According to intellect property office(GOV.UK), Having the right type of intellectual property protection helps you to stop people stealing or copying:
the names of your products or brands
your inventions
the design or look of your products
things you write, make or produce
Copyright, patents, designs and trade marks are all types of intellectual property protection. Intellectual property is something that you create using your mind – for example, a story, an invention, an artistic work or a symbol.
Copyright
In order to protect my writing about bio-synthetic fur in UK, I send the letter from post office to my own address as a method to prove.
Patent Application
Patent application is not completely the same in different countries, but the main process is quite similar. For my project, I plan to apply in UK, USA and China at first stage. According to the rule of UK government, patent application requires invention new, inventive and either something that can be made and used, a technical process, or a method of doing something. While the patent in China normally will cost 2-3 years for processing. Taking in account to efficiency, I contact agency for application for both Uk and China. The proposal of bio-synthetic fur has already been permitted by IP solicitor in China.
Official Website of Zhongli, A+ IP Agency in China
Animal welfare science is used to define how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. There are several measurements about good animal welfare: it is healthy, comfortable, well-nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior, and if it is not suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear, and distress. (AVMA 2023)
Logo of AVMA
While in animal rights movement, cruelty free refers to a label for products or activities that do not harm or kill animals anywhere in the world. Tested on animals and made from animals are two significant indicator for non-cruelty free. (Andre 2014)
History
In respect of animal protection laws were enacted as early as 1st millennium BCE in India. While significant progress in animal welfare did not take place until the late 20th century. In 1965, the UK government commissioned an investigation—led by professor Roger Brambell—into the welfare of intensively farmed animals, partly in response to concerns raised in Ruth Harrison’s 1964 book, Animal Machines. On the basis of Brambell’s report, the UK government set up the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in 1967, which became the Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1979. In the UK, the “Animal Welfare Act 2006” consolidated many different forms of animal welfare legislation. The 2019 UN Global Sustainable Development Report identified animal welfare as one of several key missing issues in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. (Wikipedia 2023)
Ruth Harrison
The term cruelty-free was first used in this way by Lady Dowding who persuaded manufacturers of fake furs to use the label Beauty Without Cruelty and went on to found the charity Beauty Without Cruelty in 1959. The term was popularised in the US in the 1970s by Marcia Pearson who founded the group Fashion With Compassion. Then, in 1998, the United Kingdom started a trend by banning all testing on animals. Many other countries followed their lead soon after. (Wikipedia 2023)
1953. Muriel The Lady Dowding in her robes for the Corownation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Criticism
Animal welfare movement is not going far enough to protect animals’ interests as Tom Regan criticized. Advocating for the betterment of the condition of animals, but without abolishing animal use is inconsistent in logic and ethically unacceptable. While some animal rights groups such as PETA are supporting to alleviate animal suffering mainly. In short, there are even big contradiction in wide range of animal welfare: welfarism and abolitionism. (Wikipedia 2023)
The criticism of cruelty free is mainly on its expansion. “not tested on animals”, “we do not conduct animal testing”, “never tested on animals”, “against animal testing” or “cruelty-free”, those label has been used by some manufacturers but they are confusing and potentially misleading, since there is no clear legal definition as to what they mean. (Winders & Delcianna 2006)
Meaning to Bio-synthetic Fur
Back to my own project, the mission of bio-synthetic fur can not be easily defined as cruelty free but it is supposed to discuss as a project dedicated to animal welfare. Due to the concept of semi bio-synthetic fur is not abolition for animal use, instead, It aims to transform the original industry and protect employment in some traditional sectors. The idea of semi bio-synthetic is inclined to welfarism which is similar to the initiative of PETA.
Two irons glued with glues made in China, 100 pounds to anyone who can break them open. Meanwhile, it recorded participants’ comments toward made in China before the challenge, selected meaningful clips and conversations, made short videos, posted them on social media, and created interesting hashtag such as #Surprisingmadeinchina and #Sorrymadeinchina.
