it green rather than yellow or red.

The critical aspect of this website is that it forges the health code perfectly. By selecting the province format and giving the user’s name, the website creates the perfect green code in no time!

I have not used the “forged” green code in public space yet because I was worried about getting in trouble. Far as I know, forging or intentionally hiding one’s own geographical itinerary these days is regarded as committing a crime in China nowadays.

Some research afterward:

Concealing one’s true health status, itinerary, and travel trajectory may be punished by public security organs in accordance with the “Public Security Administration Punishment Law”, a warning, a fine of less than 500 yuan, and detention for 5-10 days. If it causes the spread of the epidemic or there is a serious risk of spread, it will also hinder the spread of the epidemic in accordance with the “Criminal Law”. –https://www.tj.gov.cn

Diary5. 11/28/2022

// Shanghai parade responding to fire accident in Xinjiang

On the evening of November 24, 2022, a fire broke out in a high-rise residential building in Urumqi, killing 10 people and injuring 9.

Many people believe that the epidemic lockdown caused by the “zero-covid” policy has hindered fire rescue, and trapped people cannot escape in time. The next day, a large number of people in Urumqi broke through the quarantine blockade, holding the national flag and singing the national anthem for protest, demanding an immediate end to the lockdown.

On the evening of November 27, 2022, a group of around 500 citizens met at Urumqi road in downtown, Shanghai, for a self-organized protest for hours. According to people at the scene, the police force had interrupted the parade and had arrested about 8 people, mainly women. Later that day, people arrived near-by the police station demanding police station set the protestors free.

I did not go to the protest myself, however, I have been browsing much protest-related content on We-chat. Many of those posts were blocked hours later by the We-chat backend and were tagged as “inappropriate content”.

Diary6. 11/29/2022

// blank paper protest

On November 26, 2022, the peaceful protest at Nanjing Media College set off a series of political protests across the People’s Republic of China.

In addition to protesting the “Zero Covid” policy, the movement also calls on the Chinese people to start protesting against various unreasonable Epidemic prevention measures.

The protest is not only a response message to the fire accident that happened on November 24, 2022, in Urumqi, but also to extreme measures that were taken across the nation in the past 3 years including months of city lockdown, shortage of necessities, and disappearing freedom of the press and speech.

It is also people’s response message to The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that just finished in Beijing.

It is generally believed that “holding a blank paper” originated from a famous Soviet political joke, which is usually expressed as a person holding up a blank paper in Moscow Square, and the police want to arrest him. The former asks “I didn’t write anything!” The latter scolds “You don’t think I know what you want to write?”. Relevant arrests also occurred during the Russian protest against the Russo-Ukrainian war. Some people held up a blank paper and wrote “this is a piece of paper” and were arrested by the police. – https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-sg/反對動態清零政策運動

Topic 2: Development Update

I have a site in development which works as a submission for a ban fracking petition with a fun twist.

I initially wanted to do a sort of fracking “game” where the player needed to manage a fracking site and have to make certain decisions that were restricted or overrided based on the gas companies profit goals. For example, they would be face with a dilemma like gas leaking into ground water and be given the costs of repairing. If the player declines to repair it and leaves it to a government agency to clean up they get a bonus from their employers. If they go the other route they are told that the company won’t allow them to continue with that route. Ultimately the idea was too complex to be feasible given the project timeline.

For the petition submission, I’m hoping to add additional resources or a menu of sorts where visitors can get more information about the damage fracking causes. I’m not sure that I’ll have time to add it to the site, but it’s a next step in the site development.

I’m also hoping to have 3 total postcards (currently have 1) but I may not have time.

Last, the submission itself doesn’t collect any data. I’m going to keep it that way since this is just a project for this class, but the next steps would be to add a database and utilize an email API (such as sendgrid or similar) to handle the emailing of the postcards.

Three Janky Prototypes.

  • by

Watch my Powtoon: Who are you?

The video I made to open my project

The physical book I made to support my project

The picture I draw for this project, however, I didn’t use for the final I used all real human being pictured to deliver my theme.

 

Final Project: Who Am I

  • by

For this project I want to display a map for people, who are they, what are those rolls people are playing everyday, but they didn’t notice during daily life, accounting to those rolls that people playing, how much of them are true come from their mind, and how much people can really be who they want, accounting to the research, people’s dream most being impacted from own parents, and parents always stay in their safe zone, and for they the most valuable children they want to pick the most secure way from their safe zone. And That’s the reason why people gave up or lost their own dream or intelligent since very young age. This is project is based on my personal experience, I have a very conservative confusion background family, the way I am going always been selected form my parents, I was a quite good girl did whatever they want, until the day I went aboard and study along, I had saw, smell, heard, learned, and created my own perceptions. I just wake up, and realize life is an experience, always come along, and leave alone, the only thing and be temporary saved, or keep. However with time files, everything will be totally erase off in time river. Life once, so just make it follow your own mind. At the very end I gave 3 direction to negotiate how you want to keep working on your dream or intelligent.

 

Reference:

Bhagwan, Dada. “Positive Parenting: How to Be a Better Parent: Parent Child Relationship.” Spacer

Bisht, Bhawana. “Dear Parents, Stop Imposing Your Dreams on Your Children.” SheThePeople TV, SheThePeople, 11 Mar. 2020

Doglio, Fernando. “Stop Killing Your Kid’s Dreams for the Future. Why Would You Do That?” Medium, A Parent Is Born, 21 Oct. 2020

Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako, MD. “‘Parents Kill More Dreams than Anybody’ – Spike Lee.” Medium, Medium, 23 Mar. 2016

“Sometimes, Good Parents Produce Bad Kids.” NPR, NPR, 15 July 2010

Project II: Update 9

Interview: One

 

Interviewee: Director for 

 

  1. How many people are in your original family, and are you the favorite kid in your family: 4.
  2. What’s your Job: Director in the sales and marketing department of a Chip Company.
  3. Are you work in the industry that your parents wish to? If not, what industry that they used to wish you to work with? No, they wish me to be a doctor or an inquisitor.
  4. Are your parents feel disappointed in you? and Why? No, they don’t feel disappointed.  The reality makes them re-correct their expectation of me.
  5. Are you happy with your job? If yes, why? If not, why? About 50%, because the job I am having right now is the best position I can reach, and I don’t have many options can select. So on the other hand, I have been chosen for this job. lol