Remade in China

Project Title: ECO

Medium: Art Installation (Plastic bottles and bags)

Artists: Ken Wu, Angela Zhang, and Huaze Shao

Artist Statement:

A plastic installation revolving around the worship of plastic was constructed to communicate the dualist nature of environmentalism as well as the hypocrisy of environmentalism. Being a covered space with words encouraging environment protection, there is a lack of transparency to view the installation to communicate a hidden reality of activists and society in general. While we publicly acknowledge and promote environmentalism, we still practice the usage and waste of plastic privately. To an extent, this practice of using plastic is similar to practicing a religion where plastic has become a core of daily life. In addition, we created this installation as something that is entered to signify the uncovering of the truth. This action would be a symbol of taking a step for awareness of plastic consumption. 

Project Statement:

For the project, we were inspired by both our visit to the New Garden, research of worship of religion, and environmentalism. Firstly for our inspiration to the new garden, we were firstly inspired by the history of the garden. When we heard that there was a major trash issue from the neighborhood in the past, it drew us inspiration to represent this. Using first hand experience of our observations, we saw that there was an immense plastic issue in the community as well as a littering issue. This led us to focus on the topic of plastic consumption and usage. Furthermore, as the issue of plastic trash being most of the litter was apparent, we wanted to exemplify this in some manner. 

The act of entering this New Garden also drew inspiration for us where we created our installation to also include an entrance to mimic the entering of the garden space, a space that was previously filled with this plastic trash. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also focused on researching religion as a major part of our research where we considered a lot of cultural practices in Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese culture. This would be the bowing practice that occurs in these cultures, where we especially focused on the Arabic pilgrimage and how they worshiped. This would inform us of the anatomy that we would incorporate for our piece where our usage of plastic bottles would mimic this worshiping pattern. We subsequently attributed plastic consumption to the worship of plastic.

(Credit: Times of Israel)

Furthermore, we also drew inspiration of color from Christianity color symbols where red represents blood (Times of Israel).

Lastly, we considered environmentalism especially in the context of NYU. While a lot of the community says that they support trying to be more eco-friendly, they still consume takeout, still waste food, and consume plastic. This essentially is reflected in our exterior of the space, saying that we love the world, our environment, but we still commit acts of plastic consumption which references the bowing to plastic.

 

Documentation

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusions

The goal of this project was to raise awareness regarding trash consumption through creating a spatial installation that revolved around revealing the true reality of environmentalism. While environmentalism is meant to protect the environment, the reality is that people are still consumers despite raising awareness. In this sense, we wanted to hide this act of worshiping plastic behind walls which would essentially represent the uncovering of this truth of trash consumption. This is further seen through the writing about protecting the environment on the walls. 

When creating this project, we struggled a bit with the construction of the people. While we were able to make it, the figures were fragile and didn’t last until exhibition space as we had completed this days in advance. Furthermore, we struggled with not having enough material. While we wanted to create an entire red surrounding to show the nature of plastic as destructive as well as convey the feeling of a religious space. Despite not being able to create more permanent figures and making it more complete through the surrounding, this project was still overall successful since it did create something from plastic bottles to be one relating to religion. While we wanted to be more sensitive of religion where we didn’t create a more noticeable symbol such as a Buddha statue, the fact is that it still raised awareness of plastic as a religion. In conclusion, while the installation itself wasn’t constructed perfectly, it still served the purpose of promoting awareness and shifting a perspective on the role of plastic in our life. 

Presentation and Proposed Solutions

Works Cited

Afp, et al. “2 Million Expected in Mecca for Hajj Pilgrimage, a Pillar of Islam.” The Times of Israel, 9 Aug. 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-million-expected-in-mecca-for-hajj-pilgrimage-a-pillar-of-islam/.

