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Memory Trading in the Grey Area of Law

a parafictional documentary that discusses unsupervised black-market and drug use.

Zehua Wang

https://youtu.be/ON8XWjl3fRw

Description

Memory Trading in the Grey Area of Law is a parafictional documentary that discusses the illegal memory-trading black markets in the imaginary city, Zora, which is described in Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. By discussing the issues of manufacturing, selling, purchasing, and taking other's memories as if they truly existed, the project leaves space for the audience to respond to the absurdity of the problems the documentary discusses, and further critically inquire about the real black-market trading and the illegal drug use in real life.

The documentary uses found footage of other non-fictional videos, such as documentaries, news, and interviews, as well as the voiceover written by the artist. By publishing the documentary in a simulated official BBC Documentary YouTube channel, Memory Trading in the Grey Area of Law brings the audience into this parafictional viewing experience.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
Make Believe
Art,Social Good/Activism
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Behind The Screen

The project is a multimedia interactive installation, taken inspiration from the social media app Instagram, that aims to reveal the negative user experiences that are evoked by social media, including the pressure towards overexposure of user privacy and the anxiety towards the distancing of a social-media self and a true self.

Linjie Kang

https://youtu.be/aT0pH1rIzq8

Description

The project is a multimedia interactive installation, taken inspiration from the social media app Instagram, that aims to reveal the negative feelings that are evoked by social media, including the pressure towards overexposure of user privacy and the anxiety towards the distancing of a social-media self and a true self. Simulating the browsing of Instagram user posts, the project basically detects the existence of audiences and responds accordingly, as the more people come to visit it, the messer the installation will end up, because the infrared detection trigger system is connected to spray painters.

In our age, there’s no way for one to escape from social media. It is true that social media brings convenience to our daily life, however, with it also come various negative experiences. The vague boundary of privacy and publicity in social media which makes people feel insecure and overly exposed has long been a heated discussion, while the forming sharing and posting culture on social media has forced people to go through a self-filtration process where people gradually start to fake themselves on their personal accounts. Due to these reasons, it is common for people to live a masked life on social media where only beautiful looking things are recorded, while the true self that is behind the screen is often hidden.

Based on this life experience, the installation aims to reveal the true anxious emotions people are having that are hidden behind the screen and unseen on social media. The installation explores the exposure of privacy through social media by turning the once virtual and personal information largely public, and it physicalizes the two-folded life people are having online and offline, making the once internal emotions and pressures external and visible to all.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
Capstone Studio (Shanghai)
Art,Social Good/Activism
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Sense Dispenser

Raise awareness about the lack of resources brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of proper hand hygiene

Terese Isabella Tam Yap

https://youtu.be/wadIXHeFpvw

Description

The new normal brought about by COVID-19 includes contactless/touchless interaction and an abundance of hand sanitizers everywhere. Sense dispenser fuses these two aspects of the “new normal” into an interactive experience that aims to raise awareness about COVID-19 and some of its effects on society. Sense dispenser delivers this awareness to users when they go to take some sanitizer from a dispenser and end up not receiving anything. The failure to meet the user's need for sanitizer in that moment catches the attention of the user. The screen then shows the user a fact about COVID-19, a fact about hand hygiene, or informs the users about an effect COVID-19 has on society.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
Interaction Lab
Social Good/Activism
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The Normalization Program

a parafictional business website that examines the misperceptions and the imposed social normalcy of the LGBTQ community

Zehua Wang

https://the-normalization-program.now.sh/index.html

Description

The Normalization Program is a business website that examines the misperceptions of the LGBTQ community and the social normalcy imposed on them.

The project collects found news, social media posts, and personal experiences and translates these narratives into supportive materials on the business website. In the first glimpse of the website, it gives an impression of a genuine business. The appearance of the website with the slogans, the up-to-date technology, the research, the profile of the professional team members, as well as the cooperation with real international organizations, all carries the legitimacy of the business.

