portfolio - for mixer by Sophie Lan Hou

CHANGE from

WITHIN

SOPHIE LAN HOU

In Buddhism there is an expression hendoku iyaku, turning poison into medicine. As a creative strategist my practice is like hendoku iyaku, I transform complicated challenges into opportunities that inspire change from within. I work with organizations and communities to discover, leverage and expand their capacity for creating solutions that are innovative, sustainable and just.

PRACTICE AREAS

& Case Studies

FOODSYSTEMS ECOLOGY + COMMUNITY OPEN INNOVATION DESIGN RESEARCH EXPANDED MEDIA

China Eats Fresh!

Bronx Compass

DREAM:IN CHINA

Find Your Inner Animal

BORN FREE

CAN FOOD LEAD A PATH TO JUSTICE?

CHINA EATS FRESH!

CREATIVE STRATEGIC ADAPTIVE INNOVATIVE

Building Trust and Transparancy in the Food System

OVERVIEW

Despite an ancient history of culinary arts, in the last decade China has become synonymous with issues of food safety. Rapid urbanization, a growing consumer class and underdeveloped quality control converge and compound the issue of food safety. Furthermore due to the litany of publicized food scandals trust is low and decreasing, affecting business relationships internally, regionally and internationally.

INSIGHTS

After a month of extensive field research the issue of food safety in China quickly revealed a greater backdrop of rising tensions around modernization and distrust in business as usual. Guanxi, meaning personal relationships, was often cited hopelessly as a root cause of shady business dealings, including the proliferation of food scandals.

民以食为天 Food is as important as the sky.

OUTCOME

A proposal of strategies focused on building trust and transparency amongst a diversity of stakeholders while shifting the paradigm of current food supervision from reaction to prevention and punishment for adulteration to reward for safe practices.

FOOD SYSTEMS

VISION DESIGN FACILITATION COLLABORATION

Regulator to Educator

Peer to Peer

ap ac C

Curriculum & Training

ild

g in er w ns po tize Em Ci

ity

Public Ambassador

Enhanced Farmer’s Market Collaborative PR

Alternative Food Production

新鲜中国

Public Initiatives

People’s Choice Awards

Su p te bu D

c Lo

tri

g ra

ve Le

Healthy Eating Clubs

Mutually Inclusive

*Research funding provided by The India China Institute

We wanted to leverage discouraging cultural norms such as guanxi and transform them into assets for advancing a safe and healthy food system.

Consumer Meetups

Farm Partnership

Online Rating System

Integrated with Social Media

Platform for Recognition

WHAT WOULD WATER SAY IF SHE WERE ON THE DESIGN TEAM?

SOUNDVIEW COMPASS Stewardship Through Storytelling

CREATIVE STRATEGIC ADAPTIVE INNOVATIVE

OVERVIEW

Over the last several years, New York City has focused on improving water quality and revitalizing the waterfront for public and private use. However, not every neighborhood has received equal attention and resources. Soundview Park in the South Bronx, which falls on the Long Island Sound, is a rich social and biological asset but suffered from little local recognition as a resource, minimal access to the water, and limited access to sustained funding. Our project aimed to amplify existing community group efforts in cultivating a sense of ownership and stewardship of the waterfront.

COLLABORATORS

NYC Partnership for Parks, Friends of Soundview Park, the Catalyst Project, Bronx Compass, MIT Mobile Experience Lab

OUTCOME

Soundview Compass, a playful toolkit for community mapping. Through intriguing â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;missionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; prompts, visitors are encouraged to explore the park with a refreshing lens of adventure and storytelling. Mapping their own journey onto a digital and multimedia platform builds a database of thematic trails that can then be accessed by neighbors and visitors.

ECOLOGY + COMMUNITY

VISION DESIGN FACILITATION COLLABORATION

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

BETA TEST WITH LOCAL HIGHSCHOOL

THEMATIC TRAIL ‘MISSIONS’

IS FACILITATION A FORM OF DESIGN?

DREAM:IN CHINA

CREATIVE STRATEGIC ADAPTIVE INNOVATIVE

Designing for Billions

OVERVIEW

DREAM:IN is a design-driven open innovation platform and global network of creative leaders, innovators, and activists. First conceived and launched in India in 2011, DREAM:IN quickly spread to Brazil in 2012. In 2013 I co-lead the implementation

OBJECTIVE The goal of DREAM:IN is to harvest citizen dreams and design alternative futures for emerging markets that balance social development, economic growth, and sustainable use of the local environment.

of the DREAM:IN methodology in China

ENT

E S I L A

VE RE

NTORING

DREAM

CONCLAVE +

N E Y + P O R TA

BELIE

OJ E

COLLABORATORS India • DREAM:IN, Idiom Consulting Beijing • Tsinghua University, Shang Ba Culture Group Shanghai • Tongji University, Sino-Finnish Centre, China Bridge, Tek Tao Hong Kong • Hong Kong Design Centre, Institute of Design Knowledge, Innocentre, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Brazil • The Vivarta Institute

R OU

which involved securing partners, translating materials, adapting methods to remain culturally relevant, coordinating ethnographic video tutorials across four time zones and facilitating three 2-day workshops in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

VISION DESIGN FACILITATION COLLABORATION

OPEN INNOVATION

Awarded “Game Changer” in Research 2013 by Metropolis Magazine

3 CITIES 11 PARTNERS 48 HOURS OF WORKSHOPS 210 PARTICIPANTS 32 NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL GUESTS 21 INNOVATIVE CONCEPTS

CAN PLAY BE INSIGHTFUL?

FIND YOUR INNER ANIMAL Leveraging Ego to Learn About Eco

CONTEXT

As a species, humans tend to be very egocentric. We wanted to leverage this and create an opportunity to better understand how humans identify in relationship with nature and natural systems.