By the end of the campaign, 10 participants joined the campaign.
There are three key word for participants’ impressions of Made in China: low price, mass production and vulnerable.
Overall, through this interactive activity, all the participants were failed to open the boxes and they all admitted the firmness of glue Made in China, which basically achieve my purpose to change the stereotype: low quality at some extents for Made in China.
“Why is the product quality the same as overseas, but consumer perception so poor? Because our country’s level of manufacturing and development does not reach a high level of credit with foreign consumers.” –Huang 2019
Huang Xiaochuan, founder and chairman of D&S Media Group, a renowned expert in public relations in China, director of the China International PR Association
WARC Report
-Causal Factors 1. Chinese firms did not have the long and deep history of brand strategy and brand management 2. The absence of a competitive context for most of the top Chinese companies, such as China Mobile or Bank of China, which were or had been owned by the state. 3. Most top managers in China are not trained in marketing and are more focused on operations, costs, and delivering functional benefits. -Misunderstanding Chinese marketers believe that the uniqueness of Chinese culture gives Chinese brands an overseas competitive advantage and that foreign consumers are interested in branded communications celebrating the growth of the Chinese economy.
Thoery Guidance
Brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association). “Branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand” (Kotler & Keller, 2015) According to Marion (2022),branding can be achieved through: 1. Brand definition: purpose, values, promise
2. Brand positioning statement
3. Brand identity: name, tone of voice, visual identity design (which includes the logo design, color palette, typographies…)
4. Advertising and communications: TV, radio, magazines, outdoor ads, website, mobile apps…
5. Sponsoring and partnerships
6. Product and packaging design
7. In-store experience
8. Workspace experience and management style
9. Customer service
10. Pricing strategy
Reference
China lacks brand instincts(2013), WARC[Website], Available at:https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/china-lacks-brand-instincts/31503 (Accessed on 4th May 2023)
Branding(2023), American Marketing Association[Webiste], Avaiable at: https://www.ama.org/topics/branding/page/41/ (Accessed on 4th May 2023) Holistic Marketing: A Broad, Integrated Perspective to Marketing
Management(Kevin Lane Keller & Philip Kotler 2006), Does Marketing Need Reform?: Fresh Perspectives on the Future[E-book] Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315705118-48/holistic-marketing-broad-integrated-perspective-marketing-management-kevin-lane-keller-philip-kotler (Accessed on 4th May 2023)
What is branding? (Marion 2022), The Branding Journal[Website], Available at: https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2015/10/what-is-branding-definition/ (Accessed on 4th May 2023)
Lack of manufacturing added value 26.5% is China’s industrial value added rate, while the global average for this figure is 35% and for developed countries it is 40% . –CNTV 2010
Lack of brand power Branding capabilities are still at the low end of the scale and lack a brand image. “Why is the product quality the same as overseas, but consumer perception so poor? Because our country’s level of manufacturing and development does not reach a high level of credit with foreign consumers.” –Huang 2019
Causal Factor
History Aspect According to Zhou(2021), the formation of luxury brands are based on the exclusive rights and benefits of the creation of class, the status symbols of the rich, and the self-realisation based on the emancipation of individuality. PRC was founded only a few decades ago, Open policy was only forty years ago as well, and modernization is even a recent event, so it is objectively impossible to cultivate local luxury brands
Policy Aspect According to Newsweek(2009), China’s weak protection for intellectual-property rights—the patents and ideas that are the solid core of any brand—makes it risky for companies to invest heavily in innovations that could make them famous worldwide but could easily be stolen by rivals at home. Aker(2013) also points China’s government is in lack of motivation to branding development in past decades due to most powerful enterprises in China were transformed by national enterprise or government-own enterprise, which build their initial trusts toward customer by authority endorsement rather than brand.