However, upon further examination of the website and investigation of the subtle information, the audience might start making associations with misperceptions they’ve experienced or witnessed. With more absurdity introduced along with the experience, the project pushes the audience to question the authenticity of the website and reflect on how the LGBTQ community is suffering from misperception and struggling fitting into the social normalcy as a minority group.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.217.1
Make Believe
Art,Social Good/Activism
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The Final Blessing

From the first words one may speak as an infant, to the last statement one may make on the execution bed, a timeless space in-between is created, questioning what “the final blessing” entails.

s

https://vimeo.com/418781754

Description

Texas is the state with the most executions in the US, with 569 in total up to date. These last statements from the executed offenders are controversially public information, but the dataset is pretty well-known and widely used. Bearing in mind the debate between justice and humanity, my project’s concept largely has to come to the evaluation of what is to be included versus what to be excluded. It’s also a dynamic between the collective “offenders” and each offender’s individuality. I decided to focus on the statements without the stereotypes of a person’s race, gender, etc. The other dataset from Stanford, A wordbank of children’s first words, came across immediately as an introspection of the thinking process. First words in life to last words in life. By cross-matching and visualizing the two datasets, the project creates a space for ponders of a person’s lifetime journey. We all become the witnesses of this final blessing as a symbolic act of rebirth, for the offenders or the victims. The project utilizes the features of different “time indicators” from the last words dataset: time of offense, time received sentence, etc. to visualize the seemingly definable extents of what happened and the timeless personal and social collective influences.

Is an act forgiven once the final sentence is executed? Is this a blessing for the offenders or the victims? Or perhaps, for us who are indirectly related to this social process? This website creates a space of imagination, contemplation, and introspection, from one's birth to death.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.204.1
Critical Data & Visualization
Narrative/Storytelling,Social Good/Activism
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The Ticker Pin

This installation collects sexually offensive message sent to children detected by NGOs on various social media platforms; by exposing and cumulating these messages, it calls for more attention to child sexual abuse in the cyber spaces and better child protection on multiple levels.

Yunzhu Pan

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1phvwSSWnskkX_RHnxGJsss0uYMUpuG57/view?usp=sharing

Description

This project collects sexually offensive message sent to children detected by NGOs on various social media platforms; by exposing and cumulating these messages, it calls for more attention to child sexual abuse in the cyber spaces and better child protection on multiple levels. Most messages in this project’s database is collected by organizations like Bark, ChuLe, and individuals who has personal experience with the stated CSA issue, or involved in related activisms in various ways.

The installation is a stand-alone art installation, with a Raspberry Pi mini-controller running a program collection input data, and a thermal printer reacting in real-time, printing out the gathered data. The core components will be placed in a round-shaped transparent glass cover on a pedestal.

This project is a response to the issue of child sexual abuse in the online world, hoping to invoke attentions of parents and tech companies, which through research, are clearly proved to be the two parties that plays the most significant roles in dealing with online CSA(Child Sexual Abuse). The form of the installation is inspired by the “ticker tape machine”, an installation used by businesses to transmit and keep track of stock price information around the late 20th century. This particular installation was chosen because despite of any particular topic it serves, it perfectly embodies the role of a “perfect listener”; the ticker tape is a small device pinned into the real world, listens to live-data that’s constantly produced and updated in the real world, and acutely reacts to what it hears. This installation is designed to embodied the role of such a “listner”, that would monitor and “listen to” offensive languages and messages targeting children in social media and games, and would stay acute to any updates or changes.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.401.1
Capstone Studio (Shanghai)
Social Good/Activism
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The Public Chair

The Public Chair is a social critique on classist urban design towards the homeless population in public spaces through the implementation of hostile architecture.