Short Answer

For the short answer to a reading, I’d like to respond to Bio-based plastics reading. So for this reading, it introduced a lot of how materials in common day can be used and applied for creating new products. These include starch. I wanted to focus on what I found most impressive in terms of the reading which would be bacterial fermentation as a method for creating plastics. Normally, when I think of bacteria, I think of them as something that sort of decomposes the environment or is a sign of decomposition in many cases e.g. mold and fungi. When it is used for this purpose of creating renewable plastic, I feel that it changed my perspective on what materials are plastic which is valuable for me to understand this aspect. 

Lab Report: Bioplastics

Introduction: Bioplastics, on the whole, contain fewer components derived from fossil fuels and are normally more compostable due to being created from sustainable sources. It is a positive move to replace fossil fuels with renewable resources that can be found in our environment. Bioplastics emit fewer greenhouse gases than petroleum-based polymers under the right conditions. Instead of using fossil fuels, bioplastics are created from sustainable resources. Corn, potatoes, rice, soy, sugar cane, wheat, and vegetable oil are all examples of renewable carbon supplies. By completing this lab, we learned that bioplastics are available and are more beneficial to our environment. We will also include the pros and cons of each plastic we created as an analysis of the applicability for our situation. 

Members: Angel Chang, Max Sun, Snow Chen, and Ken Wu

NetID: amc9985, sc8485, ks5378, kw2820

Lab Report 1

Created Material: Potato Starch Bioplastic

Introduction or Purpose: To experiment making bioplastics using potato starch, a grown source of food in which potatoes can be utilized for creating sustainable products.

Ingredients and Amounts: 320 ml Water, 30ml Vinegar, 12 get Glycerol, 20gr potato starch, container mold area: 20cm by 8.5 cm

Tools: Mold(An Acrylic Box), Scale, Pot, Stove, Spoon, Measuring Glass, and Syringe

Methods:

Mix water, starch and glycerol together in a pot.

Turn on the heat to high and start stirring the mix.

When it starts bubbling up, continue stirring the mix for 2 more minutes.

After this, remove the pot from the stove, add the vinegar, and mix well.

Finally pour the mix into the mold.

We also added sweet potato powder to give it some color.

Curing time and temperature:

3-4 minutes-ish at 85 degree celsius. 

Results: (photography)

This is the end result of the bioplastic. The texture is soft and kind of rubbery.

For creating the plastic, we had to heat up the solution of potato starch, glycerol, and water through a stove, stirring it.

Towards the end, we added sweet potato starch to add color to our plastic. 

Physical aspect:

The bioplastic appears to be a pink purple square-look solid, with a few bubbles in it. 

Material observations according to external factors or changes over the time:

When the mixture is in the pot, as we continue heating it the solid starts to melt, and eventually we get a mixture that looks like glue, but contains floccule and air bubbles. 

When it gets cool, some of the air bubbles disappear. In addition, the overall texture (hardness/softness) is that it’s more soft. 

Conclusions:

The process went really well, something we could have improved is to control the amount of water. The amount of water we added was more than we needed. Since we don’t have a large mold, when we pour the mixture into the mold it is too thick, and it takes longer to set.

Pros and Cons:

Pros – This type of material is easy to create as it’s sustainable. In addition, it can easily be molded into shapes for more flexible material.

Cons – This type of material isn’t exactly stable. From personal observation, it starts to open up and crack after a period of time, hence if this is utilized as a material of a project, it would need to just be a temporary material rather than a permanent material. 

Lab Report 2

Created Material: Gelatin Bioplastic

Introduction or Purpose: To experiment making bioplastics using gelatin

Ingredients and Amounts: 60 ml Water, 3.6 g Glycerol, 12 gGelatin, 10ml vinegar, Blue Pigment

Tools: Mold(An Acrylic Box), Scale, Pot, Stove, Spoon, Measuring Glass, and Syringe

Methods:

Add water, gelatin and glycerol into a pot.

Cook over medium heat and stir until the gelatin dissolves and the solution starts to thicken.

Remove the pot from the stove and remove the froth with a spoon if there is any.

