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Topic 1 Final Reflection – Borders|Canals

What did you learn? 

I have worked on research projects and have sat in on user research processes to inform design, but this was the first time I used research to inform a more free-form creative endeavor and leveraged the ideas of metaphor and form in such detail.

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

The feedback to flesh out the job descriptions was appreciated and a missed opportunity on my part to make the project more well-rounded.

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

I feel I had a lot of setup content, and organizing it a bit more through the job descriptions or in additional links would have felt more authentic.

What was inspiring? What parts?

Overall it was inspiring to see the different directions everyone took on their topics. If you would’ve told me five weeks ago that this project on borders would manifest as a careers site, I would not have believed you.  Flexing into the different creative processes and seeing the various ways everyone approached different topics was inspriing.

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

I believe I answered on the complexity of the metaphor and form. When considering the audience, again, I think having the information more nested into areas such as job descriptions would have felt more authentic to the audience viewing the page.

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 think building a solid research process helps breed and push experimentation. For me, the research comes easier than the experimentation, but it was through the research that I found the specific thread of “jobs to be done” by canals which led to my idea of creating this careers page. So, I do believe they go hand in hand.

Taxidermy Reflection

  • What did you learn?
    • During the entire project, I learned more about history than ever. Taxidermy has changed from something “spiritual” to an “art” form. And seeing the changes in history was eye-opening.
  • What feedback did you receive? Any reflections on the critique itself?
    • The feedback I received was great! While presenting I was told that I could change the colors and the font to match the cover, as well as that I could have also added additional pages that feed off the taxidermy page.
  • What might you do differently in terms of process or content?
    • I would change the layout of the cookbook and add more pages to it.
  • What was inspiring? What parts?
    • While I was adding the ingredients and the instructions part, I had to think of myself as an animal instead of a human. I was thinking about if “I were an animal how would I perceive this?”.
  • Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc… 
    • The project related to the original prompts by adding a humor metaphor the to cooking book.
  • 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 balanced research and experimentation to the project by making sure that I add enough detail from researching the ways ancient Egyptians used taxidermy and today’s methods.  The research was easier for me to do because it was a great amount of information. I can focus more on the areas I shy away from by diving deeper into research in that subcategory.

Written Reflections

What did you learn?

Going into this project, I knew absolutely nothing about DMZs. Basically all of the information I was able to research about what DMZs actually are, how they are established, how they are protected, how they are contested, how they are governed, and how they are dissolved was new information was new to me. I chose to focus my research on the Korean DMZ, and I was able to learn more about the history of violence between North and South Korea as well as how the Korean DMZ fits into the modern landscape of the two countries. Through my research, I also unexpectedly learned information about DMZ tourism and new efforts to open up the DMZ to more civilians.

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

My chose guide format was a Museum Map, and one piece of feedback was to include more text elements and descriptions. I think that would be very helpful to include in the future to allow a bit more space for my voice and personal opinions. Also, there was feedback about the sizing of certain elements. I could try to vary font and text size to achieve a better outcome.

I thought the critique process was very helpful since it allowed me to see how others were interpreting my work without my own biases getting in the way. I also felt like everyone was understanding and not very judgmental which made me feel comfortable sharing my work.

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

I think my process was a bit disorganized. Since I found the segment of my topic that I wanted to focus on later in the research process, I kind of had a mad dash to the end. I’m actually very happy with the final content itself. I wish I had more time to add some nuance and refine the language/imagery, but given the time constraints, I’m proud of what I made.

What was inspiring? What parts?

I’m not sure I would say anything was inspiring per se, but I was definitely not expecting to be able to make such a put together product in just a few weeks. In the past, research projects and art projects could take months if not more, so I was surprised at what I was able to produce.

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

I think the audience, tone, and metaphor were definitely in line with the original prompt. I think my critical lens was not as pronounced, but I do think my point of view was there. Especially in the satire commentary.

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 spent a lot more time on research and it was the harder of the two for me. I knew absolutely nothing about my topic, so I needed to focus on the research in order to get oriented for experimentation. I also found a lot of the articles etc. to be really dry and hard to get through. That made the research even more tough. I wouldn’t say I avoided any areas, but I wish I had more time to focus on the experimentation aspect.

Final Project One

For this project, I want to introduce what is the Migratory Bird, and what is the relationship between the Migratory Bird, and Border, also there are a lot of migratory birds that died in many different factors, and I explored the number of those birds that already died and gave 6 different ways of solution can reduce such high rate Fatalities, also I made symbiotic bacterias as the metaphor to my topic. that is going to reflect my guide. and answer the questions that I used to have during the guideline progress.

 

 

Bibliography:

Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Symbiotic Bacteria – Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 4 Apr. 2006
AAFP. “The Flyway – Eaaflyway.” Eaaflyway, https://www.facebook.com/eaafp/, 7 Nov. 2017
“Migratory Birds – BirdLife International.” BirdLife International – BirdLife Is the World Leader in Bird Conservation

 

Representative Midterm Progress – Borders | Canals

I had a slight pivot in direction for my form/plan on how to execute my guide.

