Category: capstone2021

 
Does geographic location impact lyrical content in rap music? The intuitive answer is yes, undoubtably so. But what of globalization and the dissemination of ideas? And if location is so important why do all rappers sound the same these days? These are just a few of the questions I intend to grapple with through my project The Regional Rap. Of course, this question is important not only for me, but also for the consumer. The exploration of how geographic location impacts lyrical content in the modern hip-hop scene is perhaps more interesting now than it has ever been, especially in the age of social media. However, despite the ease with which ideas can spread, as well as common themes which present themselves within the genre of rap as a whole, regions have been, and always will be linked by their vernacular. Accents, dialects, and the like are simply products of one’s upbringing and thus are closely tied to location. Thus, these connections and commonalities persist. Though they may look different now in certain cities relative to other, there is without a doubt a case to be made for the ever-present regionality in hip-hop today, you just have to look for it.

 
Is the new “Silk Road” a proper metaphor for the Belt and Road Initiative? How may the improper name cause misunderstanding? What makes the Belt and Road Initiative different from the Silk Road essentially? The Old and New “Silk Road” website is to explore the differences between the Silk Road and the Belt and Road Initiative. On this website, users can have an immersive experience with educational information. Users can interact with words, background images, and maps. They can travel across Asia, Oceania, and Europe, exploring the places and the stories happening on this land.

The website has a primary opening page and four subsidiary pages. It first uses the opening video about the desert view of Dunhuang to open the whole trip to users. Then, users can check short instructions on the contents of each page–introduction, maps, stories, and reference–and decide which pages they can visit. The introduction web page gives a brief introduction about the Silk Road and the Belt and Road Initiative, such as their original purposes and functions. The moving desert-like background and the forward-moving camels push users to go through the whole webpage, with the white sound from the wind of the desert. The map web page shows the routes directly. The map allows users to zoom in and out, click on the lines and cities to check the details about the routes. The stories web page tells some significant comparisons such as the culture, merchandise, and transportation. The map tour on this page leads users to travel along the routes, reading the stories and view the differences from ancient to present. The reference page records all the credits and the inspiration of this capstone project.

The website integrates several books, news, and articles to understand the naming and essence of the routes. When the author developed the practical section, the website is the priority since it is easier for everyone to access it. The author also drew the lines and spots of these routes by herself on the ArcGIS mapping platform. In the meantime, she also uses the StoryMap for making a map tour. As the research before, most creators use the locations (places) in StoryMap separately, which means that they tell one story/event in each location instead of unifying several locations to tell one story. Hence, the author decided that several locations can collaborate to convey one piece of information.
Finally, this project hopes users not only focus on the misnaming of “Silk Road” but can also think twice when they hear the name of something they do not understand. The government, organizations, and individuals may utilize the name to polish or hide their purposes. Whatever it is goodwill or malice, it is better to keep an objective attitude and judge it after understanding it comprehensively.

 
Capsule, a digitized reflective tool, stems from my research of social media influencers and their power to change people’s behavior. While social media influencers have been found effective in influencing people’s decisions, they are not as effective as the people around you that you trust. Think about it, would you be more willing to buy a product if your best friend recommended you or a social media influencer who is just sharing the product because they are being paid to do so. From this reasoning, I began to think about the power of my social influencers and what are some of the ways I think about them.

Reflecting about the influencers in our life is an important exercise for our mind because reflection is a way for people to grow and learn from the past. Reflection is critical because it helps better understand and develop our skills and effectiveness as human beings to learn from our past rather than just carrying on with our daily lives. More importantly, self-reflection is a way to learn more about who we are and why we do certain things.

Looking through our documented memories through our phone is an effective way to reflect as visual imagery is much more powerful than writing. However, in our busy daily life, we do not have the time to sit down and reflect through photos and videos. This process becomes very passive and unappealing. Thus I wanted to create Capsule.

Through this project, I discovered that our photos and videos recorded in our phones are so much more meaningful than we might have thought. They are the specific moments and people we want to remember in our lives, but often they are just sitting in our phones. Through Capsule, it can give those recorded memories a different purpose rather than just a form of documentation. Capsule helps you engage with those photos and videos while helping you reflect the importance of them.

 
Colabo is a web app for online collaboration of college students. During remote studies, college students come together online to have group discussions or collaborate on class projects. While online meeting platforms like Zoom enables students to meet and interact synchronously, the limited screen space inevitably creates communication barriers, especially when the discussion is around something 3-dimensional. Students may find it frustrating failing to describe their ideas clearly, or easily losing focus when things get confused.But online communications can be directed by more than pure words. What if there is a tool that enables sharing ideas in 3D without requiring the fussy process of 3D modeling? Colabo is such a solution. It provides an unlimited canvas where students can add texts, images, and 3D models to explain their ideas and facilitate group discussions.
The app is linked to the Sketchfab API, which provides easy access to abundant open-source 3D models online. Therefore, it is particularly helpful for subjects such as interior design, architecture, culture and history, science, and etc., where contextualization is essential for the area of studies. With the imports of 3D models as visual reference during group collaborations, students are able to examine the inner structures of the objects, and thus, gaining deeper insights on the topic. Discussions can also be generated around these models by adding supporting texts and images.

To create a new board, simply click on the “add new” button. One may decide a theme for the board and change its title. On the new board, one can collaborate with their group mates by adding customized elements, such as inputting texts, uploading images from files or web search, and embedding open-source 3D models. Moreover, the application is linked to mangoDB Atlas — an online cloud-based database, and all the elements added to the board will be saved and shared automatically. One may return to any of the existing boards anytime in the future, and there will be no problem for asynchronous group collaboration.

Get started with Colabo now and enjoy a more fruitful online collaboration experience.