This is the re-uploaded version of the documentary on non-places (since the original version on Flickers was cut out).

To see the footage go: https://flic.kr/s/aHskw5MFeZ

 

The documentary on the non-place will be titled “Non-place: behind the insignificant”. This documentary will be dealt with the components of a non place such as subway station that makes it insignificant, while remain unrecognizable. Rather than using videos, photographs of the non-places will be used. This is for the purpose of capturing the scenes of non-places that the users have not paid attention to. With the photographs, the sounds of the people and things in the non-places merged together will be played. The narration will be added in small voice. The plot goes as following:

Scene #1 [Introduction]

<Videos of stations and shopping malls with crowds>

Narration:

Most of people go through supermarkets, airports, high speed roads, railways, or shopping malls very frequently. For some people if not for all, these places are part of their daily routines. But, do we put any meanings or significance in such places? No. These places are called non-places. The concept of non-place was suggested by a French anthropologist named Marc Auge. Huge defined places as spaces that are relational, historical, or concerned with identity. If cannot defined by that, that is a non-place.  The space of non-space does not create single identity.  Only solitude and similarity.But how? What exactly in these spaces make them so insignificant and so called meaningless?

Scene #2

Narration:

Lets look at a shopping mall. It is a good example of a non-place. What elements in a shopping mall makes it a non-place?

The first component is the reflections. The reflections of lights and the endless reflection of this space. Look at the ceiling and the floor. The glossy surface creates the endless reflection of light and each other. This creates the inhumane, luxurious atmosphere  of a typical non-place. It makes you forget the real world you live in and time. You lose the identity and recognition you have outside this space. Everyone becomes distanced from their reality by the environment of the moment. What becomes more active is role-playing.

Scene 3

Narration:

Another element is the signs. The signs that you can see everywhere in the non-places. These instructions for use are prescriptive (take right hand lane), prohibitve(No smoking) or informative(you are now entering the Ba), sometimes with ideograms. These signs establish the traffic conditions of spaces in which we are supposed to interact only with these signs. The only dialogues we hold with this text and signs are our own. No interactions with others.

Scene 4

Narration:

Last but not least, shopping malls remind the users that they are in the contractual relations with each other via identification check. Think about the checks and credit cards we use when we pay. They are all the reminder of our identity as customers. The users of this non pace is always to required to prove their identity with checks, credit cards, or membership cards. The identity ti creates is not a single, individual one, but a shared identity as a group of customers.

The details of this space that we have thought insignificant are in fact what meticulously form our recognition of non-place’s insignificance.

Location: Square One Shopping Mall, Songdo, Korea

The below is the link to my flicker accounts in which you can see some snapshots of the non-places : https://www.flickr.com/photos/163584615@N05/albums

 

30 Days in Active Worlds

Cyber planning, virtual world, Design Fiction

In “30 Days in Active Worlds,” the development of a virtual environment with the real users from the very beginning with nothing to the end is observed and analyzed. It asks how the users will form their own virtual world when they are not limited by the boundaries of rules and guidelines, which usually exist in virtual games by the developers or designers. The author, Andrew Hudson-Smith, expects that the users will construct a fully-developed virtual world when they are given the “virgin green land.” The research is conducted using the living lab method. The users are expected to co-create the virtual environment together in an open virtual world and their creation and behaviors become the process and the research itself. The During the 30 days, the users constructed a fully-functioning virtual environment with cultural, social system that reflects and even modify that of reality. The whole process shows the extent that the virtual reality can affect the speculators and the limitations that it has.

The research allows to see very interesting and surprising features that the users developed. Firstly, the development of the virtual world  resembles the development of civilization in reality. It starts with the “virgin green land” with nothing, and gradually develops a social, cultural, and administrative system with the users of the world, although when there were nothing set by the creator in the beginning. For example, they set the guidelines by themselves when vandalism happened, considered the creator of this Active Worlds as almost godly figure – which sounds similar to the the beginning of the development of religion in reality. The formation of social status was also interesting. The users at the beginning distinguished Tourists as “something of a 2nd citizens” (Smith 3) by their look, and the “core community members” working as the greeters and leaders of the world are formed. Even though the world did not intend to bring the social hierarchy in reality into the virtual world, the users naturally compare and distinguish themselves from one another. Last but not least, the reflection of the real world and its meaning were also amazing. The objects and system of the real world starting from the coffee to the roads were something that the avatars in the virtual world did not really need. However, they imitated and brought such things to their world as the symbols. For example, the “virtual coffee” that they came to have was not meant to be drunk. It works asa means to bring social gatherings among the users. The users of the virtual world brought the objects in reality and gave them new representations and functions.

“Design Fiction as World Building”

speculative design, design fiction, virtual world

The paper deals with the process of  world building in Design fiction by exposing how Design Fiction uses a collection of artifacts, scenarios, and experiences for the audience to construct a space for speculation on possible futures. It discusses the different scales of fiction that can be layered for the audience and create entry points that allude to larger and political implications. This is done by the means of illustrating the instances of speculative design. The authors show two examples of Design Fiction, Game of Drones and The Empathy Engine, that use various resources to fabricate a future scenario that the fiction exists in and between the reality by including artifacts, videos, and print materials. The research shows the importance of research through design in thinking about the design fictions through the two cases, as it is not just story telling or narrative, but a world building.

