DMA160|Spring2020

(Midterm) Reusing Recycled Materials

For the midterm projects, I wanted to focus on ways to reuse recycled materials. A number of plastics and paper wastes produced everyday world widely and they harm the ecosystem. I saw one video that straw is stuck into a turtle’s nose. This made me realize that a single straw that I use for drinking a cup of coffee from a cafe can be effective for animals from the natural environment. Therefore, I would like to study how those wastes, such as plastics, can reuse in daily life.

 

[Midterm Topic] Climate and Diet

For the final project I have decided that I want to focus about food.

Since the "stay home" announcement from the coronavirus I have been just home for a little over a month now. And because I am stuck at home I have been cooking a lot. I've been so used to just either buying food from school or packaged food at grocery stores that I didn't even realize that I haven't actually cooked for myself in a very long time. As I started cooking I came to realize the importance of my diet and how that can relate to our environment. 

Cordyceps: Your Best Friend or Your Worst Nightmare

    When I was in high school, I really enjoyed this one zombie game called The Last of Us. It was a story driven, single player game that followed the story of two survivors of a zombie apocalypse. The difference between this story and countless other zombie narratives was the the zombie infection was caused by a parasitic fungus known as Cordyceps. Despite the intriguing fictional narrative, I was surprised to find out that Cordyceps are a real thing.

Mycelium bricks

When considering my project ideas I wanted to create a project that captured the social climate of today's society, mainly focusing on the idea of change.We can already see the changes from the way people interact to the flux in the economy. It is already predetermined that there will be huge changes in technology and human experience in the years to follow covid-19.

Midterm Topic: Clean Cosmetics

            For the midterm and my final project, I wanted to focus on makeup. My inspiration for wanting to touch upon this topic is twofold. Last year, when I was in Professor Vesna's Honors 177 Collegium, I stumbled across a project from a then student in DESMA 160, Yuna Park. Her project went into detail about chemical free cosmetics. She wanted to focus on creating an app that detailed all the harmful chemicals within specific products, and, to my recollection, also provided healthier alternatives to some makeup compounds.

Bioluminescent Fungi

As I watched the movie “Fantastic Fungi,” the growth and their process fascinated me. Mostly, mushrooms were made from the dead organisms as they decomposed. However, it was so interesting that new life was born through the deaths. Those mushrooms were so diverse in terms of colors, shapes, and characteristics. Among those various kinds of mushrooms, the fungi that glowed in the dark seemed very interesting and I wanted to know why and how it happened.

 

Earth Day app, Fungi, horseman and the bible apocalypse

I really appreciated the work of Finnish artists Pekka Niittyvirta and Timo Aho that Group 1 had presented. The installation titled Lines is a visual representation of potential elevated sea levels should we continue down this trajectory. It manages to convey complex ideas in a simple, effective and beautiful way.

Currently, especially given the limitations of the digital platform, there is a heavy emphasis on data visualization that is dependent on graphs, or charts or maps. How do we spread awareness in a way that is alarming but not overwhelming?

Earth Day

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - DMA160|Spring2020