• Lauren Malkani 2019 MFADT

• Untenable: The Displacement of NYC    

• Keywords: data visualization, forms & domain

Constructing a physical data visualization installation is fascinating, which is the form I tried last semester in major studio final project. In thesis project, I also want to try to find the beauty and wisdom of data, to play with data, to have some interesting findings through data.

• Ying Jiang 2018 MFADT

• Cultural Table

• Keywords: traditional cultural perspective, interactive animation, interesting interface

This is an interactive playful pieces which allows the visitors to play with not only the exhibit items but also have some interaction with the visitors. I want to have interaction possibilities in my thesis project, trying more playful interface to bring some unique but personal experience. Moreover, the perspective of Chinese tradition is inspiring me too. If possible, I want to make my project to be more Chinese-cultural.

• Light Stories in Rhythm

• DARÍO NARVÁEZ

• Keywords: beautifully-crafted, light & shadow, sensory perception

This project is beautifully crafted. It is so amazing in the exhibition space and it can be seen as an aesthetic sculpture . The designer also play with sound, which makes this piece more fascinating. As DARÍO NARVÁEZ said, “ This experience supposes a moment of equilibrium between thoughts, music and illumination where the light is the manifestation of the creative act, of the constant becoming of ideas, the symbol of thoughts that respond to the rhythm and emotional charge of the music. ”

What I Have Already Know:

• Still want to try DATA VISUALIZATION

WANT & DON’T WANT

• I don’t want it to be traditional analytical serious topic

• I want it to be fun, be subjective and insightful,

• maybe have a personal interaction/relationship with each audience.

Then I go to ACM Digital Library to search for those key-words(DATA VISUALIZATION FINE ART), I browse the headline of numerous paper to feed my brain. This exercise help me broaden my vision for data visualization.

Among these, I was intrigued by some topics in social issues. Some terms caught my eye:

Friday, 6th September, Whitney Museum

Inspiration: more possible forms of visual expression of data

saturday-sunday-monday

topic：photos in my iphone from last week till today

List of people I want to interview (still updating)

1. *Doo Yon Kim (Don), ITP | LETS : Efficient Platform to Make People Social in Real World https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2017/project/doo-yon-kim-(don)

2. frog design | Transforming the Way Cities Engage with Citizens https://www.frogdesign.com/work/lqd-palo

3. NICOLE LAMOREAUX （research guide director） | data visualization，sustainable system

4. BRITA SERVAES （research guide director）| urban studeis

5. JENNIFER YAO WEINRAUB （research guide director）| architecture，urban studeis

6. Fengyi Franklin Zhu （itp）| A Ritual That Lasts Forever

7. WORAYA BOONYAPANACHOTI | (Dis)connect https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2018/#/student/woraya-boonyapanachoti

8. AMANDA MIN-JIN LEE | https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2018/#/student/amanda-min-jin-lee

9. KATHERINE A TAKACS | https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2018/#/student/katherine-a-takacs

10. *Ting Fang Cheng , 2019 MFADT| Space Noir https://www.tingfangcheng.com/space-noir

11. Alexander Calder | (1898-1976), Pantograph, 1931，Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere

12. *Chang, Kuang-Chi | it is closely related to my topic SOCIAL CAPITAL AND WORK AMONG RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRANTS IN CHINA

13. *Marco Ferrari，Aarhus school of architecture，Italy | Sustain through poem

14. *Antariksh Tandon,Jennifer Tu Anh Phan，University of Waterloo, School of Architecture,Canada | architecture，sustainablity

15. *Nam P. Nguyen ; Thang N. Dinh ; Dung T. Nguyen ; My T. Thai | Overlapping Community Structures and Their Detection on Social Networks

16. * Lee Humphreys，Cornell University, USA | Mobile social networks and urban public space

17. Vassilis Kostakos (University of Bath, UK) and Eamonn O’Neill (University of Bath, UK) | Cityware: Urban Computing to Bridge Online and Real-World Social Networks

18. *Yong-Yeol Ahn, James P. Bagrow & Sune Lehmann | Link communities reveal multiscale complexity in networks

19. *Jierui Xie，Boleslaw K. Szymanski | Towards Linear Time Overlapping Community Detection in Social Networks

