IMA/ITP Documentation | Fall 2024
Syllabus | Asset Library
IMA/ITP Documentation | Fall 2024
Syllabus | Asset Library
Assignment # 1
“A mushroom is a toxin-transformer, a dandelion is a community of healers waiting to spread…” (9)
Q: In your view, what is the function of humans in the universe?
My worldview aligns with some of the more prominent science fiction of today and I was particularly transfixed in reading Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem. I believe it’s probable, (maybe even likely!) that humans, insomuch as they are loving, thinking, communicating, highly complex organisms, are not unique in their existence. There exist many theories around the organizational structure of the universe and beyond plane of existence and many of them put forth related thoughts on the topic. At the end of the day, however, they don’t often ascribe meaning to the purpose or function of humans in the universe.
Homo sapiens, our cohort of hominids, has reached unparalleled levels of development and progress on the planet we call home. Not only do we enjoy the comforts and trappings of modern day life unimaginable to generations past, but we seemingly enjoy capacities of the brain and spirit unfound anywhere else. While this is astonishingly beautiful, this has commonly been extrapolated by people as proof that we are the dominant, chosen species to rule this corner of the galaxy. My personal belief is that the entire kerfuffle that is our current existence may be a miraculous happenstance at the evolutionary scale. In writing this, I don’t want to discount that this miraculous happenstance is not cause for celebration, however. We truly are an anomaly of a species on earth, but in honoring our place in the natural system to which we belong, I believe we should offer up more respect.
“With our human gift of reasoning, we have tried to control or overcome the emergent processes that are our own nature, the processes of the planet we live on, and the universe we call home. The result is crisis at each scale we are aware of, from our deepest inner moral sensibilities to the collective scale of climate and planetary health and beyond, to our species in relation to space and time.”
From Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
Humans have greatly overstepped their role in the system to which they belong, throwing the entirety of the system off balance. We know no end to our own appetite for consumption and our naive optimism ensures that we continue trudging forth endlessly. I recognize that this perspective could be interpreted as highly misanthropic and I’m aware of the implications of what a point of view like this might be suggestive of. In the most positive light, perhaps it’d suggest we work to tackle issues like endless development and animal habitat destruction. In a more dystopian take on the same problem, I could see discussions trending towards population control – obviously a troublesome topic.
As a systems thinker deliberating on the subject, I think back to the heuristic coined by Stafford Beer that states “the purpose of a system is what it does” and moreover, that there is “no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do.” In taking Beer’s theory to heart, are humans living out their destiny exactly as intended?
“I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free” (18)
Q: Have you felt trapped inside of someone else's imagination? How have you broken free?
I was a mixed-race kid raised in a sort-of Roman Catholic family in New Jersey where first and second generation immigrants comprised nearly everyone I knew. Immigrant communities in places like the United States are largely built of peoples pushed from their home countries for any number of usually unfortunate circumstances. In New Jersey and many other places like it, this diversity creates a magnificent melting pot of cultural experiences that is visible at every Main Street and shopping mall. Queens, NY, another melting pot of culture, is the most linguistically diverse place on Earth. Incredibly, more than 800 languages are spoken in this tiny corner of the world.
In the town along the Jersey Shore where I grew up, nearly everyone was a white Christian. I, on the other hand, was a half Vietnamese, half Irish kid who knew he was profoundly different from a very young age. In a cohort of 400 students in my high school, if my memory serves me, only about 2% of us were anything other than white kids.
For me, feeling trapped inside someone else’s imagination summons memories of after-school Catholic class, otherwise known as CCD. It was today that I learned CCD stands for Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Because the Vietnamese side of my family didn’t practice Christianity, I was tipped off from the start that not everyone identified with this faith. This set me apart from most students I knew and seeded more questions in me than the elementary-aged version of myself could process at the time. I spent a lot of time ruminating on what it might mean that they didn’t align with the doctrine.
At CCD, the nuns were often harsh, berating women who didn’t seem like they honored any of same tenets of their teachings. That confused me deeply. What was even more confusing for me was trying to understand whether the biblical tales shared with us were meant to be interpreted literally and how they mapped against everything I was learning in real school.
When I was in sixth or seventh grade, I was finally able to break out. My best friend at the time and still to this day was a Jewish kid from up the street who also fell squarely in the aforementioned 2% of students who were different. Becoming close to someone else my age who existed outside of the norm meant more to me than I could have understand at the time. As long as I can remember, I never identified with the faith, its community or the rampant hypocrisy and I was relieved to be free of it. More than anything, I felt like I was free from living inside the imagination of the other and no longer tethered to a construct that I felt deeply disconnected to.
Reflections on how the reading impacted your research, if at all.
The reading selection nudged me to think deeply about the emergent systems that give rise to anything and everything around us. As someone who craves understanding how objects and systems function on many levels, the author helped outline a methodology for tracing something back, back, back to its simpler componentry or origins. Obviously, as in most things, the whole will almost always be greater than the sum of its parts and Brown helps explain how and why this makes perfect sense. In focusing on my topic, taxidermy, and its emergent relationship to skin, I begin by unpacking the historical and cultural significance of taxidermy. Native Americans, among many other cultures, used preserved and partially stuffed pelts for practical and ceremonial purposes. European colonialists and explorers began to use preserved skins as taxidermy to help those at home in the mother country to begin to fathom the unfathomable exotic animals from away. Within the framing of emergent systems, we can observe skins giving rise to pelts giving rise to taxidermy and unlocking a flurry of ideas, concepts, stories and natural histories over time. It’s not entirely unlike the analogy that Brown builds in comparing Octavia Butler’s science fiction to fractal emergent growth.
“Octavia was concerned with scale—understanding that what happens at the interpersonal level is a way to understand the whole of society. In many of her books, she shows us howradical ideas spread through conversation, questions, one to one interactions. Social movements right now are also fractal, practicing at a small scale what we most want to see at the universal level. No more growth or scaling up before actually learning through experience. Rather than narrowing into one path forward, Octavia’s leaders were creating more and more possibilities. Not one perfect path forward, but an abundance of futures, of ways to manage resources together, to be brilliant together.”
From Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
Taxidermy, it can be said, has served humankind as a means of disseminating ideas and vision of what the world is like outside of one’s little bubble. It masterfully builds a snapshot of a far away place and brings it to you – kindling for one’s imagination, if you will. Taxidermy, in the modern world, still exists in this capacity but has taken on many new meanings which all rightfully deserve to be unpacked and studied as part of an anthropological story and further cementing emergence as a fascinating lens to view the world.
Assignment # 2
In this week’s reading, Easterbrook describes both the Principle of Complementarity and Boundary Critique in the preface of his analysis of a plot of land that’s growing GMO wheat. In his analysis, he describes the plot of land and its conflicts as the result of “each group describing things in terms of different systems, and rejecting the others’ position because it makes no sense within their own worldview.” He goes on to use Boundary Critique on eight diverse stakeholder groups, and goes on to identify “the system that each group is seeing, and then explore where they’ve chosen to draw the boundaries of that system, and why.”
Which system (type of stakeholder) that Easterbrook identified did you find your own understanding of GMOs most aligned with? Why?
What are some of the stakes of these stakeholders?
on how the reading impacted your research, if at all.
When considering food systems, I identify most closely with System 7: A system of potential threats to human health and well-being. I align with several of the groups and can empathize with several more but I’m most impassioned by the case against industrial intervention in our food systems. As a grower of personal foodcrops, student of plant science and rural farm owner, I feel that industrial interests in food are fundamentally at odds with the long-term health and well-being of people.
Easterbrook describes how differences in temporal focus often play a central role in defining perspectives. To use his example, policy-makers continue to invest in damaging monoculture practices, despite the evidence that shows its harm. In fact, “the government subsidizes up to 60 percent of the cost of crop insurance premiums, but that comes with a catch: This and other subsidies are heavily skewed toward monoculture farming—growing a single crop on most or all of a farm's available acreage. This means less crop diversity, less experimentation with obscure grain varietals, and less sustainable and regenerative farming practices. It also increases soil erosion and the use of fertilizer and pesticides,” (Reason, 2024, https://reason.com/2024/06/15/government-subsidies-keep-your-food-boring/)
Policy-makers, leveraged heavily by the USDA and their Big-Ag counterparts, fall in line in supporting the status quo and proudly boast of heavy-handed efforts to support feeding growing populations. These short-term thinking, short-sighted figureheads fail to allow the bigger picture to erode their worldview. “The most highly subsidized crops — corn, soy, wheat, and rice—are the most abundantly produced and most consumed, often in the form of ultra-processed foods.” (American Action Forum, 2021, https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/primer-agriculture-subsidies-and-their-influence-on-the-composition-of-u-s-food-supply-and-consumption/)
Temporally speaking, these policies are a double edged sword. They may ensure people are fed today and next week but that very same food consumed over a lifetime (studies have shown) often play out over a very short lifetime. The lens that I’ve applied to my systemic observations around GMOs could be applied equally well in many other policy debates that we as a global society grapple with; Short-term solutions are often haunted by long-term repercussions. Many times, these long-term effects aren’t systemically mapped back to root causes and critical opportunities for learning are missed.