Motiviation
China’s labour costs are only 4% lower than those of the US Inherent patterns had to be changed！
China’s government is now importance on branding and manufactuing added value.
Made in China has the objective conditions to make quality, creativity and originality.
Solution
Based on theory from Yang(1997), there are 5 paths to increase added value: Technology This is my direction for making breakthrough because personally enterprise and individual can directly operate in technology innovation while other four paths may ask higher resources from external such as national influence, culture accumlation and so on. Culture Art Originality Brand
Brief
1. Create a faux fur, keeping the feature of animal-friendly, with advatanges of performance and environment like real fur. 2. Lab-grown Mink
Reference
Aavailable at：http://jingji.cntv.cn/20101025/103495.shtml (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：http://hk.ocmfa.gov.cn/chn/zt/gjfz/201603/t20160318_8123892.htm (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：https://www.sohu.com/a/312279024_786687 (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：https://www.newsweek.com/why-china-cant-create-brands-81989 (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：https://hbr.org/2013/06/will-china-catch-up-on-brandin (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：https://hkje.com/2021/05/31/%E5%91%A8%E5%A9%B7%EF%BC%9A%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E4%B8%BA%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%E6%B2%A1%E6%9C%89%E8%87%AA%E5%B7%B1%E7%9A%84%E5%A5%A2%E4%BE%88%E5%93%81%E7%89%8C%EF%BC%9F/ (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/wsdwhfz/202302/t20230228_1350277.html (Accessd 28th April 2023) Aavailable at：http://www.news.cn/fortune/2023-03/31/c_1129481817.htm (Accessd 28th April 2023)
As reported in the presentation, the changing needs of women in terms of clothing versus the reality of purchasing power and productivity. This bibliography will mainly concentrate on female consumer psychology, fashion sustainability, shared economy and stakeholder theory. The article “Consumer Behavior: Women and Shopping”(Huddleston and Minahan 2011) highlights the complex relationship between women and shopping, and explores the various factors that influence women’s purchasing decisions. The authors argue that women’s shopping behavior is shaped by a variety of factors, including power and independence, creativity and self-identity, and meeting emotional needs. Honesty, this writing focuses primarily on marketing upgrades and macro-analysis of women’s shopping journey, but also explains the multiple psychological causes of women’s shopping in the process, which provides some evidence of the validity of the phenomenon reported on presentation. To emphasize, shopping for women is not simply a matter of buying, but a psychological release: it is about positive distraction, escape, indulgence, elevation of self esteem, activation, sense of control and social connection. Based on finding above, it must be admitted that women’s shopping behaviour is repetitive and does not stop when they already have something, and this poses a great challenge to the fashion industry, both in terms of objective productivity and ethics. Therefore, the aim of Todeschini et. al., (2017) is to investigate innovative business models in the fashion industry that have sustainability as their defining characteristic, especially in terms of value proposition. Essentially, this study aims to understand the entrepreneurial dynamics of sustainable business models in the resource-intensive fashion industry. It combines a systematic literature review with empirical research including interviews with specialists and case studies of innovative, sustainably-focused fashion startups. The study proposes a framework for trends, drivers, opportunities, and challenges in sustainable business models in fashion. In Todeschini’s theory, sharing economy is one of the many emerging entrepreneurial approaches that address sustainable issue. According to Martin(2016), the sharing economy includes a variety of online peer-to-peer economic activities, including Airbnb’s rentals, Uber’s for-profit services and Freecycle’s gifting systems. the success of Airbnb and Uber has sparked debate about the potential benefits and drawbacks of the sharing economy. However, all frameworks for the sharing economy have an innovative vision that aims to decentralise and disrupt established socio-technical and economic structures. Six methods of sharing economy are framed respectively (1) as an economic opportunity; (2) as a more sustainable form of consumption; (3) as a pathway to a decentralized, equitable, and sustainable economy; (4) as creating unregulated marketplaces; (5) as reinforcing the neoliberal paradigm; and (6) as an incoherent field of innovation. Last but not least, Martin points if the sharing economy continues on the path of corporate collaboration, it is unlikely to drive the transition to sustainability. Therefore, there is still a long way for sharing economy to accomplish sustainable goals while at least, this concept shows the potential and theory supporting for vision of sustainability. Moreover, in respect of stakeholder, Laplume et al. (2008) conducted a content analysis of 179 articles that directly addressed Freeman’s work on stakeholder theory. The study revealed five main themes: stakeholder definition and salience, stakeholder actions and responses, firm actions and responses, firm performance, and theory debates. The findings provide insights into how stakeholders and firms interact, and highlight key debates within the literature on stakeholder theory. This study adds to the existing body of research on stakeholder theory by identifying and analyzing the major themes and trends in the literature. Furthermore, Minming(2021) concludes 10 types of stakeholder in business which can be divided into internal or external, primary or secondary and direct or indirect. The stakeholder illustration in former presentation is also inspired under her guidance.