20. *Hannah Legh-Jonesa，SpencerMoore | Network social capital, social participation, and physical inactivity in an urban adult population

21. Michael Cuthill | Strengthening the ‘social’ in sustainable development: Developing a conceptual framework for social sustainability in a rapid urban growth region in Australia

22. * Yihan Tang, ITP | I love the form of her project to express transmission https://yihantang.me/side#/phubbing-puppets/

23. R. Luke DuBois | Missed Connections， DATA ART

24. Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen | The Listening Post

25. *Tanzil Shafique，PhD Researcher in Urban Design, University of Melbourne | Designing cities to counter loneliness? Let’s explore the possibilities

I did a prototype to test my idea of representing communities and the changing system.

I went to learning center to work on my concept statement. I have learned helpful advice:

• Outline is a way help you clear mind

• Talk with your friend, using your paper, see can they understand?

• Write simple words and sentences, make your writing detailed and easy to understand

I will revise my paper before next Monday.

Interview (target Audience 1)

Time: Saturday, Oct 6th, 10 a.m -11 a.m

Person: Cici(Shuhan) Zhang, Shanghai, China

Cici is a one of my best friends, We were roommates in undergraduate. Recently, Cici just graduated from Leeds University and returned Shanghai to start new life. She is not born Shanghai, but she her relation ties mostly in Shanghai or Zhoushan( a relative small city near Shanghai).

Cici has 300-400 strong-or-weak connectors. Among them, <10(7-9) (parents, boyfriend, some close friends ) are core connectors. Relatively close connectors may count as around 30-40.

She maintained her network ties both by social media and by face-to-face activities. She said she will spend more effort to maintain relationship with old friends because she thought some new friends(especially in a changing situation,like study abroad)will come back to their own hometown after some time, and will not connect in the near future. And, Some serious topic, she feels like more prefered and comfortable to talk with old friends.

She talked a lot about her most lonely experience she felt when she was in England, and some concerns about coming working life in Shanghai. The perception of loneliness, to her, is a feeling of helplessness that you have to face other stress, like school due or application due, on your own, especially when you are in space alone.

Research Process

Sherry Turkle Alone Together

I am reading the book Along Together by Sherry Turkle. I watched her TED Talk Connected? But Alone before I read book to give myself a general background.

• Distance? JUST RIGHT : not too far not too close

• Connection? Relationship? Intimacy?

• Edit yourself, control your attention

• afraid of being alone, and we become lonely

Time: Sunday, Oct 7th, 9.30 a.m -10.30 a.m

Person: Verry(zishan) chen, Shanghai, China

Veryy is a creative strategist of a digital marketing company. She is my undergraduate school-mate and have work for one year. She is from Xi’an, (a relatively 3rd city in middle China), She chose to stayed in Shanghai after graduation.

Verry said the reason why she stayed in Shanghai even if the harsh competition in this city is quite stressful is only this city can fulfill her dream and desire, and the unique charm of Shanghai is the reason fascinates her very much. She wants to have a progressive career achievement in Shanghai. To her, the higher chance of meeting greater people is one of the sparking point about Shanghai.

Verry is maybe the person that best at social networking among my friends as I consider. She has about 10 core connectors, including family members, close friends(1-2 best friends), boyfriend, which will chatting at least 3 times everyday. Besides, She has about 100 general friends, And about 1000 loose connectors.

She has a open mind of social and I think she is a active social connectors. Beside from friends from school or class or same events, she have many source friends from friends’ friends or from same hobby (photography from instagram), social media app (instagram, tinder,weibo) . And She had experience of making friends with strangers in cafe shop or bar. Actually, I am Verry’s friend’s friend, and I also make friends with Verry’s friends through her home party. And Verry and I also share the hobby of coffee, photography, design. So I will meet her often in cafe shop when I was in undergraduate, in same city Shanghai.

Verry thinks urban routing is surly affecting her life. Working from 10 a.m to 7 p.m(sometime will work extremely late for a urgent project due), she don’t have time, mood, energy to do other things or meet with people after work. Actually, she woke up early and she thinks it will be better if the working hour could be start earlier and end earlier,thus she will have time meeting with friends, going to gym or doing her own staff having her own time after work.

