Materials: Cardboard, Tape, Knife, Scissors
Product Angles:
User Test:
Primary Function: Lock shoulders to allow for stabilization as well as minimize strength needed to hold camera, relying on normal force and resistance to balance the camera.
First and foremost, something that I didn’t really think about and took for granted about industrial design, or the effect of industrial revolution was mass production. I found that the fact that the output of design pre-industrial being “unique” to be very fascinating. In particular, it was the prospect of individual designing and crafting that provided a sense of worth, but it is also things of the past designed e.g. artisan pieces, jewelry, and furniture, that still remain that were inspiring.
I also found the aspects of industrial design for business, people, technology, context, and behavior powerful. In particular, the behavior induced by design was something that really reminded me of the aspects of good design. When thought of the user is needed, there is a lack of naturalness to the design that makes it visible. We notice the areas that lack design. Good design, otherwise I would classify as invisible design, is something that neutralizes the response of the user’s thought process. It becomes a natural response to the environment through the interface.
There was then the introduction to the third industrial revolution with computing and digital revolution which I think is critical to understanding industrial design. This allows for the dynamic multiplicity of devices, but the most important aspect of design now is user experience. I also agree with this as the user experience correlates to the visibility of a design. Thus, I feel the emphasis nowadays should be on user experience and the UI/UX design.
Problem: How can we make the tripod movable and accessible, not being limited to the constraints of the topography?
Problem: How can we resolve issues of social anxiety when taking photos, especially the social acceptance and camera shy aspect of photography?
Problem: How can we have photographers focus on the subject rather than the composition as a whole?
“Trapped”
A mask is a reflection of one’s identity. I interpreted this assignment to be a representation of the true face of my identity which is bind by constraints and restrictions. There is a lack of openness to which I express myself to my surroundings as shown in the “trapped” design of this work. In addition, I also utilized wood and strings to block the vision I have to represent the introvert identity I have. In this sense, it represents a lack of seeing eye to eye that I have encountered in the past due to my nature. In this sense, I created and represented the design to be one that traps and is trapped by personal constraints.
The sharp and clean edge of the wooden structure encloses me. It is a kind of cage or box that imprison my interaction with strangers. Some of those wooden sticks which pointing at my face reflects of my frustration. Those threads tightened around the helmet is suggesting those annoying assumptions before I start talking. The vibrant red which pops up among the yellowish wood enlarge the emotional approach of my project.
Paris is Burning Reflection
I think that the relation between fashion and identity is that fashion is an expression of societal identity and personal confidence. It is something that can allow someone to incorporate their spiritual identity into physical perceived identity thus providing social identity and personal confidence of personal identity. In this sense, fashion and identity intersect in terms of providing a conscience and physicality of being and personality. As for gender and fashion, it is also intertwined with the social identity that gender revolves around. As gender is a social construct, fashion’s interconnection with social society and social identity are intertwined. It is fashion and the expression of fashion as social identity and reflection of gender as social construct that one engages with the world. Furthermore, other social constructs such as race and class are very much the same with fashion and identity where fashion is a representation of a social construct, and thus a social identity. This organic and malleability of social identity thus allows for clear representation of social construct.
“US”
In our weekly assignment, we explore the relationship between people and their surrounding by altering their sensation. We chose mirror, a kind of material that can reflect light, as our genre in this project. By glueing those mirrors with shape edges pieces by pieces into organic shapes, we tend to express the ideation of brokenness, which means the lost of connection and intimacy among individuals. Because of the unique attribution of mirror, audiences that are not in the spaces that we create can not capture any information inside. Nevertheless, those two audiences that interact with our “wearable helmet” can see both each other and themselves, even if their are in a back-to-back dynamic. However, those little pieces of mirror which are positioned in random area can not let them visually perceive the image as we regularly do. There are multiple distinct information that they are receiving, no matter their eyes or others’ shoulders. Therefore, this kind of overloading information embodies our concept of recognizing what a person truly is; and also implying the fast pace of our daily life that mislead us understanding oneself only through visual perception. The bizarre and chaotic interior magnify and satirized our first impression of others merely by seeing their looks.
In-Class Exercise:
In the beginning, we tried using the combination of conductive thread and normal thread to create a resistive connection, however the resistance was to low to be felt.
After we failed due to the low value of the thread’s resistor, we changed another kind of thread as our material which worked perfectly in the end. It is really important to choose the right material that fits with the circuit and our approaches.