Reference 1.Huddleston, P. and Minahan, S(2011). Consumer behavior: Women and shopping [e-book]. Business Expert Press. Available at: https://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/consumer-behavior-women-and-shopping/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2023]. 2.Villa Todeschini, B., Cortimiglia, M. N., Callegaro-de-Menezes, D., & Ghezzi, A. (2017). Innovative and sustainable business models in the fashion industry: Entrepreneurial drivers, opportunities, and challenges. Business Horizons, 60(6), 759-770. 3.Martin, C. J. (2016). The Sharing Economy: A Pathway to Sustainability Or A Nightmarish Form of Neoliberal Capitalism?. Ecological Economics,volume 34, issue 6 . 4.Laplume, A. O., Sonpar, K., & Litz, R. A. (2008). Stakeholder Theory: Reviewing A Theory That Moves Us. Journal of Management. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0149206308324322 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2023]. 5.Minning, L. (2021). The 10 Types of Stakeholders That You Meet in Business[Website], Active Campaign. Available at: https://www.activecampaign.com/blog/types-of-stakeholders [Accessed 13 Apr. 2023].
This week we continue focus on our group project. We came up with UNN News Station as main body for final output. We also made a short melodrama to explain our thought for future news. Our melodrama planed to be shown by VR with special exhibition structure which is totally different from traditional news for both overall logic and content. In order to show our prototype on laboratory, our group also made a simulation-news poster inspired by BBC as supporting pieces for our 3-D model. Overall, this week is full and busy because we made most outputs for final presentation in this week while it was the real period I personally get feeling for group work indeed.
Laboratory
On the one hand, as the most focused part for this week, the Laboratory is helpful for our group. Based on 3D-model video and news poster, we asked audiences to think what is happen from our outputs, which at current stage was still unclear and hidden on purpose. Through the comments session, we gained plenty of suggestions, answers and questions for deepen our research and thought for future news industry. Therefore, the Lab is a great assistance for our group presentation to be complete and critical.
On the other hand, other group’s project were also impressive and they give us practical hints among direction, content and exhibiting method. A good example of this is the work from Lychee, their work mostly rely on fashion and aesthetic. They aimed to build a technology stage for fashion shows in the future after the sea level rises and the islands disappear. Their work is good at exhibiting method :whatever is video or poster, all looked striking. Admittedly, there were lots of good inspiration from all different groups, through their work and tutor summary guidance, we learned a lot.
Book Reflection
Empathy Machine
With the guidance from Mr.Lee from Laboratory session, I read the article called The Empathy Machine. The Empathy Machine is a cutting-edge technology that allows individuals to experience the lives of others in an immersive and intimate way. In a recent study conducted in China, the technology was used to explore how virtual reality affects human rights attitudes. The study found that participants who experienced a virtual reality simulation of a human rights abuse situation were more likely to express concern and support for human rights causes.