Sofia Shockman

https://nyu.zoom.us/j/95950394007

Description

Used for seating and lounging, a park bench holds the purpose of recreation such as people watching, taking the dogs to the dog park and waiting, or to have a moment of rest. The Public Chair critiques how park benches in many metropolis cities have systematically suppressed homeless individuals through uninhibiting design. The Public Chair is a bench displaying hostile architecture as a critique of contemporary urban design by removing all practicalities from a typical bench.This abstract installation represents the convergence of similar yet fairly distinct class struggles, specifically for the homeless. I researched the design techniques that alleviate homelessness in Houston, Texas and have conducted interviews in New York City with several who identify as homeless on 7th and 9th street. They shared deeply moving yet traumatizing stories of their lives from the past, present, and the uncertainty of their futures. I asked them how they felt about public spaces and what they wanted to see out of them, but what struck me about their response is that they didn’t care what improvements could be done. What I discovered is that the issue isn’t a design solution, but a question of public policy and proper policing. They said that police are vigilant of their actions, thus a majority of the time they are asked to leave public property. I witnessed the policing firsthand as I was conducting my interview, the same officer circled us multiple times even though we were just chatting outside of CVS. The piece symbolizes the perpetual loop of political design and the implications of designing with inhibiting factors that hinder the use of the public sphere.

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.401.1
Capstone Studio (Shanghai)
Social Good/Activism
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THE CAGE

“Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world “… or not?

Ren Tao

https://youtu.be/Yn0lcMU60jo

Description

THE CAGE is an artistic installation made for reflections on China's world-strictest Internet censorship system. A wooden bird cage is placed in front of a white wall, and stands on a rotating platform. Three components make up the cage inner: The bottom stands images of China's ten greatest infrastructure projects from 200-2018, depicting the flourishing industrial development; Images of the Great Wall are placed at the top, which resembles the "Great Firewall". Between two parts, several twitter-logo like birds images hang in the air. They symbolize the Chinese netizens groups restricted in the cage. All elements are printed and cut on Chinese traditional parchment. Two LED lamps, which lighten up the whole project, are fixed in the middle hollow space. The installation is around 45cm tall, 20cm²; wide. All elements are designed in Photoshop, printed and cut by hand. Hardwares are available online.

Alongside the cage is a piece of paper attached on the wall, printing "Across the Great Wall, we can reach any corner of the world" with its Chinese translation. This is the first email China officially sent to the world in 1987.

This project expresses such an idea: When voices of Chinese netizens cannot be heard, they lose individual personalities on International social platforms, and eventually become a vague concept of mass collection (based on imaginary and limited information). In this way, the artist regards the system as a bird cage, through which communication between "human and human" can never happen. The artist asks the audience one question: "The country is developing by leaps and bounds, however with the "Great FIrewall" above the land, where is China going, as time passes? 

IMA/IMB Shanghai
INTM-SHU.401.1
Capstone Studio (Shanghai)
Culture,Social Good/Activism
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Design Life Well

Design a business and life you're wildly proud of at www.designlifewell.com

Tundi Szasz

https://designlifewell.com

Description

DLW provides digital tools for successful living. Includes workshops for self-reflection to enhance your potential + manifest the life you desire! Go to www.designlifewell.com to sign up.

IMA/ITP New York
ITPG-GT.2793.001, ITPG-GT.2133.001, ITPG-GT.2480.001, ITPG-GT.2193.001
100 Days of Making, Light and Interactivity, The Nature of Code, Video Sculpture
Tool\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Service,Social Good/Activism
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Neighborline

Designed to reach those who are feeling especially isolated, Neighborline is a daily phone call that connects people on the line at random for a friendly chat.

Dawn Sinkowski, Simone Salvo

https://vimeo.com/400053449

Description

Neighborline creates an opportunity for spontaneous conversations in an isolated, challenging time. Dial the number daily at 3pm to connect to people on the line at random for a friendly chat. It was designed to be an open, low tech solution to bringing a bit of cheer to anyone who might be feeling isolated. With so much of our social lives being sustained online, we wanted to build a bridge to those in our community left behind by technology. But it's also for anyone who misses impromptu exchanges or is burnt out from their screens. Like the 7pm cheer, it’s so important to have something in the day to look forward to. At the moment, Neighborline is serving New York. We hope Neighborline can be a model for other areas around the country and the world. We’re providing all the documentation for Neighborline to inspire others to replicate, reimagine, and rediscover the magic of a good, old-fashioned phone call.

IMA/ITP New York
ITPG-GT.2564.001, ITPG-GT.2577.002
Project Development Studio, Dynamic Web Development
Culture,Social Good/Activism