System Maps for Taxidermy
Concept Map - This tracks the various “nouns” in the cycle of the hunter-conservationist paradox. Large amounts of money flow from hunter-conservationists to indigenous populations and government regulatory agencies in exchange for scarce access to kill an exotic wild animal. The money, we’re led to believe, is used for conservation efforts, which protects endangered populations of animals.
Influence Model - This much more complex model tracks the movement of money, permits and trophy kills inside of the hunter-conservationist paradox. Hunters-conservationists carry with them a sense of honor and duty for their paradoxical efforts in both saving and killing animals like North American sheep or African elephants and leopards. The influence model shows a bit more detail in how money supports conservation efforts and affords the mega-rich the luxury and privilege of killing exceedingly rare and protected animals.
Assignment # 3
Reflections on your thematic reading, including 2-3 quotes from it that stood out to you. Did it impact how you’re approaching your topic?
Through reading Watson’s Complexion, I found it helpful for my own research into taxidermy to process, learn and ruminate on the ways that skin is able to tell stories. Not surprisingly, these stories are never fully owned by the wearer of skin. Through gaze, the body’s form is subject to a myriad of interpretations by the other giving it infinitely more meaning and as you’d expect, for better or for worse.
Cultural nuance is often the basis for the ways one interprets the world and the meaning of skin is no exception. For example, historical French, English and German interpretations of skin suggest it implies wholeness and we may look to the idiomatic expressions, “‘to save one’s skin’, or ‘to sell one’s hide’ - here the self is the skin which is therefore understood as the most vital part of the body.” In this worldview, “the fundamental nature of the individual does not reside beneath the skin, but rather the fate of the skin and the soul are intertwined.” Knowing that modern taxidermy has roots in western European colonial expansion, what could this tell us about how the imperialists perceived the animals they captured and skinned for display? I believe what we may learn will fall squarely in line with our current understanding of the western imperialists as brutal and domineering and reinforce our feelings towards the hegemony of the day.
If we adopt the artist Berni Searle’s perspective from his Profile series (2002), as narrated in the text, we may reframe our perspective of the skin as “ always in the process of becoming.” We know that bodies accumulate marks, scars, stretch marks and other features common to aging but “any reading of the skin is only representative of an instance.” The way we see another being is unique to that moment in time, as the story our skin has to tell is ever-changing. The author’s interpretation goes on to suggest that “marking the skin can be understood as a rejection of the skin’s constant flux and change and an attempt to create permanence” and that “the violence of inscription is not simply actualised on the already marked skin surface, but on the skin as the potential bearer of meaning.” In capturing the skin of an organism, it could be said that the organism’s earthly and spiritual privileges have been stripped away as well. The right to own their own contextual representation and finding honor and sanctity in death have all been stripped away in favor of a plasticized existence in perpetuity marking the least honorable moment of one’s life.
The author goes on to quote Grosz’s 1994 text in which they portend that “Every body is marked by the history and specificity of its existence. It is possible to construct a biography, a history of the body, for each individual and social body. This history would include not only the contingencies that befall a body, impinging on it from the outside - a history of the accidents, illnesses, misadventures that mark the body and its functioning; such a history would also have to include the 'raw ingredients' out of which the body is produced - its internal conditions of possibility, the history of its particular tastes, predilections, movements, habits, postures, gait and comportment.” While I tend to agree with Grosz, the blatant objectification of a skin through taxidermy disregards and tarnishes most of the animal’s narrative. In the process of skinning and stuffing for display, the “history and specificity of existence” is almost entirely abandoned and exchanged for flesh suspended by a metal armature telling only the story of conquest – a sad manipulation of a life.
Updated System Maps for Taxidermy
I built this causal model map to depict how I believe the system works within the current Hunter-Conservationist Paradox. I believe that Hunter-Conservationists have setup trade organizations to apply pressure on their behalf to government regulatory agencies and the indigenous populations whose land the desirable animals live on. In doing so, they’re effectively holding these parties hostage.
By using money to purchase influence and the rights to hunt exotic and endangered animals legally, they effectively box out all parties outside of their cadre. The animals in this case, are simply pawns and their hides are on the line in every possible sense of the phrase.
Explorations on Form for a Guide
At the moment, I’m leaning towards a “scrollytelling” experience. I need to research a bit more to determine if what I imagine is possible with the constraints of this project – mostly time! I think the NYT do a fantastic job at visual storytelling through this form. Here are some examples:
NYT Snow Fall Interactive
This example is really creative in the way that it animates a revisionist perspective as you scroll. It helps to convey how the narrative changed one year later.
NYT Tom Brady Retirement Interactive
Research Progress
This article from the NYT helped me solidify my perspective on what direction I want to take for my project. I’m deeply interested in how lobbying and the injection of money influences politics and I believe that the hunter-conservationist paradox is yet another example of money buying influence and forcefully affecting all populations around it. I’ll need some time to sure up the lens through which I’ll tell this story, but I believe that this paradox is a ripe topic for investigation.
I’m impressed with the depth of access that the NYU Library maintains. I met with our ITP librarian, Margaret, and she walked me through some of the repositories that she believed would be most fruitful for researching my topic and the questions I have about it. Here are some of my questions that we discussed:
- Which tools/resources might I leverage to uncover the deal-making and money exchanges at the heart of the paradox?
- Where might I dig to uncover facts around whether hunter-conservation models are truly in the interest of animals?
- What is the history of government regulatory agencies responsible for fish and game protection?
- What’s the first example of a hunter-conservation model (e.g. where did it pop up first)?
- What can I learn about the perspectives of the indigenous populations whose ecosystems and territories are in question?
- What are the demographics of hunter-conservationists?
- Are the trade organizations and gov agencies staffed by insiders in the hunter-conservationist world?
- What crime and conflict surround this scene?
We pursued some of these narrower angles in the different research and scholar focused repositories and we were both impressed with how few, but highly relevant results turned up. FDR turned up in several of Margaret’s leads as a key figure in the early days of the hunter-conservation movement – a key angle I can dig into later. I’m looking forward to spending more time exploring the digital stacks and building up a strong, cohesive narrative and refining my perspective.
Assignment # 4
“Metaphors We Live By” - Lakoff and Johnson
Lakoff + Johnson give several examples throughout the text of linguistic metaphorical systems. Are there any you found odd, outdated, or different from metaphorical systems that you use, either personally or in your language, culture, or social sphere? For instance, do you speak about conversation as battle, or use orientational metaphors the same way the authors describe?
Can you identify a metaphorical system that you commonly use? What do you think is the motivating rationale (“experiential basis”) behind that system - or is there one? Have you ever intentionally (or unintentionally) changed the metaphorical system that you use to speak about a certain subject, to reflect a different experience or worldview?
What metaphors/systems of metaphor are commonly used when discussing your topic? If “the essence of a metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (5), what other kinds of metaphors might be useful for discussing your topic, or an aspect of your topic?
One commonality we live with as inhabitants of planet earth is the experience that resources and commodities are limited. Food, fuel, space, materials, and things that we, as a competitive society, compete for. While there is a metaphorical relationship between time and money that one can’t easily reject, I believe this type of systematic relationship can be extended out to draw comparison with most anything that is scarce. Because of this, I found the one example the authors expanded upon – time is money – to be rather mundane. Anything that is inherently limited is subject to being budgeted, saved, wasted, spent, spared or borrowed. My lack of enthusiasm for their metaphorical example does, however, show just how deeply our language is steeped in metaphorical relationships to convey meaning. The fact that I was able to view their example as too rudimentary to be studied might prove their point!