Pour the mix into the mold.

Curing time and temperature:

3-4 minutes-ish. 85 degree celsius. 

Results: (photography)

The left one is gelatin.

As for the steps, it is the same as potato starch so no extra photos will be shown and commented on.

Physical aspect:

A blueish square-look solid, with a few bubbles in it. 

Material observations according to external factors or changes over the time:

When the mixture is in the pot, as we continue heating it the solid starts to melt, and eventually we get a mixture that looks like glue, but contains floccule and air bubbles. 

When it gets cool, some of the air bubbles disappear and we slightly cause it to disperse by hitting it. 

Conclusions:

The process went well, something we could have improved is to control the amount of pigment. The amount of pigment we added was more than we needed. Maybe also cut down the amount of ingredients, since we don’t have a large mold, when we pour the mixture into the mold it is too thick, and it takes longer to set.

Pros and Cons:

Pros – This material is extremely dense and hard. It makes for a sturdy material.

Cons – If water is added to it, it might become decomposed. In addition, it’s hard to cut the material to the needs. 

Lab Report 3

Created Material: Carrageenan bioplastic

Ingredients and Amounts: 350ml of water, 16g of carrageenan, 3ml of glycerin, and algae powder

Tools: Mold(An Acrylic Box), Scale, Pot, Stove, Spoon, Measuring Glass, and Syringe

Methods:
Add water and carrageenan in to the pot.

Cook over medium heat and stir until it dissolves, then add glycerin, repeat the progress.

Add algae powder at last, repeat the heating and stirring progress once again.

Pour the mix into the mold.

Curing time and temperature:
about 3-4 minutes. 85 degree celsius.

Results: 
Carrageenan is the material on the right. 

Physical aspect:
A light green solid square with a few bubbles in it.

Material observations according to external factors or changes over the time:
When the mixture is in the pot, as we continue heating it the solid starts to melt, and eventually we get a mixture that looks like glue, but contains floccule and air bubbles.
When it gets cool, some of the air bubbles disappear. At the end, it becomes more of a cloth-like texture. 

Conclusions:
There wasn’t any issues during the process, we were first worried that water might evaporate due to the temperature, so added a little more than the amount that we needed, but soon we figured that it wasn’t any problem. Maybe next time we could swirl faster so the color could mix in more evenly and faster as well.

Pros and Cons:

Pros – The material is mendable which can be applied for a lot of prototypes that have organic shapes. In addition, the thickness is decent allowing the material to be stronger than something like potato starch.

Cons – The material is also very organic. It’s difficult to define the borders and how the material is shaped as the material will combine together in new ways. 

Last Sunday, our team discussed our ideas for the art installation and I recorded them on paper. We also interviewed some of the community members and Angela recorded their words as some of them are speaking Shanghainese which Huaze and I didn’t understand. In this journal, we separated our works, and each of us was in charge of writing one part. I was in charge of part I, Angela was in charge of part II, and Huaze was in charge of part III.

I. Installation

For the journal and the idealization process, our group (New Garden) came up with three ideas that revolved around the concepts of the role of plastic in our environment and daily life. These include the creation of an enclosed space, a buddha statue, and the created experience of a secret garden. We thought about how our interaction with these physical objects or conceptual experiences and how replacing it with trash can advocate new meanings. All of these ideas will be listed below.

Idea 1: 

Name: Plastic World

What it is: The plan is to create an open half-sphere which will serve the purpose of an enclosed space that is approximately 2 meters in diameter and 1.2 meters tall which is created through tying water bottles together. This enclosed space will have an entrance in which the viewer/audience can crawl inside to experience this space. Within this space there will be mini human models that are formed by trash, mainly plastic, to show the nature of inhabitation on earth by humans. 

Materials: Plastic bottles, litter (any e.g. plastic bags, paper bags, utensils, etc.), and strings.

How the materials are collected: We have already collected this trash and it is in a locker.