She thinks share is important for her to maintain relationship. She shares her moments with her connectors through digital way (mostly) and off-line meet. ‘Texting, Voicing, Videoing is different level of communicating with friends, and meeting the real persons face-to-face is totally absolutely distinctive. I like to meet them in real space, but there is little chance‘.

She mentioned her most lonely experience is when she got promotion lately, she wanted to share with her friend face-to-face that day evening, maybe having a dinner or drink together, but her friends neither not in Shanghai (or leave very far area to her home) nor were busy with work , She miss the chance of sharing the happiness and will not have the mood of sharing in another time.

Everybody is exhausted: Stress and social media are taking their toll NEW YORK TIMES

Social media have the power of affecting our mood, exposing ourselves to social media will cause exhaust.

“I used to have tons of energy. I know you slow down as you age, but I'm physically exhausted all the time. And I know I'm not the only person who feels this way."

Marie Sullivan

"Social media can run the gamut from being fabulously uplifting to being totally depressing and exhausting," says Bratt, who is also the director of trauma and resilience studies at the Livingston-based Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis. "And this applies to all ages."

Dr. Patricia Bratt, a therapist and psychoanalyst

Moreover, social media will create burden on our sleep, then will afterwards affecting work, food and our energy.

"It impacts their sense of themselves and their identities and makes them anxious," she says. "Social media has created a new sense of impulsivity and urgency, it can make them feel overwhelmed by what is happening in the world, and all of these factors can be fatiguing and can impact how they sleep."

Dr. Patricia Bratt, a therapist and psychoanalyst

Is social making your more lonely? mini documentary

Time: Sunday, Oct 7th, 9.30 a.m -10.30 a.m

Person: Sijun kang

7 in 7

People’s feedback: People’s favourite rank: wire batteries > power station > balance > digital

They really like the moving wire batteries and the power station projects, for following reasons:

1\The most exciting part of them is they can move and powered by science (like physical lab experiment)

2\they are daily usual object, like wire, batteries, magents

3\the description words is quite good and important and poetic.

So, (although I might be more better at digital screen-base design solution), but in thesis I will push this into physical things (yes!!!!)

Things that I worried: 

1\How to move to another stage, committing myself into one direction. Because in  7- in-7, I explored 4 different small mobile sculpture .
2\How can I ensure the takeaway is very brand-new?  the form should be initial can accurate.
How I can get there:

1\Get Inspired by other ART work (yes i need ART)

2\Back to the origin : what do I want to say? why?

3\DO THINGS

What I want to achieve to my project (newest invision about my project):

I want to build a mobile sculpture that will bring some thinking about loneliness. I want to reveal the ubiquitous lonely phenomenon in urban cities. They live alone, departing from family members or friends. While they can use their social media to maintain or create connection, these digital network could be disturbing sometimes. Therefore, I hope my work can company these solo urban souls.

In my second prototype, I made wooden pillars as the base for the kinetic sculpture.  My testers thought the pillars represent towers in a large city. This response was perfect as my main concern is the alienation and loneliness that we experience when moving to a new city for school or work.

The feedback inspired me to create a sculpture that represents a large and forbidding downtown with many towers.   There are no humans here, to mirror the isolation we feel when relocating away from friends and family. This mechanical sculpture hopes to evoke the feelings of disconnect that are pervasive in contemporary life.  The addition of a projection of twitter feeds extends the meaning of the piece to represent a second type of emptiness, that engendered by our reliance on social media in place of real life interactions.

Plan for this semester’s final

1. Demo for latest presentation final: 1. multiple units: test the effect, refine material list; 2. Add projection effect

2. Presentation (problem,prototype,process,explanation)

   background (problem,)

   my work is to … i want to …

   ______________

   prototype _ iteration (2-3min_how to demo)

   _______________________

   my experience from industrial designer to fine arts practice

   ___________________

   the reason i did this is

1. Paper

material list

Semester 1 REVIEW

I have some refined plans, and I have received a lot of really amazing feedback from people, really thanks and really looking forward to continuing.

Things I want to refine, reconsider:

1. The number of the units, how many do I want to have? The meaning of my decision

2. The relationship between each unit to each unit? And the relationship between the piece to the audience(participator)

3. Digital part? Is that one necessary? Or how can I better mix it in?

Things I know:

• I like the general concept and the form I ended in final proof of concept, I am very happy that I can finally find out my own art style. And I will keep polishing art practice.