A metaphoric system that I commonly lean on is to ascribe meaning, understanding, intellect and more on scales of depth. Deep learning feels vastly different than a surface level understanding. Plunging further into study equates going deep with a more thorough comprehension of a topic which almost always has a positive connotation. Meanwhile, someone who is very surface level might be understood to be vain or superficial. Just glossing the surface means you haven’t done much of anything at all. Both feel like negative sets of connotations. While I can’t think of a moment where I tweaked this particular metaphorical system to be more compatible with a different worldview, I do think this sort of thing happens all the time especially as our societal point of reference can vary wildly. An example that I find to be especially thought-provoking relates to the unique worldview of the ancient Egyptians. The Nile River, the central life-force through much of Africa, flows south to north and as such, the Egyptians conceived of a compass exactly opposite to the way we do today. Such a simple
My topic is the hunter-conservationist paradox and through focusing more closely on the paradoxical bit, we might easily draw metaphorical comparison to other paradoxes. A forest fire feels counter to what may come to mind when imagining a strong, healthy forest system when in fact some forest systems rely on the act of burning as a part of a natural cycle. In these paradoxical systems, the burning the underbrush is critical and seeds may never germinate without being scorched. If we take a friendly view on the hunter-conservation paradox, one might relate a positive connotation between it and other phenomena where death is related to rebirth and future life. A more negative metaphorical relationship might draw connections between it and lobbying or the many other systems of where money and power translate to influence and access.
Research Progress
I feel strongly that a “scrollytelling” format will help me achieve a visually strong and engaging presentation that leans on my audience’s predisposed familiarity with this format. At the moment I’m considering whether I'll leverage any tools to help me build the browser-based experience. Templatization tools like Readymag or Cargo Collective provide a bit of structure and give a head start on interactive elements that may allow me to focus more intently on the content of the guide. I’m weighing interactive decisions like when and how to embrace horizontal / vertical scrolling, how to build graphics/models/diagrams (javascript/gif/other?), and whether animations may be a useful form of media. After weighing other forms, I think this one makes the most sense and helps me maintain a serious formal quality. I feel like the gravity of the topic deserves a bit of formality to ensure the topic is understood as I intend it to be.
Interviews and Takeaways
For each interview, include a blurb about who you interviewed and why, a summary/script of your interview, and some key takeaways as they relate to your project/topic.
I interviewed some close friends who I’m calling AP and AO. I felt like they’d have strong points of view on taxidermy and the hunter-conservation paradox as they’ve both been strong proponents of animal rights for the majority of their lives. They also live together as vegetarians in a rural setting where hunting is a strong aspect of local culture.
Steven Phan 00:30
Have you ever heard of the hunter taxidermy paradox before the article?
AP 00:35
Yes, it's like a big topic in conservation in general, and a large source of conflicting discussions.
Steven Phan 00:48
What do you mean by conflicting discussions?
AP 00:54
If it's anything like the article, there's just this disagreement between what the word conservation means, because people have this perverse idea that conservation is reliant on hunting.
Steven Phan 01:21
What does conservation mean to you?
AP 01:26
The word conservation is actually a dirty word to a lot of people who think that the word has been maligned, and that the word conservation should mean protection, but it's been skewed to be used specifically for these, these hunting expeditions and that entire complex. The game complex, industrial game hunting complex.
Steven Phan 02:16
So in short, the who are the people that you're speaking of that that feel like the word has been co-opted?
AP 02:29
They call themselves now more like environmentalists, because the word conservationist has been taken over by a cohort that they don't feel aligned with.
Steven Phan 02:45
And what do you what do you honestly think that the hunter conservationists think about the word conservation? Do you think that they define it differently?
AP 03:00
They think that they're doing all the heavy lifting to actually put their money where their mouth is, and they think that they've come up with a really pragmatic solution, and that they're the real heavy lifters of the movement, and whether they think that as like a greenwashing is like debatable. They, they, you know, would say it's a genuine thing that they want to protect these species, but I really it's very hard for a lot of purists to believe that that's what their intention is.
Steven Phan 03:48
When do you think there started to be a conflict in how conservation was defined?
AP 03:59
I mean, I think this goes back, you know, to back, probably before maybe the 70s, the 50s, when, especially when you started seeing game farms pop up and like all over Africa, that really was, like, really popular in, like, the 50s and stuff. It's probably could be over 100 years that these types of things have been happening. I can't really say for sure.
Steven Phan 04:34
Do you know of it happening anywhere other than Africa, like this specific sort of economy?
AP 04:41
Yeah, I mean Fish and Game (associations) to most environmentalists are like evil people, they're not like there to protect and serve wildlife, even though that's what it would appear to be, from the untrained eye, they're really there to sell permits to serve this hunting industry. In America, it's very prevalent.
Steven Phan 05:21
Yeah, so what are the are you talking about, like, government organizations?
AP 05:27
Yes, fish and game.
Steven Phan 05:30
Do you know when about those started to be formed? Like, how long do those date back to,
AP 05:38
Oh, I don't know. Not really sure.
Steven Phan 05:41
Do you think that hunting should be regulated? Is it helpful that there is some sort of a government body in place?
AP 05:53
I think that, I do think that it's, I guess it's helpful. It's more organized, and it allows there to be funding for like wardens, like that are all connected over the entire country, I guess.
Steven Phan 06:18
I wonder if some different form of, like, checks and balances might be helpful. So like, in some ways I liken it to that movie that you guys watched, Dark Waters where the government officials are the same - the people who go back and forth between private and public roles in lobbying and then in government, and it's sort of like, whose side are you on?
AP 07:08
They are definitely very similar to the DEP and all of those like the EPA. They're not the bodies of government that you think they are. They're like, sure they like, sometimes have these campaigns that are good, but I guess it's like any other system. There's good actors and bad actors, and there's checks and balances to everybody's interests.
Steven Phan 07:43
Why don't you think that any of these government offices have anybody for the the counter point of view, like, Why do you think that they're comprised of all of the the pro-hunter types, it doesn't seem like you you think that there's any checks and balance? Is that right?
AP 08:10
Um, I think that there's probably good actors in fishing game, but I think that, you know, the system has been built on it. I mean, there are people who truly, deep down, think the the most pragmatic way to save animals is by raising money through hunting. Like, that's like, there are people that just think that, and they don't think that it's there's anything to debate, because they think that at the end of the day, it's this perverse idea that they need money, and where else are they going to get money.
Steven Phan 08:57
This kind of reminds me of raising money for schools through legalizing gambling and lottery tickets.
AP 09:05
Exactly, yeah, like, when you buy lottery tickets, it says, like, 20% of this money will go to schools or, like, I think it even says, like, all of it sometimes, yeah, it's a very perverse idea. And they think that it's like, a really pragmatic approach and and that we're just being like idealists who think these things will just get done.
Steven Phan 09:34
Do you know any hunters?
AP 09:39
Um, I do, yeah,
Steven Phan 09:45
Are they just acquaintances?
AP 09:50
I mean, the last film I worked on, the reason why I left the conservation film industry was because we were making a film about ducks. And duck hunting is a huge industry. It's like one of the main hunts in America, and it does the same thing. You buy permits. It's a big deal. And so the film was about ducks, and our funding for the film was from Ducks Unlimited. And not only were they giving us a million dollars, million dollars for the film, they like, wanted us to interview, they're like all star people in the duck world. And it was very clear to me that this is like propaganda, like you are giving us this million dollars, but it's strings attached that we interview like some 16 year old girl who you guys think is like a super cool duck hunter, and you guys want her to be like a hot duck hunter girl of the of the industry, because she's like, already an influencer. And, you know, you think it's really cool that she's like a girl, she's young, so you want her in the film, but, you know, I just like, was like, this is more of this perverse thing where, like, even this film, which is supposed to be educational about docs, is now funded by the same people that, like, hunt them, and they need to, like, spend money on they clearly have excess funds, as much as a million dollars to throw around. And so I sort of loosely interviewed these people before I left the project, so that's the closest I've came to people that are in this world.
Steven Phan 11:54
How do you feel about hunting for sustenance, versus hunting for sport? I know obviously there's probably some gray area there.
AP 12:05
I think that its not black and white. To me. I do think there is a lot of nuance, and I think hunting for eating is much more - it's definitely on a higher plane for me, I don't find it to be problematic.
Steven Phan 12:36
What about the idea of taxidermy?
AP 12:43
If you're hunting for taxidermy, then I think you're like the scum of the earth.
Steven Phan 12:50
What if you are hunting for sustenance, and then you pursue having your kill taxidermy?