Concept: The concept of this installation is to first propose how plastic consumption causes us humans to become plastic in the first place, represented by the humans. To explore the effect of plastic on the world, we created it to be a smaller space, that’s hard to get into to represent our excessive plastic usage. This surrounding also represents how we are surrounded by trash to raise awareness of trash creation. Lastly, the interaction of crawling with the installation signifies the difficulty of living in such a world as it has already been shrinking our possible living space. This difficulty also brings with it, discomfort of entering such a space, reflecting the nature of trash as obstructive to our personal lives as well as to the world.

Idea 2: 

Name: Plastic Religion

What it is: The plan is to create a plastic interpretation of a Buddha statue meditating, approximately one meters in height. This is created with tying water bottles together as well as using trash for establishing this centralized core. This object isn’t one that interacts with the viewer physically, but interacts mentally with the viewer regarding the status of plastic as well as the relationship with religion.

Materials: Plastic bottles, litter (any e.g. plastic bags, paper bags, utensils, etc.), and strings.

How the materials are collected: We have already collected this trash and it is in a locker.

Concept: The concept of this installation is to first create the interpretation of plastic as a religion in which the materials that make the religious statue are plastic itself. This is meant to create the sensation that plastic, as a material, is something that is worshipped and widespread among society. Moreover with Buddhism being a more recognized and followed religion in China, it is meant to create a sensation of discomfort about the presentation of Buddha as plastic as it seems unjust and rather provocative to create this representation. It is thus argued that this discomfort should create awareness of our plastic consumption as it creates inquiry into what the role of plastic is in our lives. Is it trash or has this trash become our religion?

Idea 3: 

Name: The Secret Garden

What it is: The plan is to create an conceptual secret garden utilizing the fake walls of IMA studio and creating it to be like a laundry line where all the laundry is hung up. Rather than laundry, trash is hung as a part of the experience to get into the garden, exposing the audience to the trash of the garden. Once they reach the garden, it is a space where plastic is used to mimic a garden.

Materials: Plastic bottles, litter (any e.g. plastic bags, paper bags, utensils, etc.), and strings.

How the materials are collected: We have already collected this trash and it is in a locker.

Concept: The concept of this installation is to create a garden made of trash to illustrate a reality of a lot of greenspace in the world. Even in our experience of going to the new garden, there was trash everywhere. In this sense, we wanted to create the plastic garden of trash to promote awareness of this idea. Furthermore, the plastic plants in the garden are to show how plastic has become a part of our greenery and nature. It creates the narrative that plastic is the environment itself through the plants. Hence, in doing so, the focus of the garden becomes to be more of an awareness space of how trash consumption contributes to such an environment. 

II. Community Research Progress

Last week, we conducted a workshop to teach members of the community about the waste problem and how they could recycle plastic bags. After the workshop, we had an additional interview using the 5 why principle taught in class by guest speaker Gabriele Tempesta with the community members who came . A problem we met was that it was difficult to ask more than 3 whys as people started to repeat things or talk about topics that are totally unrelated to the garden. Below were some main points we recorded during the interview.

(Conversation with Mrs. Lee)

Student: Can you talk about your daily routine? Especially the ones relate to our garden?

Mrs. Lee: Every morning, I go to the community space to do exercise and then go to the little garden to take a look.

Student: So why don’t you do exercise in the little garden? What is the problem?

Mrs. Lee: You know, the problem of high toss act has been existed in the little garden. Everyday, when I walk through the garden, I just can’t stop to think about I might be hurt by those rubbish so I walk really quickly and don’t stay at there long. I believe that many community members would have the similar idea and that’s why the little garden’s space could not be efficiently used.

Student: If the problem of high toss is frustrating to you, why do you still go to the garden everyday? Why you still like it?

Mrs. Lee: This is because that one of the people who throw rubbish from high floor has already been caught and the others are warned. Moreover, besides this problem, I feel the little garden is just like my home. It is well designed, and give me a warm feeling. The parking area for cars is quite large and has less probability for high toss problem. I like to go there.