This study provides exciting evidence of the potential of Empathy Machine to foster greater empathy and understanding towards social issues. By allowing individuals to experience situations that they may not encounter in their everyday lives, the technology has the potential to broaden perspectives and promote positive social change. However, further research is needed to fully understand the impact of Empathy Machine on attitudes and behaviors towards human rights issues.
Overall, the Empathy Machine represents a promising development in the field of virtual reality, and its potential applications in education, advocacy, and other areas are worth exploring further. By promoting greater empathy and understanding, the technology has the potential to contribute to a more connected and compassionate world.
Based on the previous week for interview and group mapping, this week it is mainly targeted on the analysis and theory learning for finding problems. Through on-class leading and self-learning for block chain related concept, I try to get the theoretical support and guidance for future work solution.
Micro-fiction Training
Today Shu lea would quit her job at the news station, it had all become too much. Company does not promote a transparent salary allocation system completely, she did lots of works while her payment is relative low and she did not anything from colleges and leaders,which make she feeling unfair. As a pregnant, company cannot provide some conveniences which make her embarrassed as a minority and vulnerable person. Moreover, leader alarms her she will easily lose her job during pregnant holiday and suggests her to miscarriage.
Everything was different now today shu lea would tell the biggest story of her career. The news station now is mainly based on web and salary was totally accorded from her working. She takes the task which directly shows the payment from company web and do the work with AI guidance and final assessing. It is flexible to work at home or company site. Her leader was anonymous and there is no necessary for individual communication anymore. Leaders push the work on web to sub-employee. Therefore, she loves her current job, transparent allocation system and no pressure for class oppression.
To conclude, the first fictions actually show the current work and social issues in my mind while the second it is my expectation for the future work. It is all accorded to the thought from social right, care, vulnerability and accessibility.
Block Chain& Bitcoin Inspiration
According to Adam(2022), block chain is essentially a database or ledger. It is distributed over nodes of peer-to-peer networks. As a shared database, block chain store information electronically in digital format and it is different from traditional database due to its data storage method: blocks have certain storage capacities and, when filled, are closed and linked to the previously filled block, forming a chain of data known as the block chain.
Block chains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as Bitcoin, for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. In Bitcoin’s case, block chain is used in a decentralized way so that no single person or group has control—rather, all users collectively retain control. Moreover, decentralization lead all transaction to be transparent, users can view either having a personal node or using blockchain explorers that allow anyone to see transactions occurring live.
Overall, block chain and bitcoin are good inspiration for our future work. Decentralization, transparency and distributed are all important goals and solutions to current works and social issues. Therefore, when we come back to think our AI news station, our efforts will also concentrate on how to make it to be decentralized, transparent and distributed, which eventually achieve our goal for objective and no-bias news environment.
This week we are mainly target on topic choice. From our dragon fruit group, we came up with 3 main ideas for further work: AI News, Old people, when we get old.
The idea AI News identify current work/social issues, it’s more about finding social problems arising from the current work (but not limited to the workplace environment, office) and offer new possibilities for the future work.
Old people are mainly concentrated on two dimensions: older people have rarely place for normal working even the decision-making for political and position areas are mostly charged by old people; age discrimination influence the recruitment and promotion. Basically this idea aims to find a current problems in current work place and then give some solutions according to the present problems/pain points.
Thirdly, inspired by topic of the elderly, we are also thinking about what our generation will need when we get old, that is, what the future elderly will need. Whether there will be new occupations or works coming out, these new works can be occupations for the elderly or occupations to support the elderly. Personally, this ideas is not limited to workplace problem and may be too general.
Last but not least, along with the tutor guidance, our group finally decide to focus on AI news, due to the current fact: the world is full of information, most of them are based on certain bias, which leads the information mess and eventually affect the working efficiency, attitude and overall feeling at some extents. Through the current problem, our group aim to find the future solution for information messy and make a complete evaluation for the future outcome.