• I need to rest, hhh

• And make a concrete plan for next semester.

Semester 2

Week 0 - Design Brief

Working Title Connection: Urban Loneliness My work is about human connection. Loneliness is a ubiquitous social issue. How do we build friendship circles when we move to a new place for education or work? How do we create networks that can sustain us emotionally? I want to make a sculptural installation to arouse people’s concern. As scientists said, “understanding why loneliness exists can help ease it.” The installation provides a poetic, subtle interactive understanding of loneliness in our transient existences. Why do I want to try art in this project? First, I am comfortable and interested in art practice. I really appreciate art work. Second, art is a suitable approach for me to express in this domain. Urban Loneliness is a big topic that is a discussion topic rather than a specific pain-point. Art is form for me to express my thoughts and research about this topic, and I really want to convey them to my audience and I want my audience to feel it and think about it.

Challenge: 

- Remain simple or add on digital part? How can I make it deep and thoughtful but also poetic and elegant? E.g. Real-time Twitter Data?(keywords searching, username initial?

- Quantity needs to reconsider and their setup

- Sound and atmosphere - Representative meaning? battery

- person, metal stick - city building, rotate- routine

Week 4 - Researching, Enriching

14/02/2020

• start with scale, think about how related to your body with you hand. processing of construction and deconstruction.the choice of object is much about intimacy, about lack of familiar.

• things are mass-production, so familiar. …be incredibly amount of value, by the way it be treated, ,by the way it be placed by the way you approached it. create kind of strangely intimacy experience in a very public space, but challenge how do you create intimacy in a space that is completely public.

• go through string of experience, the transition of the things, not the thing itself.

• mechanism, try to understand where we are in time and space. how complicated the idea is.

15/02/2020

• Cornell ornithology lab “How to get someone to look and observe for 10 min? “10 min of observations a very long time for person to longing and observe, also for visual art.

• I am gonna to put the sculpture at the location where you have to walk through it. The walk itself becomes like a negative space in the sculpture. And then you have this very dynamic experience when you see it from far away. And then in perspective, it grows. And then you actually are in the interior of it. And then you exit it.

17/02/2020

Architectural critics anticipated that modern life would change the sensation of space. Almost 30 years ago, the French anthropologist Marc Augé coined the word non-place to describe a family of transitional locations where people’s sense of self becomes suppressed or even vanishes. Non-places include airports, hotels, shopping malls, supermarkets, and highways. There’s a sorrow to these sites, because unlike legitimate ones, human beings never really occupy non-places; they simply move through them on their way to “anthropological places,” as Augé called them, such as schools, homes, and monuments.

我在问我希望人们获得怎样的综合的最大的setting的体验？

钢筋混凝土的城市关系

我走在脚手架 环绕的城市，我在居住 空间里 不太能再体验到室内 室外的风格，由于快速的 城市发展，人们快速的发展，城市快速的变迁。我时常觉得我们身处在由钢筋水泥环绕的快速“临时”（fast&temporary）居所。我们维持着我们module的关系，我们栖息在这样一种随走随来的空间里。它一方面给我们（和我们的生活）带来保护（shelter并且这些脚手架像是我们的城市步行通道四通八达（channel）让我们进入不同的大楼，一方面又是脆弱的、模块化的、可临时的，像极了我们的现代都市生活。

when viewing my work you, as have to walk through it. The walk itself becomes like a negative space in the sculpture. And then you have this very dynamic experience when you see it from far away. And then in perspective, it grows. And then you actually are in the interior of it. And then you exit it.

so from the outside, you can see the overall setting. The setting, How I want to set my units influences the overall impression. The overall first impression, the out frames

the scaffolding takes the form of an Arch, framing the spectacle itself, and referring to one of the most fundamental forms in Architecture–the Arch. The ‘building’ is like a forest. It is put together by these organic similar but not identical units. besides, the space is a space “'in between“, intimacy in a public space, has frame but not solid.

object, meaning, memory, time, image

Sarah Sze, How we experience time and memory through art

Sarah Sze, meaning between things

sarah sze, in balance

Every Place Is the Same Now With a phone, anywhere else is always just a tap away

Week 7 - Testing in Mad Mapper