Category: Unit 2

Week 4

Overall

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.

Week 3

Overall

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.

Reference

Adam Hayes(2022), Learn how these digital public ledgers enable crypto and NFTs, Investopedia[Online], Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp (Accessed on 2^nd March 2023)

Week 2

Group Ideas Demonstration

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.

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.

Week 1

Overall& Mission Statement

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.