(Conversation with Mrs. Yu)

Student: Can you talk about your daily routine? Especially the ones related to our garden?

Mrs. Yu: I walk in the garden with my mother who is 92 years old and sit on a wheelchair. 

Student: Why do you like to do this activity in the garden?

Mrs. Yu: The garden is quiet and there are usually less people in the garden so I find it to be a good place. To further explain, the walking path is quite narrow. If there are too much people in the little garden, it would be difficult for me to walk with my mom who is sitting on a wheel chair. 

Student: As you mentioned, there are usually less people in the garden, why?

Mrs. Yu: I believe that this is because the garden building program was finished in last winter and the government don’t let us to build a glass house which could make people feel less cold. When people first came to the garden and realized that it was too cold and uncomfortable to stay long, they left and didn’t form the habit to visit the garden frequently.

Student: However, since you have mentioned before that this is not a problem to you as you like how less people come to the garden, I wonder what’s the part you don’t like about the garden?

Mrs. Yu: I don’t like the parking lot and won’t walk my mom to there. I feel the air quality is not good there due to the cars. Moreover, the littering of trash actions from high floors is terrible.

Here are two main problems we concluded that occurred in the little garden

• Appearance Problems
• • Inconsistency: The grape trellis and the pavilion is not at the same height.
  • Out-dated Decoration: the lanterns are small and old; some of them are broken.
  • Emptiness: The garden still seem quite simple and empty. There are not much flowers in the garden. Many places including the grass area and the downside part of the grape trellis could be added withe more flowers and other decorations.
  • Messiness: there are some trash around the area as well as problem of incorrect parking.
• Usage Problems
• • Safety Issue: The problem of high toss act threats people’s safety.
  • Environmental Constrain: The climate and weather problem including too hot in summer, too cold in winter, and wet seats in rainy days makes people less likely to come. Too much Mosquitos is also a serious problem.
  • Personal Difference: Different stake holders have different needs. For example, some residents like the garden to be quiet and simple as it is now while some others feel that more efficient usage of the garden would be better.
  • Inconvenience: The incorrect car parking act cause people’s inconvenience as the roads in the garden are quite narrow and could be easily blocked.

In our opinion, the appearance problems are easier to be fixed while the usage problems are more important but hard to be fixed by using the techniques we learnt. Next week, We will discuss about choosing which and develop the ideas of our designs.

III. Storyboard

Drawing

The following picture presents the storyboard for documentary. It includes types of media, the name of the file, and the narration for each clip.
The overall organization of storyboard is as follows:

Introduction of New Garden

The overall components of New Garden
The comparison between the Garden that has not been transformed and the New Garden

Problems that we identified:

Lamps: Mr. Yu recommended us to make new lamps for pavilion.
Fallen hangers & trashes: there were surveillance cameras everywhere in New Garden, but the problems of fallen hangers and high-toss actions were not completely avoided.
Tea spot: Mr. Yu desired to set a tea spot in the pavilion and he wanted to avoid noisy activities such as playing chess, which was a common activity in the neighborhood.

Reflection on Guest Speaker (Mr. Yan):

When Mr. Yan, a trash worker, presented to us last week discussing the topic of recycling, many things were learned which included the items that could be recycled and the choice of recycled products. While my initial impression was that all items that could be recycled are taken to be recycled, Mr. Yan showed us differently when he quickly sorted out the items to recycle where plastics and some bottles weren’t even taken into consideration. This is due to the specific facilities for recycling in Shanghai where only certain types can be taken to be recycled at specific sites. Due to plastic having different temperatures of burning, the choice of products to be recycled is also limited. If they were mixed, it would cause plastics to be considered as other or even change the use of plastic from being recyclable to only be single use. Furthermore, I learned that single use plastics couldn’t be recycled and were more utilized for only one purpose. In this sense, I felt that our consumerist disposable society is failing in protecting our resources as we value convenience for trash that would affect the ecosystem. Essentially, from this my view changed from being someone that just thinks that recycling can resolve issues to someone that understands that not everything “recyclable” can be recycled. This essentially changes.my perspective on my consumerism actions where I aim to focus more on using reusable items rather than items for convenience e.g. mugs rather than single use cups. 