Unknown Speaker 13:02
I mean, I think that's slightly better. I guess it's a spectrum. So they would be somewhere on the lower end of the middle. The bottom being people that hunt for sport and taxidermy. The bottom of the bottom of people would be hunt, people that hunt endangered things for sport and taxidermy.
Steven Phan 13:34
So someone that say like that hunts for sustenance and decides that they would like to honor the animal by having it kept - their hide kept in the house. What is your bigger issue with that?
AP 13:56
I don't have an issue there would be like at the top of the non issue, okay? Spectrum.
Steven Phan 14:09
How do you feel about leather?
AP 14:15
Oh, I hope that it's like we said, like, I hope that it the animal has been used for food, and then it goes down a list of being used for other things.
Steven Phan 14:33
How do you feel about hides used in in like cultural, ceremonial, sorts of settings? So like Native Americans who might use a hide as a costume in a in a cultural event or moment?
AP 14:54
I think that that is an endemic to place and people, because they're trying to like, honor their culture. And and that makes sense for cultural reasons to do so.
Steven Phan 15:19
What about the indigenous peoples of places like Africa and I assume, from what I've read, that they are, they are sort of part of the system that enables hunters to come in and come from other countries and pay a lot of money. What do you think of those people? How do you think they feel? Do you think that they they want this, or what do you think their overall sentiment and role is in this?
Unknown Speaker 15:58
I think it's this perverse exploitation of resources. I think it's no different than a family that's poor in Thailand and puts their daughter up for prostitution to feed the other five kids, I think that it's just a perverse exploitation of a resource for desperate situations, and in most of those places, situations are continuously desperate because of colonization And because of climate change and blah blah blah
Steven Phan 16:46
Are there other analogies that you can draw to other systems that exploit people and animals through money pouring in from other places.
AP 17:16
I mean, I think that just hunting and prostitution is like kind of the main ones that I can think of. I mean, I can't really think of any others. Those are like the two main ones, and they're very large industries that are globalized markets. You know, there's people that travel, probably a huge amount of people travel for prostitution and hunting is the only one you could say that's like, maybe on that list, but a very, very innocent, maybe not innocent, but is people that do like ecotourism. But you know, eventually ecotourism can become exploitive if there's too many people coming.
Steven Phan 18:23
Have you ever heard of the specific example that they're they talk about in the NYT article with the sheep in North America. Have you heard much about that economy?
AP 18:35
I mean, I've heard that those lotteries are very you know, there for the very elite businessmen. The ones buying them.
Steven Phan 18:57
Do you think that that the populations are being manipulated outside of hunting, It said in the article that hunters actually prefer that it's an elite thing, because, you know, they like being the few that can access this stuff. So do you think that there's some intervention in the populations of these animals to keep them rare.
Unknown Speaker 19:33
I just never heard that angle, but I mean, never really heard I have heard some like gossip in the environmentalist world that, like, fishing game was like lying about bears being nuisances to, like, get bears permits back on the market, and like, trucking wolves from place to place. Just, you know, say there's wolves that live there now and then opening up like a lottery for them.
Steven Phan 20:25
So essentially, what you're saying is you've heard rumors that there is outright corruption within governmental bodies.
AP 20:34
I have I don't know how true it is, if it's just hearsay,
Steven Phan 20:40
From what you understand being deeply invested in the environmental world, why are the sheep populations at risk outside of hunting?
AP 20:56
I mean, the number one reason for any at risk species is habitat loss. So the thing is, with sheep, they're like high mountain animals. They're not really living in places where there's pressure from humans. I mean, it could have been like Native Americans started it, and then they might just not be as resilient tolike come back. Also, sheep are just like everybody's favorite food, like from coyote to wolf to human to I think where they live like the predators don't have many other options besides them, so it keeps circulation. They also like, yeah, they live and they live together. Maybe there was some sort of disease that took out the entire gene pool. I don't know specifically. I do know that they're just very rare. I have seen one, though,
Steven Phan 21:56
yeah, it's just strange that if they are so rare, why give out any permits, even at all?
AP 22:05
The money its all about the money, because it's an industrial complex, they're, like, the closest thing to a big five animal. You know what Big Five is? Right? In Africa, it's like the Big Five, yeah, like lion, or leopard, they/re like they're the closest American equivalent. Like, they're just money. There's countries in Africa that like it, like contributes to their GDP, like to sell these permits.
Steven Phan 22:33
What countries are the primary ones that you know?
AP 22:39
I'm pretty sure South Africa, it's like a big deal to give out these permits to sell these permits. And there's other African countries, I'm not sure.
Steven Phan 22:52
So what actually happens in those game reserves?
Unknown Speaker 23:00
Permits are sold. There's a big story in the news a few years ago that was a big deal because there was a dentist from America that shot and killed. Was it a lion? Yeah, it was a lion. But why did they give him permission? Or they didn't?
AP 23:19
I think the thing was, they didn't give him like he poached it. I think he was, they gave him permission to shoot a different lion. He shot the wrong one, and he shot someone that was super famous, beloved, like really old patriarch or patriarch. And it was like, This guy's house was vandalized, like, by environmentalists, and like, his life was threatened, like, um, but what? What was the question again,
Steven Phan 23:54
How are these game reserves set up? Like, are they fenced off? How is it set up such that they are protecting animals? Are they keeping whole populations within a fence?
AP 24:09
Yeah, I think that it's different. I think there's some public and private game reserves, and I think, like, some of them just have more of, like, a reputation for being like, where you should go because it's maybe harder, or maybe that they're actually wild. And there's just more elite things. There's probably ones that are more like entry level, like low dollar, and there's, you know, probably just all different tiers of it by now. But there's elite game reserves, and I don't know if in every country, they're run by the state or they're run by the private but I'm not really sure how it works. Like exactly in America, it's run by the feds. Well, there's also private game reserves. There is also private game reserves, but they're not like, you're not gonna find like, acorn sheep or anything. Wasn't there one like in roundtop? There's a lot of them down in Texas that have, like, exotic animals, like from Africa. It's very strange. and people can pay to go there to shoot wild animals, like exotic animals that are like, semi wild. I mean, it's trophy hunting. It's just like,
Steven Phan 25:53
How do you feel about the intervention in actual populations when they are, you know, dropping fish in streams and releasing pheasants and things to manipulate populations by Fish and Game associations.
AP 26:16
When they put trout in streams, like they're putting in native animal. If they're like a pheasant is not like a native animal. I think it just depends. Yeah, I think it just depends, like stocking streams of trout, I think is a good thing. Like red neck pheasants aren't native, right? No, like from Europe, but you like see them all over Eldred, really. And that's for hunting. I feel like manipulating any environment is really dangerous, and I suppose, like there's spectrum, but yeah, putting non natives is really dangerous. Putting in natives is somewhat better, but it can mess up the genetic diversity of the wild stocks, like in a very bad way. They don't allow it in Alaska at all.
Steven Phan 27:16
To what release things or?
AP 27:19
Farm raised salmon and things like that. It's fascinating because they don't want to mess up their wild genetic diversity, because they could have like, you know, defects.
Steven Phan 27:37
What about baiting? I've heard that some places will plant whole fields of types of feed that deer are attracted to, or they'll leave out food to bring deer towards a reserve or something.
AP 28:00
Really think that it's just an elaborate game for wealthy people to play, and they just manipulate entire systems to do this very unnecessary thing. I mean, in Africa, I know that, like when they take these rich hunters out, like it's, you know, it's helicopters and like major interventions of in this I'm sure it's like that for the sheep here too, like mountain tops. Oh yeah, I think it's just really unnecessary. And there's all privilege. There's just like, you know, regular poor ass farmers that will put a pile of corn out to try to get deer to them and shoot them. Yeah. I mean, if you're shooting something for dinner. It's one thing. Okay, I ate deer, yesterday, by the way. Arthur had to confess to me.
Unknown Speaker 29:20
How did that happen?
AP 29:23
Alana I went out with Hannah, and Brian was like, he asked me if I wanted to come over for stew. And I was like, sure. And he like, I was like, yeah, I haven't eaten meat in a long time, but I'll, I'll be a team player. And he told me they actually found the deer dead - that like the county, like, when they go around doing brush chopping on the sides of the road they all bring guns, and if they see like a buck, they'll shoot it, like, for fun. He found it. And he said it had like, like, they cut, like, the choice part out of it, but it was so cold that it like, froze. You could tell it happened, like, an hour before. So he, like, brought it home and him and Hannah butchered the thing.