PROCESS

We created an If/Then activity which asked participants about their lifestyle. We parallelled their behaviors with the behaviors of different animals (habitat, diet, mating...) At the end of the activity they discover the animal they are most similar to. They recieve a card that shares 3 facts about the animal: Spirit Medicine, Role in Ecosystem, Benefit for Humans. We then invite participants to answer the same questions for the human species.

INSIGHTS

There is a dramatic difference between how people identify individually, versus as a species. When asked how they contribute to the ecosystem as an individual, many people replied with very emotional abilities such as “positivity,” and “empathy.” When asked how humanity contributes, the responses always refered to environmental degredation. We learned there is an experience gap between individual and species behavior.

CREATIVE STRATEGIC ADAPTIVE INNOVATIVE

VISION DESIGN FACILITATION Learning from you inner animal... COLLABORATION

DESIGN RESEARCH Learning from you inner animal...

What role do you think humans play in our ecosystem?

What role do you play as an individual?

HUMAN

the

(what title would you give to humans?)

THANK YOU!

Learning from you inner animal... What role do you think humans play in our ecosystem?

What role do you play as an individual?

SPIRIT MEDICINE Listen as much to what is not being said. Bat people have an increased ing remain ability to discern hidden messages and implications of other people’s while r, the creative powe e’s ownwords.

ICINE o on SPIRIT MED lize coming int . Frogs symbo pathetic em d an ive ut SPIRIT MEDICINE highlly int ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION a E ams to make them rs, The bee that noinsect matterpopuhow great the dream, there is the SPIRIT MEDICIN edatoinsects Bats eat flies, other andreminds therebyus control e toMact on our dre of pr t we hav e arrayand ersmoths IRIT MEifDIwe ind us thaEC div TE a YS to OS ce Beavers rem promise ofSP fulfillment even ur Ewilling to work hard for it. so s and consume thousands of tons CIN ofare potentially food lations veryeseffectively. deThey nt ROLE IN ipe rta nt po ce , im Learn to trust you etl ds, beforest reality. ogs serve as an s, fish, snakes, bir r own insights. Th harmful and agricultural pests annually. e wolf are and to develop (what title would youFr give to humans?) dragonflie ROLE IN ECOSYSTEM luding strength, confidence teaches you to know who you inc nges to cha EM ape dsc and sur YST lan OS tic . s. l makes such dramaHUMAN Some 250,000 species of flowering plants depend on bees for ety reproROLE IN EC nkey mo BENEFIT ds no anima ROLE and create wetlan IN ECOS alresearch, Other than man, fat YST build damsBats duction. Many of these are crucial to world agriculture, such as berries, t s EM mi ver ns Bea . provide useful aids for medical particulary for the blind. tra live n y t ca tha ich theNEFIT wh es in In on add itat ing itio hab ny n tomany the BE includbats also serveseas improv . ects, Some ing the overall fitn tions, maapples pollinators and and seedpumpkins. dispersers of plants HUMAN species depend ess of wildlife her also altered the beh ay of skin cre through quantities of ins de arr upon which many a wiare ds, wolves have avior of their prey, They eat large oducethat important to humans. alth leading to a cascad effects on the landsc mans. Frogs pr tial to improve human he hu to s se HUMAN BENEFIT es e of beneficial illn ape. ten er po larg nt to s ca am nifi stre sig fires; by converting BENEFIT of which havefor N MA Bees pollinate 80 percent of our flowering crops, which includes food HU THANK YOUin containasingpharmestaceuticals. line and water supply to HUMAN BENEFIT Beavers may aid the usecan serve as both a fire we eat and fibers we wear, such as cotton and flax. 1/3 of everything we ir se the Wolve reduce the Without bodies of water , eat requires bees fors pollination. bees humans would starve. transmissi on and prevalence They have regula fire fighters. of te the “trophic sca (And we wouldn’t honey!) le” (food chain) and wildlife diseases. very health of the are necessary to the land on which we too depend.

Learning from you inner animal... health wizard of

FROG

the

What role do you think humans play in our ecosystem?

VER BEABAT

e idered accurat Frogs are cons onmental stress, vir en of s indicator tive of the frogs is indica the health of a whole. What role do you play as an individual? biosphere as the of h alt he

the creator of ecosystems the defender of w ildlife

BEE WOLF Bat populations are one of the best natural indicators of the As top of health environment. preour dators wo Bees are the ma essential agents of lves intain the harmo cross-pollination. They enable ny of the food cha in ess ential to the flowers to bloom to yield. ecosysand temcrops .

er insect regulator of wat hero thethe

and control s that help purify Beavers build dam wetlands. silt and establishing g rin filte by er wat

HUMAN

IS A PICTURE STILL WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS?

THE BORN FREE PROJECT Exploring Freedom through Streetsyle

CREATIVE STRATEGIC ADAPTIVE INNOVATIVE

OVERVIEW

The BORN FREE Project is a transmedia platform of participatory, photo-based opportunities utilizing street style as an entry point to explore and engage a critical conversation around concepts of self-expression, courage, freedom, culture and legacy. Implemented in Oakland, California, Johannesburg, South Africa and New York City the project has utilized different methodologies of engagement: disposable camera design probes, a mobile photobooth installation with participatory backdrop, design-led workshops, interactive exhibitions and online forums. *Funding provided by AshokaU and Photowings Insights Grant

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

EXPANDED MEDIA

VISION DESIGN FACILITATION COLLABORATION

At a street culture festival in South Africa we distributed disposible cameras repackaged with simple instructions to take a photo and pass the camera on. The goal was to put power in the hands of participants and organically capture their perspectives.

NEW YORK CITY

DESIGN PROBE

Thank You.

SOPHIE LAN HOU