Reflection on Reading (Plastic: A Love Story):

With reference to the reading, I feel that it provided me a very good understanding of how plastic was brought in to be used in society, how it was protested, and how such a harmful object is being protected by agencies. Firstly, the use of plastic as a disposable, recyclable object was one thing that stood out to me as it was previously intended to do so. This, however, is countered by the reality that plastics aren’t actually recycled and more so become trash that spreads in our oceans and harms marine life. While plastic was marketed as recyclable, the usage of plastic wasn’t sustainable for the ecosystem especially when it became mass produced and widespread within the system. Due to it being widespread and something that affects the world to a high degree, certain legislative actions were made to stop the actions, most prominent would be the bans of plastic bags. This, however, wasn’t in the interest of the plastic monopolies, hence the agencies began to protect plastic bags from being banned by promoting the environmental benefits of plastic as compared to paper without considering the affects that plastic has on life and the life cycle of plastic as trash that remains for forever. My position from reading this is that I feel strongly about the politics of plastic as this issue isn’t just an environmental one, but it has become a political, economic, and social issue. While I do not promote the usage of plastic, I do, however, suggest that plastic is used in some cases for multi-use products as it is still very much durable.  This way, the advantages of plastic are used. While I do believe that the advantages should be utilized such as durability, the mass production and consumption of plastic as a single-use product essentially creates the loss of value and reason to use a product that harms the environment to a high degree. While plastic does conserve greenhouse emissions and water, the effects it has on the evolutionary and biological aspect of humans and the ecosystem can be accentuated from a microscale to macroscale which would defer the entire purpose of utilizing such a product. Hence, I would want to minimize my use of single use products so that it can cause less issues to the environment. 

Ken’s Meeting Journal:

Participants: Mr. Xu, Angela Zhang, Huaze Shao, and Ken Wu

Time: 2:00pm to 3:30pm Sept. 12

Purpose: Knowing Mr. Xu and being connected to this community, observing and learning about the surroundings, understanding the habits and uses of the garden space, and finding out the needs of the community and the service that can be offered. 

What I learned about Mr. Xu:

• Mr. Xu is a 72 year old man with a kind and spirited personality who introduced us to the community that he’d been living in for over 28 years.
• He was previously a teacher at 22 years old teaching in vocational school on the subjects of Chinese Politics and Marxism for ten years.
• Afterwards, he came to Pudong, Shanghai, for work where it was rather rural at the time, being a land for farming. He’d seen the development of Shanghai in his time of work and is now retired like many other people in the community. 
• In his free time after retirement, Mr. Xu has attended photography class and was honored as a monitor. 
• In addition, he is the director of the committee of property management in the fifth building of the community. 
• His family is also very talented where his daughter is a professor at a university while his son-in-law is a doctor. He has a grandchild who is currently 13, and a mother-in-law who’s currently 92. They live together and experience life together, bringing happiness to his mother-in-law and taking care of her. 

The background information about the community:

• The buildings in the community are around 28 years old. The buildings served as model houses in which many communities of Pudong are based upon. 
• The buildings can resist Level 10 Earthquake.
• Each building has its own garden space, but not every garden space is utilized at the moment. Currently, the sixth building’s garden isn’t utilized yet. 
• Most garden spaces are grown with weeds and used as a place to throw rubbish where the fifth building had encountered a lot of problems with littering. 
• The garden we are in charge of  is the 5th building’s garden. While there was a major issue with litter, the garden was reconstructed by Mr. Xu and the people in the community to be the way it is now. 
• There are 176 families in the 5th building. Half of the space is rented. The residents are mostly retired.