The different scales of fiction that can be layered for the audience with the entry points that allude to larger social and political implications was very impressive, as it is meticulously built to the level that the audience may not notice that they are going through the entry points.I tried to find examples of “Design Fiction” that I have witnessed, and I recalled the movie Inception by Christopher Nolan. As Design Fiction requires a series of “entry points” to let the audience (Coulton 172), the movie shows the multi-layered dreams of the characters. In the movie, the blurred line between reality and fiction also appears, and they share the experience in the fictional, dream world with each other. It was also notable that the “game of drones” explained as an example of Design Fiction is really happening in the real world. The drone registration and pilot proficiency certificate introduced by Design Fiction now became reality in the States. The US Federal aviation Administration introduces both drone registration and a test certification requirement. I was impressed by the details that Design Fiction creates in an plausible imaginary realm to the level that it happens in reality.

 

Hudson-Smith, A. (2002). 30 Days in Active Worlds –Community, Design andTerrorism in a Virtual World. In R. Schroeder (Ed.), The Social Life of Avatars (pp. 77-89). Springer.

Paul, C., Joseph, L., Miriam, S., & Mike, S. (2017). “Design Fiction as World Building,”Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Research Through Design Conference, pp.164-179.

1. Communicating with Type_self portraits

2. Underwood International College Election Committee Poster

3. Student Council Posters4.  Analog Photography

The works that I like the most so far are the self portraits that I made for Communicating with Type course. I have made a few posters for school events or work as I worked as the major president, but it was the first work that I tried to reflect myself ( which took a lot of time thinking about who I am as well!). Each set of portraits is composed of one representational and one abstract portraits. As I mentioned how much I love it in my personal statement, analog cameras and my trip to India are what I wanted to reflect in my portraits. For the first set, I made a simplified portrait with Illustrator and then made a collage with an image of an analog camera. The second set, I made a sketch of myself “tasting” the culture of India represented by Taj Mahal and used Illustrator to color it. They may not seem professional or perfect, but I have this personal attachment to the works that show who I am for the first time and what I love.

“Who are you” is a question that may require me decades to find a good answer. I have been asked a lot who I am, and I have improvised the answers without certainty, hoping that a good one comes out unexpectedly. All of them so far failed to satisfy myself (and sometimes others as well). Nonetheless, through a series of encounters with this greatest question, I have acquired a way to look for hints in my own life. I started with the list of things that I love first, and then tried to find a pattern in the list. Just like what a seven years old kid might do when she is asked to introduce herself. Surprisingly, that worked pretty well to a 22 years old girl.

Starting with what I love, I love daydreaming. I can spend more than hours doing nothing but following the chain of my own thoughts. They are not necessarily happy, imaginative, hopeful ones. In fact, melancholy is what explains the chain of thoughts that I have better. I love them anyway. I secretly love the loneliness and sadness of being alone. Having no one to talk to or care about means that I am given a time to focus on myself. That is where I find what I want to do and I have to do, forgetting what others may think about me and the decisions I make. The outcomes yielded through this time of quietness are what motivate me and eventually distinguish me from others.

Photography is one of the sources that goes along well with such happy loneliness. To be specific, analog cameras are the best to be with.  The process including the uncertainty of the outcomes, firm decisions on what to shoot regardless of this uncertainty, and expectation built while waiting enough time for the developed images is a pure motivation itself. Every time I try new types of films or shoot different people and objects, I feel like I am breaking another set of boundaries. That is how I want my other works to be and ultimately how I want my life itself to be.

Talking about the boundaries, the most recent, and greatest wall that I broke was my trip to India. The impression that people get (at least the people around me) about India was a developing country that is not safe, clean, or kind. On the other hand, I have had this almost naïve fantasy about the country with full of sunlight, beautiful patterns, and fascinating culture. When I talked about India, everyone tried to persuade me that there are “better” countries to travel. Countries with higher living standards and easier access to internet and tourists. My parents, of course, were one of those people who tried to stop me. I was almost persuaded and gave up. But one day, while I was in school at night working on a series of works and assignments, I realized how difficult it became to make my own decisions. I worked and studied as guided by the others. It was not that it is a bad thing to follow my parents or professors and listen to the others, but I felt like I was losing my ability to trust my guts and was locked by the fear of failure. So, I booked a one-way ticket from Seoul to Delhi in the middle of night. It turned out that I spent twenty nights in India safely and made it the best experience in my life. I felt that it was not cleaner, safer, or more kind to strangers than some of other countries as people said, but it was definitely the best moment and decision in my life. I could write more than thirty pages about my visit but, long story short, I started to believe in myself more.

First thing I did with a stronger confidence in my decision was about my major. I have always been interested in Information Interaction Design major in UIC since I entered the school and taken some IID classes, but I was afraid of me failing to be a good design student. “What if I am not talented enough? What if it is something that I REALLY want?” Meaningless, even stupid questions rendered. But this time, I decided to trust myself. Even if I am not really talented, the world will not fall apart. The fact that I have a field of interest is something. I declared my major, and this semester will be the first one having a number of design classes. Even though I may not have enough knowledge in design as the students in the same class who started majoring in IID earlier than I did, I am confident that I will be able to put my efforts and time as much as they do. Therefore, everything taught in Information Architecture course this semester will be what I like to learn as a beginner.

I m Yerin Heo, an undergraduate student studying Information Interaction Design and Economics in Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. I am obsessed with analog photography and have three analog cameras: Leica M6, Minolta 300, and Rollei Frego 160. The below is my brief resume. You can contact me via email – yerh2028@gmail.com.

Thank you!