Arielle Cerini Designer working to understand the effects of technology on society. acerinidesigns.com
Design Manifesto There are those who design and there are designers. Just because someone designs, does not mean they are a designer. Just because someone is a designer, does not mean they ‘design.’ Design is reliant on tools that shape perception. Designers exist absent of tools, creating their own reality. The difference is control.
Machine is the idealization of man. Man exists in the absence of order. Technology has systemized humanity. Over-systemization jeopardizes individuality.
Humanity is: Irrationality Complexity Individuality Intimacy Dissonance Vulnerability
Designers are the protectors of humanity.
I am a designer.
the type that simplifies. Designed to depict the evolution of social media, Minimalize is an interactive typeface that simplies as you use it. Like with social media interfaces, the simplification of minimalize is impacted by the user, each character losing a point with every use. The individual characters continue to simplify until there is only a line leftÑshowing the character in its most simplified form. The simplifying nature of the typeface raises questions about the future of social media and the evolution of interface design.
% Program as Editor Created entirely from PostScript, ‘Program as Editor’ is a part of a larger class exhibition exploring the phenomenon “Program as...” in relation to the field of design. The concept of ‘Program as Editor’ stems from the nature of publishing in today’s digital society. The evolution of information sharing technology has been governed by the desire to create an interconnected communal knowledge system where information can be shared instantaneously. Unfortunately, while this effort has been successful at connecting human knowledge and increasing productivity, it has resulted in a decline of the consideration of content being published. ‘Program as Editor’ is designed to allow for greater consideration of the content in publishing. By creating a program to aid in the navigation of information sharing in today’s digital society, the publishing process can be reshaped, shifting focus from the method to the message.
EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION THIS VISUAL LANGUAGE ATTEMPTS TO CREATE A MODE FOR EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION. GENERATING A SYSTEM BASED ON THE PHYSICAL RESPONSES TO ANGER AND SADNESS, TWO OF OUR PRIMARY EMOTIONS (1998), ALLOWS PEOPLE TO USE THEIR NATURAL RESPONSES TO COMMUNICATE THEIR FEELINGS.
Our actions and our emotions are directly related (1998). By analyzing someone's actions you can understand their emotional state, and vice versa, by understanding someone's emotions you can anticipate their response. People attend therapy because they need assistance in understanding how they feel or unable to verbalize what they are feeling. The presence of a system to assist with this depiction of emotions would allow people to better express themselves. Our emotions can be broken down into two categories: primary and secondary emotions. A primary emotion is a person's initial response to an event. Often, these emotions can become masked by secondary emotion, which can make it difficult to understand and convey how a person is feeling. Anger and sadness are two of the six primary emotions. These two emotions are thought to be two of the strongest and most complex emotions, each being able to be broken down into at least six different secondary emotions. This complexity makes it difficult for people to understand how it is they are feeling, which inhibits them from expressing their feelings to others.
ANGER To represent anger, the action of throwing, which is a natural response to anger, is used. The quantity of throws and the force with which those throws are made signify the level of anger that a person has. Throws that are thrown at a greater force will result in more spatter and larger initial spatters at point of impact.
SADNESS To represent sadness, the action of crying, which is a natural response to sadness, is used. Crying is represented by dripping. The quantity of drops and the frequency with which they occur, represents how sad a person is. Frequency can be seen by the size of the drops and distance between drops. Drops that fall at a higher rate and will be begin to blend together.
COUNTRIES AND IDENTITES The following is a series of projects exploring identity and its influences. A person’s identity is composed of a variety of components that are directly related to their background (Casnocha, 2007). It is hypothesized that the same is true for countries: a countries identity is directly influenced by the decade with which it formed. The following projects seek to examine the relationship between these individual identities and how they influence one another.
1. DECADE IDENTITIES Ontograph constructing decade identities based on the analysis of countries formed.
2. CULTURAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCT Methodology exploring the projection of where a person has lived on their identity.
3. APP PROTOTYPE ACCENT ATLAS Accent as a way of learning about who a person sis and how their identity is impacted by where they have lived.
DECADE IDENTITES This ontograph examines the hypothesis that a country’s identity is directly influenced by the decade with which it formed. By analyzing the flag colors and names of countries formed during individual decades a decade identity can be determined for each individual decade. In addition, further analysis allowed for trends to be realized that directly reflect world events. Using the average time between country formation during 1900 - 2015 a shelf life was concluded for an atlas.
CULTURAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCT We are the product of the places that we have lived in. The places we have lived are the products of the time period with which they formed. Thus, we are both the product of the places we have lived and the time period with which they formed. The longer we live in a place the greater of an impact it has on us. This is a methodology exploring this concept.
METHODOLOGY The following is a methodology, that is designed to generate images that will be used to construct a video that visualizes the cultural identity construct of a particular goup of people. Generate a list of all the places the participant has lived and the amount of time they lived there for. If they left a place and then moved back then include that country both times. PART 1: GENERATING IMAGES Repeat the following steps for every country, if a country belongs to a decade whose identity contains more than one color, than repeat for every color. 1. Create a rectangle that is the color of the countries decade identity. If the county belongs to a decade with more than one color than create an image for each color. 2. In the bottom right corner put the countries name, the decade, the decade name, and the number of countries that formed during that decade. 3. In the top right corner put the year the country formed. 4. In the center put the shape of the country filled in with the countries flag. 5. In the bottom left corner but a silhouette of the participants profile. PART 2: DETERMINING DURATION 1. Pick a set duration that each participant will be shown for. The duration that each country is shown for will be reflective of how long the participant has lived there for. 2. Solve for X years in country age
x = total duration
If a country has a decade identity that contains multiple colors, then divide x by the number of colors. If x is a decimal, round to the first decimal place. If x is less than 1 round up.
ACCENT ATLAS Accent atlas explores the idea that we are all branded with the places that we have lived. These are not visual brands, but rather auditory. How a person talks, their accent, is reflextive of where they have lived. For every language there are a variety of dialects that are unique to particular locations. If there was a way to ‘decode’ or ‘analyze’ these brands we could understand aspects of a person’s identity based off of how they speak.
How it works: Accent Atlas is an atlas that recalls information based off of a person’s accent. How it works is, a person will talk while the application is activated, and the application will analyze that person’s voice and word choices. Based off of the analysis, the application will output results that give a percentage breakdown of the places that the speaker has lived. The percentages are reflective of the time they have spent there. The user can then select the locations to learn more. The information can be explored from most specific to least (city/state to country). The idea is that the more specific you get, the more relevant that information is to.
Home Screen: Clicking the globe activates the voice analyzer. The application will then take in the audio and then direct the user to the results. The Personal Atlas button will direct the user to their list of saved profiles. This page can be easily navigated to at any point by clicking on “Accent Atlas” in the banner of the page.
Accent Atlas ANALYSIS RESULTS:
Results: Selecting the individual pieces of the pi chart will direct you to screens that contain information on the locations, starting from most to least specific areas. The “Add to Personal Atlas” at the bottom of the screen allows the user to add the speaker to their saved profiles. In addition, the user also has the ability to supply feedback if the results are not accurate.
27% United States North Eastern Region New York
73% Saudi Arabia Eatern Province Dhahran
Rate Accuracy
Add to Personal Atlas
Accent Atlas
Mai
73% Saudi Arabia; 27% US
Personal Atlas: The Personal Atlas feature allows you to revisit the people that you have met. By clicking the triangle located in the banner of the screen, a drop down menu appears that allows the user to select how their atlas will be sorted. Select the individual names will allow the user to see that persons profile.
Chun-hui
99% Taiwan; 1% US
Maria Gracia (Grace) 99% Chile; 1% US
Bernardo
93% Brazil; 3% Italy; 3% US; 1% France
Sooyen (Sue) 50% South Korea; 50% US
Haya 99% Saudi Arabia; 1% US
Accent Atlas
Profile:
Mai Pratt MFA Communication Design
27% United States North Eastern Region New York
73% Saudi Arabia Eatern Province Dhahran
Edit
Allows users to review their past results. Similar to the results screen, there is a pi chart that the user can review the individual places the speaker has lived by selecting either the pi chart section. In addition, when saving the profile some personal notes about the speaker can be added. The profile also contains an audio button which allows the user to play back the initial recording.
EXPERIMENTAL PUBLICATIONS An exploration on how to persuade the public to decrease their technology use in effort to limit its effects on them. TECHNOLOGY MODERATION PLEDGE SERIES OF POSTER INSTILLATIONS IN NYC MODERATION: PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE TECHNOLOGY USE
MODERATION: Promoting responsible technology usage. Moderation: a game designed to promote responsible technology usage. Cause everything in life is great in moderation. To play, keep track of the amount of time you spend on each of the digital platforms per day, and tally up your score - The lower the score the better! Moderation can be played alone, or with others.
HOW TO PLAY: 1. Obtain a Moderation score card. 2. Throughout your day, record your technology usage. 3. At the end of the day, tally up your score; the person with the lowest score wins. For the serious players, do the same for a week, and then tally up your scores.