What else happened at the meeting? What did you notice?

• We noticed a lot of litter and trash that wasn’t managed by the community. This is especially prominent for areas that are neglected or were neglected before. 
• Some trash included laundry racks which wasn’t cleaned up.

• In addition, cats aren’t particularly welcomed in the garden as their poop has acidity which makes the greenery die. 
• Due to litter, a lot of surveillance cameras were installed to prevent littering from occurring. Most prominently, there were cameras that were not only pointed towards the garden, but also towards the building itself. 
•  
• 
• There are also parking spot for cars (16 spots, 300 yuan/year) as well as for electric bikes where people can pay 1 yuan to charge for 4 hours. 

   

• There’s also a 2 garden pavilions that were bought but aren’t the same size. Currently, it’s not being utilized well as people are parking their items in the pavilion and not using this as a social space. 
• 
• There are some lamps hanging on the grape trellis. Mr. Xu wanted to change them into some new ones, preferably larger ones. 
• 
• Mr. Xu also suggested that maybe there should be some baskets of flowers on the grape trellis in which the space becomes more like a garden area rather than just a space for rest. 
• While utilization of the space could be used for playing cards or board games, the preference of the community is to have tea. This is because playing these recreational aspects could create more litter for the garden and disrupt the restfulness of the community
• There are several automatic sprinkler in the garden which is used to manage the cultivation.
• 

What I would like to learn more about and how to find out?

• Mr. Xu told us that the government was going to improved the community in the recent days including some walls would be removed. I would like to know how that will change the appearance of the garden or affect us providing the service.
• We only met Mr. Xu and I would like to learn more about the other community members and their opinions towards the garden.
• Moreover, I personally would like the plans of the garden, specifically the size of the pavilion space as to plan for better usage of it. 
• Lastly, I would want to learn more about how the garden is managed. For example, if there is a worker like Mr. Yan who picks up all the trash and cleans up the leaves. 

What would I do to find out about these questions?

• I think that visiting the garden again and communicating more with Mr. Xu could allow us to acquire these answers

How did you feel about the meeting? 

• A lot was learned and I feel like we have a general idea of what we could do to benefit the community. 
• I will personally focus more on the garden space itself when and if we have another chance to meet with Mr. Xu and the community. I would prefer to focus on how others utilize the space and see it be used in their life. 

This is the file of the other photos/videos we took, click if you are interested in this project:

• • https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14IZlQdn4LGmt21yZfB6B_8qzUIOa41X8?usp=sharing

I would consider service learning is a balance of academic learning and service where the intention is to provide service to others while learning skills throughout the process. Even in the case that skills aren’t learned, the reflection of the service could cause learning for the individual which is an important factor that differentiates service learning from volunteering or community service. In a sense, there’s sort of a reciprocal relation between the student and the recipient of service where they serve but are also served the experience of learning. This essentially means that I commit myself to providing a service for the recipient, being the people of Weifang Residence mentioned in class, where I am in a communicative relationship with them. I am to understand their needs and provide a service such as a creation of a product that can be of use to them. As for the relationship of faculty to service learning, they are more of the facilitators that provide the students the learning for creating the service while the DSS program is more of a support system that can interconnect the service provider and the service recipient. 

I feel that a simple reason for devoting my time is that I want to learn how to serve others and try to create change within the community that I live in. Being a design student, the initial purpose of design is to help make people’s lives easier, better, or stimulate people’s thinking. Due to this, I should focus on the people for designing which is a major part of this course. Moreover, this course also goes over sustainable design, recycling and design as a whole. This is a major interest of mine to learn sustainable design process which would be a service to the community ecologically if I practice green design more in the future. The last reason that I want to devote my time to community service is that it’s much more directed to helping others rather than providing a service to others. What I mean by this is that the type of service delivered is one of aid rather than previous experiences of mine being the type of consumerist service.