Steven Phan 30:13
Wow. It hasn't been that cold. What do you mean?
Unknown Speaker 30:21
No, this was like, in the spring, and it's been frozen. It was a whole large buck. He said he froze, froze a bunch of in the freezer vacuum sealed.
Steven Phan 30:32
So it was an illegal kill?
AP 30:37
I mean, they could have had a permit, I guess. I don't know. I'm pretty sure hunting season is only in the fall. And he said, this was in the Spring. The guys that do maintenance for the county - they all carry guns. You can't just hunt anywhere, though. I know he said this was in the woods near his house. I mean, yeah, they probably just don't listen. They probably just don't care. Hannah said that a bullet flew right over Brian's head. She just said that they don't even go hiking anymore, because Brian was out with the kids walking around the woods behind their house, and a bullet grazed his hair. What he said some guy was just like shooting in his backyard, and it like went into the woods. Their neighbor, yeah, they like went there and reamed him out.
Steven Phan 31:50
All right, well that was all my questions. I appreciate it. Do you have any other thoughts you want to share?
AP 31:56
In fishing, its a different culture, but like, for whatever reason, it's become like, like a badge of honor to not kill the fish, like you catch it and they like photograph it and you taxidermy a man made model.
Steven Phan 32:16
You know, this is helpful. I've not heard about this before. Are you talking about, like, deep sea?
AP 32:22
These big game fishers who go for like, Marlins and sort fit like a sailfish, like a lot of them, they won't kill the fish. So there's like, studios that make you like a fake fish - they make a fake model of the fish.
Unknown Speaker 32:46
I don't know why that's not a thing for like hunters, like I've never heard of that in hunting. I've only heard this with sports fishermen. Do you think that that this is, like, a transitional moment, like, it seems strange that they would even bother to have a model made, like, for tradition. I guess?
AO 33:07
You know, 200 whatever, like, 400 pound sailfish, and they want it like, it's just like part of their like decor. It's like Margaritaville.
Steven Phan 33:17
What do you think changed in their world? I don't know a whole lot about it, but I don't understand.
AP 33:24
Don't they eat the marlin? Marlin are supposedly good to eat. Blue Marlin is, but a White Marlin is, like, a prize fish, but like, they're not really, like, people aren't really after them for the meat. So I think maybe once you fight it out the water they, like, kind of die? No, not always. I mean, a lot of certain tuna, yes, I think because they fight so hard and their heart. Apparently they have, like, they can have, like, a heart. Like, I don't know a ton about this, I just think it's an interesting evolution that's worth noting. I guess it could be of interest.
Steven Phan 34:06
Yeah, that is interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. Hadn't heard about it before. It seems wild that they would go through the effort to have then someone else recreate the thing that, yeah, it just seems strange.
AP 34:23
I mean, the whole thing is elaborate. You know, rich people do elaborate out there, like $3 million sport boats and like, nothing's too much. Actually, they're just extra big money, like, they enter these tournaments and they'll win, like, a million dollars. And I don't know how common is, if it's in all tournaments, but it is a thing. Oh yeah. I guess fishing is a different type of sport fishing, because a lot of them are like, you win money. It's not like they might have hunting ones that you would like to but not as much like fishing. They're more like tournaments, and there's like, a big prize, I don't know. I think that, like, that's why I was really upset. Like, in like, whatever, the Boardwalk Empire days, whenever one was making their restaurant and in New York City, like, look like a speakeasy, or whatever, like, tuxedo, we became, like, really in vogue. And, like, really sad to see things like that become in vogue again.
Key Takeaways:
- I hadn’t researched and marine taxidermy and had never heard of the movement for catch and release having any relationsh with taxidermy. Something to dig further into!
- The anecdote about the bird hunters funding media in an attempt to make it more pro hunter-conservationist is fascinating. It seems like big money is common in that world.
Assignment # 5
The Hunter-Conservationist Paradox in relation to taxidermy
Project Prototype - VERY WIP!
I chose to explore the Hunter-Conservationist Paradox in relation to taxidermy for my guide. At the moment, the working title of the guide is Two Faces of the Hunt. In the guide, I’m exploring two fictionalized characters and their unique experience leading up to the same event, a safari hunt in Africa. The unfolding of the fictional account is meant to encourage the observer-participant to question the systems that tend to govern our societies as many of them are remnants of earlier oppression, in this case colonialism and western dominion. This guide is tailored to those who live in our modern society and seek to understand how and why power-dynamics seem “locked-in” and how systems of oppression take on new forms but remain constant.
I chose the form of a scrolling, interactive digital experience because the form is familiar to many audiences and the potential reach of this sort of experience is unparalleled in our day and age. I hope to make use of the affordances of this guide in a few different ways. The way that we interpret screen and scrolling based experiences is limited to how much can reasonably fit on the screen at any one moment. Taking advantage of this and designing around this affordance can help to segment and chapter out the bigger arc. I hope to take advantage of other interactives such as mouse-over and scroll-past effects to trigger animations and reveals.
Overall, I think this guide enables a dry, serious topic to be explored in a creative way. The experience intends to unlock the ability for the observer-participant to form new opinions and in the best case scenario, draw analogies to how this is yet another form of a moral/cultural/class superiority complex manifesting as an environmental issue. I’ll know if the guide was successful if the larger themes that I’m hoping to convey are understood and realized.
I would like to know if there’s any tweaks I could explore to ensure that this piece is understood as a guide. I’d also be curious to know if I’m taking too much artistic liberty in generating a fictional account.
If I were to add anything to the critique guidelines, I might reinforce how important asking qualifying questions can be to an artist in their creative process. Answering hard questions helps to root out any fluff and tie up loose ends – essential for any creative work and artist in feeling their statement is comprehensive, thought-provoking and thoughtful.
Assignment # 6
Despite changing course so late in the game, I’m happy with the end result of my project. I think it came together aesthetically and does a nice job carrying weight metaphorically. The simplicity of my “worthless cards” to “worthless animals” analogy is a bit simplistic and could better serve its purpose by having more weight and depth to it. In any event, I think this is a nice first pass at an analogical critique in the form of a guide.
If I could do it again or should I choose to keep going with this project, I would focus on more compelling game theory and game design. It’d be a dream if the game itself was strong enough for it to stand on its own legs as a game worth playing and introduce the metaphorical meaning as a bonus. Overall I’m pleased though!
Here are the slides from my presentation:
Safari Style Poker: A recap
Assignment # 6
SUMMARY OF PROCESS
After weeks spent exploring taxidermy and specifically the hunter-conservationist paradox, I was pretty set on the idea of building a “scrollytelling” style webpage that would use motion, animation and interaction as critical means of unfolding a story. That was precisely my problem, however. My task was not to build a storytelling piece but to present a guide for illuminating, educating and critiquing. Consulting with Marina helped me become more comfortable with tackling less inside of my single piece. With the scrollytelling piece, I felt boxed in by how much information I felt I needed to deliver to paint my picture. Marina was instrumental in helping me let go of that as a core requirement. That conversation alone unlocked something for me and very quickly after I decided I would move forward with a modified deck of cards as a form. I found it empowering and motivating thinking about how such an object would be familiar to nearly everyone on this planet and through such an affordance, I could take certain things for granted with how the object and its sub-components would be interpreted. In a way, that set me free.
Below is some preliminary work while I was still hung up on a web-based experience. I had a few routes I was considering taking:
As it always tends to go, I spent far more time exploring things that didn’t work than the one that did. The below “Two sides of the same coin” choose your own adventure style web-based “guide” is the furthest I ended up going down the web-based route. I’ll be honest and admit that even in building this at the time, I had doubts that it would work as a guide. The entire design file is viewable here.
I honestly didn’t have too much back and forth when building the deck of cards. The form set me free! Here’s a glimpse of the cards that comprise the final deck of cards. I was inspired by the simplicity of most deck based card based games including Marina’s own, More & More!
In many ways, More & More functions like other thematic deck-based card games as it’s highly reconfigurable and the basic form allows for remix’ing or re-versioning around new subject matter. This isn’t exactly like that however. A standard deck of cards is unique because of the amount of games possible with a very standardized deck.
The inherent qualities of a well-formed card game lean on the bank of knowledge and understanding we already possess – it’s an instantly recognizable form and some of the most common building blocks for play and interaction.
Leaning further into a specific style of gaming with the deck taps into the affordances of the form again as we map our current understanding of hierarchies to the reworked version of the game.