Rather than a straightforward field guide, I decided to highlight the colonization of the natural element of water for man-made jobs. Highlighting the different functions or jobs canals hold, I thought it would be a creative spin to display the information as a Careers page for a fictional company. I created a company called Waterways with a corresponding logo. Their company tagline is “Go With the Flow,” which ties in with my use of metaphor. Not all the information is populated on the site just yet, but here is the WIP site: www.waterwaycareers.info

Intended IA you will see take shape on the Waterways Careers Site:

Metaphor/Company Tagline: Go with the Flow

Careers/Join our Team Section:

Mechanism to highlight notable canals from my research

  • Panama & Suez Canals: Trade
  • Amsterdam Canals: Protection
  • Grand Canal /Jinghang Waterway: Unifier (UNESCO Heritage Site)
  • Venice Canals & British Waterways – Travel – Transportation leading to cultural/folk art

About Waterways Section:

  • Highlighting the role the natural element of water plays as a separator or connector and the job bestowed upon in by man-made canals
  • What makes a canal a canal / Essential information
  • Adding snippets from my interview information

Anti-Pollution Promise:

  • Story of the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal
  • Story of Canal Street, NYC

 

Depending on when you visit, there will be varying information on the site as it is WIP. I will be continuing to work on adding this information, but I wanted to be sure to get the representative portion up on the blog.

Update on Project

Research

I have decided to change my project idea from a field guide to a cookbook guide form. I use the humor metaphor to create a book that shows the animals’ guide to taxidermizing humans instead of the other way around. After my talk with Monika, I had more insight into how to do this project. As well as how I can implement humor into this subject.  The “cookbook” guide form has information on how to taxidermize a body, more specifically a human. I had gotten the information from wikihow.com. Initially, my research started with the definition on ‘Taxidermy’. Taxidermy by Merriam-webster.com is, “the art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals and especially vertebrates”. Then did research on the history on Taxidermy. The process of ‘mummification’ of animals using wraps, oils, and salt.
Finally, for my humor metaphor, I changed the form and did animals taxidermy on humans instead.

Bibliography

Merriam-Webster.com – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/taxidermy

wikiHow.com-  3 Ways to Do Taxidermy – wikiHow

Bones, K. (2021, September 16). The history of Taxidermy. Kodiak Bones and Bugs Taxidermy. Retrieved October 9, 2022, from https://bonesandbugs.com/the-history-of-taxidermy/#:~:text=Taxidermy%20has%20been%20around%20for,and%20available%20resources%20and%20technology.

 

System Thinking

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Which system (type of stakeholder) that Easterbrook identified did you find your understanding of GMOs most aligned with? Why? What are some of the stakes for these stakeholders?

A system of ecosystems and contaminants that weaken them.

I think the topic is exactly the thing that suits my topic. Human beings only focus on their development, and sacrifice thing, which is innocent, and are not harmful to human beings. sometimes human beings realized they have crossed the line, they made mistakes. however, they didn’t call back the mistake, because a call back will cost money, and will take part of the advantages from some of the stakeholders. or in my opinion, that is not enough.

Can you Identify 3 stakeholders (groups or phenomena) with different perspectives, and then describe the system (the stakes) from which they are operating?

1, Bird killers: they do their job, killing birds or getting away from birds is in their job description. They get paid on birds. if there are no birds, that means the position of them will have no excuses for being excited.

2, The traveler who takes the airplane from the airport. make the airport a center, within 15km is birds’ hell. So traveler travel based on birds sacrifice. because of human beings’ freedom, have to make an area to avoid birds.

3, The last one I think is the manager of the Airport, everyone knows, if an airplane crash happens, the GM of the airport will be the first person who is going to take responsibility for this case. make sure to avoid personal career crushes, I think they can count as one stakeholder.

 

Form Analysis – Salt

The guide form I chose for this topic is an interactive map (page).

Examples:

https://demos.mapbox.com/scrollytelling/

https://theirc.github.io/watchlist2021/

 

Why this form? What are its features (stylistic, experiential)

  • For my theme Border, a map suits it best. This map divides content into many sections, providing space to organize the topic’s points. Moreover, the map itself is like background and is not interactive. It makes the web page look like a magazine page. So users should focus on the content provided by the author instead of exploring the map to unexpected places.

How is this form typically used, and what do you plan to subvert/imitate/utilize?

  • This map is often used to tell stories in a geographic context. The press adopts the form covering population’s demographics, the environment, an international conflict, etc.
  • I would add buttons in the text area to allow users to jump between sections.

What would change if you tried a different form? What critical lens does the form you’re applying emphasize? 

  • If I tried a static map, I had to organize all content on the same page, which requires more typography skills.
  • It provides a lens of countries or regions. It’s an up-to-down angle if we talk about specific things. For example, how do international relations affect people, and how does geography affect the government’s decisions.

Is there a metaphor well-suited to your form (i.e. cooking with code)?
Or, are there other metaphors you might employ?

  • A map is already a visual metaphor, for it is a guide itself. A metaphor suited to a map can be a map on which countries are topic items.
  • If we imagine areas as dishes, “season dishes” is like “power the country”. Thus I compare salt to power.
  • (From the dishes metaphor above, a quote comes to my mind: “Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish — Tao Te Ching” (治大国，若烹小鲜)

Assignment 1 – Guide Process

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This week, I did two things for the Guide. Firstly, I tried to see how to make a mini-booklet by using an A4 paper. And at the same time, I draft the contents and thought about how to distribute them properly .

1. A mock-up for ideation

 

2. Draft the contents of the Guide

    • Cover
    • What is Coat of Arms (P1)
    • It is from… (P2)
    • Its components are:  (P3&P4)
    • Bonus Info (P5)
    • Do you want to design one for yourself? How? (P6)
    • Back Cover: Design you Own One > Open