SCORING 60 mins = 1pt NOTE: Pts. can, and should, exist as a decimal. Make sure if you are playing with a group of people, you establish norms regarding rounding. To convert your score from hours to points divide total minutes by 60. Texting** 10 texts that you send are equal to 1 pt. Texts that you receive are not included in this caluculation. For each technology form a “par� can be established based off of your normal technology usage. You can either create a par based off of your own media usage, or use the suggested par that can be foubd below.
SUGGESTED PAR:
Computer: 1 pts (60 mins) Mobile Device: 1.5 pts (90 mins) Television: 2 pts (120 mins) Other: 1.5 pts (90 mins)
Total: 5.5 pts (330 mins)
SCORE CARD FRONT:
BACK:
TIMES SQUARE REDESIGN This project was done collaboratively with Moshe Bienenfeld.
Problem:
The environmental impact of Times Square.
Context:
Powering Times Square takes twice the amount of electricity needed to power all of the casinos in Las Vegas.
Solution:
We propose a two-part solution that aims to repurpose Times Square to turn it into a museum.
1. Increase Awareness:
Before purposing a change to Times Square we need to raise public Awareness. If people don’t believe there is a problem they are not going to be as open to a change. Therefore, our first step is to release a series of advertisements geared towards educating the public.
2. Times Square the Museum:
Eventually we will power down the signs in Times Square and they will be completely replaced by artwork that has been commissioned by companies to advertise their products and services. The artwork is up to the company; they can do virtually anything as long as it doesn’t use power. Some may choose to do ground level instillations, paintings, sculptures hanging from buildings, etc. The sky is the limit…literally. The only suggestion we have, is that companies aim to make the artwork interactive in someway with the public.
HISTORY OF INFORMATION SHARING: A Loss of Intimacy An instillation containing ‘filters’ to communicate through. In effort to depict the evolution of technology and its effects on information sharing, a series of sheets were hung from the cieling with lights on each opposite end. The instillation is meant to be participated with in pairs: One person is the communicator and the other the audience. As they make their way through the space the audience member can see less and less of the communicator, until all they see is their shadow on the sheet. This is meant to represent the lack of consideration and presence of the communicator in a message that we receive within digital platforms.
IDENTITY EXPLORATION Google search history as an extension of identity An exploration of my Google search history json file as an extension of my identity. Our search history is something that is so unique to us as individuals, but often overlooked as an extension of our physical identity. Despite its personal nature, what we search on Google is not completely private. With more and more of the world moving towards digital platforms, digital advertising is becoming increasingly more popular—using these private pieces of who we are to better meet our needs. As a way of making people start to consider what they are putting out in the digital world and who they are, I created an instillation using a dot matrix printer. The instillation depicted in these images is showing a small piece of what I would ideally like the instillation to look like. Fully realized, the instillation would contain several dot matrix printers all printing the different aspects of my digital identity simutanesouly: Facebook Activity, Google Search History, Tweets, Texts, etc.
DESIGNER AS VIGILANTE My depiction of the designer of the future. An instillation demonstrating what I believe the designer of the future will be. In my representation, I depict the designer as a ‘superhero’ designing to enact social change. Using myself as an example, Designer as Vigilante is explored through the construction of a vigilante identity, ‘Entropy’, and what my power may be, based off of my design philosophy. The powers and philosophies demonstrated in this example is mainly to show what I would be in this scenario, it is not to state that all designers will align with these beliefs.
HACKING FOR INTIMACY Current MFA Thesis Argument at Pratt Institute I hope to continue the study of this topic within my PhD. research
The evolution of information sharing has favored the formation of systems and tools that expand our collaborative potential as a species. However, this over-systemization of the creative process has jeopardized individuality and challenged the nature of human interaction. Like tools separate man from animal, individuality divides man from machine, but present day technology restricts the individual—narrowing the divide between man and machine. While the question of “How to add humanity to technology?” is not a new one, my approach offers a new and unique perspective to answering the question—focusing on making humans more present rather than making technology more human. Designers have a social responsibility to protect the individual—enabling the resurgence of humanity within these communicative systems. However, recent technological developments have popularized design creating a divide within the field. I believe that there is a difference between those who design and those who are designers. Designers use their knowledge of tools to create their reality, while those who design allow tools to control their reality. Serving as a designer, I can act as a vigilante using the power of hacking to break systems to allow for the resurgence and elicitation of individuality and intimacy within these controlled environments, making the complexity that is humanity the essential component in creating.