Through a remapping of numerical hierarchies in Poker, audiences can quickly digest the introduction of metaphor and meaning in Safari Style Poker.
I found games, in general, to be one of the most remixed forms throughout history. Card and board games especially. I’ve long been a fan of board games but when looking at some of the popular non standard card deck games, I haven’t experimented with Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Dungeons or Dragons or any other phenomenon-level games – but I’d like to! I’m impressed with the simplicity in form that some of these games take on. Most people moan and groan when unpacking a new game and realize there are 45 minutes of rules to walk through.
RESEARCH
Here are some research and perspective-building sources that were critical to me in building this piece:
- Africa Hunt Lodge
I came across this page in my research to understand whether the Big Five are still able to be hunted in 2024. It appears the practice is alive and well for a price.
- The Ultimate Pursuit in Hunting: Sheep
This article really set my mind on fire in just how much wheeling and dealing takes place behind the scenes of big hunting in USA. Eye-opening to say the least.
- Earth.org: Remembering Africa’s Forgotten Five
This page gave me a lot of perspective over the Forgotten Five and the plight of other animals that fall outside of the coveted Big Five. What does conservation mean to this group?
- Private Game Reserves in Africa
Through this page, I learned about game reserves and the practice of privatizing land for both hunting, conservation and both. It can be amazing but it’s fraught.
- John X Safaris
This helped me gain perspective and humanize a hunter’s on-the-ground experience. Helpful, yet disconcerting.
- Let Africa Inspire You
A production from the “biggest online marketplace for hunting trips in the world”
- Hunt the Africa Big 5: The Dream is Still Possible
Editorialized content about Big Five hunting
- The Hunter’s Game
Dense information about the HCP
- Transforming rural hunters into conservationists: An assessment of community-based wildlife management programs in Africa
Insightful information about trade organizations and management program
- Perc: The role of hunting in conserving Africa’s Wildlife
In researching form specifically, I came across some historic imagery and descriptions of Bicycle card decks. I’m impressed and astonished at just how little has changed in a deck of cards in over 100 years!
In taking on this project, I learned a lot about taxidermy, hunting and the legalities surrouding this topic around the world. More importantly to me, I was able to learn to think more analogously about the topic of taxidermy and seek out a clever, indirect means of engaging in a discussion about the practices around this core topic. That’s the artfulness of this!
I was excited that the project was well received! I think people particularly enjoyed the design of the cards and the presentation that I created to present the card deck. Although the card deck doesn’t physically exist, I think the fidelity of the presentation carried a lot of the weight in a way that might have not been possible had I leaned hard on a physical deck of cards. Understanding the merits and drawbacks of remote presentation is, in a way, part of the form of this type of interaction and experience.
If I were to go about this differently in terms of process or content, I might try to have more control over my topic! I felt, at times, like my topic was taking me down roads and learning rabbitholes that I didn’t necessarily care too deeply about. Especially strong feelings when lots of other work was bearing down on me. I was lucky, however, to find a very niche subtopic – the hunter-conservationist paradox – that I felt compelled to draw attention to. It reminds me so much of other systems of power imbalance and corruption that I quickly learned I could feel good about stirring the pot on this narrower topic. Another thing I would do differently if I were to start over would be to avoid trying to embed too much into a single piece of work. It held me back in was responsible for dilution and lost focus. It also prevented me from making anything interesting.
My favorite part of the process was learning about different types of systems diagrams. Here are some of mine:
Causal Model
Influence Model
Once I did have a pathway and form that I felt I could really get behind, the inspiration started to flow a bit better. I leaned into AI image generation software to assist in creating graphic illustrations which, overall, made me a much more effective and efficient designer considering this exercise was in pursuit of a functional prototype.
- Revisit the assignment prompts: how did your project relate to the original prompts, in terms of critical lens, audience, tone, etc…
- 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?
My project certainly deviated quite a bit from where I first began with it but that’s part of the creative process! One reason why I leaned so heavily into a digital-first experience at first was, well, because this class is remote. I thought the affordances of a digital experience would automatically render this form more successful. I don’t necessarily think that’s true in retrospect. I find research to be something that I enjoy doing and can get extremely caught up in. I excel at going down a rabbit hole but I think I might have called this out in an earlier class: sometimes I can go rogue and find myself off track if I don’t regularly go back and reference the northstar. I’d like to play more with form, especially with techniques that I don’t have as much experience with. I think the time constraints of this semester prevented me from taking on all the variables that come along with this.
Overall, I’m pleased with the end result and the presentation that I put together in support of it. That’s where you’ll get a sense for the form and the game/guide itself.
In case you missed it above, here are the slides for the presentation that give a closer look at the cards in the deck:
Assignment # 7
Project 2
Taking cues from many of the decisions and battles I choose to fight in my life, it seems I’m bent on calling attention to systems (usually powerful ones) that affect us in ways that we, as a society, may not be aware of – or if we are, we don’t know how to combat.
I think data, in simplified form, is a helpful tool. It’s even better when the data in focus is highly localized and specific so the observer can see themself as a stakeholder.
In another class, I’m building an air quality monitor because I have a sneaking suspicion that the fab lab (w/r/t laser cutters) is not vented properly to ensure student and faculty health. I’ve asked many people on the floor about their experiences in using the lab and while many report headaches when working in close proximity to the lab, not many seem to be concerned with it.
I think, if this tool shows any data indicative of harmful air, this would help the stakeholder populations call for change. For project two, I’d like to call out this gap in understanding and point out an unrealized relational tension - in my eyes, a potential breach of trust.
Daily Ritual
The daily ritual I’ve taken up is the study and practice of building data visualizations. After almost a week of incremental practice, some of the main things I’ve learned are:
- Balancing aesthetics with interpretability is core to success of the form
- Some visualization forms are capable of conveying far more information at a glance than others
- Well-executed data viz does a lot of the heavy lifting for you
- Data visualization, similar to other interactive experiences, must cater to a broad spectrum of user ability and understanding
Here are some glimpses of the work so far
In the coming weeks, I’d like to perform some playtests to gain some critical perspectives and feedback to inform future iterations of this work.
Researching Data Visualization
As a project, I’m building an air quality monitor that I intend to install at ITP to hopefully inform its many stakeholders of air quality conditions in the fabrication lab. My hope is that we’ll either learn there’s nothing to worry about or that we’ve got some issues that need to be addressed pronto. With most of the fundamentals around capturing the data already worked out, the major hurdle ahead is how to make sense of this massive ever-growing data set. Of course a graph or other type of data visualization is the obvious answer, but that hardly sorts out the myriad decisions around how to effectively convey this information to the community. As a designer, I’m also burdened by my desire for the work to be well-crafted aesthetically – it's best I don’t think of effective and well-designed as two separate things. Many arguments presuppose good design as critical for good interpretability and comprehension.
The more I explore data visualization and the means by which data can be used to influence change in a system, the more I’m forced to confront what constitutes good information design. In many ways, that’s core to the research that I plan to dive into for this project. In the earliest days of this research project, I leaned heavily into learning about the many javascript libraries that might allow me to publish this live data to the web. D3.js and Grafana are the primary tools/libraries that I’ve come across thus far and these tools are what drive many of the compelling, but ordinary live data visualizations that you’ll see on the web. Both seem like they’re perfectly well suited for data viz in a basic sense – but my intuitions are pointing me towards implementing a technology that is a bit more experimental in nature. I enlisted Margaret, a librarian at ITP NYU, for help.
Together, we searched through NYU’s digital library databases and found that the following keywords strung together in various combinations proved to be most successful:
- Meaningful Interaction
- Digital Data in Motion
- Augmented Reality
- Data Visualization
- Air Quality Visualization
- Unity Data Visualization
- Environmental Monitoring
I have a fair amount of publications to parse through after our meeting but she helped point me in the right direction. We found a couple articles that seem really promising:
Deep Learning and Augmented Reality for IoT-based Air Quality Monitoring and Prediction System
AiR: An Augmented Reality Application for Visualizing Air Pollution
Dynamic Exposure Visualization of Air Quality Data with Augmented Reality
I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a neophyte but I am definitely conscious to not pollute our environments with more screens. That being said, I need to get this information across in some way. I’m excited to see where this research will take me.