Image from https://factsmgt.com/blog/tips-for-keeping-school-info-safe/
Interview
Based on group topic and direction, we plan to make an individual interview with workers and stakeholders for media, news and related industries. Here are our main questions:
Q: What did you do before you came to master, and what did your organisation do?
Q: How do you feel in your past job?
Q: Ideally, how would you like your role to develop at that time?
Q: Which rules or policies didn’t you like in your workplace?
Q: Did you feel information mess(fake news, information bias) affects your work? More details?
Q: If you could have anything, what’s one thing you wish would be true in the workplace?
Along with those question, I make an interview with Zhao, a worker charging for advertising and media for several 4A companies for long time. She points she likes her past job and she has strong passion on advertising. However, overtime-working is a big disturbing for her career, which she hopes AI can replace some rigid and repeated works in the future. Inflexible punching-in policy is her uncomfortable point as overtime working is really common in advertising industry while early-morning punch-in requirement is unreasonable under such conditions. In respect of information bias, she directly admits that it is part of their working outcome because when they help brands making promotion, what they producing is in order to create more sales for severed brands. It is unlikely objective, instead, it is full of strong bias. Last but not least, she estimates AI-based technologies such as ChatGBT will make a huge development for advertising industry. Ideally, this development is helpful for current workers but she also admits this development has potential to be the complete replacement for part labour force.
This is our first week for unit 2, the future of work. To be honest, everything is confusing at current stage, however, the reading group helps me clarify timetable and reading list luckily. We have 6 books. They are all related our project, future while the focuses are diverse: discursive design, future inventing, 3D additivist cookbook , 2 speculative-related writing and Sci-fi-based reflection. I am allocated to read the book, speculative everything(Dunne& Raby 2013) and through the introduction and abstract reading, make a summary and then share with my group members.
We also meet our tutor group on Wednesday and through the fruit group meeting, I understand the task and brief for our unit 2 projects. Here are two final deliverable missions: 1000-word reflective writing for whole learning process and a group presentation to exhibit all of group cooperation. The reflective writing is individual work while presentation should be cooperated with all group members. Moreover, our group works also require a week-by-week process demonstration and weekly outputs.For this first week, our group mainly target on brainstorming and theme decision making. We use Miro to share all ideas and pick the most interest topic for our further concentrating.
Book Reflection
The book, Speculative Everything is written by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby. According to the abstract, this book offers a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, expectations and approaches. Dune and Raby point that as tools, some kind of designs can create not only things but ideas. They make many researches and references including their own design and teaching and also from other projects like fine art, design, architecture, cinema, photography, futurology, political theory, the philosophy of technology and literary fiction. Authors contend that increasing speculation for everything can help reality becoming more malleable. Speculative design increase the odds of achieving desirable futures.
To conclude, this book is basically a provocative survey of “speculative design”. It mainly talks about the world of possible and plausible desired futures. Design products are regarded as metaphor for exists today’s critiquing, provoking and reflection.
Gasworks
In order to make deep understanding of terms: speculation, design and future. I come to visit Gasworks gallery. Gasworks displays the first London solo exhibition by Ingela Ihrman, a Malmo-based artist.
Giant snake and Oilbird play the main character for this exhibition, which links to invasive weeds, intestinal flora, extinct amphibians and nocturnal birds. From the Green Paradise(2019), Anaconda Faeces, Oilbird with Nestling(2021) to background music, Nocturne, Ingela aims to explore the interconnected coexistence mundane life forms through those performance, sculpture and video. Her work contains empathy, tenderness and sense of wonder for all living creatures, regarding each of them as a part of wider ecology.
In summary, this is a great exhibition which gives a strong inspiration for our future design works: associating current stuffs, phenomenons or even problems with one or several affections organically( it can be a feeling to change or sometimes only for catharsis), its demonstration or consequence, at some extents, is the new design work in itself.