For programming the ATTiny, we followed the tutorial in class and uploaded the code to burn the code into the ATTiny85 for our soft circuit. We met the issue of not being able to burn the code due to the ATTiny itself not working properly, ending with us replacing it and burning to make it work.
For the soft circuit, there were difficulties sewing so we ended up just manually connecting the circuit to test the ATTiny85 and if it worked to replace the Arduino Uno. It worked as shown in the video.
What is fashion for you? and why are you interested in fashion?
Fashion is culture, power, and a representation of self for me. First and foremost, it is a representation of culture and the history behind that culture. It represents the beauty standards of the time and the cultural beliefs. For example, binded feet were a sociocultural fashion trend that enforced the belief that small feet were more beautiful, but at the same time it also enforced a sort of power to the male counterpart. In this sense, fashion is not only something that represented culture, but also the power dynamics of the culture which was more patriarchal and male dominant in social standing. This was also the reflection of culture where females were to act feminine and the characteristics associated with femininity such as weakness and feebleness. In addition, I also consider fashion a representation and extension of self. It is something that characterizes the individual and their values.
I’m personally interested in fashion due to my interest in abstract and conceptual expression. In particular, I’m very interested in photography and the expression of fashion photography which drew me to want to learn about fashion. I think that clothes create a character and a story and through fashion, I wish to pursue more meaning in photographic composition.
What kinds of things do your clothing say about you and your values?
I personally think that most of my clothing is black or semi-formal which show myself as more hidden and introvert. I think that the semi-formal aspect would show some professionalism regarding my attitude and belief of responsibility. I think that my clothing also shows some of my personality in terms of openness where darker colors make me seem more closed off, especially when I wear a mask.
What are your main learnings and take aways from the readings?
I think that the main learnings would be that fashion should breakaway from traditional trends and that it should expand upon new territories. This would allow for more dimensionality and complexity of fashion and expression of self to be more multilateral.
PROJECT TITLE: Flower Pot Stand
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (150-250 words):
This was a service project for Fuzhu Garden Tower 5’s Garden where we liaised with Mr. Yu, a retired teacher to create a final project that would help them resolve some issues they notified. In the beginning, we interviewed the community partners and found that the main issue from them was trash, misusage/lack of usage of the garden, and lack of decorations. This led us to explore options of improving the garden internally through our product and externally through the design. This was followed by our proposals which spanned from lanterns to nets to exhibition structure. We also explored bioplastics and various types of plastics, experimenting with heat, size, and stability, where we found #2 and #5 plastic most useful. This led us to utilize this sturdy plastic in our design ideas which had to do with making an addition to the grape trellis structure as architecture. Hence, leading to our final project of a flower pot stand on the grape trellis to make the garden communal, provide functions within the garden, foster community input, and make the garden more aesthetically pleasing to create a psychological idea that they don’t want to throw trash away in an attempt to resolve trash littering issues.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Thesis: If we can create a structure that creates communal interaction and make the garden something that the community wants to protect, the issue of trash littering will be resolved.
The research that we did to arrive at this idea was mainly from past presentations, namely from this link Presentation and Proposed Solutions
From the initial presentation we received a lot of feedback on how we should go about the issue of resolving trash littering. Rather than create trash we were to create something that would want to make people to protect and cherish the garden, hence a more artistic product.
After this we would design various prototypes and engage with the community on their thoughts to gather feedback for our intended design.
For our division of work, Huaze and Angela completed most of the handwork from the tile pieces as my left hand was injured and I couldn’t use any strength with the hand otherwise the injury would be greater. I focused on doing background support by preparing the pieces by shredding. I also completed the video and documentation of the project whenever we went as a three-person group. Angela worked a lot on the designing aspect with Rhino and Huaze was more of the communicator of our group due to her skills in Chinese.
CONCLUSIONS:
The work aligns with our initial idea to create something that can help foster community and resolve the issue of trash throwing. Our project results align with this goal as we hope to make it a community garden with pots that are bought and we also think that a community garden/community in general will prevent trash littering from occurring. This project makes me feel proud from the overall practicality and usefulness. In particular, I feel that the overall design is great as it incorporates plant growing, something that was missing from the garden. In the process we encountered a lot of difficulties such as having to change ideas in the middle. In addition, I faced problems with injury which stalled team progress and had Huaze and Angela work more Despite this, we were resilient and able to complete the job on time. Because of these failures, we learned how to communicate with each other and resolve issues as a team. If we look at our accomplishments, the biggest takeaway was adaptability and serving the community. It was great to serve a community that provided a lot of support. In addition it was also great to adapt to their needs and put their needs on top of our own ideas. Having completed the project, the only things that I would change is the gluing of the tile pieces as it was slightly too messy at some points with larger holes between tiles. I would improve this by being more tedious. I think that the most important part of creating a project like this would be patience and commitment.
Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zZ0486eclfkmul8yVpBSHTApLzxesd5qF8v_N_qzBmk/edit?usp=sharing
Reflection
For our reflection it can be found in the slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zZ0486eclfkmul8yVpBSHTApLzxesd5qF8v_N_qzBmk/edit?usp=sharing
Personal Growth: what strengths and weaknesses did you learn about yourself? How are you different now?
The strength I learned about myself would be the acceptance of ideas and of feedback. I feel that feedback has been very important to developing my understanding of projects, especially when it involves a community member that will use such a product. This helped me evaluate the pros and cons of our ideas and think more methodical in a way to fasten the pace too at times.
Unfortunately, I realized that my personal weakness was the management of injury. I found that having certain accidents happen to my wrist will affect my productivity and possible contribution to the theme. It caused me to reflect a lot on what I could do to support in a way that I could do so without having it affect the usage of my hand.
I’m different in the sense that I’m more methodical, thinking about how I can contribute despite being physically limited.
Civic Engagement: what did you learn about the approaches of working on a project? For example, teamwork, communication, understanding needs, etc.
From this project I learned about the usefulness of communication and understanding teammates. I feel that understanding my team is the first and most important step of the process where we can know how and why our team member’s feel certain ways as well as consider the course of action when knowing this. I feel that when we understood what each other said, our communication became very good, allowing for us to decide things quickly while being logical to analyze the pros and cons of designs.
Academic Learning: where did the community experience align or not align with the academic content? What have you learned as a result?
I realized that practicality is the most important aspect of providing services to a community where we have to give up some of our own preferences/ideas in order to provide services to the community. While we provide services to the community, we still learn within the process, especially in consideration to recycling material and redeveloping material. What’s truly important is understanding the interpersonal relations between you and the community and make sure that what you learn can positively impact you.
This week we created more pieces for the overall piece, having rethought out the design from Angela. We continued reusing the molds and created the pieces for this structure which we expect to be the final outcome.
Our next steps having completed all the pieces would be to create the wood stand, paint the structure, and construct the structure. After all this is completed we would then install it in the garden. In the case that our plan doesn’t work, there is no plan B as this plan is what we thought out, presented to the community, and received the go to create. In addition we also discussed with Andy and Marcela to make sure that this is a viable solution to be created. My contributions to the team are limited to shredding plastic and at times installing the stuff for wood so long as no weights are involved due to injury.
As our prototype was a working board, it wasn’t hung up in the community but was presented through drawings and orally.
The community partner analyzed our product with three key points made:
This essentially led us to reconsider our plans and idea to make something practical, ending up with Angela’s idea of making a stand on the grape trellis which developed to be a flower pot stand. We would continue using the tiles, but alter the purpose and the structure and placement of structure.
This is our essential dialogue with the community.
Q+A
Q: What are your thoughts on the product?
A: It’s aesthetically pleasing and we can see your hardwork, but the design is not safe, it is in the middle of the trellis and blocks movement, and there’s no function it offers.
Q: What do you think of the aesthetics?
A: It looks beautiful and the material is good. We hope you continue this design.
Reflection
As a group we learned the importance with communication and understanding the needs of the community before designing a structure that was to be a collaboration between two groups. We learned to first put our community and the users in mind rather than provide an exhibition space for the art ladies. We also learned to make sure that we considered safety and practicality over all. Hence, we decided to modify our plans to be a grape trellis mentioned above which was designed to include pots that could be placed in it. We would then modify the design of wood needed to cut and renumber the amount of pieces for the entire piece.
What did you learn about working with the community from today’s discussion (not including the design part)?
I learned the importance of community and communication. It’s very important to understand the social relations as well as my personal role of being an active initiator of discussion.
How are you going to apply the lessons to future collaborations?
I will try to be active in communication with my group and with the neighborhood, keeping in mind my anxiety regarding the language barrier I have when it comes to speaking as the spokesperson of the group.