Reflections on Hito Steyerl’s On Games
I don’t know where I first read about this phenomena but it's something that I’ve often come back to and ruminated on as it relates to human experience in this day and age: since Gen X came of age, it’s been clear that the world their children would inherit was vastly different from the one they experienced growing up, making it difficult to predict what their lives would be like. I find this phenomena fascinating because this is the first time that this has occurred in the entirety of human history. Throughout our existence as a species, we’ve moved slowly towards the future. Small changes were the only way forward and while there were many, none of them happened quickly. Meanwhile, here we are with seismic social and technological advancements happening every few months or so. Are we well-suited to deal with such monumental change in these short periods of time? Proponents of this rapid change argue we’re “doing fine” but I would argue that we’re all struggling to keep up as individuals and as a global society as evidenced by a myriad of mental, social, economic, and ecological, etc… polycrises. Maybe I’m exaggerating? Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google has often discussed the idea that crises are a consistent feature of history and that today’s crises, while significant, may seem more intense due to our constant connectivity and media exposure. Just something to consider.
Despite the fact that we’re “doing fine” by the metrics of the game we live within today, one might argue that we’re simply winning at the western capitalist version of the game that is the predominant abstraction of today and have adapted away from many of the traits that have aligned us as balanced human beings for millennia. Art, too, can be abstracted away from what it means to be artistic.
“Homophily in the arts means that whatever someone else—someone like you—accepts as art, is (most likely) art. So what about patterns, then? As we have seen, patterns represent a new kind of mathematical truth emerging out of petabytes of spam by means of secret algorithms.”
To me, succeeding within “the system” is a game that I feel like I understand and can maneuver within well. Credit ratings, college applications, tax returns, loan approvals, social/career ladders, etc… It’s ugly but it’s an….adaptation, right? I’m a first generation American on my dad’s side and through growing up within this social and hierarchical construct I’ve had the fortune of being able to understand and maneuver through the societal, bureaucratic muck to a degree that my dad can’t possibly understand.
Society and our reality is, in many ways, pushed, pulled and squashed into submission by way of the models that we built to assist us in making sense of our reality. Steyerl writes “it is striking how much reality has been created as a consequence of different iterations of game theory: neoliberal policies, a wide array of military applications, nuclear and non-nuclear, from targeting devices to deterrence strategies, as well as management theories and planning systems—not to mention the consequences of automated computation as a whole. Of course, many of these generative fictions were produced by indirect means.” Take for example, the concept of the time tax. We hope and dream that politicians have us in their best interests when crafting policy. But what are we to make of systems like the time tax or the complexity of the tax code? These systems appear to be designed to allow those that have the affordances to overcome bureaucratic verbosity to come out ahead. A system’s design usually implies the designer’s intention.
Steyerl is clear that she is dismayed in the way that “correlation or pattern is the new model, and similarity or likeness replaces cause and effect.” I agree – it’s extremely problematic for us as a society to give up criticality and assume that correlation can give us all we need to know about the world. The obvious issue with that is that it cements any and all assumptions and biases in supposed fact. With LLMs controlling much of our information uptake now, how can we assume they haven’t absorbed all of our problems and are regurgitating them back in our direction?
Researching Plan for Data Visualization Project
Ahead of the end of this semester, I plan on building a functional air quality monitor with an accompanying interface for read-out and interaction. Right now, I’m fortunate to have a functional hardware prototype. The system is built atop a Raspberry Pi and uses two QWIIC sensors to track metrics. I may integrate one or two more sensors to give a more well-rounded dataset – namely to incorporate temperature and humidity which play a role in the way particulate matter and TVOC (total volatile organic compounds) are measured. The big push moving forward is designing an interface that accomplishes my goals which is one of the main things I’ve been trying to pin down. As a critical exercise, I need to zero in on the critical goals.
For example, I would like to:
1. Change policy, habits and systems in place on the ITP shop floor
2. Help educate and bring awareness to the health implications of environmental hazards
3. Encourage students and faculty to consider the hazards of various materials
4. Test my own abilities and push the limits of what I can design and build as a CREATIVE ARTIST
5. Generate a portfolio piece for my human computer interaction and design portfolio
6. Avoids contributing *more tech* to the spaces we live within
The myriad goals for this project (constraints are good) are making it challenging to deliver something that hits on all targets. I could deliver something that is functionally and critically compliant with goals 1-3 with ease. It’s my own desire to build something novel, technically forward-thinking and aesthetically pleasaing which is giving me trouble.
Enough framing the problem though. Here is what I plan to do to finish up:
Nov 11 - Nov 17
- Research data-driven information design and the metrics for success
- Research possibilities for the space
- Research technical hurdles and map out possible routes
- Build a low-fi prototype that uses JSON data
- Solidify goals and agenda for the project
- Complete first pass at a technical systems diagram
- Determine if there is a meaningful AQ Index that I can distill from the several metrics I’m tracking
Nov 18 - Nov 24
- Build functional prototype (Until I lock interface form – touchscreen/projection/hardware object/etc – schedule is vague)
- Gather feedback
- Compare project against goals and agenda
- Ensure that spatial hurdles at ITP are ironed out
- Notify stakeholders of plans for project
Nov 25 - Dec 3
- Complete project
Early Feedback
Marina’s feedback brings up a lot of good points to bear in mind as I progress:
- Try and leave good bits of time for ethnographies (I think about how activism is born of knowledge, and also how it is not) — what creates action versus apathy?)
- How to connect devices (knowledge production) to action
- Is a graph an invitation to tune in or tune out?
- Is a more interactive device more or less of an invitation (Tamagotchi, sensors with alarms)?
- Have you looked into Persuasive Design (ITP prof Katherine Dillon’s area of focus)
Mocks and Form Studies
I’ve been experimenting with javascript libraries (Babylon.js, mostly) to help paint a picture with data through the interface. I’m imagining a particle system that is a real-time visualization of the density of polluted air particles as well as color coded to suggest quality of air. In the examples above, the air gets consistently more harmful from left to right.
It’s critical to bear in mind Marina’s advice in working to conjure action vs apathy. I need to inspire action. It’s also critical to not make something that is reduced to a “pretty thing”. I’m working on keeping information overload to a minimum to hopefully overcome apathy.
The above graphical representations of data will be interspersed with information (as little as possible) to provide the appropriate context to the viewer. That’s a critical study that needs to take place. I’ll need user testing to help root out my bias.
Diagram of Arrangements
Since arrangements are “a rich and frequently overlooked terrain for creating change”: can you identify a way you could change your identified arrangement, and how that might reflect a different idea, or have a different effect?As you may recall, my project is exploring air quality on the ITP/IMA floor. This, however, is only the content of my project whereby the larger exploration is around generative on-demand interfaces. For the sake of this assignment, I’m going to focus on the content of my exploration.
Thinking about the idea of safety, there is a strongly held belief in any society whereby constituents offload a tremendous amount of trust on the administrators of their environments whether that be a nation, town, school, workplace, store, roadway or even home. We expect that in a town a mayor should be responsible for protecting our best interests just as a police officer should be looking out for us on a roadway. This arrangement is the basis for many of the societal frameworks that we benefit from today. This trust, however, is easily broken when that administrative vow is broken. Take for instance, the crisis in the Catholic church. There’s been an unprecedented loss of faith in the church as a result of many of the recent failures at both the regional and global scale.
Taking my air quality monitor into consideration, I believe that shining a light on matters of health and public safety on the ITP/IMA shop floor (with live data) is a subversive act. By acting from the bottom up and questioning whether the administration of the school facilities are, in fact, taking our (and their!) health seriously we are questioning the blind arrangement that supposes that a school and it’s administrator should protect all parties within the environs. This isn’t the most revolutionary act however. The questioning of authority and almost all instances of popular systemic change are a result of some groundswell where the predominant arrangements within a system are inspected and questioned. Regardless of the results of my monitoring, the content of the project will give more power to all constituents of the NYU ITP/IMA system of individuals to make more informed decisions in the future. One tangential goal of mine is to instill an air (no pun intended) of healthy skepticism in my peers so that they too might question systemic ideas and arrangements and the blind trust that we lean on in many areas of our lives.
Update on my project:
I’ve been primarily working on the overall experience design as well as the backend to my project and I’m really pleased with the current progress. A few things stand out from this past week:
- I’m fascinated by projectors as they’re typically used in museum environments. I find that when alpha layers are executed properly, the foreground image or text in motion tends to appear as though it’s floating and the 16:9 frame becomes invisible. I experimented with a borrowed projector from the equipment room and I was able arrive at a similar effect.
- I stumbled across the term “generative UI” as it relates to interfaces for AR/VR and mixed reality and I think the term is relevant for what I’m hoping to explore in my interface. One of the primary things I’ve set out to explore is whether an interface can successfully disappear when it’s not critically necessary. If there’s anything we don’t need more of it’s screens. I recognize, however, that a projector takes up space and it too carries with it a spatial burden. Right now, I’m considering experimenting with rear projection to hopefully elimiate some of that burden. In terms of applications where I think this sort of exploration might be informative, I’d probably think of museum, exhibition or public space design where the form and construction of a space might lend itself well to a rear-mounted projector. We’ll see how my experiements with rear projection work out.
- Another benefit of rear projection is that I may be able to allow observers the opportunity to come up close and personal to the installation without blocking the projector. I think this will contribute to the efficacy and overall success of the project if it’s successful. I’m hoping to integrate a gesture-based style of interaction where the observer-participant can use hand movements to affect the installation without touch. Rear-projection will ensure that the image isn’t blocked as the observer-participant approaches.
Update on my project: Particle
The experience that I’m building will live as a hardware component (sensors) and a projection in physical space. Parts of the experience will exist online. While much of the code is complete, it’s not presently live.
The prototype mock-ups and experience journey are visible here.
Be mindful: much of the experience relies on animation to elicit a reaction. That’s only visible through the live experience.
I’m pleased with how many iterations I’ve built and tested for this project. Looking back at some of my early mocks and explorations is, if nothing else, satisfying simply because it shows how much has evolved over time in both my thinking and assumptions.
Wrapping Up:
At this point, I need to work on the following:
- Build and implement algorithm for color mapping the visualizations
- Copywriting to provide context for the how/why/hopes/dreams for the project
- Build a “submit report” function
- Connect existing database to front end for both visualizations
- Build information page
- Build submit report page
Some questions I still have are:
- How well will the color mapping convey the appropriate reactions?
- Will the project's intentions and methodology be clear?
- Will observers be compelled to become participants and submit observations?
Metrics for success:
- I am designing an interface for public and personal health that can be deployed in the ITP/IMA community and iterated in many others.
-
My hope is to inspire more thought around the materials we use in our everyday lives.
- My hope is to inspire makers and builders to choose materials for projects with more intention.
- My hope is to encourage administrators to consider the long-term health of students and faculty with regard to air quality and other environmental issues on the ITP/IMA floor and beyond.
- My hope is to inspire stakeholders to take their health more seriously.
- My hope is to inspire stakeholders to wield more healthy skepticism in their daily lives.
- My hope is to encourage others to find systems that ought to be disrupted.
- My hope is to change behaviors around what it means to lead a happy healthy existence for one’s self and others.
- My hope is to push other people to build tools like this and generate awareness in other systems.
What is it?
Particle is an on-demand, ambient interface for public and personal health. More specifically, it’s an air-quality monitoring system that relies on social contributions mapped to hard data to generate awareness and an understanding of the health of the environments we spend time within.
As a pilot, the system has been installed in the NYU fabrication shop space to provide real-world insights to the ITP/IMA community. The project consists of sensor hardware, a projection-based ambient interface and a web experience that allows for a data deep dive and user contributions.
The project compels us to question our built environments and the materials and practices we employ in our everyday lives as they relate to our long-term health and well-being. Particle’s interface – spanning between projection and our devices – provides stakeholders with an experience that is on-demand and informative as needed.
What does it look like?
Here’s a mock of what I expect the shop environment projection to look like:
I expect most people’s first introduction to the project and experience will be through this form.
Those who choose to go deeper may choose to load the broader project website on their personal device. This site is designed around two primary functions: a data deep dive and an air quality event submit.
Here’s a live version of the browser experience.
For a visual record of the design journey, I recommend you scroll up. Most all of the mocks I’ve created are documented in previous blog posts.
Research and Testing
At a couple different stages of the process, I tried to get the piece in front of new eyes to get feedback:
Jasmine
- what if there were a function for users to submit observations and reports?
Ruta
- thinks that key and information can be present on the wall too
- there could be a kiosk to give a physical interface
- why is information page different than main page?
Dano
- suspects that the design is over designed and that I might fare better with the “cigarette box” approach - more scare and gore
Robi
- maybe move the detailed information into information page and leave the main page as more surface level
- write on the Past page that Submit page is a thing
- subtle animation should be reflective of hazard
- can there be a call to action on the main page?
Adam
- will the interpolation be improved?
- need to give more context to why theres only one metric sooner in the journey
- default to present date on the info page
- maybe the details on the index page are modules that can be hidden
- can there be a script installed on each computer in the lab that can auto-generate reports of what was cut on the lasers?
Liangsheng
- give more context on the Past page
- adjust the colors in the graph to be more representative
- adjust the callouts on the main page so that the data PPM etc.. is correct -- remove
Nun
- can we give a visual for what the hardware looks like?
- can we encourage people to not lift the lids better on the laser cutters? Push for better behavior outside of the tool/piece itself
- data seems to run off the graph or start randomly in the day sometimes
Reverie
- It would be cool to get enough data to say like “leaving the cover on the laser for 1 minute after cutting improves air quality by x amount” but again, if people are in a rush they probably don’t care
- I wonder if you can get info from the laser cutters to automatically submit a report every time theyre used
Pierre
- is the representation a disservice or not
- at X threshold, then this is what happens to Y person - make it more personal
- maybe have multiple RPIs that can be averaged to normalize data
Bibliography
The Coming Age of Calm Technology, Peter J. Denning and Robert M. Metcalfe, 1997
Data Viz Palette Generator, https://www.learnui.design/tools/data-color-picker.html
Color Psychology, https://blog.hubspot.com/the-hustle/psychology-of-color
Color Wheel, https://www.figma.com/color-wheel/
Color Theory, https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/color-theory
How data designer’s helped us make sense of 2020 Data, Katherine Dillon, https://www.fastcompany.com/90588298/how-data-designers-helped-us-make-sense-of-2020s-chaos
How Ethical Are Persuasive Design Practices? A Proposal for Assessment of Ethics in HCI Design, Sanju Ahuja & Jyoti Kumar, 2021
Metrics for success
I am designing an interface for public and personal health that can be deployed in the ITP/IMA community and iterated in many others.
My hope is to inspire more thought around the materials we use in our everyday lives.
My hope is to inspire makers and builders to choose materials for projects with more intention.
My hope is to encourage administrators to consider the long-term health of students and faculty with regard to air quality and other environmental issues on the ITP/IMA floor and beyond.
My hope is to inspire stakeholders to take their health more seriously.
My hope is to inspire stakeholders to wield more healthy skepticism in their daily lives.
My hope is to encourage others to find systems that ought to be disrupted.
My hope is to change behaviors around what it means to lead a happy healthy existence for one’s self and others.
My hope is to push other people to build tools like this and generate awareness in other systems.
Future Plans
I built the raspberry pi-based hardware system but didn’t spend much time on a hardware enclosure yet. In the future, I hope to build an enclosure for that as an exercise in industrial design.
I think it may be useful for the community to plan to build an API endpoint that will allow anyone to build an interface with this data. I think it’d be a fun exercise to see what types of interfaces others will build.
Some questions I still have are:
- How well will the color mapping convey the appropriate reactions?
- Will the project's intentions and methodology be clear?
- Will observers be compelled to become participants and submit observations?
I’m pleased to have spent as much time researching and learning both the soft skills and hard skills to make this project possible. Interaction design and persuasive design were compelling topics to dive into as they’re highly applicable to much of the work that I do. The hard skills around hardware and software design helped me break down any of the mental hurdles I had around building a tech product from scratch.
If I were to do this over again, I’d consider a common reprise – that the end result felt overdesigned. Nailing the persuasive design and keeping things attractive is a tricky tightrope to walk.
I really have high hopes for changing some of the systems that this project sits within. Just today, I was approached by some NYU admins who clearly knew my name and about the scope of my project… That’s already a step in the right direction. I can continue to dial in the project to hit closer on tone and lens but I think I’m doing okay.
For this one, I think I definitely spent more time with experimentation than research. It might be because I already have a bit of knowledge about the hazards and health effects of poor quality air as a long-time asthmatic. Either way, I know for sure that there's plenty I could be continuing to research. For example, the finer details around the individual metrics I’m measuring is a massive research project all on its own. I’m sure my algorithm for simplifying those metrics into a unified index is far more primitive than it should be.
Overall though, I’m happy with the state of this project and excited to see what people think of it at the show.